kitten seems perfectly normal but NOT EATING

[cz1557]

hi, my domestic shorthair tabby is around 8 months currently 7.3 lbs. she refuses to eat. she would get excited as I prepare the food but smells it and leave. I have 2 cats and they play all the time, chasing each other, zoomies, her energy level is very normal. I brought her to the vet regarding this problem and did an x-ray and 2 bloodwork and 3 physical examinations (at different vets to get an opinion). All came back pretty normal. Her teeth are perfectly healthy She was a little constipated but I have been feeding her pumpkin and adding some laxatives into her food. She recently got mouth ulcers and a paw infection so the vet said that might be allergies so I was prescribed some steroids. But she doesn't sneeze, lick herself intensely, vomit, or have diarrhea. Perfectly "healthy" cat with no symptoms other than not eating. 1. can very mild allergies make a cat not want to eat at all? I give her 4 food options- dry, soup, pate, and freeze-dried. nothing seems to work. I also have separated her from my other cat so her food doesn't get stolen. Is she just being the pickiest cat or is it allergies?? has anyone experienced this? she has been not eating well for around 2 weeks now - she still eats, but only 1/4-1/2 of her normal intake

 

[sivyaleah]

Interestingly, our youngest one has similar symptoms. She has already been diagnosed with seasonal (most likely) allergies - we had a blood test done last month and her first appointment with the dermatologist/allergist is next week to start her on sublingual allergy medication.

Her appetite has been off for weeks, and I do believe it's coincided with it nearly being springtime - even I'm noticing the difference in my breathing the past few weeks. Today, she actually sounded like she was having a short asthma attack so very happy we're going to have this taken care of. She's clearly hungry, has an appetite but her eating has been reduced by about 1/3 which is concerning.

Other symptoms are recurring yeast infections in her ears and recently, has developed dandruff. She sometimes sneezes too and does lick herself quite a bit.

Other than that, she's as spunky, energetic and feisty as ever.

Steroids aren't particularly useful if it's allergies because you can't give cats steroids frequently (well, any animal or human either) as it can have negative effects on other body functions.

Allergy testing is costly which is probably why most people don't bother to go that far and just let the cat suffer. I can't allow that so I sucked the cost up. Allergy meds are usually for life too, though sometimes they can grow out of them.

It's quite frustrating to say the least to watch your cat snub their meals. If you happen to be in the US, northeast like NY/Nj I can pass you the name of the doctor we're using. She's a+

 

[cz1557]

hi, it looks like our little ones do have really similar symptoms. my vet did suggest me to go see a dermatologist after a week or so if she doesn't get better. May I ask how much was the allergy testing? did the prescribed medicine help? did you find out what exactly she is allergic to? please keep me posted. my vet said it might be a food allergy and put her on a novel diet. She did have a recurring paw infection that just flared up again. But she doesn't sneeze or over-clean herself. I will pay for the allergy test for her if I need to. I am just not sure if she is being very finicky or is it the allergy.

Interestingly, our youngest one has similar symptoms. She has already been diagnosed with seasonal (most likely) allergies - we had a blood test done last month and her first appointment with the dermatologist/allergist is next week to start her on sublingual allergy medication.

Her appetite has been off for weeks, and I do believe it's coincided with it nearly being springtime - even I'm noticing the difference in my breathing the past few weeks. Today, she actually sounded like she was having a short asthma attack so very happy we're going to have this taken care of. She's clearly hungry, has an appetite but her eating has been reduced by about 1/3 which is concerning.

Other symptoms are recurring yeast infections in her ears and recently, has developed dandruff. She sometimes sneezes too and does lick herself quite a bit.

Other than that, she's as spunky, energetic and feisty as ever.

Steroids aren't particularly useful if it's allergies because you can't give cats steroids frequently (well, any animal or human either) as it can have negative effects on other body functions.

Allergy testing is costly which is probably why most people don't bother to go that far and just let the cat suffer. I can't allow that so I sucked the cost up. Allergy meds are usually for life too, though sometimes they can grow out of them.

It's quite frustrating to say the least to watch your cat snub their meals. If you happen to be in the US, northeast like NY/Nj I can pass you the name of the doctor we're using. She's a+

 

[sivyaleah]

cz1557 The cost will vary between vet to vet and where you live. We opted only to do the bloodtesting because the allergist isn't near me and due to Covid, it would have been very inconvenient to go to her to have the skin testing done. She knows my vet well and already had a working relationship so Luna's regular vet did the blood testing. The initial cost was like $700 and I was pretty stunned because I could have thought the specialist said it would be around $400. Since my vet couldn't comment on another practice's financials she gave me $200 off so I paid $500. Being a long time customer I'm sure played into the reduction in price.

Luna hasn't gone on meds yet, she will as of next week. Yes, we know what she's allergic to. A host of local type trees and grasses, some mold and laughable, human dander which is funny because I'm allergic to hers LOL.

These type of test will not be able to say if there's a food allergy. The only way to find that out is to do a novel diet. Had to do that with another cat and found out he was allergic to chicken and turkey. With Luna, we are nearly 100% it's seasonal as it started last June and got somewhat better over the winter and this past couple of weeks it's started up again.

Cost of the sublingual medication will be about $150ish give or take for about a 3 months supply. I believe injections were a bit less but unfortunately she's not the best patient and I can't see her tolerating injections at all. Plus, there's a higher incidence of side effects with shots and we already know she has a "delicate" system - had a rather marked reaction to her distemper vaccine that lasted an entire week. Because of this we'd have to bring her to the regular vet 2x a week for at least a month so they could be on hand to take care of her in the event of a bad reaction. With the sublingual type there's a very low incidence of this happening.

 

[cz1557]

cz1557 The cost will vary between vet to vet and where you live. We opted only to do the bloodtesting because the allergist isn't near me and due to Covid, it would have been very inconvenient to go to her to have the skin testing done. She knows my vet well and already had a working relationship so Luna's regular vet did the blood testing. The initial cost was like $700 and I was pretty stunned because I could have thought the specialist said it would be around $400. Since my vet couldn't comment on another practice's financials she gave me $200 off so I paid $500. Being a long time customer I'm sure played into the reduction in price.

Luna hasn't gone on meds yet, she will as of next week. Yes, we know what she's allergic to. A host of local type trees and grasses, some mold and laughable, human dander which is funny because I'm allergic to hers LOL.

These type of test will not be able to say if there's a food allergy. The only way to find that out is to do a novel diet. Had to do that with another cat and found out he was allergic to chicken and turkey. With Luna, we are nearly 100% it's seasonal as it started last June and got somewhat better over the winter and this past couple of weeks it's started up again.

Cost of the sublingual medication will be about $150ish give or take for about a 3 months supply. I believe injections were a bit less but unfortunately she's not the best patient and I can't see her tolerating injections at all. Plus, there's a higher incidence of side effects with shots and we already know she has a "delicate" system - had a rather marked reaction to her distemper vaccine that lasted an entire week. Because of this we'd have to bring her to the regular vet 2x a week for at least a month so they could be on hand to take care of her in the event of a bad reaction. With the sublingual type there's a very low incidence of this happening.

cz1557 The cost will vary between vet to vet and where you live. We opted only to do the bloodtesting because the allergist isn't near me and due to Covid, it would have been very inconvenient to go to her to have the skin testing done. She knows my vet well and already had a working relationship so Luna's regular vet did the blood testing. The initial cost was like $700 and I was pretty stunned because I could have thought the specialist said it would be around $400. Since my vet couldn't comment on another practice's financials she gave me $200 off so I paid $500. Being a long time customer I'm sure played into the reduction in price.

Luna hasn't gone on meds yet, she will as of next week. Yes, we know what she's allergic to. A host of local type trees and grasses, some mold and laughable, human dander which is funny because I'm allergic to hers LOL.

These type of test will not be able to say if there's a food allergy. The only way to find that out is to do a novel diet. Had to do that with another cat and found out he was allergic to chicken and turkey. With Luna, we are nearly 100% it's seasonal as it started last June and got somewhat better over the winter and this past couple of weeks it's started up again.

Cost of the sublingual medication will be about $150ish give or take for about a 3 months supply. I believe injections were a bit less but unfortunately she's not the best patient and I can't see her tolerating injections at all. Plus, there's a higher incidence of side effects with shots and we already know she has a "delicate" system - had a rather marked reaction to her distemper vaccine that lasted an entire week. Because of this we'd have to bring her to the regular vet 2x a week for at least a month so they could be on hand to take care of her in the event of a bad reaction. With the sublingual type there's a very low incidence of this happening.

ahhh i see. Well, good luck with everything. My cat started experiencing some symptoms this January when I brought her back to Canada. Have no idea if it is an environmental or food allergy-she has never puked before so she doesn't really react to any type of food- i've feed her all the different types of proteins.

 

[kittenmittens84]

Do you know what blood work they did? Does she ever eat a bite or two of food and then refuse it/walk away? I would lean more toward nausea making her not want to eat than allergies considering she doesn’t seem to have classic “allergic” symptoms, but I am also not a vet.

did they examine her teeth at all? Is she FIV+? Were the mouth ulcers in her mouth like stomatitis or around the mouth on the skin? sorry for all the questions, just curious!

 

[cz1557]

Do you know what blood work they did? Does she ever eat a bite or two of food and then refuse it/walk away? I would lean more toward nausea making her not want to eat than allergies considering she doesn’t seem to have classic “allergic” symptoms, but I am also not a vet.

did they examine her teeth at all? Is she FIV+? Were the mouth ulcers in her mouth like stomatitis or around the mouth on the skin? sorry for all the questions, just curious!

no, not at all thanks for the response! she is FIV- (confirmed twice), her mouth ulcers are gone now- she had them 2 months ago and it took a month to heal. they did examine her teeth and confirmed that her dental health is excellent. They just did the regular bloodwork with insights of her urine level as well- so I guess the comprehensive one (but not for allergies)- she does exactly that: eats a few bites and leaves and then comes back for a few bits and leaves. Overall she would eat 1/3-1/2 of her normal intake. It could be nausea but I don't know what would be causing it!

 

[sivyaleah]

I'm wondering if it's just she's bored with the food you are feeding. I have had that happen. Stopped feeding the "offensive" food, found new ones. And then a few week later went back to the original are the cat was fine eating it again.

what is she currently eating?

 

[W&H]

Hi there - just wanted to check in and see whether you ever figured out what was wrong with your kitten? We're now experiencing the exact same thing with our 11 month old kitten - she's healthy, happy, energetic, using the litter box like normal etc, but just refusing to eat absolutely everything but perhaps a mouthful of kibble in the middle of the night. The vet is confused, though her blood work and x-rays turned out completely fine.

Would love to know whether you figured out what the issue was with kitten in case it gives us any clues!