Feeding A Senior Cat With Sensitive Stomach And No Teeth

[telnaga]

I'm sorry, this is going to be a lot of information I think

My cat Patch is around 11 years old and had all but one of her teeth pulled, I think around when she was 5, due to severe dental disease. It's to my understanding that teeth don't really play much of a role in cat feeding, but I wanted to mention it anyway, in case I am wrong about that. She also has a reoccurring issue where her salivary gland will become blocked and swell, and I think that combined with the lack of teeth and the frequent lancing of it (by vets, of course!) has made her mouth rather sensitive.

For years and years she would vomit every couple of days, steadily getting more frequent, until I put her on a wet food diet, which has, for the most part, completely removed it. I have a couple issues and things I need advice on, though.

She strongly, strongly prefers dry food. We're currently living in a house with 3 other (younger) cats who eat dry food, and have a bowl of it up on a high table that Patch can't jump onto. But if we so much as leave anything next to the table, forget to push in a chair, anything, Patch gets up there and is all over it. It doesn't help that she never finishes her wet food. We're moving within a week and I'll just have Patch, so she won't have that temptation, but I'm still not sure she'll finish anything I give her.

Patch also has pretty bad dandruff problems, and I was trying to remedy that by focusing on wet food with fish in it, but I've recently heard that's not a good idea, but I don't remember why. I've thought about getting her omega-3 vitamin treats, but most cat treats seemed to need teeth, I've noticed.

I've been feeding her the purina friskies surfin and turfin variety pack wet food (ingredients lists and nutritional information in link), and TRYING to feed her about 1 3/4 cans a day but she only ends up eating about 1 can, if I'm lucky. She weighs 13 lbs, and I haven't noticed any weight loss, but I don't get the chance to weigh her often and I'm not very observant, unfortunately.

So TLDR I need help figuring out WHEN and WHAT to feed patch, AND what method I should take for giving her omega-3 vitamins, with the following issues in mind:
1. she is old
2. she does not like the food i've been giving her and almost never finishes it
3. she has no teeth, and a sensitive mouth
4. dry food makes her vomit
5. also, while I am 100% prepared to feed her multiple times a day (as I have been), I have chronic pain and fatigue, and it would be very hard for me to follow a particularly intensive routine. but I am home all day, every day

I should note she was given a general checkup (and her shots) at the vet about two months ago and no issues were found.

if you respond at all thank you for helping my old weird cat. I love her a lot and I just want her to be healthy

 

[telnaga]

Addition: she likes dry food so much she'll even eat the dog food, if we don't put it up. and that REALLY doesn't sit well with her stomach

 

[basschick]

have you tried EVERY type of canned food you can find? all canned food is definitely not the same - our cat doesn't even like all the flavors from a single brand and line, so it took us a lot of experimenting to find what he'd eat.

is there a reason the other cats eat dry food?

 

[telnaga]

have you tried EVERY type of canned food you can find? all canned food is definitely not the same - our cat doesn't even like all the flavors from a single brand and line, so it took us a lot of experimenting to find what he'd eat.

is there a reason the other cats eat dry food?

The reason is convenience, since they can just eat from a bowl of dry food left out. They're not my cats - I've told their owner that wet food is a lot better for cats, and she's transitioned to feeding them a BIT of wet food in the morning and afternoon and letting them eat dry food whenever, because she works all day (and I don't have the ability to wrangle and feed three extra cats).

And I haven't tried a lot of different wet foods, but I'm wanting to get recommendations for what I should try. Obviously you all won't be able to know what she likes, but what sorts of canned foods are healthy for cats, especially seniors? I don't want to put strain on Patch's stomach.

 

[Rini]

The reason is convenience, since they can just eat from a bowl of dry food left out. They're not my cats - I've told their owner that wet food is a lot better for cats, and she's transitioned to feeding them a BIT of wet food in the morning and afternoon and letting them eat dry food whenever, because she works all day (and I don't have the ability to wrangle and feed three extra cats).

And I haven't tried a lot of different wet foods, but I'm wanting to get recommendations for what I should try. Obviously you all won't be able to know what she likes, but what sorts of canned foods are healthy for cats, especially seniors? I don't want to put strain on Patch's stomach.

Merrick has a line of wet food for senior cats that is very high in protein.

I have not tried their pates on Aslan because they only come in 5.5 oz cans and he won't eat more than 3oz of any given flavor of food a day (and he won't eat it once its' been in the fridge...grrrr)