Cat eats very little on her own. Has IBD under control, otherwise very healthy. How to get cat to ea

So this month has been a nightmare for me. One cat was very sick, but made a remarkable recovery after us syringe feeding her for 3 weeks now and having open surgery to confirm a positive ibd diagnosis. Her wound healed extremely fast and I do not think she is in any pain. She plays just like a kitten, purrs, loves catnip and is happy in every sense. She just finished her two week regime of flagyl on friday. I  read that the complete elimination of flagyl is about 2 days, so today it should be out of her system. She was prescribed mirtazapine, but she is extremly hard to pill, so I have to mash it up, suck it up with a 1ml syringe and shoot it in her mouth. She drools a lot afterwards, but I think some of the mirtazapine gets in her because about an hour after she does nibble a little. Other than the little nibbles she still won't eat on her own. She has a doctors appointment on thursday, so my plan is to continue to feed her until monday night. I will not feed her anything from tuesday till wed night if I do not see her eating, so when we go to weigh her I will see if she has lost any weight. I guess my question is has anyone had problems with their cats eating and flagyl? Does anyone think something maybe psychological is going on in her head to make her not eat. I am thinking about asking the doctor if cyproheptatdine might be a better option for her. She is suppose to be starting pregnisolone as soon as the online pharmacy delivers the medicine. I am praying that the increased appetitite side of effect of it really helps her want food on her own again. She really is the sweetest cat and like I said, I can tell that she is back to her normal self except for the eating. Any and all suggestions are welcome. 

Mces97 said:

So this month has been a nightmare for me. One cat was very sick, but made a remarkable recovery after us syringe feeding her for 3 weeks now and having open surgery to confirm a positive ibd diagnosis. Her wound healed extremely fast and I do not think she is in any pain. She plays just like a kitten, purrs, loves catnip and is happy in every sense. She just finished her two week regime of flagyl on friday. I  read that the complete elimination of flagyl is about 2 days, so today it should be out of her system. She was prescribed mirtazapine, but she is extremly hard to pill, so I have to mash it up, suck it up with a 1ml syringe and shoot it in her mouth. She drools a lot afterwards, but I think some of the mirtazapine gets in her because about an hour after she does nibble a little. Other than the little nibbles she still won't eat on her own. She has a doctors appointment on thursday, so my plan is to continue to feed her until monday night. I will not feed her anything from tuesday till wed night if I do not see her eating, so when we go to weigh her I will see if she has lost any weight. I guess my question is has anyone had problems with their cats eating and flagyl? Does anyone think something maybe psychological is going on in her head to make her not eat. I am thinking about asking the doctor if cyproheptatdine might be a better option for her. She is suppose to be starting pregnisolone as soon as the online pharmacy delivers the medicine. I am praying that the increased appetitite side of effect of it really helps her want food on her own again. She really is the sweetest cat and like I said, I can tell that she is back to her normal self except for the eating. Any and all suggestions are welcome. 

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Hi, and sorry for your troubles with your little girl
I would try cyproheptatdine, I have been successful with it - be aware that it doesn't work immediately though, it takes at least 24h. Also, IMHO not feeding for 24 hours to test if she is going to eat when she is sick, after going through surgery - not a good plan at all. This situation sucks, I know, but the last thing you want now is her to get sicker. She has to eat, one way or another.....
What are you feeding her?
Here is my experience with IBD - I have a kitty with it who went through a lot of troubles too..... Hi name is Bugsy :heart3:
Every cat is different, and everyone will have a treatment that works for that individual cat - but in the end, it boils down to an inflammation issue. So you want to as best you can, remove everything that can possibly be causing inflammation on her digestive system.
On Bugsy, I tried it all - all treatments on the book - everything you can possibly imagine.... The only thing that worked for him, and it WORKED,was to put him on a raw diet. That did it - from that point on, all his IBD problems were gone ***Knock on wood!***
Food is very very important for an IBD kitty. IMHO what you feed her will make the biggest difference in her health condition.
Have you tried giving her plain boiled chicken? Raw chicken? Freeze dried chicken? You can try Halo or Whole life chicken..... Kitties go gaga for it. You can also try sprinkling fortiflora on the food to entice her to eat - they LOVE it. Don't use the whole packet, use it as a seasoning, just lightly dust the food with it. You can do the same with freeze dry chicken - dust into a powder on the top of the food.
Try to offer her food with a spoon instead of a syringe - kitties like spoon feeding too.
Baby food also works - look for 100% meat baby food - Beech-Nut is a good brand; make sure there is no garlic and no onions.
You can feed these for a little while, then slowly transition her to balanced meals - the first goals will be getting her to eat on her own.... Or, of course you can try the toppers I mentioned to get her eating balanced meals right off the bat.
I would highly recommend a wet only grain free diet, or raw..... Of course I don't know what your baby was eating before, so it might even be a good idea to go to a limited ingredients diet or straight to raw. With Bugsy the additives on commercial food were the trigger, so the only way to get away from it was a raw diet.......
Good luck hun, Hope your little girl gets better quickly! Hang in there!
Here is a site with a lot of information to help you http://www.ibdkitties.net/

yes I agree, it's tough enough that she isn't eating much but if you purposely don't feed her for 24 hours she risks developing fatty liver disease very easily and you do NOT want that believe me!!! Cypro is a good appetite stimulant and the pred should help a lot. but in the meantime, you need to syringe feed her like you did before. Do not let her go long without the calories she needs. 

I wish she just wasnt so hard to feed. My other cat who was sick as well and gave us a good scare for a week is getting back to his old self. A few days ago he wasn't really eating, and at 1 in the afternoon popped a mirtazapine quarter in his mouth and within 45 min the entire day in like 10 minutes stretches he kept going back to his food dish. I will talk to the doctor about trying the cypro. We should be getting her medicine by tuesday at the latest I hope, so maybe I will have better luck syringe feeding her the mirtazapine with the chicken flavor. We were feeding her 4 35, although I think the tube is actually 40cc feedings a day, but I wanted to make sure we maybe werent overfeeding her calories, so I took a fresh can of wellness 5.5oz and about 3 35cc's is a full can so that is what we are doing now, 3 35cc, and half a syringe full to make up for anything she might drop on the floor or out of her mouth. One thing I can say abuot her is how good she is with us syringe feeding her. Don't need a towel or anything. I just kinda hold her front paw's down, while my mother feeds her. Sometimes she gets a little annoyed and makes a whining sound, so I let her go walk for a minute or two and take her back. Wellness seems to be pretty good for her. Everyday since she has been home from her surgery almost 3 weeks ago she has made a bowel movement and it was normal. 

One of my cats had IBD and whenever it flared up and she had a bad spell, she would stop eating. She associated the food with the pain in her stomach and bowels.

I agree with the prior suggestion that you continue syringe feeding, and also syringe feed water as well. Check her for dehydration by pinching the fur at the top of her neck. If it goes right back down quickly she is ok, but if it stays slightly rigid she could be dehydrated and in need of IV fluids. I only say this because sometimes cats that are dehydrated don't eat very much. Do ask your vet about it when you go there with her and find out about foods that are well tolerated post-surgery. 

I am sorry this is happening to your kitty, it is hard to see them not eating. 

Definitely do not let your kitty go without food though. She will feel so much more energized after she has food and water, and at some point her appetite should come back, as soon as her system becomes accustomed to a particular food and no longer causes her tummy aches or bowel pains whether over time or with the help of meds or both. In the meantime I send prayers and good wishes :-).

Mces97 said:

So this month has been a nightmare for me. One cat was very sick, but made a remarkable recovery after us syringe feeding her for 3 weeks now and having open surgery to confirm a positive ibd diagnosis. Her wound healed extremely fast and I do not think she is in any pain. She plays just like a kitten, purrs, loves catnip and is happy in every sense. She just finished her two week regime of flagyl on friday. I  read that the complete elimination of flagyl is about 2 days, so today it should be out of her system. She was prescribed mirtazapine, but she is extremly hard to pill, so I have to mash it up, suck it up with a 1ml syringe and shoot it in her mouth. She drools a lot afterwards, but I think some of the mirtazapine gets in her because about an hour after she does nibble a little. Other than the little nibbles she still won't eat on her own. She has a doctors appointment on thursday, so my plan is to continue to feed her until monday night. I will not feed her anything from tuesday till wed night if I do not see her eating, so when we go to weigh her I will see if she has lost any weight. I guess my question is has anyone had problems with their cats eating and flagyl? Does anyone think something maybe psychological is going on in her head to make her not eat. I am thinking about asking the doctor if cyproheptatdine might be a better option for her. She is suppose to be starting pregnisolone as soon as the online pharmacy delivers the medicine. I am praying that the increased appetitite side of effect of it really helps her want food on her own again. She really is the sweetest cat and like I said, I can tell that she is back to her normal self except for the eating. Any and all suggestions are welcome. 

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Oh boy!  You have really had a rough month.  I have no experience with IBD so I'm going to leave that to the folks here that have experience with it.  But I am sending real positive thoughts your way. You and your kitty deserve it...

BarbB said:

One of my cats had IBD and whenever it flared up and she had a bad spell, she would stop eating. She associated the food with the pain in her stomach and bowels.

I agree with the prior suggestion that you continue syringe feeding, and also syringe feed water as well. Check her for dehydration by pinching the fur at the top of her neck. If it goes right back down quickly she is ok, but if it stays slightly rigid she could be dehydrated and in need of IV fluids. I only say this because sometimes cats that are dehydrated don't eat very much. Do ask your vet about it when you go there with her and find out about foods that are well tolerated post-surgery. 

I am sorry this is happening to your kitty, it is hard to see them not eating. 

Definitely do not let your kitty go without food though. She will feel so much more energized after she has food and water, and at some point her appetite should come back, as soon as her system becomes accustomed to a particular food and no longer causes her tummy aches or bowel pains whether over time or with the help of meds or both. In the meantime I send prayers and good wishes :-).

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The good news is last thursday she weighed 6lbs 9oz, and the week before that she was 6lb 9oz, so as much as I would have liked her to gain, she did not lose. She does drink water on her own, and I have done the fur pinch test and she feels very hydrated. Hopefully her pregnisolone comes tommorrow and that will spiff up her appetite. I think her ibd is under control because tuesday will be three weeks since her surgery and since she has been home on that friday she has not had one case of loose stool and makes a bowel movement everyday. I'm thinking though that if she had hepatic lipodosis it is still in the process of healing and everyday she is getting a little better, but something still makes her hesitate food on her own. I won't not feed her. I thought about it, but after reading the commments and using a little bit more of common sense, I won't do that to my cat.  

Good! Glad to hear that because when these kitties backslide, it's not usually just a little, it's a lot. And you pretty much have to start all over. God knows you probably don't want that I'm sure. maintain, maintain, maintain! That's the word to always keep in mind with them when they are sick. 

So Nermal had an appointment with the vet, which was supposed to be tommorrow, but I spoke to another vet at the office we use as well and he was still concerned about her not eating on her own. We brought her in yesterday, and she weighs 6.12, which is great. He popped a mirtazapine quarter in her mouth, and she ate more on her own yesterday than I did see in a very long time. She ate a little bit today so far, but not a super amount. I am going to wait till 6 tonight. If she does not continue to munch every now and then, then I will feed her. If she does munch then I will let her be. As long as she eats enough in a 24 hour period I don't care if she goes back to her food 20 little times, or 3 big times, calories to me are calories.