My cat is hungry but can't eat

[denice]

Often if a kitty develops chronic digestive issue it is due to inflammation in the gut which is called IBD.  Many people have had good luck controlling this condition by making their kitties food with either raw or cooked meat..  We have a subforum with lots of info about it  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

 
Our cat just started with this same problem last evening.  Our local vet found nothing upon x-ray and blood work.  We're taking him for an MRI tomorrow morning.

I'm curious, what do you mean "raw diet".

I'm guessing they did a thorough check of his MOUTH along with the x-ray and bloodwork?  Of course, the first thing you suspect is something in their mouths, and then if nothing unusual is found, then look at the GI tract.

Is he able to drink anything?

 

[mewcatmew]

Did they do an xray of his teeth during the cleaning? He could have some sort of abscess or infection that is going up the root of the tooth and isn't overtly visible even during a cleaning.

 

[my poor lila]

My poor Lila is a stray that somebody thru away 2 years ago nd she is only 3 years od now.  Last December she start not eating and I brought to a vet and the diagnosis was stomatitis.  So they pulled 2 teeth.   Well in at the end of April she stopped eating and she stopped eating again for a few days and I brought her to a vet and he wanted 1500.00 to pull teeth and I am a senior and started to cry so he gave me a number to cry when got I home.   An hours ride which Lila was not happy about that.  I called and the nicest person answered heard my story of Lila and her mouth.  This angel called me back and told me to call a number which was a well known vet and I talked to the and made an appointment. They did the first visit for free and the price the gave me for pulling all of her teeth x-rays and meds and anesthesia was 1200.00.  When talked to the doctor (owner) he asked me how much I could afford and I said 400.00 he said that was all I need to pay.  What a GOD send for a vet to act human.  Now 3 month ate and going on the 5 day she is not eating again I have I was there Sat.  They did the antibiotic shot hydrated her under skin patch of Pepcid under skin and this time the bill came to 280.00 because id did not contact the angel and I had another vet look at her  did not work except she did lick up ham baby food would not touch beef chicken or turkey.   tried clam juice sardine juice.  I can't or wont let her suffer if she is hungry and cannot eat I will put her down.  I do have an appoint today with the doctor that puller her teeth. I hope he can help me with a good diagnosis or come up with a better one tht I don't know.  it is not fair to keep something alive for me and for her to suffer and not being able to eat.  that happened to me when I had another cat he got so sick and when he went to the vet he said he cannot eat he hungry but he is so nauseous that he cannot eat.  Right there I could not let him suffer anymore he love to eat and for him drag himself to his food meant he was hungry just Lila she goes to her food and tries .  Sorry this is so long but it is so sad that animals have to suffer and it cost so such there are a lot of people that are retired and just don't have it. 

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

 
My poor Lila is a stray that somebody thru away 2 years ago nd she is only 3 years od now.  Last December she start not eating and I brought to a vet and the diagnosis was stomatitis.  So they pulled 2 teeth.   Well in at the end of April she stopped eating and she stopped eating again for a few days and I brought her to a vet and he wanted 1500.00 to pull teeth and I am a senior and started to cry so he gave me a number to cry when got I home.   An hours ride which Lila was not happy about that.  I called and the nicest person answered heard my story of Lila and her mouth.  This angel called me back and told me to call a number which was a well known vet and I talked to the and made an appointment. They did the first visit for free and the price the gave me for pulling all of her teeth x-rays and meds and anesthesia was 1200.00.  When talked to the doctor (owner) he asked me how much I could afford and I said 400.00 he said that was all I need to pay.  What a GOD send for a vet to act human.  Now 3 month ate and going on the 5 day she is not eating again I have I was there Sat.  They did the antibiotic shot hydrated her under skin patch of Pepcid under skin and this time the bill came to 280.00 because id did not contact the angel and I had another vet look at her  did not work except she did lick up ham baby food would not touch beef chicken or turkey.   tried clam juice sardine juice.  I can't or wont let her suffer if she is hungry and cannot eat I will put her down.  I do have an appoint today with the doctor that puller her teeth. I hope he can help me with a good diagnosis or come up with a better one tht I don't know.  it is not fair to keep something alive for me and for her to suffer and not being able to eat.  that happened to me when I had another cat he got so sick and when he went to the vet he said he cannot eat he hungry but he is so nauseous that he cannot eat.  Right there I could not let him suffer anymore he love to eat and for him drag himself to his food meant he was hungry just Lila she goes to her food and tries .  Sorry this is so long but it is so sad that animals have to suffer and it cost so such there are a lot of people that are retired and just don't have it. 

When you recently took her in for not eating, what did they attribute it to?  Did they say?  Was it stomatitis again, or something else?  

I think it's WAY to early to talk about putting her to sleep.  Of course you don't want her to suffer...that's the last thing any of us want.  There is a syrup that a Vet in Dallas has come up with for stomatitis treatment that works very well.  That Vet works with other Vets around the country, so ask your Vet if he is familiar with it.  The info in in this thread:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/256668/stomatitis-syrup-from-dallas-texas

 

[fareb]

Hi 

I had problem with my cat too for over 2 month and we did so many x ray and ultrasound and blood tests. it cost me $13000 for almost 3 month. They wanted to open her up and I didn't allow them, they even suggested to put her down and finally I asked them to do the t4 test (thyroid test) and that was the problem and I took her and did radiation on her thyroid and was done. 

try to do that simple test and check his level. they ran 9 times blood test on everything and couldn't find anything and when I asked them for t4 test they told me no it can't be that otherwise other test would show indications, but i insist and was right.

Good luck.

Please let me know.

[email protected]

 

[fareb]

Hi
I had problem with my cat too for over 2 month and we did so many x ray and ultrasound and blood tests. it cost me $13000 for almost 3 month. They wanted to open her up and I didn't allow them, they even suggested to put her down and finally I asked them to do the t4 test (thyroid test) and that was the problem and I took her and did radiation on her thyroid and was done.
try to do that simple test and check his level. they ran 9 times blood test on everything and couldn't find anything and when I asked them for t4 test they told me no it can't be that otherwise other test would show indications, but i insist and was right.
Good luck.
Please let me know.
[email protected]

 

[slslaw]

Same problem. My cat's name is Lucy. I will start off with what I am doing and then get into the different tests she has had. Right now I am syringe feeding her with a 10 cc syringe which is about as big around as a lady's finger and about 4-5 inches long. I got a few from my vet for free . I figure as much money as I pay them for all of my animals they could throw in some free syringes. She gets four syringes per meal about 5 times per day every 3 or 4 hours depending on my schedule. Fortunately I am self-employed. The amount of food your cat should get depends on the weight of your cat, how much more weight they need to put back on etc. My kitty was originally 9 pounds she is down to 6 pounds and I just recently found out that I'm supposed to be feeding her about a can and a half of the high calorie high protein food from the vet (tuna size can not tiny single serve) to maintain her weight so I need to increase for her to gain weight. The food that I am feeding her is canned wet food for anorexic cats that have not been eating, abandoned etc. It is called A/D formula of the Hills Perscription diet sold at the Vets office. I am NOT a fan of commercial pet food or even vet recommended foods but this food is supposed to be extremely high in calories and high quality protein. I am using it for now. Our pet food industry sucks and the Vets back it up. I never hear any vets telling anyone to feed food without artificial colours flavors et cetera and I've never had a Vet asked me what I feed my cats or dogs so they evidently don't think it's important and any crappy artificial color red and green food must be OK according to them. Anyway you need to find out what your cat's calorie requirements are and syringe feed which will buy you time until you find what's wrong with your cat. Impotant: mix a little bit of spring water in the food until it is just like soft serve ice cream and will go up into the syringe easier. dont make too watery though. just enough to suck it up easy in syringe. like baby food consistency. syringe must have a tip long enough to get into the corner of the mouth and back a little. I put my cat on a table or the toilet , lid closed of course, and I sit down so that the cat is about even with my shoulders. I find this angle works best. I grabbed my cat by the back of the neck or scruff the cat whatever you want to call it. Tilt her head slightly back and put the tip of the syringe at the corner of her mouth until she opens a little bit and I squirt just a little about a tablespoon or less of food at the roof of her mouth towards the back. She does very well swallowing the food. I have had other cats fighting but lucy has done very well. Each syringe is about four or five squirts of food any more than that and they will spit it out or choke. Any less than that is just increasing the time that you have to irritate your cat. The more syringes you can get down your cat the better but take it slow if your cat hasn't been eating for a while so you don't over feed. I fed about three quarters of what she needed for the first three meals and slowly increased. She is supposed to have a can and a quarter a day to maintain I am upping it to a can and a half to gain weight. Make sure your cat has plenty of spring water because tap water has chlorine etc. Make sure the litter box is easily accessible because there will be diarrhea and soft stools. I have been conservative on giving medications until I find out what's going on. If the cat can't seem to get food in its mouth then there's no sense to increase its appetite with medications. That is almost cruel making the cat hungry with medications when it can't pick food up in its mouth. Now with regard to how much money I have spent in all the tests. I am at around $1,000 right now with just test and that is not including treatment. Still don't know what's going on so treatment has not started other than B 12 shots and some subcutaneous fluids. She has had exam of the mouth, routine blood work, urinalysis, ultrasound, radiography, TK cancer blood panel, gi blood panel. Her blood showed some elevated liver stuff something related to Billy Rubin. But that only led to the ultrasound and the radiography . Ultrasound radiography came back pretty good but there were some questionable issues I guess because they said now we just have to wait on the TK cancer panel and GI panel to come back which they said could take a week or so . I wonder if it would take that long if it was a human baby ? Seems like a long time to wait when you need to treat as soon as possible. I hope this is helpful . Feel free to ask any questions

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Same problem. My cat's name is Lucy. I will start off with what I am doing and then get into the different tests she has had. Right now I am syringe feeding her with a 10 cc syringe which is about as big around as a lady's finger and about 4-5 inches long. I got a few from my vet for free . I figure as much money as I pay them for all of my animals they could throw in some free syringes. She gets four syringes per meal about 5 times per day every 3 or 4 hours depending on my schedule. Fortunately I am self-employed. The amount of food your cat should get depends on the weight of your cat, how much more weight they need to put back on etc. My kitty was originally 9 pounds she is down to 6 pounds and I just recently found out that I'm supposed to be feeding her about a can and a half of the high calorie high protein food from the vet (tuna size can not tiny single serve) to maintain her weight so I need to increase for her to gain weight. The food that I am feeding her is canned wet food for anorexic cats that have not been eating, abandoned etc. It is called A/D formula of the Hills Perscription diet sold at the Vets office. I am NOT a fan of commercial pet food or even vet recommended foods but this food is supposed to be extremely high in calories and high quality protein. I am using it for now. Our pet food industry sucks and the Vets back it up. I never hear any vets telling anyone to feed food without artificial colours flavors et cetera and I've never had a Vet asked me what I feed my cats or dogs so they evidently don't think it's important and any crappy artificial color red and green food must be OK according to them. Anyway you need to find out what your cat's calorie requirements are and syringe feed which will buy you time until you find what's wrong with your cat. Impotant: mix a little bit of spring water in the food until it is just like soft serve ice cream and will go up into the syringe easier. dont make too watery though. just enough to suck it up easy in syringe. like baby food consistency. syringe must have a tip long enough to get into the corner of the mouth and back a little. I put my cat on a table or the toilet , lid closed of course, and I sit down so that the cat is about even with my shoulders. I find this angle works best. I grabbed my cat by the back of the neck or scruff the cat whatever you want to call it. Tilt her head slightly back and put the tip of the syringe at the corner of her mouth until she opens a little bit and I squirt just a little about a tablespoon or less of food at the roof of her mouth towards the back. She does very well swallowing the food. I have had other cats fighting but lucy has done very well. Each syringe is about four or five squirts of food any more than that and they will spit it out or choke. Any less than that is just increasing the time that you have to irritate your cat. The more syringes you can get down your cat the better but take it slow if your cat hasn't been eating for a while so you don't over feed. I fed about three quarters of what she needed for the first three meals and slowly increased. She is supposed to have a can and a quarter a day to maintain I am upping it to a can and a half to gain weight. Make sure your cat has plenty of spring water because tap water has chlorine etc. Make sure the litter box is easily accessible because there will be diarrhea and soft stools. I have been conservative on giving medications until I find out what's going on. If the cat can't seem to get food in its mouth then there's no sense to increase its appetite with medications. That is almost cruel making the cat hungry with medications when it can't pick food up in its mouth. Now with regard to how much money I have spent in all the tests. I am at around $1,000 right now with just test and that is not including treatment. Still don't know what's going on so treatment has not started other than B 12 shots and some subcutaneous fluids. She has had exam of the mouth, routine blood work, urinalysis, ultrasound, radiography, TK cancer blood panel, gi blood panel. Her blood showed some elevated liver stuff something related to Billy Rubin. But that only led to the ultrasound and the radiography . Ultrasound radiography came back pretty good but there were some questionable issues I guess because they said now we just have to wait on the TK cancer panel and GI panel to come back which they said could take a week or so . I wonder if it would take that long if it was a human baby ? Seems like a long time to wait when you need to treat as soon as possible. I hope this is helpful . Feel free to ask any questions

In Lucy's case, is she even hungry...is she trying to eat anything on her own, or not?  doesn't sound like it

.   The elevated liver values don't surprise me, because when cats lose weight quickly like it sounds like she did, it usually does effect the liver.  I had a cat once with Hepatic Lipidosis, and he ended up with a feeding tube.  We never knew what caused him to stop eating , and sometimes it can be a simply infection that can be cured with antibiotics.  Sometimes it's pancreatitis.  It can start off from so many different things.  Hopefully they'll find the answer. In the meantime, sounds like Lucy is getting great care.  How does she seem to be feeling?  Are they having you add any supplements to her feedings for her liver, like Sam E? 

 

[myprince]

Hi!

My baby is 12, He has the same history.I am bringing him in for an ultrasound tomorrow.So worried...cannot function very well. Any findings from the cancer panel and gi panel post ultrasound yet?

 

[zcat]

my old cat couldn't eat hard food, even had a hard time with soft food. She;s very old, but a good old cat, so we went with whole milk for starters for a few days and am giving her some tuna (no self respecting cat would pass up-)! I imagine their environment or hard things in their food may have lead to eating problems. hope this helps!

 

[Kde]

Same problem. My cat's name is Lucy. I will start off with what I am doing and then get into the different tests she has had. Right now I am syringe feeding her with a 10 cc syringe which is about as big around as a lady's finger and about 4-5 inches long. I got a few from my vet for free . I figure as much money as I pay them for all of my animals they could throw in some free syringes. She gets four syringes per meal about 5 times per day every 3 or 4 hours depending on my schedule. Fortunately I am self-employed. The amount of food your cat should get depends on the weight of your cat, how much more weight they need to put back on etc. My kitty was originally 9 pounds she is down to 6 pounds and I just recently found out that I'm supposed to be feeding her about a can and a half of the high calorie high protein food from the vet (tuna size can not tiny single serve) to maintain her weight so I need to increase for her to gain weight. The food that I am feeding her is canned wet food for anorexic cats that have not been eating, abandoned etc. It is called A/D formula of the Hills Perscription diet sold at the Vets office. I am NOT a fan of commercial pet food or even vet recommended foods but this food is supposed to be extremely high in calories and high quality protein. I am using it for now. Our pet food industry sucks and the Vets back it up. I never hear any vets telling anyone to feed food without artificial colours flavors et cetera and I've never had a Vet asked me what I feed my cats or dogs so they evidently don't think it's important and any crappy artificial color red and green food must be OK according to them. Anyway you need to find out what your cat's calorie requirements are and syringe feed which will buy you time until you find what's wrong with your cat. Impotant: mix a little bit of spring water in the food until it is just like soft serve ice cream and will go up into the syringe easier. dont make too watery though. just enough to suck it up easy in syringe. like baby food consistency. syringe must have a tip long enough to get into the corner of the mouth and back a little. I put my cat on a table or the toilet , lid closed of course, and I sit down so that the cat is about even with my shoulders. I find this angle works best. I grabbed my cat by the back of the neck or scruff the cat whatever you want to call it. Tilt her head slightly back and put the tip of the syringe at the corner of her mouth until she opens a little bit and I squirt just a little about a tablespoon or less of food at the roof of her mouth towards the back. She does very well swallowing the food. I have had other cats fighting but lucy has done very well. Each syringe is about four or five squirts of food any more than that and they will spit it out or choke. Any less than that is just increasing the time that you have to irritate your cat. The more syringes you can get down your cat the better but take it slow if your cat hasn't been eating for a while so you don't over feed. I fed about three quarters of what she needed for the first three meals and slowly increased. She is supposed to have a can and a quarter a day to maintain I am upping it to a can and a half to gain weight. Make sure your cat has plenty of spring water because tap water has chlorine etc. Make sure the litter box is easily accessible because there will be diarrhea and soft stools. I have been conservative on giving medications until I find out what's going on. If the cat can't seem to get food in its mouth then there's no sense to increase its appetite with medications. That is almost cruel making the cat hungry with medications when it can't pick food up in its mouth. Now with regard to how much money I have spent in all the tests. I am at around $1,000 right now with just test and that is not including treatment. Still don't know what's going on so treatment has not started other than B 12 shots and some subcutaneous fluids. She has had exam of the mouth, routine blood work, urinalysis, ultrasound, radiography, TK cancer blood panel, gi blood panel. Her blood showed some elevated liver stuff something related to Billy Rubin. But that only led to the ultrasound and the radiography . Ultrasound radiography came back pretty good but there were some questionable issues I guess because they said now we just have to wait on the TK cancer panel and GI panel to come back which they said could take a week or so . I wonder if it would take that long if it was a human baby ? Seems like a long time to wait when you need to treat as soon as possible. I hope this is helpful . Feel free to ask any questions

It has been almost a year since you have posted and I am hoping things are well for you and Lucy. Panterra, my 17 dsh has similar issues - is hungry but it appears to hurt her when she eats (it is like she has something caught in her mouth). She also has IBS and hyperthyroid issues. I have just started to force feed her as you describe (a/d) but not nearly as much as she needs. I have so many types of food now in our house and serve her different choices in hopes that something works (gravy, brooth mixed in, put through blender etc). I have not tried raw though as this would be hard I think for her to eat. Our vet is not sure what is wrong as we did xrays and poked around in her mouth and said what he sees shouldn’t bother her. We did do blood and urine work earlier. He said everything is normal relatively for her age and conditions but there was one thing that was low her red blood cell count - he thought it might have been a lab error. At this point we have her on pain meds and are just upping her dosage as she still has problems eating. She has a good quality of life other than this so looking for suggestions as dont know what to do next.

 

[miagi's_mommy]

It has been almost a year since you have posted and I am hoping things are well for you and Lucy. Panterra, my 17 dsh has similar issues - is hungry but it appears to hurt her when she eats (it is like she has something caught in her mouth). She also has IBS and hyperthyroid issues. I have just started to force feed her as you describe (a/d) but not nearly as much as she needs. I have so many types of food now in our house and serve her different choices in hopes that something works (gravy, brooth mixed in, put through blender etc). I have not tried raw though as this would be hard I think for her to eat. Our vet is not sure what is wrong as we did xrays and poked around in her mouth and said what he sees shouldn’t bother her. We did do blood and urine work earlier. He said everything is normal relatively for her age and conditions but there was one thing that was low her red blood cell count - he thought it might have been a lab error. At this point we have her on pain meds and are just upping her dosage as she still has problems eating. She has a good quality of life other than this so looking for suggestions as dont know what to do next.

I would post a new thread this thread is very old.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

It has been almost a year since you have posted and I am hoping things are well for you and Lucy. Panterra, my 17 dsh has similar issues - is hungry but it appears to hurt her when she eats (it is like she has something caught in her mouth). She also has IBS and hyperthyroid issues. I have just started to force feed her as you describe (a/d) but not nearly as much as she needs. I have so many types of food now in our house and serve her different choices in hopes that something works (gravy, brooth mixed in, put through blender etc). I have not tried raw though as this would be hard I think for her to eat. Our vet is not sure what is wrong as we did xrays and poked around in her mouth and said what he sees shouldn’t bother her. We did do blood and urine work earlier. He said everything is normal relatively for her age and conditions but there was one thing that was low her red blood cell count - he thought it might have been a lab error. At this point we have her on pain meds and are just upping her dosage as she still has problems eating. She has a good quality of life other than this so looking for suggestions as dont know what to do next.

Does she often act like there is something caught in her mouth, or only when she tries to eat? Does she paw at her mouth? I'm guessing you read this entire thread and saw that many cats who had trouble eating actually had intestinal cancer? Seems odd, but those are the facts. Since your old girl already has IBD, it's possible it's developed into Lymphoma, as it sometimes does . Has your Vet checked for that? Is she already on Pred for the IBD?

You mentioned you are not giving her as much via force feeding as she needs. Is there a reason why?

 

[Kde]

Does she often act like there is something caught in her mouth, or only when she tries to eat? Does she paw at her mouth? I'm guessing you read this entire thread and saw that many cats who had trouble eating actually had intestinal cancer? Seems odd, but those are the facts. Since your old girl already has IBD, it's possible it's developed into Lymphoma, as it sometimes does . Has your Vet checked for that? Is she already on Pred for the IBD?

You mentioned you are not giving her as much via force feeding as she needs. Is there a reason why?

Hi. Yes unfortunately I have seen some other threads last night when googling to try to find out what we can do - it lead me to this website. I have since emailed my vet so that we can look further into this - is it via an ultrasound which would confirm lymphoma?
I was not aware that IBD can turn into this. As I just start to syringe feed her, I didn't want to upset her too much right away. I’m slowly getting her ok with it and I’m increasing the amount. The vet did mention we could put in a feeding tube. What are your thoughts on that? What else would you recommend? She acts like something is in her mouth mostly when she eats and drinks but sometimes when she wakes up. She does paw at her mouth. Thanks you. I habe tried to upload a video but it might be too large.

 

[Kde]

Hi. Yes unfortunately I have seen some other threads last night when googling to try to find out what we can do - it lead me to this website. I have since emailed my vet so that we can look further into this - is it via an ultrasound which would confirm lymphoma?
I was not aware that IBD can turn into this. As I just start to syringe feed her, I didn't want to upset her too much right away. I’m slowly getting her ok with it and I’m increasing the amount. The vet did mention we could put in a feeding tube. What are your thoughts on that? What else would you recommend? She acts like something is in her mouth mostly when she eats and drinks but sometimes when she wakes up. She does paw at her mouth. Thanks you. I habe tried to upload a video but it might be too large.

After my initial post last night, i was advised to create a new thread as this one was old - so I altered my last nights response and posted a new one below with more info below. ——-
Panterra, my 17 dsh is hungry but it appears to hurt her when she eats (it is like she has something caught in her mouth). She also has IBS and hyperthyroid issues so on prednizone and felimazone. I have just started to syringe feed her (a/d) but not nearly as much as she needs to maintain her weight (we are told 1 can and she is 3.6kg) and she is trending down in weight. I have so many types of food now in our house and serve her different choices in hopes that something works (gravy, brooth mixed in, put through blender etc). I have not tried raw though as this would be hard I think for her to eat. Our vet is not sure what is wrong as we did xrays and poked around in her mouth and said what he sees shouldn’t bother her. We did do blood and urine work earlier. He said everything is normal relatively for her age and conditions but there was one thing that was low her red blood cell count - he thought it might have been a lab error. At this point we have her on pain meds (benzamorphine sp? At .07 every twelve hours - we just upped this last night from .05) as she still has problems eating. She has a good quality of life other than this so looking forsuggestions as dont know what to do next.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Hi. Yes unfortunately I have seen some other threads last night when googling to try to find out what we can do - it lead me to this website. I have since emailed my vet so that we can look further into this - is it via an ultrasound which would confirm lymphoma?
I was not aware that IBD can turn into this. As I just start to syringe feed her, I didn't want to upset her too much right away. I’m slowly getting her ok with it and I’m increasing the amount. The vet did mention we could put in a feeding tube. What are your thoughts on that? What else would you recommend? She acts like something is in her mouth mostly when she eats and drinks but sometimes when she wakes up. She does paw at her mouth. Thanks you. I habe tried to upload a video but it might be too large.

I think, personally, since she IS pawing at her mouth on occasion, that her issue may actually BE in her mouth rather than in her intestines. Of course, I'm only speculating here, but it makes since. I wonder what the Vet has actually seen in her mouth that he thinks shouldn't really hurt her. Perhaps it doesn't really hurt her, but still bothers her...whatever it is that he's seeing. Has he told you what it is that he's seeing? I'd ask. And even though she's 17 doesn't necessarily mean she can't be anesthesized if need be to get thoroughly checked out and even have a good cleaning and perhaps some teeth pulled if that might be a problem. Perhaps she has FORLs, which can be extremely painful. I know someone mentioned that in this thread earlier. I have a cat who gets those and it requires teeth to be pulled every now and then.

As to a feeding tube, they work great if you have a cat who needs to be force fed for any length of time. They are actually put into their esophagus rather than their stomachs, so it's not as easy for them to pull out, and MUCH easier to get their food in , along with any medications that might be needed. Of course, it IS surgery to install one . but I think it's pretty quick.

 

[Ibsam13]

Our cat just started with this same problem last evening. Our local vet found nothing upon x-ray and blood work. We're taking him for an MRI tomorrow morning.

I'm curious, what do you mean "raw diet".

My sisters cat could not eat food falling out of mouth . He was hungry but couldn't keep food. MRI done saw something in intestine did surgery and found that
It was an earplug it lodged in his small intestine and his stomach was three times in size full of fluid. Poor guy!

 

[epona]

Hi. Yes unfortunately I have seen some other threads last night when googling to try to find out what we can do - it lead me to this website. I have since emailed my vet so that we can look further into this - is it via an ultrasound which would confirm lymphoma?
I was not aware that IBD can turn into this. As I just start to syringe feed her, I didn't want to upset her too much right away. I’m slowly getting her ok with it and I’m increasing the amount. The vet did mention we could put in a feeding tube. What are your thoughts on that? What else would you recommend? She acts like something is in her mouth mostly when she eats and drinks but sometimes when she wakes up. She does paw at her mouth. Thanks you. I habe tried to upload a video but it might be too large.

I can't give any advice about other aspects of what you are going through as I have no experience of IBD. I can say though that an oesophagostomy feeding tube (known as an e-tube in the US or an o-tube in the UK) saved my lovely Radar's life when he stopped eating after surgery earlier this year. He had it in for 3-4 weeks, although it's all a bit of a blur now. Although the thought of having a tube in your cat is somewhat horrible, the adjustment for me seemed to be worse than it was for Radar, he tolerated it really well, and it was relatively easy to get nutrition into him, a lot less stressful (for both cat and human!) than syringe feeding.

I wouldn't use it to try to extend life in a cat that had a poor prognosis or was in pain with little hope of relief or had an otherwise poor quality of life (my personal opinion), but if she otherwise seems happy to be alive it could buy you some valuable time while tests are done to see what is going on.

EDIT: Sorry, just realised that I replied to a post that was made a couple of months back