Missy stopped eating dry food,,,

Hi, Our oldest cat Missy has been acting strange the last few days. Today I was eating a sandwhich and Missy jumped up on me and tried to take it right out of my hands as if to tell me I am hungry!!!!!!!. So I took some of the ham out and gave it to her. I called Yvonne who was on her way home from work and she got some soft catfood that she said Missy used to like. Its the cheap wal-mart stuff, but at least she is eating it. She just ate one whole packet of the stuff herself.

We have been feeding the nutro indoor stuff for a while now and she seemed to be doing ok with it till the last couple days. Missy is about 18 years old and she was into the vet a couple months ago because she had a cold, is the best way to discribe it, The vet asked how old she was and I said 18 and she looked at me like I was kidding, and I said again the Yvonne says she is 18, So the vet gave her a real good check up and said she is in great shape for her age but her teeth are starting to show her age.

Could it be she has a tooth that is hurting that made her stop eating the dry food? I want to do what I can for her but with all the other cats its real hard to just feed her stuff she will eat without all the others moving in and running her off. Tonite I had to give the others some soft food in the back room to distract them and then gave Missy her food in my bedroom so she could be alone to eat it. The other day I tried to give her some of the more expencive soft food but she turned up her nose at it. But she ate the cheap stuff all up just now so I guess the cheap stuff is better than her starving herself. She loves canned tuna also but I hear its not good to feed cats that stuff all the time. I give them all some tuna once in a while as a treat but not to often.

Missy seems fine other wise, she has been chasing Angel and the dog around and acting like a young kitty still. As far as I know she still has most if not all of her teeth yet.

It looks to me that she is hungry and wants to eat but for some reason can't or won't eat the dry nutro right now.

What do you all think? Should I have her mouth/teeth looked at by the vet to see if she has a sore one or something?

Also Rusty just hogs down soft food whenever I get it, so maybe he also don't like the nutro all that well and eats it because he has to. Maybe that is why he isn't as big as I thought he was going to get. He is related to Panther who is about 18lbs but Rusty has a huge long tail and great big feet compaired to Panther but just didn't get as big, but maybe he is still growing yet.

What kind of food do some of you feed your older cats that can't or won't eat the dry stuff?

Definitely have her looked at by the vet. If she is eating wet food then a tooth problem is very likely and it will probably be pretty easy to take care of.

For tuna, you can give them Nine Lives Tuna Select. It's much better for them than "people" tuna and also quite a bit cheaper.

definately get the teeth checked out... My Kandie is 17.5 she eats a raw and canned only diet ... I personally would place all older cats on wet or raw there easier to assimilate and easier on organs than dry

Originally Posted by sharky

definately get the teeth checked out... My Kandie is 17.5 she eats a raw and canned only diet ... I personally would place all older cats on wet or raw there easier to assimilate and easier on organs than dry

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Good point! Old kidneys won't handle the stress of dry food very well.

I'm also of the opinion that a wet food diet is better than dry for cats of any age.

Missy ate her soft food again this morning so I am happy she is eating. I am going to call the vet and see when she can get her teeth looked at. Can cats get infected teeth like people do?

Originally Posted by laureen227

most definitely! my first cat actually had to have some teeth pulled due to infection. she also could have a stuffy nose - they won't eat when they can't smell, & wet food smells more strongly than dry. the vet will check that, too.

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Yes! Smell is vital for cats to trigger eating. If she is turning
her nose up at the better-for-her stuff, try heating it first -- about
the same temperature you'd heat food for an infant. Heat will
release the smells.

Good luck!

Carol

She seems to be breathing fine, she is not coughing or sneezing. When I opened the cat food this morning she came running from the other room so I don't think its a sence of smell problem. She just don't want to eat the dry food right now. She seems to be fine other wise. I want to get her mouth looked at before she does get a infection if she has a rotted or broken tooth.

Hi Tom

I laughed when I read that Missy wanted your sandwich! Charley used to do the same, although she was after the butter on the bread

As Charley got older there were less and less things that she would eat - she seemed to prefer raw fish or canned tuna. Charley too would only eat the cheap wet cat foods and wouldn't eat much (if any) dry stuff in later years.

She also had some tooth problems (and the bad breath that went with it!) but after a while there was little we could do as our vet didn't want to risk the anasthetic with a cat of her age. We would occasionally find a tooth that had come out of its own accord...

Good luck with Missy - she sounds like a wonderful old lady

I would guess at her teeth - but I have had more than one cat who preferred dry food when they have a tooth that is bothering them, someone did explain it to me, but I can't quite remember the reasoining behind it - it sounded reasonable though. Definitely get her to the vet though.

Hi I stopped in to the vet today and made a appoitment for Missy to get looked at Wed. at 10:40. I was watching Missy last night when I put out the nutro for the other cats and Missy tried to eat some but I could tell she was having a real tough time crunching it up. She ate a couple pieces and gave up.

I know the Nutro is good stuff but the chunks seem real hard to break up to me. I have seen Panther just swallow them whole at times.

Is there any way to soften the Nutro up so Missy can eat it? Missy has been eating that cheap Special Kitty shredded tuna stuff from wal mart. I have tried some of the more expensive canned stuff but she won't eat it for some reason.

I don't know how bad this Special Kitty stuff is but at least she is eating something and if she likes the stuff than I guess for now thats what she will get.

I picked up some Friskies ocean whitefish & tuna flavored canned stuff today but I have not tried to see if she will eat this stuff yet. I don't know if this stuff is any better for her than the Special Kitty stuff though.

Good luck at the vet with your cat. I hope you get some answers.

Well....I have to tell you that MY MissyKitty is 10 years old. A little over a year ago, she began to lose weight and I then noticed, that it was my other kitty who was eating all the food, and not Missy! (She began to try and grab sandwiches from me too, as she was HUNGRY!! ) She'd go to the bowl, and TRY to chew the dry food, and she did get some of it, but I knew I had to get her to the Vets office SOON! Well, she DID have serious tooth problems, and she had a genetic thing called Calcium Resorption. This is a condition, where the body actually leeches the calcium right out of the teeth and rots them. So...I ended up having to get all her teeth pulled...my POOR Little baby!! I made SURE she had pain medicine for over two months, as pulling cat teeth is very painful for them. The Vet said at least two months of pain coverage should help her on the road to recovery. She now eats only canned food, and my other kitty (who is less than a year old) eats dry food, so I have to watch Missy now. WHY??? Because suddenly, despite the fact Missy never really EVER loved dry food, it sounds just GREAT to her now! hahaha I will sometimes catch her at the dry food bowl, gumming the dry catfood, and trying to PROVE she can eat that food, just like she used to! I hope your Missy Kitty feels so much better, really soon!

I just got back from the vet with Missy, Its not the worst news but not the best either. She has some teeth that really hurt her. The vet gave me some antbiotic incase she has any infection. She does have gingavitis [sp] pretty bad. They are doing blood work to see if she is healthy enough to be able to handle being put under to work on her teeth. She was not sure if or how many teeth would have to come out. And being she is going on 19 years old we have to make a decision on how much we want to put her through. But the vet also said she looks great otherwise for her age so maybe we can get her some help with her teeth, I hope so, I would hate to loose her just because of bad teeth when she acts so young yet otherwise.

I have been wondering when this stuff would start with Missy, This is the worst part of pets, they don't live forever. So I guess I will know more when they call back with the blood test results.

My AllyCat & I will keep you & Missy in our prayers. Ally had to have about half her teeth pulled when I got her from a shelter about 9 years ago and she has managed well. I hope they can help Missy - I know when I have a tooth ache I don't want to eat or drink and am a very grumpy human!

Hugs & purrs to you both!

You know, I too struggled about putting my Missy through all that. It DID take her a full 2 months to recover, but they gave her Torbuterol(Spelling?) for her pain and it is strong stuff! It is drops I gave her... It did keep her quite painfree for that 2 month period of time and she did recover well. She has put all her weight back on and she was VERY ill, when I got her in there, as that particular Vet I first brought her to, misdiagnosed her, so there was a BIG pocket of pus in her poor little jaw. She was on antibiotics for weeks too... Whatever decision you make, it will be a difficult one, so I wish you strength to make the correct one. AND, I wish you little MissyKitty much comfort....

This place is the best, I will post right away when I hear what the blood tests show. She don't seem to be in to much pain unless she is trying to eat. She acts like the same old Missy otherwise. Thats why it took me so long to figure out she was having trouble. I have one of those little feeder with a hopper on top to pour the dry food in so its real hard to tell if any of them are having troubles. I also have a small bowl of cat food and water in the bedroom for them and most of them also eat from that bowl so I can watch them a little closer.

I wonder if Missy has been having troubles allot longer than I thought because since she has been eating soft food she has gained some weight since her last vet trip a couple months ago. She is a little over 1lb heavier today than her last time on there scale.

It took 2 people to get her mouth open at the vets today and when the vet touched one of the longer teeth in her upper jaw she just yelled real bad. It looked to me like all her teeth are still there so maybe if they can get the one or however many are the problem she will still have most of her short teeth yet.

She has trouble eating soft food also I noticed today, She has to use her tounge to get the stuff in her mouth, it must hurt her to even use her teeth in the soft stuff. I make sure and break up her food good so she can eat it with the least amount of pain. She eats plenty but it takes her a long time to get her little tummy filled up. The hardest part is keeping all the other cats out of her soft food till she is done, they are all getting it figured out and as long as I stand there they leave her alone, all but Tuffy that is, he won't take no for a answer, he don't push Missy away from her food, he tries to take turns eating with Missy but Missy gets upset and gives up so she don't get all she wants, so I have to keep pushing Tuffy away from Missy when she is eating but Tuffy just won't back off. I sometimes have to give Tuffy a little soft food in a different dish just so he will leave Missy alone while she eats. Also Missy is real good at comming to me to let me know she wants to eat so that makes it a little easier for me.

We don't want the others eating the cheap food when we pay allot of money for the good Nutro stuff.

The girls out front at the vet said she looks good for her age also, I said we can't loose her yet, she only has a couple more years to go before she can drink legally lol.