Appetite issues

hi i am a new member too and found this site while searching for answers abt my rescue cat...an enigma wrapped in a stress bundle! Shes come a long way in the 4yrs we've been together. Shes probably close to 16yr old (tho when i adopted her4yr ago, her records indicated she was 7!). Shes come a long way. Her knee jerk response to any kind of affection was to attack. My response has always been NEVER scold her or b loud bc i know it ws her only defense against whatever past history she ws subjected to. I know she has a rapid heart beat and what that means. My dilemma has been with her appetite. Its always been an issue and has been to vet numerous times about that, but again, due to her stress level, we see the vet only when necessary (nail trim, shots). She is pretty healthy and does eat her dry. Since iv had her shes lost weight (shes a big cat was 13+ now 9). When she does eat wet food, she likes it soupy, but is down to water down chicken flavor baby food and a can of ff chic sometimes tuns. Again its less than half a can occassionally and mostly soup.  Yes, iv tried everything including making my own for her. Sometimes i think she doesnt know how to be a cat, you know the natural cat behavior of affection, but again with unconditional love and reassurance shes made huge progress. Maybe i just have to make peace with it. I just started giving her xanax small dose, only when absolutely necessary like thunder storms, but my recent living situation has been disruptive so im monitoring her.

I am not sure what you are worried about with your cat's appetite @annalee.  Is it what she is eating, how watered down she likes her wet food, or because you think her weight isn't right for her?   It sounds like her life has settled and she has done well since coming to live with you.  She is lucky to be with a person who cares about her health.

Thank you for your reply. Liking her food soupy is not th issue, it's her appetite. She's a big girl, she ws 13lbs. when i adopted her and now at 9lbs. she looks painfully thin. I guess I never expected her to lose weight under my care as my other cats were on the chunky side, healthy and happy, lived to b 14yr. I know she's in her twilight years, it wont b easy, but I'm okay with that.
She had a very close call a yr ago. I figured that was it, took her off the med the vet had her on and she rallied! After that i thought her appetite would increase, bt no. That's when i started giving her baby food.
Then over the winter she all but lost interest in baby food. I got her interested in it again, but she will only eat it if I feed it to her. So i put some into the lid and hold it while she laps it up. We do this abt 3x in the morn. and some days she won't eat that either! Yep! I'm the eccentric cat lady!
In the last week or so I started giving her the new ff broth food and she's shown some interest. Like I mentioned maybe its me making peace with it.

I think she needs to see a vet. This is a considerable weight loss and it could indicate anything from diabetes to kidney problems to many other conditions. At her age, it's a very real possibility which needs to be ruled out before trying to address food preferences.

Oh, I'm all over that, she's been in the care of fantastic vets since I adopted her (see our intro in new kids forum), but bc of her stress level we keep it to as needed (she just had her senior annual exam and shots).
Unfortunately, the tests required would be expensive and evasive and bc of her ptsd and her age, im not so sure she'd survive. Also her new vet (we relocated over yr ago) who is wonderful and well respected, is in agreement not to cause her undo stress, monitor her like I have been and go from there. Obviously if she was in discomfort she'd b going to the vet asap.

In addition her new vet has all her records (including copious notes) from her last vet so he's got the 411 on my girl. It's alot of firsts for me. I never owned a rescue (my cats were kitties when i got them), never known a cat to have such fear as this one did when i first got her (me of all people, my sisters call me the cat whisperer). Oh well, my sisters have cats that give me the unconditional affection Anna is still so cautious of. As far as Anna being a rescue, the fact is, we rescued each other. Thanks for replies.

I understand your hesitation to put her through the stress of the vet, I really do.  I've noted the same things with cats plenty of times.  But, the things that would cause her to eat plenty but lose that much weight are typically easily detected by a blood panel.  Hyperthyroid, diabetes, kidney disease, all those typical diseases of kitty old age are indicated by the tests that can be done on one blood draw.  All of these have treatments that can at very least help your kitty feel better for a little longer without being invasive or expensive.  And depending upon your area, if you wish you may be able to enlist the services of a house call vet, rather than putting her through the stress of going out to the vet office.  Could be another thing to look into.

I understand if you still conclude you don't want to do such things, but I hope you will make that decision knowing that it's not simply a choice of huge expense and major invasive stuff vs nothing.  What you have here is clearly a health issue and not just an eating issue.  Most likely she has a health problem that would benefit from some minor treatment and thus improve her ongoing quality of life.  Mild discomfort is not something you'll see in a cat; she will hide it instinctively.  By the time you see physical signs that look like discomfort, it is really big discomfort/pain.  The signs of  mild discomfort or some underlying health problem include changes in eating pattern and losing weight.

There's no particular issue with the soupy food that I know of.  My current two sometimes eat some pretty soupy food.  Main issue if the soupy food is a big part of her intake is making sure she gets enough.  The soupier it is, the fewer calories are going to be in a given bowl full, so it'll take more soupy food to keep her weight up.  This could be part of the factor in her weight loss, but I do hope you'll reconsider finding out what her medical problem is, because unless she has had a recent senior blood workup that checks for all the things including hyperthyroid, diabetes, kidney, etc. then it seems very likely that she has one.

Best wishes to you both.

It's great to hear that she's got a good vet (she's very lucky to have been adopted by you, that's for sure!) 

Maybe discuss the more recent weight loss with your vet over the phone or in an email? They may be able to check the most recent blood panel and decide whether or not she's due for another one. They will take stress into consideration, I'm sure. 

She had a blood panel done at the onset (i dont consider that invasive). The blood panel was normal. She had a second done and that too ws normal. I was told w/out doing exploritory proceedure etc. they could not make further determination.This last yr plus she's had two exams, but did not get a blood panel done so i will talk to her vet about that. She does not have thyroid (my last cat had that), no diabetes either and does normal potty in the potty box (oh yeah im all about that too) and i use worlds best all nat litter and keep it clean of course. As I mentioned i monitor her every behavior and though its taken sometime, I know by just a look or the slightest behavior change, mood, she's packed up and off to the vet. He's only 40 min away. And the soupy food as mentioned is fine and i dont make it to soupy. She has cold spring water 2x day.
I also have a heating pad under her plushy blankies (for her circulation-sometimes cold tootsies). She will b going to vet for her usu "mani-pedi" soon and will have blood draw then. I will post an update

It sounds like a good idea talking to the vet and getting her checked over when she goes in for a routine visit.   I hope she is fine and the weight loss isn't down to any health issues.  If she is closer to 16 rather than the 11 her records show it could always be down to her reducing muscle bulk and physical changes with her age but it is always best to check things out.  One of my previous cats wasn't very muscular is build and was roughly the same weight for the 17 years of her adult life.  Her litter sister was a very muscular cat as a youngster and once she was around 14 or 15 she lost a significant amount of weight because she developed arthritis and wasn't leaping and jumping like she used to.  By the time she was 21 she was almost half the weight she had been at the peek of her fitness.