Kitty needs to gain weight!

My sweet girl kitty Reeses is blind and has high blood pressure. Our vet put her on two different medications for the high blood pressure and a special diet for her kidneys (Hill's Prescription K/D).  As of right now, her kidneys are fine, he is just trying to prevent problems. Within a few months, she has dropped from 7 pounds to 4.4 pounds. You can see and feel almost every bone in her body. What has us concerned is that it looks like her hips are sunken in. When we realized that she had lost that much weight, we spoke to the vet. He said that we needed to take her off of her special diet immediately (she doesn't eat it very well) and feed her cans that would help her to put on a few ounces or even better pounds. He said with her condition and with the medicine that she is on, this is a side effect. Our main goal now is trying to fatten her up a little. I have bought several different kinds of cans to see what she likes best, and so far Wilderness duck is her favorite. She completely clears the dish! We have been giving her extra treats and NutriCal gel. She has a constant supply of fresh kibble and water. Our vet said that we should give it a little over a week and weigh her again. We did that and according to the scale she had gained 3 ounces, which we are super excited about. She seems to have more energy and sleeps better. The vet said to make sure that we keep her on her medicine and that if she gets down to 4 pounds, bring her in immediately for more tests. I'm just curious if anyone else has dealt with this issue or if anyone has suggestions on how to help her gain weight quickly. Thank you!! 

RX food are crap. They aren't high enough in protein for a growing kitten. Merrick LID makes a canned duck which would be a good option to try. You want to feed high protein foods with little no fillers. I'd also recommend you mix in some kitten formula KMR to help give her extra calories

I forgot to mention, she is 10 years old.

gatorfan2891 said:

I forgot to mention, she is 10 years old.

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Oh lol, she's not a kitten she's a senior. Have you ruled out both hyperthyrodism and kidney disease? Seniors are prone to several medical issues which can cause weight loss. You can still give KMR to a senior cat, and very important seniors eat wet food and not kibble. 

If she'll eat it, AND if she doesn't have kidney disease (I'm a little confused here, because your Vet put her on kidney diet "just in case"?), you could add an egg yolk to her food a few times a week.  it's great protein and calories to help with weight gain.  Or you could even give her a complete egg as long as it's cooked....scramble up an egg in a little bit of unsalted butter for her and see if she'll eat it.  the cooked egg white is also great protein and helps offset some of the phosphorus in the egg yolk if she's on the edge of kidney issues.  (check with your Vet about it, I would say)