Is my cats smell going?

My senior cat (12) has always loved to eat, canned food is her favorite. Recently starting about a year ago she has not been eager eating canned food anymore. She eats but not with gusto. Sometimes ill feed her and she won't eat but paces as if she thinks I'm holding the food and haven't fed her yet. Only thing she begs for is chicken or shrimp cooking in the oven but those are so smelly the whole house smells of it, canned food barely makes a room smell. I'm wondering if her smell is going and that's why she acts odd at feeding time.

Today she did this after I fed her and she didnt eat, gave her salmon flavor so pretty smelly. Ignored the food. I took the bowl and put it right under her face and she started sniffing and finally sat down to eat. I think she isn't smelling the food when I open it leading her to become frustrated and follow me around to eat even though she's fed.

It's not just canned food. Even her crunchy cat treats when the pack is at the bottom she ignores the treats, I'm guessing as they lost the fresh scent like newly opened treats.

Has she been showing any signs of sinus blockage or such? Any mouth problems? She might be showing early signs or Rhinotracheovirus, or as most of us call it, FHV.  Have she been to the vet recently?

catspaw66 said:

Has she been showing any signs of sinus blockage or such? Any mouth problems? She might be showing early signs or Rhinotracheovirus, or as most of us call it, FHV.  Have she been to the vet recently?

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No mouth issues, and yes she has been to the vet twice this year with no issues. I don't see any signs of upper respitory infection usually if she gets it her eyes water and brown or green gunk builds up under the eyes. I'm not sure if a cat can have it without showing any eye issues.

The only odd thing she does is when she wakes up from sleeping sometimes she will do something that looks like multiple coughs/sneezes, its hard to describe but she makes a weird noise when it happens, it only lasts for about 10 seconds and then its over and she goes back to sleep like nothing happened. She has been to the vet around the time this happened and they listen to lungs and heartbeat and take temp and never find anything wrong.

What if a cyst is growing in nasal passage, I heard it can happen, how would a vet look for that, an x ray?

There is a stray cat outside that matches close to what you described as FHV and the cat always seems to show URI signs but never heals and I cannot get it to a vet too feral.

I think they can have it and not show any eye problems. Usually, they do show eye problems and that is how you start to suspect FHV.