Projectile Vomiting - trying to transition to wet food -please help! (weight, foods)

[MissBMonkey]

I feel at a loss! I do home some of you have some sage advice for me!

I have lovely (and for the most part healthy) 12 lb / 12 year old kitty named Mario. She (yes she!) is a very sweet but feisty stubborn girl. She has been on dry food all of her life and last year she was diagnosed with that wonderful unknown disease kitty IBD. She was projectile vomiting after every meal and the vet put her on prednisolone and hypoallergenic cat food. (after a very expensive endoscopy). Ater trying several hypoallergenic cat foods (royal canine HP, Purina HO) she still vomited. I had done some research on grain free foods so I switched her over to Natural Balance Duck and Pea, and now she still vomits about once a week, but I've been able to reduce her meds to half. I do not want to leave her on the pred her whole life because I do not want a diabetic kitty, and want desperately to switch her to the wet food. I think she has a hard time digesting her dry food. (that stuff is hard!!)

But I have 2 big issues....

Firstly - I cannot give her 2 or 3 meals a day that is recommended for the wet food to dry food transition. She can only eat about 20 kibble (a tablespoon) per hour or she'll vomit. So what I do is I feed her small meals throughout the night and let her go all day while I am work to work up a "pocket of hunger" so I can try and get her to eat the wet food. But if she won't eat it, I'll wait a few hours and try again. But by the second try if she refuses, I have to start feeding her kibble so she gets enough calories over the night to avoid fatty liver disease.

The second issue is - I cannot tempt her with anything! She will not eat treats - I've tired bag after bag - I must have 10 refused bags of treats at home. I've tried at least 5 different brands of wet food and she refuses to eat her kibble if it is within half an inch of the wet food so I cannot even put it on the same plate. I've tried crushing up her kibble and putting the wet food in little balls with dry kibble to trick her. She will not be food. If she eats one piece she will refuse to eat her kibble.

It's been 2 weeks of this and I'm TIRED - I get up throughout the night to feed her and I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in 2 weeks There is no way I will be able to do this for months or even a year like they recommend.

Please help! I do not want to syringe feed her since she's very healthy and very feisty...I do not want her to be traumatized since she's quite a happy and very good girl! (She doesn't pee or scratch in places she's not supposed to, and she's quiet and doesn't cry a lot). But since she's prone to vomiting I would rather not put a feeding tube in her. So I feel I am doomed to syringe feed her??

Please help! Does anyone have any experience with any of this?

Thank you!!
-Exhausted

[no kudzu]

Well you have quite a problem and I'm sorry. Is your vet aware of all this? You say she is healthy so why not just put a tablespoon of wet food out for you when you get up and then again when you come home from work and if she is hungry she will eventually eat. Have you tried Before grain?

I know you love her but to turn your schedule upside down for her doesn't make sense. If you get sick who is gonna care for her.

If she is indeed healthy I think she will eat eventually. Perhaps making just a bit of her old kibble in with her new wet will work and it won't be such a shocking transition.

Good luck

[MissBMonkey]

Thank you for your note! I have been leaving a few tablespoons of wet out for her to eat while I'm at work. I did have some luck getting her to eat kibble off of the same plate one night - but the next night it was back to normal. Unfortunately the vet's suggestion was just to let her stay on the dry food if she won't eat the wet, and up her meds - but I don't think that's the right way to go in my heart

[GotBackHome]

have you tried mixing the wet with the kibble? like 'creaming' the 2 together? Oddly, I have the opposite problem, mine love canned and don't care much for dry!

Why are you so sure that staying on pred will make her diabetic? Cats react differently to pred than humans. I had a cat that was on a very high dose (chemo level!) every day for a few years and never went diabetic. She had some sort of malabsorption problem and the pred slowed down the weight loss a little.

[MissNM]

I wouldn't worry about the pred. It adds so much to the quality of life and does help with the appetite.

We had a girl with IBD and tried every food under the sun. Fancy Feast Classics seemed to do better for her than all the pricey novel diets. Years later, her sister had similar symptoms and she was found to have small cell lymphoma. She did great with pred and Leukeran. Diabetes was never a problem with her.

Did you get a biopsy with the endoscopy? Have they ruled out small cell lymphoma? Leukeran is a chemo drug that is used for both IBD and cancer.

[eric99gt]

Possibly give Natures Variety rabbit formula a try. Heat it up to make it more appealing. Also consider adding pumpkin from a can. Some cats really enjoy this so it may assist with the reluctance to eat