Elderly cat - advice please

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Maybe the metacam has reduced the pain level so now he feels like eating again, so pleased he has put on weight 

[Jiji]

Glad to hear Felix is doing well 

[LazyDaisy]

Hi everyone.

Sorry its bin awhile but I thought I'd give you an update on Felix.

So he's bin on Metacam now since the 10th, mom thinks it is making things easier for him. But the great news is that he's put on some weight    he got weighed today and he's 3.71kg thats up from the last weigh in (he was 3.5kg). So we might be winning with him yet. The vet gave him some Hill Science Plan food but he just turned his nose up at that, much rather have his supermeat and tuna 
I don't think he appreciated that the expensive food was supposed to be good for him!

The vets also did a urine test on him last week to double check things and that came back nice and clear aswell. So it looks like its total spoiling all the way from now on.

 

[Gillian Harvey]

So their advice is too leave things along because at his age we don't want to be putting him under stress doing tests and things but obviously we want to try and "bulk" him back up again. 

Yep, I'd agree with that! I wouldnt go making any radical changes to his diet - yes, ok, tuna isnt ideal as a major part of a cat's diet - but lets face it he's got to 19 so it can't have done him much harm! I'd probably be inclined to just feed him more of the supermeat if he wants it. Higher protein wet foods to consider are Nature's Menu, Hi Life (which could give him his 'fishy' fix  ) , but introduce any new foods gradually to avoid tummy upsets. 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Dont understand most of what firefox said cept the end LOL

How about gourmet tuna and shrimp complete cat food, my Sasa loves it.

It comes in little tins.

[Fire Fox]

That is a lot of human food for one cat. Canned fish is missing several key nutrients that cats need - minerals and saturated fats for example. The liver and chicken are also low in minerals and saturated fat, little taurine in those especially if they are cooked. The advice for humans is treats to comprise no more than 10% of total calories - all the human food I would class as treats for a cat.

Fish is not natural prey for a cat and over the long term too much - especially tuna - can cause steatitis which is a painful inflammatory disease, as arthritis can also be. Weight loss is also a symptom of deficiencies.  Not diagnosing as I am not a veterinarian just wondering if the dietary imbalances might be contributing to the aging process. Does the vet know quite how much human fish the cat is eating or your mum underplaying it?

For weight gain cats need complete animal protein and saturated fats, with a balance of vitamins and minerals to help the body digest/ metabolise those nutrients and build/ repair cells. Is it possible your mum could change her cat over to a fish-based complete cat food?

[LazyDaisy]

Felix is eating well, he's a little and often lad (which really means he gets fed on demand). Its just mom and Felix so shes there at his bec and call.

He loves chicken and he has tuna mixed in with most of his of food anyway. He prefers Whiskas senior supermeat but so long as its mixed with tuna he'll have a go at most wet foods. He and mom often share a tin of pilchards or sardines for lunch.  He has very few teeth so he's not one for dry food. I've got some chicken livers for him which he adores.

I'm picking up the anti arthritic drops from the vets tomorrow so I'm not sure what type they are.

Bless him he really is a super cat for his age.      About six years ago he got attacked by a neighbours dog, and spent a week in hospital.
 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

19yrs is a great age and once cats suddenly lose weight at that age its very hard to get it back on.

How is Felix eating and what does he eat?

Will he eat chicken and fish cos those should be good for him.

What anti arthritic drops?

My Ducha has metacam which is a painkiller, in very small doses, as he only has one back leg and it gave him a new lease of life.

I hope that Felix has many years left in him, lighter or not 

[LazyDaisy]

Hi

My moms cat Felix is 19 years young. He's generally been fit and well (he has a touch of arthritis in his back legs - so doesn't do alot of jumping any more) but in the last two months he's gone from 4.2kg to 3.5kg so we took him to the vets yesterday. They took a blood test and to be honest we were expecting them to tell us that it was either hyper thyoidism or something to do with his kidneys or even a number of things. So we were quite pleased when the vets phoned today with the results. They checked for liver, kidney, pancreas, thyoids (T4), diabetes, and anemia and everything came back ok. Red and white blood cells were ok so no infection or inflamation. They said that there may well be some sort of abdominal tumour that isn't picked up by blood tests but as things stand there is nothing to treat medically.

So their advice is too leave things along because at his age we don't want to be putting him under stress doing tests and things but obviously we want to try and "bulk" him back up again. They recommend a high protein senior diet and some anti arthritic drops. Oh and lots of tlc and cuddles because as they said "at his age he certainly deserves it".

So peeps what do you think? Any dietary recommendations to allow Felix to put weight back on?   Anything else we should ask the vets about - possibley non invasive?

Thanks