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I have a quite senior kitty named Cuddles. A week ago last Friday she had surgery to remove a thyroid tumor but the surgery has played havoc with her calcium levels and as a result she has not been eating. I have had to take her to the vet's twice a day for a week to get her force-fed and dosed with calcuim. I also have to give her calcium at home. This will continue to be necessary until she starts eating on her own. Can anyone suggest a food that might tempt her - anything at all, regardless of the "quality" of the ingredients. I have tried so many, including people tuna and she ignores them all. I am desperate to get her back to eating and get me back to my normal life that doesn't include twice daily trips to the vet before and after work. (She and) I need help!!!
Is there anyway you could force feed her, instead of having to go to the vets? I had a cat that wouldn't eata couple of years ago, and I just got some wet food and put a bit on the end of a popsicle stick and rubbed the food off onto the roof of her mouth. The best wet food is the pate kind to do that. Things like the shredded meat just kinda slip right off the popsicle stick.
Have you tried Hills Prescription diet? It's real nasty smelling, but it was the only food my cat would eat a mouthful of without force-feeding her, of course I had to force the rest of it down, but she would eat one or two bites first. Be sure to nuke it for a few seconds if it's been kept in the fridge.
Try the tins of sardines in tomato sauce its very rich but cats usually love it (as a treat)
also, cats loose their appetite much like we do if they're under any undue stress, which in my opinion taking her back and forth to the vet( even if its for their own good) will cause. She needs a nice quiet place and some TLC to get her calm and relaxed.
Talk to your vet about giving her some Nutristat. It's a high caloric aide and we've used it with cats when they haven't been eating. Since you said it was a thyroid surgery, please discuss it with the vet first!!!
I hope Cuddles has recovered by now, but the all time favored food by all my cats was good ol' fashioned chicken. Also, I don't know if it's still around, but Mealtime was also a big hit. You can tell, at the moment, I don't have a kitty, but I sure do love them.
Red Rover, have you tried SPAM or potted meat, like the ground up chicken/pork/who-knows-what-it-is food? Or boiled chicken livers? Those were a hit with my senior cat that went on a food strike, too...that was a long time ago.
I'm late to the party on this, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.
I have a quite senior kitty named Cuddles. A week ago last Friday she had surgery to remove a thyroid tumor but the surgery has played havoc with her calcium levels and as a result she has not been eating. I have had to take her to the vet's twice a day for a week to get her force-fed and dosed with calcuim. I also have to give her calcium at home. This will continue to be necessary until she starts eating on her own. Can anyone suggest a food that might tempt her - anything at all, regardless of the "quality" of the ingredients. I have tried so many, including people tuna and she ignores them all. I am desperate to get her back to eating and get me back to my normal life that doesn't include twice daily trips to the vet before and after work. (She and) I need help!!!
Question: Besides her calcium levels, PRIOR to surgery, did your vet do any 'pre surgery' bloodwork, to test Cuddles' kidneys?
Anytime you subject an animal (or a human as well for that matter) to anesthesia, the kidneys can be damaged. I'd have your vet check renal function as well, since you don't mention anything about her output to the litterbox. I know this, because my cat, had surgery for bladder stones, and while his pre surgery bloodwork was fine, post surgically, he went into renal failure, due to the anesthesia!!! Luckily, it was caught, treated, and while he's still a renal failure kitty, he's still with us!!!
Have your vet check all possibilities. Even secondary infections...there are any number of things that could be causing kitty's refusal to eat!!!
Azkadellia, yes my vet did do the pre-surgery bloodwork to check her kidney function and he was amazed at how normal everything was. The reason she wasn't eating was due to the low calcium levels which as of this past Saturday were finally back in the normal range. She has finally begun eating although not at her pre-surgery level but then the thyroid tumor is why she was so ravenous all the time. She is almost back to normal and even looks like she may have put on a tiny bit of weight (force-feeding will do that I guess). Saturday morning was her last vet visit and now I just have to continue her calcium supplimentation twice daily along with some stuff called Calcitreol (or something like that) which makes the calcium work more efficiently. I will take her back on Friday afternoon for another blood check but continue to power down her dosages of meds and this will hopefully be the end of this nightmare. For two solid weeks I didn't do anything but go to work and either take Cuddles to the vet or treat her at home and it feels so good to have my life back and be able to go to sleep at a reasonable time instead of staying up til after midnight for her final calcium dosage.
I even tried luring her with bits of minced clams and clam juice on her formerly-favorite foods - no dice! I have tried just about every canned food on the market today along with a slew of dried. My other two cats aren't all that interested in wet either so I am now using the high quality Ennova for all of them and will see how they do. Everyone looks robust and healthy so I am satisfied for the moment. Thanks so much to all who responded and wished Cuddles well. Good thoughts always help.
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I had a cat that wouldn't eata couple of years ago, and I just got some wet food and put a bit on the end of a popsicle stick and rubbed the food off onto the roof of her mouth. The best wet food is the pate kind to do that. Things like the shredded meat just kinda slip right off the popsicle stick.
