Cat not eating, sorta -- dental problem?

Divebommah

Long story short: Cat grew very ill a couple of months ago due to liquid in his lungs from an enlarged heart. He's lost weight like crazy, but has consistently eaten most of what we put in front of him.

In the past week he's stopped actively eating. At first when we brought him food he would eat most most of it, per usual. Now he won't eat anything except tukey/ham/beef baby food. He's still interested in other food -- smoked salmon, cooked liver, deli meats such as corned beef -- but he has trouble eating it. See, when he gets a piece in his mouth it looks like he tries to chew it but it keeps falling out! After a couple of attempts he just gives up and loses interest.

Anyone run into this before? Got any ideas? I'm glad he's still eating baby food, but am concerned that his interest in that will soon wane.

Feral

Yeah, that sounds like it might be a dental problem.
Unfortunately keeping him on baby food is only going make the problem worse over time. See, dry food scrapes against the teeth, cleaning them. Wet foods don't do that; it would be like if you never brushed your teeth.
BTW, dental problems can be indicative of other more serious health problems. Or it could just be a simple gum infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics. Either way, take him back to the vet.

Echo

I second the trip to the vet. Pets not eating is always to be taken seriously.

METAzraeL

My first thought was about the recent petfood recall. It seems that most pets won't eat it after a while, but that doesn't sound like your problem. There could be all sorts of reasons, like allergies or damage, so I'd recommend the vet as well. Since it's still eating meat, I'm guessing the vet will end up telling you to buy expensive foods for it, but you should still check. That'll be good anyways, since most petfood is pure shit.

Divebommah

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I'd brought this up with his vet Friday morning -- I brought him to the University of California at Davis veterinary hospital to get their thoughts on his eating and for a checkup. They looked at his mouth and, though he has a buildup of plaque(SP?) on his teeth, they said it shouldn't be affecting him. They suggested I continue with the baby food.

I'm not pleased with that. I need to get some meat on his bones, you know? Before his trouble started he was something like 15 pounds. He is now down to 10 in just 2-3 months.

OK, so new question -- can anyone recommend some food that will help him put on weight? I don't mind throwing things in the food processor to make them the consistency of baby food, but I want him to get some more fat/energy into him, just not sure where to start. Any suggestions?

Bitstream

Take him to the vet and get his liver and kidneys checked out. We had two cats go through this. One recovered eventually, and the other died.

Something minor like a urinary infection or a bladder/kidney stone can set off a chain reaction in a cat: the cat stops eating due to pain or nausea, the liver starts processing fat for nutrition and then fails due to excess fat buildup, and toxins then build up in the kidneys. Check your cat's skin and eye color - any yellowing? Jaundice is usually the only outward symptom of liver trouble. Well, besides that lovely yellow cat-vomit.

The cat we treated in time turned yellow and lost most of his fur. After a month of force-feeding wet kitten food and PediaLyte he started looking better, eating real food on his own, and gaining weight. He eventually grew back all of his fur, and feels like a kitten now. Our other cat, unfortunately, wasn't as obvious with her symptoms, and we didn't catch on until her kidneys had failed completely.

So yeah, not trying to scare you or anything, but you should get it checked out.

[Edit] - Wait, you said they gave him a checkup. Did they do a blood/urine test? If so, disregard what I said; they would have told you the same thing.

Medopine

It can be expensive, but I'd look into raw pet foods - they're usually meat with other good cat things mixed in, and have some fat in them.

Plus they would be easy to puree up so he can eat them.

Example: http://www.radfood.com/products.htm

Divebommah

They couldn't finish the blood work and kidney values in time on Friday, so we'll find out what the scoop is Monday. They figured the diuretics were flushing too much liquid out of him, so we've dialed those down a bit.

No yellowing, though he is losing the odd small clump of fur. I'm chalking that up to malnutrition and lack of grooming.

Thanks for the tip Medopine, I'll look into those.

METAzraeL

Making his meals is one way to go. I thought about it with my dog, but I needed a quicker solution and I'm not really interested in buying meat Couple google hits:
http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm
http://www.catnutrition.org/foodmaking.html

Hm, not to scare you, but I just read this in the FDA pet food recall:
"There have been a small number of reported cases of cats from the US (none in Canada) becoming sick and developing signs of kidney failure. The signs of kidney failure include loss of appetite, vomiting, and lethargy." Kidney problems are the major ones for cats, idk, might be worth checking.

Article on cat foods:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/family/cat-food/index.html

Divebommah

Just thought I'd follow this up for closure. Cat died a few months ago. Cause was pneumonia exacerbated by an enlarged heart. He was also diagnosed with cancer there, at the end.

We had him on diuretic pills to deal with the liquid in his lungs, and we were giving him liquids intravenously for weeks. Eventually he just gave up.

Dashiell, rest in peace.

METAzraeL

Aw, poor guy At least he had loving family with him til the end.