Reasons why our cat is not eating?

[profcat]

We have a bind cat who is a rescue. She showed up in our backyard with kittens 7 years ago. She's probably 9-11 years old and feral and only in the last few years has she let us touch her and spends more time hanging out with us. She had some dental issues a few years back and we had those taken care of. She's always had a good appetite, even if she can be picky about food. We feed our cats American Journey but really loves Fancy Feast so we let her have some of that mixed in. She also gets dry food as a snack throughout the day. Well for the past week and a half, her appetite has been off. She'll eat half of what's in front of her and walk away. We've tried different foods, even special foods like tiki cat sardines etc. She'll eat a few bites and that's it. She seems to like dry food best for some reason.

We took her to the vet and her weight is the same and everything else looked good. We had her in for a check up back in January. Her teeth looked a little yucky and had a lot of tarter. The vet gave her a convenia injection (antibiotic, as we can't pill her) and said to check in in a week if it doesn't help. We can have a dental cleaning done to see if that's the issue but it seems weird she wants more dry food-- usually a dental issue means the cat doesn't want crunchy dry food. We repeated bloodwork and everything looked great. Her BUN had been creeping up, but it's back to normal again.

Any ideas about why she's still not eating? She eats a few bites and walks away. Otherwise, she acts completely normal. Could it be she's just picky? Would a dental cleaning be the next obvious step?

 

[Alldara]

profcat Yes a dental cleaning would be next step. Especially if bloodwork didn't show hyperthyroid. If there's some buildup, the cronchy food could be helping to take some off. Even with cracked teeth, my cat did not stop eating dry as he was a dry food addict (we didn't know until dental x-rays).

Also stomachitis can be caused by buildup. So to clean this would lower the inflammation contributing to any swelling in bowels and stomach. Gingivitis and Stomatitis in Cats | VCA Canada Animal Hospitals Some cats symptoms in their mouths are worse than others.

If she's outdoors, she could have also built a distrust for wet food. It goes back quickly outside and you don't know if she had wet food that made her feel unwell somewhere else.

It could also be an allergy. Magnus is a picky eater and we discovered he had food allergies.

 

[profcat]

profcat Yes a dental cleaning would be next step. Especially if bloodwork didn't show hyperthyroid. If there's some buildup, the cronchy food could be helping to take some off. Even with cracked teeth, my cat did not stop eating dry as he was a dry food addict (we didn't know until dental x-rays).

Also stomachitis can be caused by buildup. So to clean this would lower the inflammation contributing to any swelling in bowels and stomach. Gingivitis and Stomatitis in Cats | VCA Canada Animal Hospitals Some cats symptoms in their mouths are worse than others.

If she's outdoors, she could have also built a distrust for wet food. It goes back quickly outside and you don't know if she had wet food that made her feel unwell somewhere else.

It could also be an allergy. Magnus is a picky eater and we discovered he had food allergies.

Thanks! Yes, I think a cleaning makes sense as a next step.

She doesn't go outdoors-- she is blind.

Food allergies could also be the case, so a limited diet might work if the cleaning doesn't help.

 

[Alldara]

In the meantime you could try heating the wet food with a bit of hot water if you haven't already.

Some senior cats also will be more attracted to kitten wet foods.

 

[stephanietx]

When my old lady had teeth problems, she didn't want wet food at all, but would devour her dry food. The vet said that they will often just swallow the dry food, but the wet food would actually touch their teeth and that hurt. I would try to get her in for a dental sooner rather than later. She could have tooth resorption, which is very painful.

 

[profcat]

Update: 4 days into the antibiotic, she started to eat again! So we are bringing her in next week for a dental-- there must have been some kind of infection in there.

When she wasn't eating, we tried some raw pork nibs (yuck) and crushed them up to get her to eat.