Unknown illness, I think I'm losing her...

[Taz_Zoee]

About two years ago Taz began to lose weight, rapidly. I found an old thread I started in Jan of 07. Click here. It's a long drawn out thread, but the bottom line is my vet gave him a cortisone shot and that seemed to work. She gave him a 10 day one to try it out. Then he got a few more 30 day shots after that. And I had to feed him anything he would eat. That took a long time to find something that worked for him.
Well, now he is having another issue. But that's another thread. LOL

Anyway, I hope you can find something that will work for your Ditte, so you can have her for many more years. She's not an old cat at 11, my Taz is 13.

[Moesha]

Have you tried giving her really stinky canned food? Some have had good results giving boiled chicken or chicken baby food. Try anything and if you find something that she will eat, keep feeding it to her until you find out what it causing the loss of appetite.

[Uabassoon]

Good luck with Dittie. Last summer I had problems with my cat Corkscrew, he had stopped eating which led to fatty liver disease. I spend about 6 weeks force feeding him and giving him daily sub-q fluids, it was a very rough 6 weeks but well worth it. It's been over a year now and he has been as healthy as ever. If you want to see the thread here it is. http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...ight=corkscrew

[columbine]

The appetite stimulant sounds like a good idea. Meanwhile, you can dab a bit of mushy canned food mixed with butter onto her paws now and then so she'll lick it off. Is she drinking water and using her litterbox comfortably?

Catnip is actually an appetite stimulant - maybe a fresh catnip toy or some catnip sprinkled on her scratchboard or favorite sleeping spot might help.

Good luck! Please keep us posted.

Love, Columbine

[kittykatharine]

My kitty has stopped eating as well, several times, and we have gone through a bunch of different options that have worked out for a while.
Here are the suggestions I can provide from my experience:

1. make sure the vet does a THOROUGH inspection of her teeth. If there is any redness or black around the gum lines, then her teeth could be the culprit.
2. Blood tests - as stated before check her thyroid, kidney, CBC levels, and liver. Something could not be working right, making her nausea.
3. Ask your vet about a appetite stimulant -my kitty has been on two (the names have escaped me, but send me a private message if you want the names and i'll go look), which have had moderate results. The one she takes a 1/4 of a pill for 4 days, the other she gets every 12 hours as needed.
4. Switch your foods. If you can temp her to eat with new foods give it a try. Try different, smelly, canned foods -the ones that come in the pouches with gravy worked awhile with Sydney. Also try vanilla ice cream and yogurt. I was told by others that these are high in fat content and can help put on some weight on your kitty. Watch for diarrhea -you can get anti-diarrhea medicine from the vet if this is occurring as well. Another great source is baby food. This is what my cat is currently eating. I have been getting the infant chicken in chicken broth. You can also try fresh shrimp or freshly cooked chicken breast.
5. If her stomach is hurting her (increase in acid) then ask your vet about Famotadine (also known as Pepsid complete). It coats the stomach, and decreases the acid amount.
6. Corticosteroids, like prednisone, are also known for increasing ones appetite. WHen Sydney was first diagnosed with cancer, we were giving her so much food because we were afraid of her not eating because of the chemo, and surely enough the prednisone increased her appetite and she gained 2 lbs! It may be an option you can discuss with your vet


I hope that your baby begins to eat soon. I can personally say I know exactly how nerve wrecking it feels when our babies don't eat. Just keep up the hope and stay in contact with your vet.

[jennielynn1970]

If you really need to do the force feedings, would your vet be able to insert a feeding tube into the neck (it can be done for those who refuse to eat), and then you can mix up slurries for them. We had one foster cat who had to have that done by his foster mom, and it took a long time for him to regain his strength and appetite (he is FIV+, and was in fatty liver syndrome, was basically in organ failure, and the vet saved him. He is alive and well today after all of that, and being FIV+).

Did they test for FIP at all? I have no idea if the weight loss would be that, but I know my principal that I work for had an Aby that just would not keep weight on, and it ended up that she had FIP. She was young though, and had been bought from a breeder.

Have the vets run any other tests, just to rule out what it may not be?? Diabetes?

Hope all will come up fine.

[Ishtaka]

The vet did give me an appetite stimulator but it's not doing anything noticable. Today I will get her some tuna and baby food and see if any of that peaks her interest.
I did ask the vet about FIP because my baby Benjamin passed away from it in January of last year but the vet said FIP doesn't present like that.
I appreciate all your help and suggestions and I'm writing everything down so I can ask the vet when I go again.
Any prayers are greatly appreciated!

Anne