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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Help me feed my aged cat please !

40 replies

Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 12:30

I have three Siamese cats. The oldest one is 17 and the other two are 16 and a half.
I have always fed them Royal Canin dry food for Siamese cats as they love it. It's their favourite food, and although I feed them other foods also, when we run out of the dry they get very annoyed.
The oldest girl is thin, painfully so. My vet prescribed Vidalta for hyperthyroidism and she has one a day. The problem I have is giving her food to keep the interest up and I am running out of ideas/options. She has never been greedy and always the slim one, but now she is so skinny and bony.
I have got to the stage where I will try anything and wonder if anyone else has an aging Siamese with similar problems and if so what food do you give?
This morning I have offered fish fingers which she picked over and some chicken breast cooked in milk.
She likes wafer thin ham and tinned chicken and tinned tuna but not enough !
She likes full fat single cream and sometimes grated cheese
I have tried just abut every brand of wet tinned cat food available and she dislikes them all
She likes cat milk but has gone off that now
All the foods I have mentioned are eaten in tiny amounts - only just enough to keep her alive.

I even let her eat from my plate. I will do anything I can to help her.
Has anyone fed their cat 'Smalls' and had success. I would be interested to hear.
Apart from being so thin she is really happy and loving. I want to improve the quality of her life for a little while longer as she is so happy.
My vet weighs her and says she is too thin.
Help!

OP posts:
Kat1953 · 25/04/2022 12:34

Katkin?

It's human quality food so if she's showing a preference for human food she might like it.

I wouldn't go nuts with the diary, I'm sure you know.

You could try warming food up a little- just a few seconds in the microwave- before serving. It'll increase the smell and cats are quite scent generated.

You could also look at trying her on broths - don't know if you can buy them tbh but as long as vet approves ingredients, you could make them yourself.

Pilchards in tomato sauce are loved by lots of cats.

Gatekeeper · 25/04/2022 12:36

try a tin of Liquivite- I've started giving my old boy (16 and bony) a saucer of this everyday and he always cleans the plate

Others he loves are the small sachets of Sheba "Taste of Tokyo" and "Taste of Rome" . I feed him little and often- a sachet of cat soup, slice of ham, a couple of prawns or a sardine, a knob of butter. I also put nutritional yeast powder on his food and he absolutely loves it

Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 12:38

Thank you. She used to love pilchards but has gone off them. I'll have a look at Katkin now.

OP posts:
Kat1953 · 25/04/2022 12:43

Yw. Good luck :)

Also I meant, motivated not generated but my autocorrect has developed a mind of its own!

Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 12:54

I've ordered the Liquivite, Thank you

OP posts:
Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 13:01

And also ordered Katkin.

OP posts:
PanicPuss · 25/04/2022 13:04

Have you tried kitten food? We have the same issue but not with a Siamese and she is turning her nose up at human food mostly apart from a little cheese and some high fat roasted meat but only when freshly cooked and still warm.

Royal Canin kitten food in gravy, Canagan Kitten, The Cheshire Cat Garden Kitten and McAdams Free Range are all going in though.

Our vet has also started giving her injections for arthritis which have helped loads, I think she was also suffering quietly with just being very sore on top of everything else.

MrOllivander · 25/04/2022 13:08

Have you tried blink? My cat likes the fish ones. Also skinny! I feed him mostly natures menu kitten food
Salmon oil can be tempting too

Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 13:11

I'm so glad I asked the questions. I have now ordered Liquivite and Katkin. I'll try her with these and if she doesn't take to them I'll look at the other suggestions. My other cats will gollup them up if she dislikes them so no harm done.

OP posts:
PanicPuss · 25/04/2022 13:14

Brew hope you find something she likes. Worse than fussy toddlers!

TheGirlOnTheLanding · 25/04/2022 13:20

If you think she might be arthriticy, I can recommend Seraquin. Our vet recommended it for our old boy (sadly no longer with us) and when our current boy started to look as though windowsills were a struggle we got it for him too. Both thought they were especially delicious crunchy cat treats and both seemed to feel the benefit. I hope you can tempt your old lady with some of PPs' suggestions: it's a worry when they go off food.

Fluffycloudland77 · 25/04/2022 13:21

Mirtazapine is a human anti depressant that stimulates appetite, if push come to shove you co7ld ask the vet if she’s suitable to take it.

Wbeezer · 25/04/2022 13:27

My cat was poorly recently and off her food, the thing that tempted her to eat were Lick-E Lix, like chicken flavoured Frubes for cats.

sleepymum50 · 25/04/2022 13:28

My mother used to swear by Brands Essence of Chicken. She reckoned you could get them eating again if you could just start them on somethings liquid.
Lapping sometimes encourages eating

I have tried in the past, chicken breast poached in water, and just give the liquid to start, and shred the chicken in teeny tiny pieces. Also have given the liquid from a tin of tuna in spring water. My friends cat loves prawns.

As others have said, keep off the cream and milk. I know you can get specific cat milk, not sure how good that is for them.

I assume your vet has checked her teeth are not causing any pain.

Best of luck, I had this with my cat when he had triaditis and didn’t eat for a week. I even resorted to syringing liquid straight into his mouth.

PanicPuss · 25/04/2022 13:32

@Wbeezer I don’t think I’m going to be able to look at a Frube in the same way ever again Envy Grin

Wbeezer · 25/04/2022 14:07

Another thing we did was feed her plenty od Dreamies and also sprinkled crushed Dreamies on top of wet food.
Sorry@PanicPuss my kids are all big grown up men now so I am past the Frube stage!

Lottie4 · 25/04/2022 15:15

Are her teeth OK?

My old girl had hyperthyroidism, so I know it's not easy. As she got older her smell went and I found the main thing she'd eat was Felix fish pouches (which I appreciate your cat might not go for).

Have you tried Webbox lick-y-lix chicken or salmon yogurt treats? All of my cats have always loved them, so won't be wasted if she won't eat, as you'll have other takers.

MrOllivander · 25/04/2022 15:26

Oh if she likes cheese, you could try a little nutritional yeast on top of food as an appetiser

FlowerArranger · 25/04/2022 15:35

Im an experienced shelter volunteer, foster carer and cat servant.
Try high quality kitten food and lots of Dreamies or similar.
However, if your kitty won't eat those I'd seriously consider whether her quality of life merits continuing.
Remember, cats have no perception of the future.
Your beloved cat has had a good life, and sometimes it is better to face the inevitable.
Believe me, I know exactly how hard this is 💐

TheNewUpdateIsShit · 25/04/2022 16:01

When my late elderly cat lost loads of weight (also on vidalta) the only thing she would eat was the Encore cat tins, they have real pieces of cheese, chicken fish etc in them. She put on weight within a couple of weeks and the vet was very pleased with her (as she said she'd have to be put down if she kept on losing weight).

We lost her last year, bless her but she had a happy life 😭

Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 18:58

Thank you for all the messages and hints/tips etc.

She had a major tooth extraction a while back so her teeth are fine.
I bought some 'Blink' this afternoon and she loves it ! I also bought some ham hock shreds and she ate all of this just now and looks content.
They had run out of Royal Canin Siamese at the pet shop so I bought 'Exigent' instead and she has eaten some of that also.
I have a cat water fountain which she likes drinking from. I only gave her the cream as I was desperate. I know it is not good for her.
So thanks to wise Mumsnetters we are OK for a while
Thank you thank you x x

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 25/04/2022 19:25

If the medication has been at one a day for a while, it might be a plan to go back to the vet and see whether it needs to be increased.

Mine would have;

Pate - it was how I got the pills down her without any complaint. She knew exactly what I was doing but deemed a ball of pate with a pill centre sufficiently worth the effort. Chicken or pork liver, she didn't mind, just as long as it was pate (and didn't have onion in it - sometimes I cooked chicken livers until they were rare and chopped them up - and I also blended kidneys a couple of times as she got more twig like bork).

Beef mince - again, in little balls.

She really liked the chicken and pumpkin pouches from Applaws.

The tiny (and breathtakingly expensive) Applaws tins (I think Encore are exactly the same but cheaper) of chicken and cheese or chicken, ham and cheese.

Tins of Mackerel in Tomato Sauce. The PDSA and local vet both use it for cats that aren't eating well - whilst raw tomatoes can't be given to cats, the tinned version was fine, apparently.

The webbox pastes.

Anything else she showed interest in, she got. That carried her through the last nine months of her life quite happily until she stopped eating altogether as she was done.

Of course, the other furry residents were incandescent with this preferential treatment, so we had to do it in secret - I'd hold my finger up to my lips as though to say 'ssshhhh' and she'd know to come into the kitchen with me and actually shut the hell up for once in her life as I fed her on the counter under the boiler so the others didn't get a look-in.

It did mean every trip to the kitchen involved a snack for her, though. Which she enjoyed a lot.

However, if she hasn't eaten in a day and isn't hungry the next morning, it's best to make an appointment, as their bodies are either going to shut down from lack of food or it's a sign that they are already moving to end of life.

And if she starts flopping on the floor any time she moves, from experience, it's time to let her slip away rather than trying to syringe the prescribed diet tinned foods into her. (Don't be fooled by the vet suggesting you buy them - most self respecting cats detest them).

Essentially, spoil her rotten and enjoy your cuddles every chance you get.

MrOllivander · 25/04/2022 19:26

Phew! Mine really likes the blink typical as it isn't cheap and has only one tooth left

Bunty55 · 25/04/2022 23:18

It's getting those bloody pills down her that is the worst part of this. She hates them and fights us tooth and nail. We have to wrap her up and one of us opens her jaws, the other drops the tab in and then we have to wait until she swallows.
We keep finding the tabs everywhere as she spits them out when she runs off.
There is no other way of feeding her them. I have tried disguising them in food and she knows.........

OP posts:
Shehasadiamondinthesky · 25/04/2022 23:24

My cat started getting thinner and thinner on thyroid pills so I took her to have radioactive iodine and she put on loads of weight after that. The thyroid pills weren't being absorbed properly and she never did well on them.
After that I fed her Lily's Kitchen wet food and she did very well on that.
Does she have toothache anywhere, that puts them right off food too.

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