Cat won't eat enough after dental surgery (almost three weeks later)

jclt

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Hello - I'm new to the forums, but have been searching the web for help and coming up empty.

My 12-yr old rescue cat had several teeth pulled almost two weeks ago. Since she needed to eat soft food after the procedure, I decided it was a good time to switch her to canned food for good, which I had never done before since she maintained good health and weight (9-pounds) free feeding dry.

She has always been a bit of a picky eater - ignoring human food, eating only a little bit at a time and never a lot, but it's gotten much worse in the past few weeks. She was ok at first - she ate fairly well, and when she didn't like a food I would give her another one to try, and if she seemed to be eating less I blamed the pain meds. Three weeks later, though, and it's gotten worse, not better. She will try about half of the foods I put down, and I've tried at least a dozen (Wellness, Werurva, Merrick, Evo, BFF, various types of each). Even the ones she seemed to like the best, though, she will reject later from the same can (even warmed with hot water) or from sometimes from a fresh can. She's only eating about a third of a can a day, and she seems to be losing weight. I tried adding back in some dry food as a supplement after two weeks just to make sure that she would get some calories, but she ignores that, too. Part of the problem might be that I couldn't go back to her old food (California Naturals) since I found out it had been recalled, but I've tried two types of kibble, one I bought (Lotus duck) and one (Natural Balance grain-free) that I got from a neighbor, and she hasn't eaten either.

All of this would not be too worrying, except she seems hungry - she comes into the kitchen when I do, seems to beg for food (something she's never done before), and then ignores what I put down. Every time I think I have something figured out (she seemed to really like the BFF pouches, which I'd like to avoid as a long term food because they're mostly tuna and pricey for the calories because of the water weight, so I tried imitating the brothy texture by adding more water to the kibble. Worked for two days, then stopped working), she rejects it.

Sorry for writing so much, but I'm getting concerned and have no ideas. Her mouth seemed to be healing fine when I tortured her by checking, her blood and urine tests were good three weeks ago, and she has decent energy, but she is definitely losing weight and she doesn't have much to lose. Any ideas, please?
 

jclark

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I've been down this road. First if you haven't already done so I would take her back to the vet to see if she has any pain/swelling in the mouth.If that's okay then you can try a perscription "recovery" food. It's very high calorie, soft, canned food. Thin it out with water if you think that will help. Ths food is hard on the kidneys but she'll put weight on.I had better than average results when I would sprinkle crushed treats or parma cheese on top of whatever canned I was trying to get my 14 yr old to eat. You can also try kitten food (dry) as the kibble is generally smaller or even resorting back to the dry food you used to feed her. Cats will just throw back dry food,swallowing it whole believe it or not.It will take some time, and many of us completely understand how frustrating this is for you and your cat. Keep at it.
 

denice

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I would definitely get her checked out by the vet very soon.  Cats can get into trouble healthwise from not eating enough.  I have a kibble addict that I have tried to convert to all wet and he will always eat his kibble.  I think that the fact that she is not eating kibble now means something is not right.  My other cat who also loves kibble insisted on eating kibble the day after she had 5 teeth removed.  If you can't get her in very soon you could try meat baby food, the kind without onion, just to get calories in her.  That's only a very short term possible solution.
 
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