Cat will just lick gravy from food but not eat all of it

junka

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She is pretty much only licking the gravy of her wet food and not eating much of her dry food.  Our routine in the past:  we would give her wet food in the morning and dry food in the evening.  She would usually eat all of it pretty much right away.  Three days ago we noticed she did not eat all of her dry food by the time we gave her the morning feeding.  Then she mostly just licked the wet food.  As the day went on, she did finish her wet food.  That evening we gave her dry food as usual and she started eating it with gusto, but just for a short while and definitely did not finish it.  Yesterday, she again first just licked her wet food, then as the day progressed ate the rest of the food.  She still had dry food there, so as an experiment, I added water to her dry food, and as the day went on she ate much (but not all) of that, too.  This morning the same thing - just licks the gravy off the wet food.  She is a 12-year-old Domestic Shorthair, with many similarities to a Russian Blue.  She is also very very difficult to get into a carrier to see the vet, and she has attacked the vet quite a bit, so we are reluctant to bring her in.  Also, I forgot to mention - we only very occasionally give her dental pet treats, but we gave her some several days in a row (we put them in the advent calendar as a holiday treat).  We have a new package of treats and an old package of treats.  For several days I had given her the treats from the new package, but the last time we gave it to her, it was from the old package, which had a "best by" date of next week.
 

stephenq

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She is pretty much only licking the gravy of her wet food and not eating much of her dry food.  Our routine in the past:  we would give her wet food in the morning and dry food in the evening.  She would usually eat all of it pretty much right away.  Three days ago we noticed she did not eat all of her dry food by the time we gave her the morning feeding.  Then she mostly just licked the wet food.  As the day went on, she did finish her wet food.  That evening we gave her dry food as usual and she started eating it with gusto, but just for a short while and definitely did not finish it.  Yesterday, she again first just licked her wet food, then as the day progressed ate the rest of the food.  She still had dry food there, so as an experiment, I added water to her dry food, and as the day went on she ate much (but not all) of that, too.  This morning the same thing - just licks the gravy off the wet food.  She is a 12-year-old Domestic Shorthair, with many similarities to a Russian Blue.  She is also very very difficult to get into a carrier to see the vet, and she has attacked the vet quite a bit, so we are reluctant to bring her in.  Also, I forgot to mention - we only very occasionally give her dental pet treats, but we gave her some several days in a row (we put them in the advent calendar as a holiday treat).  We have a new package of treats and an old package of treats.  For several days I had given her the treats from the new package, but the last time we gave it to her, it was from the old package, which had a "best by" date of next week.
Hi

When a cat shows decreased interested in eating, there is almost always an underlying medical problem and one that is likely to get worse, and made more complicated and harder to reverse due to the lack of food (look at all the threads here about hepatic lipidosis).  Causes could include bad teeth made painful, or other medical conditions that either decrease appetite or cause nausea including but not limited to kidney failure, diabetes, pancreatitis to name the common ones.

Your best opportunity to get this under control before it becomes a full blown crisis is now, as cats who aren't eating well often spiral down quickly.  Breathing and eating are required for life and she's down a big percentage on one of those.  You might ask your vet if they know any house call vets or google it.  Or you could give her a sedative prior given to you by your vet.
 

stephanietx

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Since she is an older kitty, I'd get her to the vet and have an exam and have the vet check her mouth for any tooth problems or mouth ulcers.  Both are common in older kitties, but if she's not had a dental cleaning in awhile or at all, that's my bet.
 

catdaddy007

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It could also be that she just doesn't like what the food is made of- mod of those chunks-with-gravy are full of corn, wheat gluten, soy, etc. We had a cat that did the same thing; she loved the gravy (we started calling her Gravy as a nickname joke) but would never eat the chunks. Problem solved when we switch to a pate style food. BTW, man opinions do not recommend dry food.

http://consciouscat.net/2010/04/05/the-truth-about-dry-cat-food/

http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-dry-food-is-bad-for-cats-and-dogs/
 
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junka

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Update a week later:  (The problem started happening on Saturday night.  Sunday we noticed it more and started to be concerned.  Monday we called the vet, but we did not get a callback that day.  Tuesday morning before the vet's office opened is when I found this website and started posting my issues, so this update is what happened after that.)  When I did talk to the vet, he unsurprisingly said it could be a myriad of problems.  He looked at her chart, and knows about the difficulty of bringing her in to see him.  His suggestion was that we should first try to give her some antibiotics and see what that does.  (He also said that if the antibiotics don't work we will really need to bring her in to have some tests done.)  Since she will not let me get close enough to her to actually give her medicine orally, the only way in the past that we have been able to give her medicine is to put it on her food.  The vet suggested we get the flavored antibiotics that has worked in the past with her.  He also suggested that we get some baby food for her that is just meat and broth without other foods added in.  I got the baby food that day, but it would take at least a day for the antibiotics to arrive.  She continued to mostly lick her wet food and eventually finish her wet food, and she originally did not like the baby food, but eventually ate that.  Because of job difficulties with my wife and me, we weren't able to pick up the antibiotics until Thursday evening.  Finally we started putting that with her food, and it seems to have helped.  It is now the following Monday and she is back to pretty much finishing up her wet food at one feeding like she has done in the past, and we have started to reintroduce her dry food and she has been eating that the last two days.  Fingers crossed.
 
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