Suddenly finicky about food

[njg55]

I've had cats all my life and am very familiar with their tendency to suddenly stop eating the food they've liked for months of years, but here we go again. I have three cats; one has been on a special protein diet for about 6 weeks and so far is doing fine. A second was diagnosed with anemia about two months ago and had a poor appetite, among other symptoms, before that. Although the cause is still unknown, she was improving after urgent treatment and being placed on several medications. For a month or so afterward she was ravenous and ate everything I put in front of her, then asked for more. She regained the weight she had lost, and her blood cell count was slowly climbing up. But recently her appetite has diminished, she's rejecting a lot of the canned varieties she was fine with a few weeks ago, and as of just a few days ago lab tests showed her blood cell count was going down again. So she's got a reason to be fussy, but I'd still like to find something she'll eat more than a bite of. We were giving her Mirataz appetite stimulant, but at that recent visit the vet suggested we try to taper her off. I don't think that's really going to make a difference one way or the other. She was prescribed Cerenia for nausea and vomiting (she hasn't been vomiting often, so I normally don't use it). If nausea is behind her diminishing appetite, that might be worth trying again, but how do I know? Then there's the third cat with no known health issues and typically a hearty appetite. Today she turned up her nose at warmed up food that she had probably liked yesterday, and two or three other cans I tried (Purina, Weruva, Fancy Feast), between morning and mid-afternoon feedings. She finally ate a little of a Weruva flavor, but didn't devour the whole dish as I would have expected. I went to the pet store and bought one or two cans each of varieties I think she still likes and a few new ones, mostly fish/seafood flavors. It's possible she's just having an off day. It probably isn't a good idea to keep experimenting with so many varieties, but I already have quite a collection of cans that I bought in bulk that are no longer "on the menu," and I don't want to keep dumping food down the garbage disposal. Should I be "tough" and not give them a second choice if they don't like the first, or keep trying? There is always dried food available, so no one will starve!

 

[FeebysOwner]

I presume these cats are older, so I am not one to suggest being 'tough' with trying to get them to eat. I tend to think most older cats have a reason for being picky with their food, usually health related - if it is not just a one-off kind of thing.

For the last cat you talked about, just see if she is having an off day or two. If she hasn't been for a full-scale exam lately, that might be an option if her eating doesn't pick up.

For the second cat, what was done to get her blood cell count up before? Besides Cerenia, some people have better luck with Ondansetron, as it is more for nausea than Cerenia is. I, too, do not know if my cat needs Ondansetron, but she gets it anyway. I also give her only 1/2 dose of Mirataz every 3 days, as that seems to be enough to keep her eating.

Good at least you have dry food as a back-up, my cat won't touch the stuff!!

 

[njg55]

I presume these cats are older, so I am not one to suggest being 'tough' with trying to get them to eat. I tend to think most older cats have a reason for being picky with their food, usually health related - if it is not just a one-off kind of thing.

For the last cat you talked about, just see if she is having an off day or two. If she hasn't been for a full-scale exam lately, that might be an option if her eating doesn't pick up.

For the second cat, what was done to get her blood cell count up before? Besides Cerenia, some people have better luck with Ondansetron, as it is more for nausea than Cerenia is. I, too, do not know if my cat needs Ondansetron, but she gets it anyway. I also give her only 1/2 dose of Mirataz every 3 days, as that seems to be enough to keep her eating.

Good at least you have dry food as a back-up, my cat won't touch the stuff!!

I presume these cats are older, so I am not one to suggest being 'tough' with trying to get them to eat. I tend to think most older cats have a reason for being picky with their food, usually health related - if it is not just a one-off kind of thing.

For the last cat you talked about, just see if she is having an off day or two. If she hasn't been for a full-scale exam lately, that might be an option if her eating doesn't pick up.

For the second cat, what was done to get her blood cell count up before? Besides Cerenia, some people have better luck with Ondansetron, as it is more for nausea than Cerenia is. I, too, do not know if my cat needs Ondansetron, but she gets it anyway. I also give her only 1/2 dose of Mirataz every 3 days, as that seems to be enough to keep her eating.

Good at least you have dry food as a back-up, my cat won't touch the stuff!!

Joy, the one who has anemia, is 14. She spent several days in late May at an emergency/specialty clinic. They sent her home with antibiotics, prednisolone, cerenia, and Mirataz. We started her on chlorambucil a few days later after getting the prescription filled at a compounding pharmacy. She finished the antibiotics a long time ago, and I haven't felt she needed the Cerenia more than a couple of times. I don't know what other medications they might have given her that she didn't need to continue after being discharged. I know she was having diarrhea, but I'm unclear if there was another treatment for that or just the things she was sent home with. She did eat small amounts of food late this afternoon and in the evening, not as much as I would like, and I tossed her a few treats after we gave her the meds this evening that she snapped up immediately. Audrey, who is 12, also ate small amounts of food later in the day and evening, not her usually voracious style, but better than this morning when she sniffed the food and walked away from three different flavors. Notably, what she ate tonight was not one of the foods I offered her earlier in the day. Somebody vomited, or maybe more than one cat, earlier in the day. A video monitor that scans the litter box caught Shirley, who is on the novel proteins, heaving up something, but I don't know if she is also the one who vomited in another part of the room out of camera range. My husband cleaned up the mess by the litter box, so I don't know if the color and consistency were similar to what I found. She's not longhaired but sometimes seems to vomit or cough up hairballs, so maybe it's time to get out the brush. What I found elsewhere in the room was definitely food-related. Fun and games in a multi-cat household!

 

[Margot Lane]

Sounds like you’ve been through the wringer! Have zero advice about which cat food next to try, but HAVE found if a case is vetoed you can give it to your shelter, rather than toss it. It will be much appreciated.

 

[njg55]

Sounds like you’ve been through the wringer! Have zero advice about which cat food next to try, but HAVE found if a case is vetoed you can give it to your shelter, rather than toss it. It will be much appreciated.

Good idea. All of my cats were adopted from a cage-free, no-kill shelter. It's not near me, but not out of the question for driving if I accumulate enough to make it worthwhile. I have donated unneeded food before, and a volunteer who happens to live in my area was willing to pick it up and take it to the shelter on his next volunteer shift.