What might Elizabeth eat?

[elizilla]

Elizabeth is getting pretty old. For the last several years she's been such a picky eater that we can't keep weight on her. She's always preferred dry food, but her teeth are not good these days and she won't eat enough of it. Meanwhile, Mac has to have pills and we need wet food to hide them in. He's not too difficult to please, but Elizabeth turns up her nose at the majority of canned foods we have offered to her, and even the ones she will eat, she often only licks the gravy and leaves the chunks behind.

A year or so ago, we started giving them baby food. Elizabeth liked it a lot, and it has put weight back on her. It's fairly easy to hide pills in baby food, too. We also cook little pieces of meat for the cats, and give them tuna water, and table scraps, and pretty much anything else we find that they like. They are both too thin so we've made a conscious effort to spoil them.

Last week the vet was here, and did blood draws. The test results are back and the indicators show Elizabeth is starting to suffer kidney failure. The vet says this is because elderly cats cannot digest protein very well, they need more water than they can drink, to digest the protein. He wants us to change her food to something with more fat and less protein. There's a special dry food for this, but what about the wet foods that have helped us get more weight on her, and helped us hide the pills?

The baby food is 49% protein. Time to stop giving it to her. The canned cat food is only 9% protein but she mostly doesn't like it. Science Diet Senior is 29% protein. I don't know the protein content of the new dry food because the vet hasn't dropped it off yet.

I was thinking of giving her things like gravy, bacon grease, etc, except these things have a lot of salt, and salt is bad too. I could make her some special gravy without salt, I suppose.

Anyone have any other ideas? I need to think of things that are low in sugar, salt, and protein, high in fat, starch, and fiber, with plenty of calories, and tempting to a geriatric cat that is a picky eater. I need some suggestions for ingredients in this special cat cuisine, so I can continue to spoil Elizabeth.

The other option is giving her subcutaneous fluids, and I don't want to go there. She was so traumatized by the blood draws! The thought of putting a tired, weak, old cat through that kind of thing every couple of days is just wrong. Better to let her go gracefully. But if I can cook up some tempting morsels, coax her to eat, and keep her around longer I definitely want to do it.

Comments

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Maybe dairy? Milk, ice cream, soft cheese or cheese sauce? My kitties go crazy over such treats.

[annaoj.livejournal.com]

There is a canned food version of at least one kidney problems food (Eukanuba multi-stage)--that's what I hide my cat's pills in.

cat food

[greyhat.livejournal.com]

.
What if you soak the dry cat food in water, then added a bit of melted butter or lard? That would make it soft enough for her to eat, and higher in fat.

[blorky.livejournal.com]

Ghee (clarified butter) can be made easily at home, and will have no salt. Single foods that are high in fiber will tend to be low in fat, but maybe ground cashews will do?

[treebones.livejournal.com]

Science Diet makes some canned kidney diets. My vet was able to give me four or five different ones to try, and Quinn has liked several of them.

[shadowriderhope.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I have no useful information to share other than what's already been posted, but just wanted to let you know I'm pressing thumbs for Elizabeth eating and feeling better. It's so hard to go through something like this - my thoughts are with you.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Do they still make fruit or vegetable-based baby foods? Some strained peaches or peas or something? That might be similar enough to what she likes that she'd eat it.


I know what it's like to have an older pet. If you pay close attention to expressions and behavior, they can communicate a lot, about what they need, how much they appreciate the moments, how they can cope with what they need you to do for them.

pancreaved?

[airynd.livejournal.com]

hey k -
there are enzymes which you can purchase to "pre-digest" her food. basically, you put a scoop into her food (must be wet food, or kibble soaked in water,) allow it to sit for 15 minutes, and then serve. if she's having a hard time with her kidneys and protein, i'm surprised your vet didn't recommend the enzymes - it's worth inquiring about. we use a product called "pancreved" for our older wolves who have a similar problem keeping weight on due to digestive problems. as the name suggests, it's for a pancreatic problem, but works wonders for all manner of digestive disorders. since it's in powder form, it's much harder for the animal to detect it and spit it out, too. here's a link to one of the cheaper sources for it online:
http://store.yahoo.com/entirelypets/pancreved.html

best of luck - i know how awful it is to watch a friend deteriorate steadily. i lost my little stevie kitty to heart failure when he was only about 2 years old, but his decline was heartbreaking. :-( i hope you find something for elizabeth! let me know if you have any questions.