Thin, fussy kitty ( rescue)

Hey everyone
It's been awhile since I've posted. I am now officially part of a four member cat rescue and have been crazy busy. Since January we have spayed or neutered 72 kitties We are feeling pretty happy with that number. We take in stray, abandoned kitties, have them fully vetted and place them in foster until adoption.
Anyways, one of my recent fosters Cinnamon is very thin, 5.2 lbs and approximately 8-10 months old. She is a momma She was rescued from a outdoor environment where she lived with 5 other Momma cats and about 20 kittens. Most likely she has been hungry her whole life. Of course we had no way to know which babies went with which mom's but I have her and 5 babies. The babies are between 5-7 weeks and not nursing much at all now. She has two doses of strongid, 1 dose of milbamax, and revolution.
Her coat is extremely poor. She loss tons of hair , I've removed lots of lumps and tangles and she sheds constantly. The fur is stragglers and almost 'greasy' in appearance.
She is on Hills A/D critical care wet food mixed with different varieties of chicken/ turkey wet and eats Royal Canine kitten dry.
She barely eats. Even if she starts enthusasticly, she stops eating quickly.
I brought her into the vet again today. Her wellness blood work was pristine and cray showed nothing abnormal. Her exam didn't reveal any discomfort.
She is the sweetest little thing , very affectionate. She is simply not thriving at all.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Any ideas how to increase her appetite? Our vet is not happy with her coat and condition and is doing some more research to come up with other possible ideas of what the trouble might be.
Cinnamon came into our care on July 6th.
forgot to mention she was Fleuk tested, negative.
Thanks for reading and hope someone has some ideas.

The first thing that comes to mind is a dental issue, was her mouth checked for abscesses and rot? Other possible issues like stomach ulcers may not show up on an x-ray.

Don't burden her with kittens at this stage, sounds like she can barely keep herself alive and the last thing she needs is those precious few nutrients she has to be lost through milk. See if you can distribute the kittens around the healthy mum cats in your rescue, an age difference in the litter won't matter. If not, hand feed them kitten replacement milk.

It sounds like she does have an enthusiastic appetite but something is hindering, which made me think tooth pain. Try pureeing her food and see if she'll lick it off your finger, or open her mouth and wipe it on the roof of her mouth. Experiment with textures and different flavours of food.

I also wonder if she might be allergic to something in her current diet.

Hi,
Thanks for the response. Our vet checked her mouth and it all looks good. Being so young her teeth are in great shape.Her wet food is pure mush and she doesn't seem to mind eating the kibble anymore then wet, she just only grazes on food.
As for a food allergy, I'm not sure. I will mention it to the team though.

MichelleMurphy said:

Hi,
Thanks for the response. Our vet checked her mouth and it all looks good. Being so young her teeth are in great shape.Her wet food is pure mush and she doesn't seem to mind eating the kibble anymore then wet, she just only grazes on food.
As for a food allergy, I'm not sure. I will mention it to the team though.

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You've probably already tried this but just in case, have you tried feeding other foods to Cinnamon, some of the "usual suspects" for hesitant cats, like Friskies wet or Fancy Feast? (I remember vets telling us that Friskies is one of the best for cats that just don't want to eat, even when they're sick.) It almost sounds like she's just not liking her food enough... though I also wonder about whiskylollipop's thought on allergy, as well as nausea, given that she'll start eating but then not eat much.

If she still does not eat in the next few days i would bring her to the vet. Try some other food like Fancy Feast or Natural Balance for Wet and Natural Balance or Blue Buffalo for dry. If she is extremely picky then try food that has gravy in it.

Kiki's Mommy

The fact that she starts to eat but then soon gives up sounds like she might be feeling nauseous. Could you ask your vet to check for anything that might cause that? She may needs some anti-nausea medication.

If the kittens are 5 to 7 weeks old, they can, easily, be eating kitten food. Have you tried giving her kitten food? Stage 2 baby food, meat only, check the ingredients just to be sure there's no onion powder. I'd let her drink KMR if she would, or goats milk.

Bless your heart for trying so hard for the cats and kittens!

Hi again, Cinnamon does eat Kitten food and a local pet store gave us a ton of wet foods to try. They also gave us a sample of freeze dried raw. She loves it.
The kittens are all eating Royal Canine kitten kibble.
I will mention the KMR to the team too and the stage 2 baby food. She is so sweet, I just want her to thrive. It's hard enough to get an adult adopted but a thin , scraggly one....Poor girl.

I specified stage 2 only because that's all I can find pure meat in; Gerber, Beech-Nut, etc; everyone I've found.

You could use her condition to tug at the heartstrings. Get close-ups of her beautiful face and eyes, doing something that shows off her purrsonality. As you get to know her you'll find things special about her, use them.

How about some new pics of her and her babies.

MichelleMurphy said:

Hi again, Cinnamon does eat Kitten food and a local pet store gave us a ton of wet foods to try. They also gave us a sample of freeze dried raw. She loves it.
The kittens are all eating Royal Canine kitten kibble.
I will mention the KMR to the team too and the stage 2 baby food. She is so sweet, I just want her to thrive. It's hard enough to get an adult adopted but a thin , scraggly one....Poor girl.

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I'm glad to hear she likes the freeze-dried raw food... our cats, who are moderately picky, love the stuff (Primal and Stella & Chewy's) and thrive on it.