Getting a poorly cat to eat???

[Shufflebumnessie]

One of our cats (13 year old female) has had a rough couple of months health-wise.
She had a really nasty stomach upset which took weeks to fully subside and she lost a lot of weight. Then she caught a cold (or similar) and initially was eating and drinking normally (but not putting on any weight) but as she's got more congested she's completely stopped eating and will only drink cat milk a few times a day.
I took her back to the vet yesterday and she was given a slow release antibiotics injection and metacam. The vet also gave me a tin of high calorie cat food, however she won't touch it.
Over the past few days I've offered boiled chicken, tuna, ham, various cat foods (including a soup) and treats etc but she won't eat anything. I've heated them up to make the smell stronger & tried mixing stuff with milk. The vet said her hydration levels are fine.
Can anyone think of anything else I can offer her? It seems she only wants liquid (I'm guessing her throat might be sore). She must be starving but won't touch anything other than cat milk. She can't afford to lose any more weight. Do I just need to wait until she's feeling a bit better and hopefully her appetite will return?
We have a follow up vet appointment on Tuesday.

Thank you. I'm taking her back to the vet on Tuesday so I can ask then if there's no improvement.

There are a lot of tips on how to get a cat to eat on the Tanya's Renal pages (Ignore all the bits about renal diet and scroll down to Tempting your cat to eat)

I found raising the bowl made a massive difference as did sitting with the cat and when really desperate, pretending to eat her food.

http://felinecrf.org/persuading_cat_to_eat.htm

When one of my boys was very sick last year, I literally spent all day trying anything to get him to eat. I was even smearing tiny amounts on to his lips in the hope that he would lick his chops. When the day came that he would lick a tiny amount off my fingertip, it felt like such a triumph. I think we had a breakthrough with those little tins of Purina Gourmet Gold mousses you can buy in supermarkets. Try anything, lik-e-lix yoghurts were another thing that eventually worked. (He is fine now but it was touch and go for weeks).

All the best to you.

My trick is to warm the food up in the microwave for a few seconds, and then hold it out to her on a plastic spoon so she can lick it off.

If she doesn’t eat for too long, there are nutritional gels you can purchase off Amazon, or you might need to talk with your vet about a feeding tube.

Hope it works, it's what we always tried with poorly cats when I was a vet nurse and my lot love it too

In the past, I've liquefied the high calorie food with a bit of water and strained it into a puree. Then I've syringed it gently into the side of the mouth - not towards the throat. I've found that, like us, as they start to get the taste of food in their mouth, then their appetite returns.

A vet friend told me that cats can do this but once they have a first taste they usually eat. She suggested popping some on her nose or paw to get her to lick it off, I tried this with Sheba pate style food and it worked.
Obviously if they don’t eat it after a minute or so wipe it off

Lick-e-lix got my poorly cat interested in food again. Water from tuna might stimulate the appetite too.
Hope she rallies, it's a stressful time. Cats seem to go downhill fast when they don't eat. It was scary how much weight my cat lost in a few days of not eating.

No suggestions as in a similar situation. Was thinking of trying my boy on cat milk. He's had a lot of problems with constipation and I think lactulose isn't helping with his appetite.

Hope you find something for your girl.

Not sure if it's been suggested but dab a tiny bit of lickeelix (or however it's spelt!) on her top lip. When I worked in rescue sometimes just that taste would almost reawaken their desire to eat. X

Also lift her bowl off the floor and put it on something like a stack of books or similar. And try a flat plate rather than her bowl? X

Tinned salmon. When my son's very elderly cat was unwell and would not eat he hand fed it salmon. It was sadly his final meal before being PTS but he did seem to enjoy it.

Hot rotisserie chicken or chicken livers. Our cat goes mental for chicken livers.

After my Eric’s dental and feeding tube, Lloyd-Lix was the first thing he eat. Not many calories, but a start

Yes, this is what we used to give to cats who weren't eating when I was a vet nurse. You can also put a tiny bit on your finger and wipe it on the cats gum to give the taste.

I worked with animals for a long time and have been on the floor pretending to eat from the bowl myself!! 😂🙈sometimes the threat of competition can encourage a reluctant eater 🙈🙈

One of ours can't eat very well due to illness. Otherwise seems happy.

He will almost always eat a lix-e-lix style treat.

As these are not complete food I buy very soft mousse-style food such as the little Gourmet pyramids and mix it with a little cat milk. Sometimes he will eat this out of a bowl but sometimes I use it to refill the lix-e-lix tubes. He is easily fooled

If all else fails, try Royal canin Recovery food from Zooplus or the vet, in a syringe if necessary.

Mine went off his usual favourite food the other week, I just presumed they'd changed the ingredients in it and he didn't like it anymore so I got him a different brand and he still turned his nose up at it. Well ate a minuscule amount before leaving the rest to fester in his dish. Desperate to get him to eat I went out and got a single serving of the Aldi pate range cat food and mashed it up on a plate. It took him a while but he finally managed to eat it all. What I've also started doing is adding 2-3tsps of water. It makes it slightly more liquified for him plus although it's not a great deal I also know he's getting some fluid into him as well. The biggest downside is it's as stinky as anything especially when standing over it mashing it up on a plate. Felix seems to like the more stinkier cat foods though.

I've also raised his plate up off the floor so he doesn't have to bend down as far to eat it. That seems to have helped a lot as well

I've just done this. Definitely helped

Have you tried the Perle Gourmet Revelations? It’s like a mousse with some gravy, so soft and easily palatable. Our cat who was super fussy and really lost her appetite when she was old and unwell would still eat some of food when she wouldn’t eat anything else.

Also if there’s anything at all that she’s still eating, there’s a supplement called Oralade which is nutritionally complete. You can add a tiny amount to each serving of food and then you know at least the vital nutrients are being consumed. The bottle can only be kept for 3 days once opened so I used to fill an ice cube that with it and defrost one cube overnight in a little Tupperware, and then use a syringe to add 2-3ml to each food serving the next day. Some cats will have it on its own as it’s like chicken broth but ours wouldn’t. You could even add this just to some gravy squeezed out from a pouch.

Lastly, occasional our vet would give her an anti nausea injection which would help if that was the issue. Towards the end, we also had a mirtazapine transdermal gel that we could rub on her ear which is also an appetite stimulant.

Hope this helps - good luck!

Thank you all so much for your replies and suggestions, over the past 24 hours I have tried many!!
I think the cat thought I'd well & truly lost the plot when I got down next to her and pretended to eat from her bowl 😅She just looked at me with utter disgust and walked away!
About an hour ago she actually ate a couple of tuna dreamies and then a couple of mouthfuls of Sheba fish flakes. Woohoo!
The other 2 cats have had a field day over the past few hours hoovering up all the delicious treats that the poorly one turned her nose up at. Fingers crossed she's turned a corner and she'll soon put on some weight and regain her strength.
Thank you once again.

Sometimes peeled prawns work.

She thought you lost the plot but then she ate 😂 hopefully this is a good sign of things to come op xxx