Lost a lot of weight Won’t eat

[RST]

George is 7 years old, one of 3 cats in our home. A few months ago he started throwing up his food. It was undigested & dry. We had changed food and thought that was the problem so we went back to the previous brand. All cats are free fed. The vomiting continued but was now liquid, mostly bile and the odd time hairballs. That is when we noticed he had been losing a lot of weight. He is a long hair cat & doesn’t like being picked up so it was not immediately obvious. He was 23 pounds and is now 15. We took him to a vet who ruled out all the obvious possible problems like thyroid, kidneys, liver etc. He said his heart rate was very high, low red cell blood count, which could be from not eating. He gave him a B12 shot, mirtazapine and sent us home with a special food, Hills a/d. The next step is scans etc to check for tumours etc. The vet did not seem optimistic. We have him home now and he is not eating anything but a little tuna (maybe 1/2 tsp). He isn’t drinking and we have not seen him use the litter box. He is sitting in another room & when I check on him he isn’t sleeping, just sitting there. What do I do. Should I do the scan (money is tight), how do I know if he is in pain. I am heartbroken.

 

[LTS3]

You may be able to get some help with vet bills. See this:

No Money For Vet Care? How To Find Help And Save Your Cat's Life - TheCatSite

Veterinary care for your cat can be very expensive, with bills running in the hundreds and sometimes even the thousands of dollars. Owners are usually prepared for the predictable annual costs of routine checkups and vaccinations, but what do you do when your cat has a medical emergency or comes...

thecatsite.com

Your cat needs diagnostic tests to determine the cause of the weight loss. Unfortunately those are expensive Did the vet rule out IBD or other gastrointestinal issue? If not, discuss those possibilities with the vet. IBD can cause symptoms like the ones your cat is having. Steroids, maybe a few other medicines if needed, and a bland-ish novel protein diet (doesn't have to be prescription junk) often helps.

You can seek out a second opinion from another vet is the current is is just about your cat and is throwing out band aid treatments.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I would get the scans done - and if none of the above options pan out for covering the finances, it can't hurt to ask your vet about a payment plan.

In the meantime, try baby food meat (Gerber Stage 2 or Beechnut) to see if he will eat that. For whatever reason, cats seem to really like it and will sometimes eat it when they won't eat much elsewise. It is obviously not nutritionally complete, but anything is better than nothing right now. Try using a paper plate to feed him from - I doubt that it will help, but there are other members who got their cats to eat by using paper plates. See the TCS article link below for other ideas you might want to try. One thing that is not mentioned in this article is trying Kentucky Fried Chicken or an equivalent. It is a bit newer 'trick' that members have had success with.
How To Get Your Cat To Start Eating Again – TheCatSite Articles

 

[CatLover49]

George is 7 years old, one of 3 cats in our home. A few months ago he started throwing up his food. It was undigested & dry. We had changed food and thought that was the problem so we went back to the previous brand. All cats are free fed. The vomiting continued but was now liquid, mostly bile and the odd time hairballs. That is when we noticed he had been losing a lot of weight. He is a long hair cat & doesn’t like being picked up so it was not immediately obvious. He was 23 pounds and is now 15. We took him to a vet who ruled out all the obvious possible problems like thyroid, kidneys, liver etc. He said his heart rate was very high, low red cell blood count, which could be from not eating. He gave him a B12 shot, mirtazapine and sent us home with a special food, Hills a/d. The next step is scans etc to check for tumours etc. The vet did not seem optimistic. We have him home now and he is not eating anything but a little tuna (maybe 1/2 tsp). He isn’t drinking and we have not seen him use the litter box. He is sitting in another room & when I check on him he isn’t sleeping, just sitting there. What do I do. Should I do the scan (money is tight), how do I know if he is in pain. I am heartbroken.

Have they did xray of his lungs
Im sorry just running across this and thought to ask
Cause my boy Snowball that has crossed the Rainbow Bridge
Was doing similar..couldnt find anything
Did an x-ray of pancreas area and showed up he had a mass that vet said pretty sure was what was causing him to do what he was doing and loosing weight
And breathing rapidly
He was almost 13 yrs
Just putting that out there
Hope it helps
And his pancreas turned out ok
Looking for one thing and finding the real thing causing the problem

 

[di and bob]

The main thing is to get him to eat. Don't worry about quality right now, just get something in him. Try fast food meats like Arby's roast beef and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Get some Hartz Delectable Lickables in the stew flavors, that is my go-to food when my cats are sick. Sitting and staring is not good, he may be dehydrated too, so offer a small dish of water often. I will pray for your boy.....

 

[RST]

I would get the scans done - and if none of the above options pan out for covering the finances, it can't hurt to ask your vet about a payment plan.

In the meantime, try baby food meat (Gerber Stage 2 or Beechnut) to see if he will eat that. For whatever reason, cats seem to really like it and will sometimes eat it when they won't eat much elsewise. It is obviously not nutritionally complete, but anything is better than nothing right now. Try using a paper plate to feed him from - I doubt that it will help, but there are other members who got their cats to eat by using paper plates. See the TCS article link below for other ideas you might want to try. One thing that is not mentioned in this article is trying Kentucky Fried Chicken or an equivalent. It is a bit newer 'trick' that members have had success with.
How To Get Your Cat To Start Eating Again – TheCatSite Articles

My husband is out buying baby food now. Thank you. I will try anything.

 

[RST]

The main thing is to get him to eat. Don't worry about quality right now, just get something in him. Try fast food meats like Arby's roast beef and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Get some Hartz Delectable Lickables in the stew flavors, that is my go-to food when my cats are sick. Sitting and staring is not good, he may be dehydrated too, so offer a small dish of water often. I will pray for your boy.....

My husband is buying baby food right now. We can’t get him to drink anything. Baby food would have a high water content. Thank you for your advice.

 

[FeebysOwner]

We can’t get him to drink anything.

Since he will take a bite or two of the tuna, try adding some of the 'juice' (canned tuna in water) to his water dish and see if that helps any.