Sad about Maxx & Chrissy - jingles for Mercedes

[Holly Jeanne]

I was very sorry to hear about Maxx & Chrissy. :cry: Unfortunately, now I need to request jingles. My 10 yo cat, Mercedes, is having kidney issues. The vet can't get her to eat and she is anemic so they are giving her a red blood cell booster and sending her home to see if I can get her to eat. She was on fluids and isn't dehydrated right now. Please send hungry kitty vibes for Mercedes! :(

[equusvilla]

Jingles for Mercedes!!!! (thanks for what you said about Max and Chrissy!)

[Indy]

Jingles for Miss Mercedes!!!!!

[BasqueMom]

More jingles, Texas sized ones!

[Go Fish]

Try baby food in a syringe and squirt it down her throat. I think my cat liked the beef.

Cats are weird...I swear sometimes they quit eating to punish you. It's YOUR fault they're sick, it's YOUR fault they had to ride in the car, it's YOUR fault that vet mauled them, etc. Once you can get something down their throat, they decide they're hungry and will eat on their own. Worth a shot...

Keeping fingers crossed for you!

[li'l bit]

Jingling for Mercedes, hope she is doing better today.

[mkevent]

Jingling for Mercedes!

[lostislandfarm]

a friend of mine asked me to post this for her, so here it goes:

"After hearing there was no hope for my cat due to kidney failure, and that he would be dead within a week, I went home hysterical. Then I remembered a homeopathic vet who had helped my horse considerably. I took my cat to him and he put him on homeopathic remedies and raw kidney meat, which I had to puree and mix with water. He wouldn't eat it, so I gave it to him via syringe. It not only helped him improve, but stimulated his appetite. It took a while, but everything kicked in and he was soon eating regularly (he has to stay on the kidney meat, too) and full of energy and happy again."

Best wishes!

[Holly Jeanne]

Thanks for the vibes and suggestions! I'm hanging on to the ideas. Vet wants me to try to keep her on the Science diet for kidney patients exclusively if possible. Last night and this morning I was able to get a small amount into her by putting the canned food on my finger and letting her lick it off. She did eat a small amount out of the dish but I think she really likes making me hand feed her. ;) Vet went over treatment with me. She kept pulling things out of the bag and saying "and here's how you do this one..." Finally, she said "Do you have enough medications to give. Want some more?" To which I replied that I was sure one of the horses would hurt itself and provide me more medications to give.

THere a picture of my little prima dona here:
http://web.centre.edu/dajones/

[Carol Ames]

Jingles for you and Mercedes; this Time you have together is for you two;


cherish it, as I know you are; How Wonderful that the homeopathic vet had some suggestions which worked!:yes: Jingling like mad!:yes:

[harveyhorses]

Jingles!!
I had a cat that did very well on the KI diet, for several years, and she was older, 14, finally succumed at 17.
She KNOWS she is all that, and yes they do like making us their slaves.

[Larksmom]

I know you just lost Nusie, and so I know this must be extra difficult. I have two old cats and one old dog, and will be heartbroken, when they go.
Will be prayin for her.

[MunchkinsMom]

Jingles for your princess!

[Chall]

Try baby food in a syringe
NO, no no. Gerber's baby food, stage 2 (which is where they introduce meat) contains garlic powder. It's not on the label. Fine for babies but NOT for cats. I tried it and ended up in the emergency room. Maybe your cat survived fine, but it almost killed my cat. Went completely limp and couldn't hold her head up. She recovered but I would not do this. Sorry if I am harsh:), I just don't want anyone to suffer.
Chop up all her food so it's a paste and try everything (human turkey, tuna, sardines, shrimp etc). I've had really good luck with Nutri-Cal from Tomlyn and Taurine paste from Tomlyn. It's how I am administering pills too (crush them in a crusher and mix with paste). Spread the paste on their front paws. It sticks and they have to lick it off.
Good luck and jingles.

[Holly Jeanne]

Well, she wouldn't eat last night or this morning. I force fed her a little and I'm giving her nutri-cal but getting more of it on me than in her. I'll have to try it on her front paws! I'll also try making a paste and try the syringe idea. If she doesn't start eating on her own soon, I'll try the kidney meat idea.

Larksmom: How nice of you to remember! Yes, I lost another cat in January. I'm starting to feel like I have no business having cats. Ironic since I've had them all my life. I'm knocking wood when I say this but the other three seem to be doing fine.

Thanks for your support and please keep jingling!

[MistyBlue]

Holly, I went through this recently with my own 10 year old female kitty.
She's fine now...actually a little too full of piss and vinegar...as I type this she just skidded across the top of the kitchen table, landed on the dog and bolted out of here at the warp speed. :rolleyes:
She wouldn't eat either...the issue is when the cats are dehydrated they won't eat. And when they have kidney issues they're nauseous and won't eat.
The trick was keeping her hydrated as heck at home. She was on fluids for 2 days at the vets, then when she came home I started giving her very cold fresh water with some clam juice poured in it to make it smell better. (well, to her anyways) Vet said this wasn't an issue, and she drinks it like crazy. Juice from a can of tunafish packed in water works also but you don't want to give that often. The clam juice has more smell and doesn't bother them.
Another trick is to get a cat waterer...*many* cats do not like still tepid water. But offer then running water and they drink much better. They have ones shaped like a dome and the water cascades down the sides all the time or ones that look like a small decorative fountain or ones that just keep the water circulating. My cat also has a dome drinker and drinks a lot more now.
The problem with feeding the kidney diet is that few cats like the taste of it. My cat went on a hunger strike when I brought the stuff home...according to the vet most cats think it tastes crappy. :winkgrin:So it might take gew a few days to get used to the new taste. My cat was on KD kidney diet.
She was swapped to CD urinary diet 3 months later after she developed stone. She likes the CD a lot more than the KD. :yes: She had blood drawn twice in the 3 months she's been on the CD and heer kidney values have stayed fine.
Good luck with your little princess...she's cute as heck. Keep trying the food and try some of the tricks to keep her drinking a lot.

[Holly Jeanne]

Thanks MistyBlue: This may be a stupid ? but does your average grocery store carry clam juice? I was thinking that pouring some on the KD canned food might make it more enticing. I actually have two kitty fountains. Love 'em! She drank a little bit that I saw this morning. I can just picture the reaction of the other three cats if I put clam juice in the fountains. :lol: Vet didn't give me anything for naseau as she didn't seem to need it while at the vets but I think she may benefit from it now that she's getting some food again. I have some carbo veg (recommended by my vet where I used to live) and will give that to her and hope that helps as well.

Good luck with your little princess...she's cute as heck.

Thanks! SHE thinks she's cute as heck. You should see her reaction when I tell her she's beautiful. She kind of rolls over and mews as if to say "of course I am!" ;)

[Holly Jeanne]

Well, the nutri-cal on the paws worked once but then she figured out that a big 'ole shake of the paw transferred most of the nutri-cal from her paw onto my t-shirt. :lol: I've tried several different ways of getting it into her at this point and each one has worked once and only once. :no: She's pretty much refusing to eat the KD food. Will sometimes nibble just a little. As an experiment, I put just a few pieces of regular food down and she gobbled it up. Mixed the canned food with some clam juice but she wasn't fooled for a minute. She really thinks I'm out to get her at this point. I have seen her drink out of the fountain but I don't know how much she is drinking. sigh. Going to try to have a chat with the vet this afternoon.

[Guin]

Get a bottle of Cod Liver Oil from your supermarket (they sell it by the fish counter.) Cats go nuts for it - drizzle it on her food, or just give her a dish of it.

[Holly Jeanne]

My supermarket didn't have cod liver oil. I'll need to check Walmart. I talked to another vet at the clinic (orinigally vet was off) and we added a liquid antacid to what I'm giving her. I also tried mixing the food in with egg. Finally I gave her some of her original dry food and put a few pellets of the dry KD in with it. She ate some of it last night but not this morning. Maybe when the antacid kicks in. She's also due for another steroid tablet tomorrow so maybe that will help. :(

[Larbear]

Hopefully you'll have success with the fish oil and clam juice...didn't work with my guy. Ugh. He'll take the fish oil mixed in with some kitten formula via syringe just fine. Drizzle it on the food? No thanks...I was trying to tempt him to eat so I put some tuna juice on the food but didn't want to do that forever so I tried the clam juice. Would he lap that up? No. Grrr!! Mr. Fussypants for sure.

[HighFlyinBey++]

OP, have you tried offering oat grass?

Two years ago I went through something similar with my Harry. I came home to violent vomiting and extreme distress so off we went for a Mother's Day in the kitty ER.

His kidneys started to fail and he ended up staying at the vet's getting intravenous fluids for 2 days. They released him to me after he pulled out his IV overnight because he was upset at being completely alone in a strange place. I drove back twice for more sub-cue fluids & even learned to do it myself at home (fortunately I didn't need to).

I could not get any food to stay down for several days, even with the antacids (they came right back up). The only thing that seemed to settle his stomach was the oat grass I planted in the enclosed patio. After $1000 in vet bills, he was fine after oat grass?! (Seriously, though, the vet told me that if I had brought him in just a few hours later, he would have been a $2000+ cat--or dead.)

Harry lived for 23 more months and died of a heart attack in April. Best $1000 I ever spent. Damn, I miss that cat :cry:

Another thought is Valium. Years ago, a vet prescribe a bit of Valium as a way to trick my elderly cat into eating. It worked like a charm, but he was PTS just a couple days later. It was just his time (age 17 and falling apart).

Best of luck to you & your kitty!

[Holly Jeanne]

She started eating the perscription food just out of the blue yesterday. She's not eating a lot but she's always been a light eater. We started her on an antacid on Friday even though she hadn't been throwing up. Don't know whether that helped or she just finally gave up waiting for a better choice. :lol: Keep vibes coming that her appetitie improves even more and that the follow-up test next week looks good. Thanks folks!