My cat is 16. She is 5.5 pounds. In the past 2 years I have had all tests done on her. The last one 3 days ago. She was tested for diabetes, thyroid, leukemia, liver kidney, all the tests they had to offer. The only thing that came up was a elevated white blood cell count because of a small infection that was detected in her urine. She is on antibiotics as we speak. My problem is she won't eat. I am not second guessing the Vet but this is the second one that has said she is healthy. She gave me some hill's prescription diet a/d. She ate the first can with no problem and now she is fighting me on the second can. She used to love chicken, turkey, fish, pounce. Now she just sniffs everything and walks away. I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone else's cat. The doctor wants to put her on steroids to get her weight up. Is this a good idea?? Any advice is welcomed.

Your cat is l6, which is a pretty long life for a cat. Her problems are completely geriatric at this point, much like a 90 year old person having problems coping with age related issues. Steroids is not a bad idea, but at this point in your cat's life can you not just give her the benefit of doubt and let her live out her old age the way she wants to. She may not be eating properly, but is she drinking enough water ?

Tick

Yes she drinks plenty of water. Although I need to put in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up. Will the steroids give her her appetite back??

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Originally Posted by PSSSSST12

Yes she drinks plenty of water. Although I need to put in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up. Will the steroids give her her appetite back????

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Yes, basically, that is what the steroids are for. Why don't you give her warm tap water instead of heating it up in the microwave ?

Tick

Oh I guess you don't know. Never use hot water to consume. Even as humans. If you ever saw the inside of a hot water tank you would understand. There is so much sediment at the bottom of the tank. Hot water is for showering only. Bacteria can also grow in the tank due to trhe heat. If you know any chefs they will tell you the same. I also run the water through a Brita filter too. Thanks I will get the steroids tomorrow. How does one administer steroids to a cat??

I don't believe for one minute it is dangerous to consume warm water from the tap. My water is already filtered before it gets to the tap. Animals drink out of rivers, puddles, whatever and don't come to any harm.

Pills are administered by mouth. Put one pill in cat's mouth and stroke thecat's neck. Just about anyway you can get the cat to ingest the pill is good. The steroid pill isn't very big. Smaller then a 1/2 a baby aspirin.

Tick

Oh goody... that should be fun getting her to swallow a pill. I guess it must be done.

You Shouldn’t Drink Hot Water From Your Tap Broken Secrets

Look at the first source MIT.

PSSSSSSSSST, no one around where I live has lead fittings any more. They are toxic. We have copper. I said my water is filtered BEFORE IT GETS TO MY TAP. Which means I have a filtering system. I drink tap water all the time and love it. My son does too !

Giving pills to cats is easy. Let your fingers gently pry open mouth, slip pill in and while head is still erect, massage neck so the natural swallowing mechanism will kick in, PRESTO... DONE.

Good luck my dear with your lovely old pet. You are taking pretty good care of a good friend.

Tick

I'm going to take the exact opposite stance on this.

First, I do not believe in writing things off as "geriatric." A 16 year old cat is not like a 90 year old human, first of all. Second of all, as I'm fond of saying, if I were to start getting arthritis as I get older, do I just ignore and pass it off to "aging," or do I treat it?

I TREAT IT!

When a cat is not wanting to eat, something is wrong. It is not just because the cat is "old" so simply decided to not eat anymore. 90 year old's eat, don't they? If they don't eat, it is probably because they don't feel well or everything upsets their stomach, or they're being obstinent :-) ,or something. It's because of other things that exist. Not eating is a sign of something else.

That "something else" could be something simple like some constipation. That isn't going to show up in blood work. It could also be something as bad as cancer. (I hate to say it, but that's what it could be.) It can be anything in between. And there are things that don't show up in a basic set of blood tests, not to mention that there are things that don't show up until they have worsened. (Just as an example, kidney disease does not show up in blood work until the kidneys have about 70-75% failure in them. On the other hand, at that stage, a cat would probably still be eating OK, but you never know.)

One thing that often gets overlooked: how are her teeth? The vet should have looked at them, but that doesn't mean anything. I've seen vets do far too many things to trust one implicitly without knowing him. (In other words, I'm not implying your vet is bad, only that I don't know and would prefer to take everything into consideration regardless of what he said.) A cat that age could very well have terrible teeth.

Get her off that blasted Hills while you're at it. They spent a lot of money to make sure your vet thinks it's the greatest food on earth when it's garbage. If she's not eating well, feed her what she wants! And go to canned if you weren't feeding that. Not only could she use the moisture, but if there's dental issues, it'll be easier to eat.

Trying to think of anything else - nothing in blood work, so could be constipation, bad teeth... I don't know if an infection would make her feel crappy enough to not eat, but you never know. Did they do a culture? Do you care to go as far as getting x-rays, ultrasound, etc? (Assuming it's not something simple.) She wasn't jaudiced?

Now, as for those steroids... stay away from those like the plague unless you have absolutely no other solution. There are things they can give as appetite stimulants without turning to steroids. Those are nasty things with bad side effects. Vets (and doctors in general) jump on them entirely too quickly to solve everything. You might try either valium or cypro. That's not a permanent solution. Also just try different foods, try a little water off some tuna, dribble some juice from your steak :-) -- you've already done the microwave.

In the end, though, that's not a permanent solution. She's not eating for a reason and you need to find out what that is. It may or may not be solvable, but I tend not to give up until I find out it really is something that is not (reasonably) solvable.

Sometimes with animals and humans issues have to be written off as geriatric; whatever the issues may be, certain ones may appear just because the animal is older. Arthritis, in an older person is hard to treat because the age factor rules out certain meds that would help. Treating a dability is one thing, finding a proper treatment is another when it is age related.

I won't rule out that steroids, in particular Prednisone has certain side effects, one being frequent urination, but that all depends on the dose.

Two years ago when my Taffy became ill and there weren't many options for her, one was steroids and it worked well for her and gave her and I more quality time together. Frequent urination I dealt with if the steroids made her happy. I am glad that I chose that option.

Tick

Steroids can also give cats diabetes. That's not a minor side effect.