17 yr old kitty losing weight, checked by Vet...questions...

Hello Everyone,

My first/dearest and oldest kitty Tigger has lost 3/4 of a lb over the past 3 months. On the surface that doesn't sound like a lot but she was 8.5 lbs back in August, is now about 7 3/4 lbs. That's almost 10 % of her body weight in such a short period of time. I noticed I could feel her spine more prominently so took her to the Vet last week.

She has kidney disease which she's had for some time. Her BUN and Creat are elevated but not a lot more than in August:

BUN -- 23.4 (range: 5.7 to 12.8)
Creat --- 382 (range: 71 to 212)

Her potassium in August was low, at 3.3 (range: 3.5 to 5.8) but I attributed this to a day of IV fluids at the Vet when in for a dental and several extractions plus not seeming herself for a few days once back home, not eating much, and I gave her subQ fluids twice....so with all of these fluids within a short period of time, I suspect due to her tiring kidneys it flushed a lot of the potassium outta her. I put her on Tumil K for 2 weeks (much to her dismay).

Potassium rechecked last week; it was good at 4.2

I had them check her for hyperthyroidism but T4 good; if anything a little on the low side.

T4 -- 15.8 (range: 18 to 40)

I'm not too concerned about this. HYPOthyroidism is very rare in cats and she surely doesn't present as a cat with this, due to her weight loss. From what I've read, cats can often have low T4 even though thyroxine levels really are normal...it's called Euthyroid Sick Syndrome -- where T4 is low in cats with some other chronic condition going on. I'll ask the Vet about this but I'm sure he'll say it's nothing.

Liver enzymes good, CBC good, hematocrit good, WBC not elevated, glucose good.

Amylase elevated but it has been for the past 2-3 years and we attribute that to her kidney disease.

BUT.......her platelet count is VERY HIGH @ 944 (range is 175 to 600). Back in August was 690. I know that LOW platelets can be indicative of lymphoma or leukemia. From the little I can read, HIGH platelets can be caused by many things; pancreatitis, hypothyroidism, issues with the spleen, excitement (don't think this is the case for her; she's very calm when they draw blood and if she was anxious I'd expect her blood glucose to be elevated too), diabetes, a lot of medications, etc.

I'll talk to the Vet about this hopefully tomorrow (they just faxed me the lab results this afternoon so haven't yet talked to Vet).

She's a very picky eater. I've been frantically buying hundreds of dollars in different cat foods; both canned and dry, hoping she'll eat more of something so that she doesn't continue to lose weight.

I give her a couple teaspoons of Nutrical supplement each day to help her out.

I give her 1/4 of a tab of Cyproheptadine each evening and this does help (takes her about 3 before it's really kicked in).

One of the few dry foods she really seems to take an interest in (found this out tonight) is Nutram Kitten food. Though I don't think it's a very good quality food; it has some grains in it.

I stupidly gave her some Whiskas dry food on the weekend. I generally only buy good food (Eagle Pack, Wellness, Horizon - all dry) and feed canned twice a day too......but I thought she needed to be eating more and this stuff is like kitty crack. WOW! My other 4 cats loved it, as you can imagine.....but 3 of them (including Tigger) spent oodles of time at the water bowl....................freaked me out. I wondered if maybe it's got too much sodium in it? Seems the cheaper dry foods list "salt" as an ingredient. I don't seem to see this on the ingredient list of the premium ones.

As soon as I stopped feeding this garbage, didn't see anyone drink again.

She doesn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort. Her fur is shiny and nice but I do sometimes notice it's a little "spiky" on her back. I used to notice this alot with my old CRF kitty BeeJoo..........seems it's kind of something you see on ill cats? I asked the vet about this, he was clueless, said it might have been from poor grooming. She's a great groomer and her fur is shiny and nice.....so he was out to lunch.

I wish I could get her to eat more.

Last week I came home from work one day and she wouldn't eat ANYTHING; not even baked chicken (her fave), no treats, nothing. This concerned me. Then I worried that maybe her potassium was low so got that checked but it was fine.

I give her subQ fluids 2-3 times a week, about 75cc each time.

Her teeth are great; had a good dental done in August.

The only kind of canned food she will eat (but nibbles) is crap like Fancy Feast or Sophisticat. I've tried a million good kinds; Wellness, Eagle Pack, Halo, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, you name it (frankly none of my other cats like these much either).

I have a bag of Felidae on order because I think it's a good food and it's high in calories. I fed it years ago and I believe the crew liked it but the store I shopped at stopped carrying it, I think.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm not about to put her through a bunch of major diagnostics. I think the bloodwork she's had lately has covered all of the basics.

Again; what does anyone think about the quality of Nutram dry food?

thanks
Lisa

It is very hard to keep weight on CRF cats.
My Coco is 6 pounds now.
Kitten food is bad for a cat with CRF.
I know some meds that can help a cat with CRF.
They have helped Coco.
I hope you cat feels better.

Felidea is not the food IMHO it was a few years ago . maybe try some kitten wet food?.. Please if possible ditch the dry totally

Infections are common in kidney cats ... have you had a chance to read the CRF sticky>? loads of info and links

Originally Posted by sharky

Felidea is not the food IMHO it was a few years ago . maybe try some kitten wet food?.. Please if possible ditch the dry totally

Infections are common in kidney cats ... have you had a chance to read the CRF sticky>? loads of info and links

Click to expand...

I did try a bunch of different types of canned kitten food but she wasn't interested. Ditching the dry isn't possible, unfortunately, because it's the only thing she eats more of. She's never been much of a canned food cat. I know that canned is better, believe me, but she's gotta eat.

For the longest time I've been feeding them all the premium dry food that's grain-free (they free feed on this plus canned twice a day. They obviously eat enough of the canned because I rarely see them drink from their water dish); then i wondered if maybe that was contributing a little to her weight loss? -- less carbs / less calories? Though my other 4 cats are maintaining their weight fine on it and 3 of the other 4 are seniors.

I don't think she has any kind of infection. WBC count is totally normal. She's only peeing 2-3 times a day as per normal (no straining in box, no signs of a UTI; my old CRF kitty used to get a lot of UTIs so I am no stranger to the signs). Her teeth and gums are good so can't be a dental infection.

No vomiting, doesn't seem to be in pain. Is bright and alert, still follows me around the house like her snoopy self. She doesn't appear to be a cat with problems going on.

I guess the weight loss could be due to the CRF but my old CRF kitty BeeJoo was 8 lbs when she passed and she was a lot older, CRF was a lot worse plus she had heart failure and a rare condition of her adrenal glands.

I know that kitten food isn't great for a CRF cat; likely due to the higher protein content...........and I know that w/ a CRF cat you should feed either a low protein diet OR at least one with a very high quality source protein but I also believe it's equally as important to ensure that the cats eats enough of anything. with BeeJoo, I fed her Hill's K/D and other low protein foods.......and she loathed them to the point that for 9 months I had to syringe feed her 3 times a day because she just wouldn't eat that crap. Stressful for her and for me. I don't want Tigger's last months to be stress-filled with me syringe feeding her and upsetting her.

The elevated platelets really concerns me...........

My RB crf girl was supposed to only see 12 -18 months ... she lived 4.5 yrs !... Diet is key , for her I gave Raw and whatever canned she would eat .. when I did that her numbers went closer to normal and she did better overall... the 18 ish month s I had her just on her senior dry( meet the crf guidlines) and RX canned she had numerous infections..

By products in a canned form are a GOOD protein source as they are mostly meat and organs vs bone and bone meal

Grain free Dry HARD on kidneys and Hard to digest ... it does have normally 30-50% more calories than grain containing drys ...

Grain free dry protein level would be = to kitten wet Yet easier to digest and less work for the kidneys

Yeah the platelets are a worry but they could be related to the CRF ... what were her last numbers and when taken?

Yes, Sharky's right, dry food causes a whole host of issues, including chronic dehydration, diabetes and IBD, not to mention, kibble is difficult to process for obligate carnivores. If you could get rid of the dry food altogether, it would probably be a good thing.

Have you tried sprinkling freeze-dried meat treats on the wet foods? Whole Life makes some, as does Stella and Chewies' and several other vendors. Cats usually find them completely irresistible and they kinda melt into the wet food so they're really hard to pick out.

Alternatively, have you considered going raw? Even just feeding one raw meal a day might help.

So sorry you're having to go through this with (what sounds like) your heart kitty, TFL.