loss of appetite

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---MIKE---

I have no suggestions other than - please turn off your signature when
posting here. This is a text only news group.


---MIKE---

"meow meow" wrote in message
...
Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food... I just had a complete workup done at my
vet... CBC normal.. Organ profile normal... Thyroid now within normal
range.. BUN one point above normal... However she has lost another pound
and only takes a few bites of her food... I"ve tried all kinds of food
including baby food meat... I"m picking up an appetite stimulant today
from my vet.... She has always been a cat that likes to eat.!! Now she
is wasting away to nothing. No apparant changes in environment or
otherwise.. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My reply:

Well, first see how the appetite stimulant (Periactin/cyproheptadine, or
something else?) goes. It may work really well. Sometimes I could give my
cat just 1/2 of the recommended dose & 20 minutes later she'd be at her food
bowl, eating.

You could also try Hills Prescription Diet a/d food - available at the
vet's. It's made for syringe force-feeding if necessary, but sometimes my
cat would eat it off a spoon - she really liked it, as long as she had
*some* vestige of an appetite. (My other cats loved it & wanted some as a
treat whenever I gave it to the ill cat.) Other people have mentioned some
clam juice dribbled over the cat's food as a way to entice
appetite-depressed cats to eat.

In early CRF I don't know if her appetite's depressed because her stomach is
"off". But another possibility is giving her a kitty-sized dose (1/4 of a
tab) of OTC Pepcid ac, if that's the case. But, first ask your vet about
this, even though it's a pretty standard treatment for CRF cats.

Cathy

P.S. I switched the post over to "plain text". Apparently WebTV defaults
to HTML/rich text, which isn't the protocol for news groups.

"meow meow" wrote in message
...
Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food... I just had a complete workup done at my
vet... CBC normal.. Organ profile normal... Thyroid now within normal
range.. BUN one point above normal... However she has lost another pound
and only takes a few bites of her food... I"ve tried all kinds of food
including baby food meat... I"m picking up an appetite stimulant today
from my vet.... She has always been a cat that likes to eat.!! Now she
is wasting away to nothing. No apparant changes in environment or
otherwise.. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My reply:

Well, first see how the appetite stimulant (Periactin/cyproheptadine, or
something else?) goes. It may work really well. Sometimes I could give my
cat just 1/2 of the recommended dose & 20 minutes later she'd be at her food
bowl, eating.

You could also try Hills Prescription Diet a/d food - available at the
vet's. It's made for syringe force-feeding if necessary, but sometimes my
cat would eat it off a spoon - she really liked it, as long as she had
*some* vestige of an appetite. (My other cats loved it & wanted some as a
treat whenever I gave it to the ill cat.) Other people have mentioned some
clam juice dribbled over the cat's food as a way to entice
appetite-depressed cats to eat.

In early CRF I don't know if her appetite's depressed because her stomach is
"off". But another possibility is giving her a kitty-sized dose (1/4 of a
tab) of OTC Pepcid ac, if that's the case. But, first ask your vet about
this, even though it's a pretty standard treatment for CRF cats.

Cathy

P.S. I switched the post over to "plain text". Apparently WebTV defaults
to HTML/rich text, which isn't the protocol for news groups.

(meow meow) wrote:

Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food..

Is she on tapazole? As someone else mentioned, lack of appetite and/or nausea
and vomiting can be a side effect of the tapazole. Same thing happen to my
friend's 15 year old cat. When she was taken off tapazole and given an appetite
stimulant, she ate like a horse. Now I think she is on a reduced dosage of the
thyroid med. Ask what your vet thinks about whether the thyroid medication is
causing nausea.

(meow meow) wrote:

Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food..

Is she on tapazole? As someone else mentioned, lack of appetite and/or nausea
and vomiting can be a side effect of the tapazole. Same thing happen to my
friend's 15 year old cat. When she was taken off tapazole and given an appetite
stimulant, she ate like a horse. Now I think she is on a reduced dosage of the
thyroid med. Ask what your vet thinks about whether the thyroid medication is
causing nausea.

"Yngver" wrote in message
...
(meow meow) wrote:

Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food..

Is she on tapazole? As someone else mentioned, lack of appetite and/or
nausea
and vomiting can be a side effect of the tapazole. Same thing happen to my
friend's 15 year old cat. When she was taken off tapazole and given an
appetite
stimulant, she ate like a horse. Now I think she is on a reduced dosage of
the
thyroid med. Ask what your vet thinks about whether the thyroid medication
is
causing nausea.

Was the Tapazole actually causing nausea, or was it just less of an appetite
w/ the thyroid levels being reigned in (maybe too much)?

Cathy

"Yngver" wrote in message
...
(meow meow) wrote:

Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food..

Is she on tapazole? As someone else mentioned, lack of appetite and/or
nausea
and vomiting can be a side effect of the tapazole. Same thing happen to my
friend's 15 year old cat. When she was taken off tapazole and given an
appetite
stimulant, she ate like a horse. Now I think she is on a reduced dosage of
the
thyroid med. Ask what your vet thinks about whether the thyroid medication
is
causing nausea.

Was the Tapazole actually causing nausea, or was it just less of an appetite
w/ the thyroid levels being reigned in (maybe too much)?

Cathy

"meow meow" wrote in message
...
Hi.. I"m new here, but I have a question I thought maybe someone could
have some ideas.. I have a 17 year old cat with low grade kidney disease
and hyper thyroidism... She takes med for the thyroid... She has
recently been off her food... I just had a complete workup done at my
vet... CBC normal.. Organ profile normal... Thyroid now within normal
range.. BUN one point above normal... However she has lost another pound
and only takes a few bites of her food... I"ve tried all kinds of food
including baby food meat... I"m picking up an appetite stimulant today
from my vet.... She has always been a cat that likes to eat.!! Now she
is wasting away to nothing. No apparant changes in environment or
otherwise.. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions???



I strongly urge you to have your cat examined for intestinal problems such
as an obstruction or at very worst, cancer. It could also be inflammatory
bowel disease. The test is done under anesthesia and involves a gastric
scope. They can also perform an x-ray for preliminary diagnosis. Don't ask
me why, but in my experience you have to ask for these tests.

Paul