Expert: Ali - 7/15/2010

Question
I just read your response to another question along these lines, but our problem is that visits to the vet are incredibly stressful for our Stella.  She is now 18.  We picked her up 17 years ago when she was about six months old at a farm where she had been dropped.  She's been an indoor cat all these years, sharing the house with another cat for about two years, but our only pet for the last 15.  In general, Stella has eaten well but never voraciously all along.  She's now been eating much less for the last two weeks and not at all for two days.  She's does not seem to be in any pain, and is resting quietly.  She still has been going up and down stairs to the bedroom, but she's clearly losing weight.  Today, as she was lying on the sofa downstairs, my wife brought her some Fancy Feast moist food because she noticed her licking her lips.  My wife put a bit of food on her finger and Stella opened her mouth but then backed away.  

We don't want Stella to suffer, but are reluctant to take her to the vet (whom we do trust) because she get so agitated.  She literally screams when anyone else tries to touch her.  We had to take her in for he claws about four months back, and they'd never dealt with such a fierce cat.  Perhaps some of that will have diminished if she's getting weaker, but we don't really want to subject her to the stress.  It occurs to me that even us trying to feed her with a syringe might be difficult, but I await any suggestions you may have.

I thank you in advance for your advice.

Answer
Geoff,

In a kitty this age there's really no way to know for sure what's causing her lack of appetite without having diagnostic tests done. I understand your concern because she's in pretty serious condition based on what you've told me in your question - do you think that your vet would come out to see her at home? Ultimately you need to decide what you want for your girl, if she's not eating there may be some serious reason behind it or it could be something minor that's relatively easy to fix but again without a vet checking her out there's no real way to know for sure. In my experience super spunky kitties like this aren't fond of being syringe fed but you could try offering her a supplemental food for senior cats called CatSure which you can find at the local Petsmart or try offering her high potency vitamins like Nutrical (also available at Petsmart). A few other ideas for foods you could offer her include organic turkey, chicken or lamb baby food (I like a frozen brand called Mother Hubbard), low sodium canned tuna, sardines or salmon or you could even offer your girl a kitten milk replacer formula. It's a good idea to warm anything you try to serve your girl to body temperature since cats who are older have more difficulty smelling their food and a cat that can't smell his/her food won't eat it.

Given this kitty's age it's all about how invasive you're comfortable getting, but I do think it would be good to at least find out what's going on with her (a full pre-anesthetic blood profile would show many serious issues and it's one test) before you decide whether to try to get her feeling better or allow nature to take it's course with or without help from your vet. Cats have been known to live into their mid 20s in many cases so this may not be the end for her.

I know this is a tough situation and I'm more than willing to offer a supportive ear (and/or shoulder) if you'd like to bounce some ideas off of me so please don't hesitate to contact me at any time, I'll do whatever I can to help.