Puzzling sudden anorexia

I have an otherwise healthy 16 year old female cat who suddenly lost her appetite 9 days ago. I've been to the vets twice since, and they can't find any problems with her and are as puzzled as I am. Prior to 9 days ago she had a very healthy appetite, gobbling down her food every time, whatever brand, as if she hadn't been fed for weeks.

But then 9 days ago she suddenly pretty well lost interest in food, and has only been eating a fraction of what she was eating before. She seems hungry but when I put the food down, it doesn't appeal and she walks away, and I've tried all kinds of different cat foods now. The strange thing is that she seems otherwise asymptomatic - no behavioral changes, no obvious lethargy, she seems happy enough, her fur is good. But she's not eating enough and is losing weight. The vets have done blood tests and everything is showing up as normal (in fact they say she's in good shape for a 16 year old), so the usual suspects of problems with kidneys or liver have been ruled out.

I'm baffled and very concerned, and am wondering whether anyone has useful suggestions. What might be causing this which would not show up in a routine examination and blood tests?

Welcome to TCS, though I'm sorry it's your kitty's illness that brought you here.

Did your vet take a good look in her mouth? Dental problems can often cause this kind of inappetence.

A cat that acts hungry, but then won't eat, may have nausea. Ask your vet about putting her on 1/4 tablet of 10 mg pepcid ac every morning.

Also I recommend further testing, such as x rays and ultrasound to check for masses inside. You vet can refer you to a specialist for these things if they don't do them at your clinic.

Also, seeing a veterinary internal medicine specialist would be my next step along with the ultrasounds.

Thanks for that. The vet suggested the possibility of X rays in a few days time if my cat doesn't start eating properly again. Wouldn't nausea cause some changes in the way she behaves, though? What is puzzling to me is that she doesn't actually seem ill in any way, and is behaving absolutely normally apart from the feeding.

I should add that on both occasions I've taken her to the vet in the last week, he's given her a vitamin B12 appetite stimulant which hasn't had any apparent effect. She has something which might be regarded as prior history as regards this anorexic behaviour. In August last year, she suddenly went off her food completely, and after a couple of days I took her to the vets, who gave her an appetite stimulant (after failing to find any underlying causes), which worked with remarkable speed, with her appetite coming back in full within a few hours. A couple of months ago, almost exactly the same thing happened - off food completely, a couple of days later to the vets, given an appetite stimulant and her appetite fully restored in no time.

It was because of this history that I delayed a couple of days longer before taking her to the vets this time, assuming the problem would right itself again (and she absolutely hates the trip to the vets), but it didn't. I wonder whether I have made it worse as a consequence - the longer she is anorexic, the less she feels like eating properly again?

Originally Posted by J2R

I wonder whether I have made it worse as a consequence - the longer she is anorexic, the less she feels like eating properly again?

Click to expand...

The longer you wait, and the longer she refuses to eat, the sicker she can get.

Honestly, I'd have them go ahead and do the x-ray - either later or tomorrow. If she behaves it will only take them a couple minutes and then it's done and over. As far as diagnostics go, x-rays are painless compared to blood being drawn.

Talk to the vet about a specialist referral. Find out who and where that referral would be (ie: any specialist referrals I would get would mean I'd be driving 130+ miles to go to that clinic).

Have you changed foods recently or opened a new bag of food, even if the same type she's always eaten? It could be that the formula has changed and it's upsetting her tummy.

She seems to be much keener to eat today, which is a great sign. In fact, she's probably had slightly MORE food than she would normally have by this point in the day - albeit with rather more persuasion, cajoling, hand-feeding and warming up than would be normally required! So at the moment I'm cautiously optimistic.

[strange_wings] I'll certainly bring forward the X ray if this turns out to be a false dawn.

[stephanietx] No, no changes in food recently. We feed her any of about 5-6 cat foods, all of which she normally loves. Given the variety she has been getting it seems unlikely that the problem could be caused by one of the foods.

My Callie had that problem. By process of elimination, we narrowed it down to fish flavored canned food that caused the problem.

You mean Callie went off all food for a while, and you determined that it was as a result of this fish-flavoured canned food? How long did her anorexia last, and how did you get her off it in the end?

I must say I'd love it if I could determine that all this was a result of a particular food, because that way I could make it a lot less likely to happen again in he future.

Since you feed a variety, start keeping a journal on what she eats, when she eats it, and what happens (if anything) afterwards. You will be looking for any patterns to emerge, based on what she eats.

However, given the nature of this illness, I would still be wanting x-rays, and if they show nothing, an ultrasound, to find out what's going on inside.

Keep us posted.

It's a good idea about the journal, and I'm definitely going to do that from now on, just in case the same thing happens again. Fortunately, though, I am delighted to be able to say that she's very much on the mend. Yesterday she ate a normal day's helpings of food and by the end of the day was not requiring any coaxing, and today she's keen for food and wolfing it down as if making up for lost time! So, it looks like whatever it was has by now resolved itself.

Curiously, this whole episode has brought some good news as well as anxiety, because the blood tests she had done suggest that her kidneys are doing fine (lower creatinine levels than last year). I've been worried that with her age she may well be heading into renal insufficiency, but it seems she's OK at the moment. (She's a recovering diabetic - diagnosed 7 years ago, she went into remission last year and has shown no signs of diabetes since).