Feeding a cat baby food

My cat has been having a really poor appetite and I'm worried about hepatic lipidosis so I'm thinking of adding in some baby food to increase her calories. (She's eating just barely above the 15 kcal/kg that Dr Pierson says is the minimum to avoid hepatic lipidosis, 160-180 kcal/day for a 10.5 lb cat.)

Is the only essential cat nutrient missing from baby food taurine? Or are there other balanced diet issues, even if I added taurine?

samus said:

 
My cat has been having a really poor appetite and I'm worried about hepatic lipidosis so I'm thinking of adding in some baby food to increase her calories. (She's eating just barely above the 15 kcal/kg that Dr Pierson says is the minimum to avoid hepatic lipidosis, 160-180 kcal/day for a 10.5 lb cat.)

Is the only essential cat nutrient missing from baby food taurine? Or are there other balanced diet issues, even if I added taurine?

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what else is your cat eating? 

There is a lot more than just taurene missing.  Baby food is just the meat and broth.  Kitties also need liver and there are other supplements added to complete cat foods.  I don't make my own food so I can't specifically list everything but I know the baby food is missing liver and calcium...  If this is a long term issue then you will need to find complete foods that he will eat, baby food is fine short term to get in enough calories.

samus said:

 
My cat has been having a really poor appetite and I'm worried about hepatic lipidosis so I'm thinking of adding in some baby food to increase her calories. (She's eating just barely above the 15 kcal/kg that Dr Pierson says is the minimum to avoid hepatic lipidosis, 160-180 kcal/day for a 10.5 lb cat.)

Is the only essential cat nutrient missing from baby food taurine? Or are there other balanced diet issues, even if I added taurine?

Click to expand...

I would suggest you discuss with your vet feeding Hill's A/D at least for a period of time.  This is one of the most irresistible foods out there, and we often use it with cats who won't eat.

She is eating some cat food (wet and dry), just barely enough to not get hepatic lipidosis (according to catinfo.org). She has both kidney and bowel issues, the high calorie commercial foods like Hill's A/D have ingredients she can't handle as well as phosphorous levels that are too high for her kidneys.

I have heard that A/D can be hard on the kidneys.  Have you considered making her food?  I don't know that much about it but we have a forum for it http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food   It doesn't have to be raw it can also be a cooked diet.  You can make a larger batch and freeze portions so it isn't a daily or even weekly thing..

Why doesn't she want to eat, though? If the cause is treated, such as acid regurgitation, excess being released by her gallbladder while she's having periods of inappetance, then the appetite improves as the stomach and esophagus don't feel burning/painful. If she has kidney disease, GI ulceration is common as they have periods of nausea and excess acid production.

All my kidney patients are on antacids daily, as well as phosphorus binders later in disease, so they can eat a variety of foods without having to consider only low-phosphorus meats/ingredients. Varying their diet is important, as they will associate a diet fed during an acute bout of nausea or pain with that negative feeling, and may refuse it for days. I know some of your options may be limited by the IBD, a balancing act to keep her eating enough without inducing diarrhea. Not eating enough can lead to GI issues and vomiting/ulcers also though.

Baby food is fine, without added taurine if she's still eating cat food. Even feeding it alone for 2 or 3 days during severe inappetance is fine, without supplements to "balance" it. It takes weeks of deficient taurine to cause neurological and cardiac deterioration.

Check out Doris Bryant's Cat Book, as she addresses the baby food issue quite nicely. Sometimes they get out of the habit of eating, and its difficult to get them back into it again. If everything else is normal, you might ask the veterinarian about an appetite stimulant to try to get her going again, but they don't always work. Bear just likes the attention, and has been syringe-fed for months.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I'm planning on making food for her, but I was hoping to transition her off of dry food first. She's eaten dry her whole life and still thinks wet food's weird, which I think is part of the not eating enough problem. I was hoping that baby food would be more appetizing so I could get her caloric intake above minimum, she could do to lose about half a pound but right now she's eating only about 75% of the amount of calories she needs to maintain weight, and if the rest of that 25% is baby food that's a larger percentage unbalanced than I've seen people mention as being healthy. I'm glad to hear that it'll take a while of eating an unbalanced diet for her to have issues.

I've been using Fortiflora and barleygrass powders as appetite stimulants, often she'll lick off the layer of food with the powder and walk away. I think part of it is she's really picky and doesn't like eating the spots that smell like someone licked them, she'll also frequently lick off the top layer of fresh food without any stimulants. If I'm home and I can flip the food over and add a little water and tasty powder every so often she eats more. I tried getting chicken liver and putting a little piece (raw) in her food and it turned her off completely (but she really likes the liver and gelatin dog treats I just got). I was hoping she'd eat at least a little liver, since she's probably not getting as much vitamins as she needs with her minimal eating. (And now my freezer has a bunch of tiny cups of blended liver... mmm....)

Yesterday I got some aloe juice, I've seen a lot of people have had good success with treating digestive tract issues with slippery elm but I can't find any (I think it's banned in the EU), so I was hoping aloe would be just as good. She's definitely having pain involving her digestive tract, after eating especially she sits on my computer and does that hunched loaf thing and her vomiting is usually after using the litter box. (The past two days have been solid poop and no vomit! Cat poop has never been so exciting.)

She's CRF stage 2 I believe (slightly elevated creatine, normal BUN, normal phosphorous and potassium), the vet didn't mention anything about trying acid blockers but I don't have very much confidence in her. (She's a pet food salesman that can't wrap her head around treating two chronic issues at once.) Puck, do you have any resources I can read on using antacids (dosage, etc)? Chromium Blues, I'll look for that book, thanks.

You're trying to transition a kitty off of kibble now I understand what is going on.  It sounds like you have tried a lot of the suggestions in this article http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade  but there might be something in there that will help.  I know you want to get your kitty on the right wet food because of the kidney issues but kitties do things at their own pace.  You may very well have to continue making up the calorie deficit with the kibble while you work on convincing kitty to eat that stuff that isn't food to kitty.

Not so much "resources" for use of antacids, just the nursing experience in regular and emergency vet medicine for the last 13 years. I don't tend to reference web sites for the experience or recommendations I offer. Famotidine (Pepcid) is the oral antacid of choice at 0.5mg/kg for cats, administered once daily. They can have up to 1mg/kg daily, if for example, their dose isn't an even 2.5mg (1/4 of 10mg tablet), or 5mg (1/2 of 10mg tab,  1/4 of 20mg extra strength tab).  Many opt to get it compounded into a suspension of 10mg/mL, easing oral administration, especially if it's flavored. VPA and RoadRunner do a good job compounding such meds for cats.

Antacids shouldn't be given with other medications, as they can decrease the absorption of many other medications.

Administering it 30 minutes prior to meal time is typical recommendation. If difficult to pill down the throat by hand, try hiding the small fracture of tablet in a 1/2 tsp of ground wet food/baby food. Then feeding a full meal 30 minutes later. Then medicating with other meds that are due around that time, 45-60 minutes after the famotidine.

For diarrhea, metronidazole or tylosin are very effective. I've never used homeopathic meds for diarrhea, so no experience to offer there. I have had canine and feline patients with GI toxicity signs (mucous diarrhea, vomiting) from ingesting aloe plants at home, but this may be a case of benefit if used in moderation, just as if we don't overdose on traditional meds, they're beneficial, and not toxic.

Added fiber sometimes helps, but treating the cause, such as overgrowth of bad bacteria, Clostridia spp, is more effective. The Fortiflora you're already giving will at least help maintain a good population of beneficial bacteria in the intestines while she intermittently copes with GI and kidney issues.

GI motility meds should also be considered when a bout of inflammation rears its head, causing vomiting, nausea, and/or diarrhea. Metoclopramide (Reglan) and cisapride are effective pro-motility drugs that many of my IBD and chronic GI/renal cats stay on.

You can discuss the antidiarrheal antibiotics and the GI motility meds with your vet, as these are Rx only; the famotidine is OTC, widely available, and very safe to start asap.

Thanks! I'm in Germany so I'll have to check the availability of famotidine here (so far the available OTC drugs for basic stuff like coughs and sore throats have been different).

Aloe plants cause diarrhea and vomiting because of the latex in the outer leaf (the green part), aloe juice is made of the inner clear part. Whole aloe leaf can "cure constipation" in humans for a similar reason it irritates cat and dog intestines. If you break open an aloe leaf you can taste the difference: the skin and just below the skin will be very bitter, while the gel in the center will be practically tasteless.

Thanks for the link, Denice, I missed the part where 15 cal/lb was based on lean weight, so it sounds like I should have calculated her minimum as lower. That takes some of the stress off.

She's playing again today! She would play a little before, but only the rolling around batting stuff kind of playing, today she's running and stalking hair ties. Although she did start coughing and making throw up noises after running around for a little bit (she didn't vomit, though), so antacids (or I read a lot of people use anti nausea meds?) might still be in her future.

I can't say for certain it was the aloe that helped, but it did seem like she would eat more after I put the aloe in her food. And she's eating the wet food before the dry food, instead of the other way around. I did put a little glutamine and taurine in one of her meals a couple days ago (about a third of a gram scoop of each, glutamine for gut healing and taurine because I was worried about deficiency), so I can't rule out that as having contributed. (And I can't rule out her amazing cat healing powers needing no help and her getting better despite of all the stuff I'm putting in her food.)

My aloe method is twice a day, with 100% pure (no preservatives) aloe juice, put a small spoon of food in some water with a little splash of aloe (probably half a teaspoon, though I'm sure a couple times my "splash" was a little bigger) and mash the food a little bit. Then 10-20 minutes later I'd put out a meal quantity of food (with more water, because she likes a moat around her food). I've been doing the small "appetizer" before the full meal for the past month or so, it alone reduced the vomiting frequency but I think the aloe has reduced the after-meal hunching in her box with a sad little mohawk.

I froze a good part of the bottle of aloe in smaller bottles, because it's preservative free and I don't want it to start fermenting, hopefully freezing won't affect it's healing properties at all.

She's not up to the not losing weight calorie threshold, but her calorie intake the past couple days has been even higher (about 220 calories, stable weight is somewhere around 250), with all calories coming from cat food (and a couple dog treats). Soon I get to start the adventure of cooking her low phosphorous, limited ingredient cat food! @mschauer has been really helpful with figuring out a nutritionally balanced recipe.