I've cried so many frustrated tears over this, and I don't know where to go for answers. My friends are tired of listening to me, and don't have any answers anyways. I left my vet a message two nights ago, and am still waiting to hear back. This is a long story, so hang on tight.
I got my female Bengal when she was 8 weeks old in Aug 2018. I got a Bengal because I wanted a cat who would be happy with my chaotic and very outdoorsy lifestyle. From the very beginning, she was never very interested in food. Her four meals a day were really 100 tiny meals a day. All my attempts over the past 3 years to switch her entirely over to meals have ended after several days of rapid weight loss and no progress. Well, I managed to live with it, as she was growing at the appropriate weight. Her weight peaked in April 2019 at 9 lb 7 oz (I use a kitchen scale to weigh her). A month later, she had lost 8 oz, and I took her in to the vet. The vet did a fecal and a complete blood panel, and found nothing wrong. The vet prescribed a dewormer just in case, and gave me various recommendations to get my cat more interested in food. I tried: switching her entirely over to meals, wet food only, dry food only, combo of wet and dry, over 200 different kinds of food (wet, dry, freeze dried, and dehydrated), food puzzles, feeding only after exercise, warming up food in microwave, all sorts of toppers and broths, feliway, nutrical, different bowls and dishes, and probably other things I've forgotten.
Nothing really worked, but I managed with very active food management to keep her right around 9lb for a while. Her basic food routine now is: free feed dry food with freeze dried food mixed in (she eats about 1/4 cup/day), take away dry food a couple hours before wet food (when I worked in an office, I only did this at night, but now both morning and night), play and/or take her for a walk, then give wet food (1.5 oz/meal for a total 3 oz/day), then put dry food back out when wet food gone. I stopped recording her weights religiously toward the end of 2020 because it was depressing, but I'm still tracking her weight loosely. In Feb/March 2020, right around the start of quarantine, she dropped down to 8 lb 6 oz. With lots and lots of struggle (nutrical and handfeeding played major roles), I managed to get her back up to 8 lb 14 oz by early June.
Then I made the fateful decision to move into a house that already had a cat in it. That turned out to be a horrible decision. The two cats never learned to get along, the other cat's owner turned out to be a horrible human being and started being abusive towards my cat, my cat developed severe anxiety/depression. I was using nutrical regularly just to keep her around 8 lb 10 oz. It took me a while to find a new place where to live, but I finally moved out in November. My cat quickly recovered and started eating again, and by Christmas, was back up to 9 lb. Then she started losing interest in food and losing weight again. This time, I'm pretty sure it's because at least in part because she's bored and lonely in this house. My current roommates don't interact with her at all, and I realize how lucky I was that in the first several houses I lived with her, I had roommates who loved to play with her. Also, this house is not a good living situation for multiple other reasons, so I started looking to move again.
Then my cat got sick the evening of March 24, she had diarrhea multiple times. My roommates say they don't know what she could have gotten into, but I have my suspicions. I won't say those suspicions here because I have zero evidence, just a hunch based on their personalities and living habits. I know that I myself am very conscientious about making sure that anything I see that could harm her is taken care of immediately. The following day, she still had diarrhea, and wasn't eating much. I called the vet and made an appointment for March 26. The vet did not find anything obviously wrong with her, and sent her home with probiotics and orders to monitor her closely. March 27, I was gone for most of the day, and came home to find that my cat had barely touched her food. The little she did eat, she had thrown up. She had only ever thrown up food one other time in her life, and that was when she was a kitten. I cleaned up the vomit. Then I went to scoop her litter box. I turned around after scooping it to step in a pee puddle. She was not very far away. I went to wash my feet and came back to clean up the pee, only to find a second puddle next to the first one. She has never peed outside her litter box ever (except when I take her on walks and hikes and stuff of course). It was late at night, and since she seemed otherwise ok, I waited til the following morning to call the vet. The vet told me to bring her in first thing the morning of March 29. They took a blood and urine sample, took xrays, gave her fluids, and sent her home with mirtazapine. Preliminary xray results seemed normal.
Lab results came back a few days later completely normal, xray report came back a week later completely normal as well. My cat seemed to have mostly gotten over the issue at any rate, other than low energy levels. The vet said to continue to monitor her closely and recommended I switch her to a limited ingredient diet.
The mirtazapine seemed to be a miracle worker. I'd never seen my cat eat like that before. Unfortunately, she developed an odd side effect less than a week later. Her ears curled over at the tips. The vet told me to stop the mirtazapine and clean her ears. My cat showed signs of withdrawal when I first tried to stop, so I've been gradually tapering her off. Her appetite is absolutely gone. She's also not drinking much water anymore, which wasn't an issue when she first got sick. Her appetite was already not great before all this, and now she's not touching her dry food, and only eating her wet food with lots of coaxing and some hand feeding. I'm using nutrical regularly again (she hates the stuff and hides whenever she sees me pull it out). She regularly turns down treats. She's not happy about all this fuss, and is avoiding me. Energy levels are still low.
I left a message for my vet the evening of April 12, and am waiting to hear back. I just ordered genetic tests from UC Davis's Veterinary Genetics Lab to test for progressive retinal atrophy and erythrocyte pyruvate kinase deficiency, but it'll be a while before I get results. I am moving to a new house at the end of the month, and I'm hoping that this will be a better living situation for her, myself, and my other pets.
I know the past 10 months have been hard on my cat with the really crappy living situation then the not so great living situation then getting sick. But I also know that her lack of appetite predates all this.
I was wondering if anyone might have any tips on how to increase her appetite or questions I should ask the vet? Thank you so much for your help
I got my female Bengal when she was 8 weeks old in Aug 2018. I got a Bengal because I wanted a cat who would be happy with my chaotic and very outdoorsy lifestyle. From the very beginning, she was never very interested in food. Her four meals a day were really 100 tiny meals a day. All my attempts over the past 3 years to switch her entirely over to meals have ended after several days of rapid weight loss and no progress. Well, I managed to live with it, as she was growing at the appropriate weight. Her weight peaked in April 2019 at 9 lb 7 oz (I use a kitchen scale to weigh her). A month later, she had lost 8 oz, and I took her in to the vet. The vet did a fecal and a complete blood panel, and found nothing wrong. The vet prescribed a dewormer just in case, and gave me various recommendations to get my cat more interested in food. I tried: switching her entirely over to meals, wet food only, dry food only, combo of wet and dry, over 200 different kinds of food (wet, dry, freeze dried, and dehydrated), food puzzles, feeding only after exercise, warming up food in microwave, all sorts of toppers and broths, feliway, nutrical, different bowls and dishes, and probably other things I've forgotten.
Nothing really worked, but I managed with very active food management to keep her right around 9lb for a while. Her basic food routine now is: free feed dry food with freeze dried food mixed in (she eats about 1/4 cup/day), take away dry food a couple hours before wet food (when I worked in an office, I only did this at night, but now both morning and night), play and/or take her for a walk, then give wet food (1.5 oz/meal for a total 3 oz/day), then put dry food back out when wet food gone. I stopped recording her weights religiously toward the end of 2020 because it was depressing, but I'm still tracking her weight loosely. In Feb/March 2020, right around the start of quarantine, she dropped down to 8 lb 6 oz. With lots and lots of struggle (nutrical and handfeeding played major roles), I managed to get her back up to 8 lb 14 oz by early June.
Then I made the fateful decision to move into a house that already had a cat in it. That turned out to be a horrible decision. The two cats never learned to get along, the other cat's owner turned out to be a horrible human being and started being abusive towards my cat, my cat developed severe anxiety/depression. I was using nutrical regularly just to keep her around 8 lb 10 oz. It took me a while to find a new place where to live, but I finally moved out in November. My cat quickly recovered and started eating again, and by Christmas, was back up to 9 lb. Then she started losing interest in food and losing weight again. This time, I'm pretty sure it's because at least in part because she's bored and lonely in this house. My current roommates don't interact with her at all, and I realize how lucky I was that in the first several houses I lived with her, I had roommates who loved to play with her. Also, this house is not a good living situation for multiple other reasons, so I started looking to move again.
Then my cat got sick the evening of March 24, she had diarrhea multiple times. My roommates say they don't know what she could have gotten into, but I have my suspicions. I won't say those suspicions here because I have zero evidence, just a hunch based on their personalities and living habits. I know that I myself am very conscientious about making sure that anything I see that could harm her is taken care of immediately. The following day, she still had diarrhea, and wasn't eating much. I called the vet and made an appointment for March 26. The vet did not find anything obviously wrong with her, and sent her home with probiotics and orders to monitor her closely. March 27, I was gone for most of the day, and came home to find that my cat had barely touched her food. The little she did eat, she had thrown up. She had only ever thrown up food one other time in her life, and that was when she was a kitten. I cleaned up the vomit. Then I went to scoop her litter box. I turned around after scooping it to step in a pee puddle. She was not very far away. I went to wash my feet and came back to clean up the pee, only to find a second puddle next to the first one. She has never peed outside her litter box ever (except when I take her on walks and hikes and stuff of course). It was late at night, and since she seemed otherwise ok, I waited til the following morning to call the vet. The vet told me to bring her in first thing the morning of March 29. They took a blood and urine sample, took xrays, gave her fluids, and sent her home with mirtazapine. Preliminary xray results seemed normal.
Lab results came back a few days later completely normal, xray report came back a week later completely normal as well. My cat seemed to have mostly gotten over the issue at any rate, other than low energy levels. The vet said to continue to monitor her closely and recommended I switch her to a limited ingredient diet.
The mirtazapine seemed to be a miracle worker. I'd never seen my cat eat like that before. Unfortunately, she developed an odd side effect less than a week later. Her ears curled over at the tips. The vet told me to stop the mirtazapine and clean her ears. My cat showed signs of withdrawal when I first tried to stop, so I've been gradually tapering her off. Her appetite is absolutely gone. She's also not drinking much water anymore, which wasn't an issue when she first got sick. Her appetite was already not great before all this, and now she's not touching her dry food, and only eating her wet food with lots of coaxing and some hand feeding. I'm using nutrical regularly again (she hates the stuff and hides whenever she sees me pull it out). She regularly turns down treats. She's not happy about all this fuss, and is avoiding me. Energy levels are still low.
I left a message for my vet the evening of April 12, and am waiting to hear back. I just ordered genetic tests from UC Davis's Veterinary Genetics Lab to test for progressive retinal atrophy and erythrocyte pyruvate kinase deficiency, but it'll be a while before I get results. I am moving to a new house at the end of the month, and I'm hoping that this will be a better living situation for her, myself, and my other pets.
I know the past 10 months have been hard on my cat with the really crappy living situation then the not so great living situation then getting sick. But I also know that her lack of appetite predates all this.
I was wondering if anyone might have any tips on how to increase her appetite or questions I should ask the vet? Thank you so much for your help
