Coco won't eat :(

Hi all, about 3 weeks ago Coco had dentistry and 1 tooth extracted, for the first 3 days or so after that she was eating canned food just fine and actually ate more than usual. She seemed to be getting tired of Wellness so I tried a LOT of different brands with very little success. Last week she had a follow-up appointment and the vet tech said her mouth looked great, no problems there. She had lost an additional 2 ounces between the dentistry & the follow-up, but the tech mentioned that was "normal" because of the antibiotic. I can feel just about every rib & vertebrae and her hip bones

For the last few days she has presented me with a now-recurring problem, though. She is barely eating ANYTHING I give her. I have prepared the food (Pro Plan, Wellness, or Fancy Feast, including Kitten varieties) every possible way and given it to her on every kind of dish/bowl/plate, raised it, held it up to her, put some on my finger, etc. I honestly hope that she wouldn't be picky to the point of starving herself, but every time she's fed (2 or 3 times a day), she eats maybe 2 mouthfuls of whatever it is and then "digs" around it and leaves it for the rest of the day. She's more interested in licking than chewing (she kind of grinds her teeth on one side of her mouth when she does chew, that seems odd but I think she's done it her whole life).

She's not supposed to be on dry food anymore, but I've been giving her some RC Kitten (the only thing she nibbles on besides treats) but that's only a little more successful than the canned food.

I realize that I'm probably going to need to take her to the vet again (stressful for both of us), but before I make that appointment I have a few questions for anyone who may have gone through this too.

1) What exactly is the vet going to do for her? She's already had every test possible (senior blood panel, urinalysis, full body x-ray, fecal analysis) and nothing showed except arthritis in her spine and early kidney disease (I would have expected that because of her age anyway). I don't want them to send us home without fixing it, because she NEEDS to eat more. I'm on the verge of making Wellness soup and syringing it into her mouth, which she would hate with her entire being.

2) I have read about various appetite stimulants the vet can prescribe, if she gets one and it works and she eats, what happens when the stimulant is gone? Will she return to not eating?

3) I'm sure the arthritis is bothering her (it's pretty severe on x-ray), but she won't eat the Cosequin mixed with her food, so it seems that can't get better unless she eats more, and she won't eat more til she feels better...oye.

Sorry this is so long...she's really stressing me out though, I'm running out of things that I can do for her. I can't afford to go buy more food that she won't eat, and more trips to the vet are just putting me further into debt. I feel like I am running out of options

I'd call the vet just to see if they can suggest something over the phone...when you say she's not supposed to have dry food anymore, does that mean she used to eat it and medically can't have it any more? If there's not a vet-stated medical reason, I'd let her try some kibble - maybe kibble wetted down with some water to make it softer, or just a variety of kibble to see what happens.

If there is a health reason for no hard food, have you tried baby food (no garlic or onion)....a lot of cats go ga-ga for that, even if they're not in the mood for other food.

Would her meds go in a pill pocket (see the instructions about not using the fingers holding the pill to seal the pocket)?

How about plain roast chicken? Or smelly food like tuna. OK, not full of all the necessary nutrients, but maybe the idea would be to kick start her appetite, not make it a life-long diet. Or, try the vet-supplied stimulant - sometimes the idea is just to get the cat eating again, and then nature will take its course and she'll keep eating. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along with more help.

Good luck - it's so frustrating and scary.

I would have her checked for an abscess or lesions on her tongue. My girl had some kind of sore on her tongue and she didn't want to eat at all because it hurt.

If the only reason she can't eat dry is because of her teeth, I would try softening the dry she usually eats with some warm water. Or if you do force fed her watered down wet that may kick start her appetite. As far as taking her to the vet again, I'm not sure what their next step would be if BW, UA, x-rays, etc. have all been done recently. They may decide to keep her for a day or so and keep her on some fluids. High rate fluid therapy can perk up many cats that aren't eating when no diagnosis can be made. Or they may want to address her kidney issue in some way. I'd say try the force feeding, and if she still doesn't want to it, take her in and see what they can do for her.

Thanks for the replies everyone. The vet recommended that she be on canned only because of her kidneys, and said that her urine wasn't concentrated enough so she needed more water/moisture (she drinks & pees quite a bit, so I'm not entirely sure what they mean). I got a Drinkwell fountain about a week ago and both cats use it often so I'm not *that* concerned about her not drinking enough.

I am putting dry food back out for her though because if anything she really needs the extra calories. Last night I microwaved some kitten food for longer than usual so it was almost hot to the touch, and she really seemed to go for that, she ate almost half of what was on the plate And when she turned her nose up at it again a little later, I put it back in the microwave to make it warm again and she ate more of it. So apparently her secret is she wants hot food, not room-temperature.

But she is doing better today and is much more active (yesterday she just kind of sat around all day) so hopefully the food warming trick will work for a while!

Originally Posted by greeneyes86

Thanks for the replies everyone. The vet recommended that she be on canned only because of her kidneys, and said that her urine wasn't concentrated enough so she needed more water/moisture (she drinks & pees quite a bit, so I'm not entirely sure what they mean). I got a Drinkwell fountain about a week ago and both cats use it often so I'm not *that* concerned about her not drinking enough.

I am putting dry food back out for her though because if anything she really needs the extra calories. Last night I microwaved some kitten food for longer than usual so it was almost hot to the touch, and she really seemed to go for that, she ate almost half of what was on the plate

And when she turned her nose up at it again a little later, I put it back in the microwave to make it warm again and she ate more of it. So apparently her secret is she wants hot food, not room-temperature.

But she is doing better today and is much more active (yesterday she just kind of sat around all day) so hopefully the food warming trick will work for a while!

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I'm glad she's doing better. Hope her appetite keeps up!

I have one kitty who loves very warm wet food and one that likes her wet food just a bit warmer than room temp. Go figure! I warm up water in a bowl in the microwave, then set the bowl in the water for about 2 minutes. This gets it nice and toasty for them both. I've nuked it before and I really don't like how it sorta fries the stuff around the edges. This works out great for us.

One trick for tooth-short cats is to give them dry, but very small kibbles (such as most Science Diet, etc.). Cats really don't chew their food anyway, so that makes it so that they can swallow it.