Food/calorie supplements for old/skinny cat

[2018name]

I am sure I’ve seen information on this somewhere but I cannot find it now. Amongst the herd at home we have old, hyperthyroid (currently on felimazole) and increasingly skinny cat. We have been away for a few weeks and they were looked after by a friend but all cats seem a bit thinner - I have put it down to the heat of the last few weeks putting the cats off eating so much. I am sure I read somewhere about some form of food supplement for cats which is high in calories (rather like when people are in hospital or older people are given high calorific milkshake supplement drinks). I cannot remember if it’s a food or liquid or drops but I was wondering if anyone knows what I am describing and can advise what it is. Thanks very much.

Hi OP maybe stating the obvious but has kidney function been checked? kidney disease is often masked by hyperthyroidism, and when damaged cats will lose protein in their urine

Kitten food is good, higher in cals

thanks Ollivander84 - will look but I know there is something specific as a supplement too that I saw on another cat board just cannot remember which one :(

He also has early stage kidney failure. What does protein in urine have to do with weight lose though - sorry not to understand.

Do you mean Liqivite? I think that's a calorie supplement. One of mine has lost 400g after being in the cattery for 10 days. No idea how I'm going to get it back on her. She was already skinny. She loves royal canin kitten food though. Struggling to get supplements down her.

2018
As the kidneys become damaged they become ‘leaky’ and so protein from the blood leaks through into the urine and is lost from the body - this it can’t be used for muscle or energy. This means that muscle mass is often lost as there isn’t enough protein or energy available to maintain muscle mass and the body starts to break down muscle for energy. Renal diets contain high quality protein that can be metabolised quickly and helps to maintain muscle mass by stopping the muscle breakdown

Has the urine been checked for protein? There are some medications which can slow protein loss from the kidneys. It’s likely that the kidney disease is causing the muscle loss and so you need to treat the kidney disease with appropriate diet and meds. Simply giving random diets may actually increase the damage to the kidneys by forcing them to process more ‘toxins’