Elderly cat not eating enough

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Cat is nearly 20. Reasonable healthy, on meds for thyroid. Her teeth are pretty bad, and I think this is possibly the problem - we have tried soft food and she'll eat it for a couple of days then stop again. Gave her some cat milk yesterday and she hoed into it. She is at the vets on Friday, and has been at the vets for regular checks over last 2-3 months so there doesn't seem to be anything more sinister.

I know she's a little old lady and won't last for ever but can anyone recommend some more liquidy food, and can she have as much of the cat milk as she'll drink?

Some plain regular fish? Stuff like pollack is fairly cheap and flakey. Can add a little plain rice also.

I think they can have as much cat milk as they like

At 20, I'd give her what she fancies as long as it's not actively bad for her. So if she likes cat milk........

Have you tried the ones with flaky meat in broth? My neighbourhood sort of stray (long story) is managing that ok with bad teeth. Thrive is good but not cheap. You could mash food up a bit or even blend your own chicken with a bit of rice.

I also bought kitten milk formula and had a bit of success with my last cat. Also spoon fed her cat yoghurt as a last resort.

Our old lady (17) has also periodically been going off her food. I was amazed the last time we went to the vet that her weight was holding steady despite her eating a teaspoon or so a day
On her off days she has cat treats & a little shredded chicken or tuna with a teaspoon or two of warm water poured over the top. She will sometimes do scrambled eggs as well.

Hope the vet goes well

Thanks for all your responses. She's had one bottle of cat milk, and I found some webbox sachets that have a couple of tsps of chicken flavour 'yoghurt' in them - the little bugger's eaten 3 of them so far. We've tried the soupy sachets - she was just drinking the gravy and leaving everything else, and I've been using the stick blender on tinned tuna vom which she started off eating but is now turning her nose up at. After 20 years of preferring fish flavour cat food (and as much steak/chicken etc she can beg off people) I wonder if she's gone off fish. We'll try scrambled eggs and some rice and see what the vet has to say.

Apart from the eating she seems cheerful enough.

Seniorboy has one Webbox sachet for 'pudding' every evening - he most likes the turquoise ones ( liver?) but I ring the changes. (I give him the plain white ones as a 'moistener' for his cold roast chicken twice a week.)

Sorry.

....for his lunchtime cold roast chicken....

My healthy younger cat used to go off food if we give him the same ones every day so maybe mix up the flavours and hopefully he'll eat the tuna again in a day or two, ask the vet for any recommendations of soft things to feed

It's imperative for Seniorboy to have a change of flavour at each meal. I buy him food that has four flavours so twice a day he has 4/5 of a pouch and when the four flavours are gone, he has a 'mix' of the four remaining 1/5s. He seems to be fine with that.

My 19 year old has thyroid meds, kidney failure and bad teeth too, and is losing weight although she is still eating little and often. She likes the gourmet pate tins, and I might try some of the liquid food mentioned on this thread. This week I had to take to the vet because one of her claws had grown so long it curled round and pierced her paw pad. I felt guilty that I hadn't noticed it earlier. The vet nurse cut them all so she is more comfortable now.

I'm very glad that we took the chance and gave my old lad a full dental at 16. He still has one back tooth left which I think is causing him some trouble, though, so he'll go in next week for some ABs for that. (I couldn't put him through a GA for that these days.)

Our oldie would only kick the jelly off the cubes so we used the gourmet pate. Some of the others are marked pate but are quite hard. She also liked the lick e Lix (?) tubes. She could however eat chicken if put in front of her so not sure she really had an issue with teeth! She was barely eating anything and we had a once a month steroid injection to perk up her appetite.

I think that they become just a little forgetful with age? I always put Seniorboy by his fresh food these days and he enjoys it fine, then. He's becoming thinner with age though and I doubt there's anything I can do about that.