Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 2/5/2011

Question
Hi there,

I have a beautiful female cat, she's aged between 10 and 12 years. We've owned her since she was a kitten and hasn't really had any major health problems before. But in the last year or so we've been having some dental problems with her. Early last year she stopped eating and was drinking a lot, so obviously we took her straight to the vet, and they said some of her teeth were looking quite bad. They put her under and cleaned them up, but had to remove one or two. She was also on antibiotics for it and that seemed to clear up fine.

But recently we noticed she was losing weight and being very odd with her food; she'd yowl at her bowl hungrily, we'd feed her, but she wouldn't eat. She would only lick the gravy up and leave the rest. So it was back to the vet! The vet said she had mouth/gum ulcers, and put her on antibiotics. She's finished the course and seems to have improved, but she isn't gaining weight. The poor darling is very skinny and scrawny, especially around her hips she has that sunken look.

Her eating is back to normal but the weight just won't get back on. Do you have any suggestions on how we could help her to gain weight? At the moment we feed her wet canned food basically whenever she "asks" for it, and she always has a supply of dry food, but she still isn't getting bigger. It really upsets us to see our beautiful girl looking this way.

Any advice at all that you could offer would be a great help and really appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Emily.

Answer
After this length of time this cat should be regaining her normal weight. I am wondering if any other blood work was done, such as kidney and liver function tests. Older cats with kidney issues will lose weight, have mouth sores and problems eating.

Some vets are looking in the mouth when the problem is deeper. Cats with other diseases such as cancer can get very thin but the main cause is easily overlooked.

If she were my cat I would be having a blood panel run and I would also test her for leukemia as well. Unless she has a chronic mouth disease such as stomatitis, I would get some blood work done on her pronto.

I would also get her a food made for seniors and make sure it is a very high quality food, such as Science Diet longevity formula, and not a grocery store brand food. She needs high quality ingredients and optimal nutrition to help her get over this hump in the road.

There are foods at the vets as well for cats recovering from disease and/or surgery that are made for special extra nutritional needs such as A/D canned formula.I would also pick some of that up as well.

But most telling would be to get some blood work done soon.