My sick cat...

daydreamnworld

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I feel like I'm running an old folks home for animals. I'm dealing with a blind/deaf 15 year old dog and two 18 year old cats (among others). Here's my problem...my one 18 year old, Samantha, has been losing weight and we noticed her chewing funny. It's hard to describe. She would eat a little and then turn her head to the side and start chewing and making a funny noise. I took her to the vet and she had blood work done (senior profile). Everything is OK except her renal numbers are up slightly. (My other 18 year old cat has been that way for 1 1/2 years.) Her teeth look good for an old cat...just a couple of red spots. The vet put her on an antibiotic just in case. After five days on the antibiotic she's still not eating much. We have to coax her to eat and then she eats maybe a teaspoonful. I've offered her everything I can think of but she walks away. If she eats anything it's the dry food. She starts off chewing OK and then turns her head and starts this funny chewing with a strange noise. I wish I could describe it better. The vet now has her on pain medicine just in case and an appetite stimulator with vitamins. She acts OK otherwise. She sometimes follows us around and sits on the computer desk and talks to me, but something is wrong. Has anyone else every had anything like this happen with their cat? Any suggestions on what to try and feed her? I've tried meat baby food, tuna, salmon, and various flavors of canned food. I'm open to all suggestions. I'm not about to give up on this cat yet. I want to give her every chance possible. She's a sweetheart. One more thing...she's come to associate me with medicine and sometimes tries to get away. I told my family that I'd be the only one to give her medicine and they should be the ones to try and feed her. It's difficult for me to do the feeding when she's starting to associate me with something she doesn't like. Thanks.
 

cloud_shade

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Since they did a senior panel, do you know what the thyroid (T4) value was? I remember reading somewhere that the funny chewing on the side of the mouth had some correlation with thyroid problems, and I have noticed it with Spot a few times. Sometimes feeding treats before or after giving the medicine can prevent your cat from avoiding you entirely.
 

abbycats

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This sounds strange but yes I had 3 old cats that made a strange noise when they were eating. It's hard to describe but it was a strange crunching noise they were making but not from the food they were eating. I actually told the vet about it and he knew what I was talking about, all he told me was he has heard that in sick cats, but he didn't know what they were doing. It's almost like their jaw is crunching. It's strange...
 
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daydreamnworld

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No, her thyroid numbers were normal. Everything is within the normal range except for slightly elevated renal numbers. I suspect all older cats have slightly elevated renal numbers since my other 18 year old cat does too. Does anyone know if that's usually true?

Yes, she makes this strange crunching type noise. The first four or five bites are normal...then she turns her head to the side and chews funny and makes the noise. That's usually the last bite she takes. She's on pain medication, but I haven't noticed any difference. The vet said some elderly cats almost forget to swallow and keep chewing food that doesn't even need to be chewed. Kind of a senility thing, but I don't think that's the case here. I wish we could entice her to eat something other than a few bites of the dry food. Gosh...I just thought of something...I'll wet the dry food. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier. It's worth a shot.

Still open to any and all suggestions. Thanks!
 

abbycats

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I have only heard that strange crunching noise in my really sick cats. They even did it with wet food. Since it's happened to me a few times over the years, I have correlated it to them being really sick.
 
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