New and need help please!!!

Im new to the forum and i cant seem to find where to post about my sick cat. I have three cats all eight one of my females had gotten stones after surgery i changed all of the food which was back in april my male cat did not like the change at all he was 22 pounds at the time long story short about a week ago he seemed to stop eating i took him to the vet blood work showed he was anemic and white cells elevated and down to 16 pounds they gave me meds and said he needs to start eating or he is going to die fast i have only been able to get him to eat about a half a ts a day he is drinking a little. Yesterday he would not eat anything and he is plummeting fast he can no longer jump on the beds having a hard time walking. I was able to feed him 3ml with the syringe which is nothing and he did not like it. The vet said it may be cancer but could not tell just from blood work. Does any one have any suggestions on how to get him to eat or what foods may be easier to give him i have tried tuna salmon and those were the ones he was eating a ts of a day.any help would be greatly appreciated

Welcome to TCS!!

I'll move your post over to the Health Forum so others can see it

thank you for your help!

He does need to eat to ward off a form of hepatitis called fatty liver disease which can cause potentially fatal liver damage. With the anemia and white cell count I think you need to get to the bottom of why with further diagnostics. I've had a cat that had a feeding tube put in short term to get him through fatty liver disease but he didn't have cancer.

You have began with giving him with syringe (ie forcefeeding). Good, as it is necessary with cats who dont have any appetite.

A little tip of what to give is goat milk, if you can get it where you live.

Nourishing, yet very mild.

Like the others said, fatty cats who quickly lose their weigh, tend to get this "fatty liver". One of signs may be they do loose their appetite...

Anyway. good you do h ave continous contact with a good vet. Necessary here, whatever it is.

(the new food you changed into is wet food, right? good.)

Good luck!

Sometimes when any of my cats don't want to eat I try them on human baby food in the little glass jars - turkey or chicken (No Onions! only meat)

Fancy Feast also works with loss of appetite. The classic beef (brown label) or classic turkey and giblets (olive green label) have meat as first couple of ingredients, no grains.

Good luck in coaxing your boy to eat, and soon!

edited to add: if they only eat wet food, try some dry kibble. Try feeding him treats. Get the freeze-dried chicken and crumble it over his food. Any food is better than none, even if it's lower quality.

Yes it is wet food thank you for you suggestions

thank you I tried the fancy feast he wouldnt eat it. What is the freeze dried chicken??

thank you every one for you tips

If he continues to not eat, take him back to the vet and have a feeding tube put in. You will be able to feed him without putting anything in his mouth.

Welcome to TCS, Gumby. I'm so sorry it's under these circumstances.

Depending on how long he hasn't been eating and how long it's been since you last spoke to your vet, you may need to do as Minka suggests and bring him in for a feeding tube.

If you have time before you need to take that step, however, here's a few things that might tempt your boy to eat: drip a bit of tuna juice over the wet food, or sprinkle catnip, Parmesan Cheese, Forti Flora flakes, Bonito Flakes, fish food flakes, or some crumbled up freeze-dried meat treats (Whole Life's chicken never fails to entice my kitties to eat) over the food. You could also try mixing very warm water into the canned food to bring out the smell, as well as mixing a bit of warm tuna fish or warm fresh or canned-in-water-no-salt-added Sardines (use very warm water to heat the meats, not the microwave).

Sending you many, many good thoughts that something gets your boy eating again ASAP.

AC

If you decide to force feed use a syringe and SLOWLY squirt the food (watered down with goats milk or water if nessesary) against the gums between the k9 teeth and back teeth.

Duke my overweight cat had fatty liver syndrome and while a frined helped me feed him we think it was too fast and he asperated (Got food down the wrong pipe) on some of the food. It essential that you are veru careful about this.

Good luck with your cat and welcome!

He is gone but ty

I am so very, very sorry. God bless and keep you, Gumby.

AC

I am so sorry for your loss. I am crying for you.