15 year old losing weight, won't eat much

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Sheba is 15 and has lost weight over the last month. She has an appetite---most of the time---but when we put the canned food in front of her she either snubs it (she always was finicky) or licks at it, takes a few bites, then quits. We've tried different brands. She always loved dry food before, but no longer even tries it---she only goes for canned food now.

She goes to the bathroom---all that is normal. She purrs as normal too. Maybe it's because she's lost weight around her middle that I notice it, but her breathing seems to be more noticeable. I have tried Nutri-cal for cats; it initially seemed to increase her appetite, but she still doesn't eat much. Then I read on another pet forum that Nutrical is actually bad for cats---some chemical in it is bad for a cat's liver? I can't believe that; it's sold for cats, isn't it? Now I don't know if Nutrical is safe or not? IS IT??

Anyway, I'm going to have to take her to the vet, but I am worried about what the vet may say. I have visions that the doctor will put her to sleep and the cat won't return home with me. That happened to me with my dog in the 1970s (leukemia).

 

The ingrediant in Nutrical is sodium benzoate, I cant find anything specifically what the toxicity is but your vet will most likely know. I dont know if there is a 'dangerous level', maybe there is not enough in the Nurtrical to cause any damage. From what Ive heard though they dont use in Europe in this product anymore.
Its used as a preservative in many things.

That aside, I hope everything is okay with your kitty.

 

Your kitty is getting older and it could by any number of problems, or it just could be aging. Taking her to the Vet is probably the best thing to do.

The Vet can focus in on what is wrong, if anything, and will be able to help her. I don't think a Vet would want to put a pet to sleep before trying other things first. Maybe he will suggest what type of food to give her.

Keep us posted on how your kitty is. Hope all goes well.

 

be sure to get a complete blood panel done...at that age you want to stay on top of kidney and thyroid functions (that's a T4 I believe)

 

Thanks for the replies. She has a vet appointment this afternoon; I will keep you posted. I guess I sound like a wimp, but I dread having the doctor use the C word. But I guess even cancer can be treated long enough to add time to an animal's life. I'm hoping it is something less severe--Sheba always ate hard food and just a couple of months ago loved those soft treats--called "Aquar-Yums" ---but now won't even consider eating them or any hard food. Hopefully, the vet will get her to eat some canned food and get her weight back up.

--Dale

 

be sure to come back and fulfill our nosiness :mrgreen: and we also like to know how kitties posted about are doing

 

Hi, I just joined here and my cat is at the vets as i write.
Long story short....she stopped eating...Xrays showed a tumor...
Now shes at a specialist...its not a tumor but possibly a calcified cyst.
So thye are really not sure what is going on. She is acting normal...just doesn't eat...licks her food.
They are doing blood work and will see what that shows first. 4 weeks ago, her blood work was fine. I keep thinking it has something to do with her teeth.

 

Good luck - taking her to the vet is the best idea.

I also think that the vet won't try to put your cat down without trying other things first. But, I understand your worry.

Maybe it will be something as simple as your cats needs dental work. Even problems with the teeth can cause changes in eating behavior.

Keep us posted.

 

I'm in tears as I write this...The doctor took Sheba in the back to do a full blood screening when he returned: "She's in the back wheezing--she has her self so upset--I don't like how it sounds. I'd like to do a chest x-ray, first, instead. I wait and anticipate bad news. I'm right. He shows me the x-ray and I see the tumor next to her heart the size of a dime. The doc explains the options to me and the fact that its location doesn't bode well for her. It's interfering with her breathing. I did notice her breathing was becoming more labored recently.

With treatment, she could live two days, two weeks, or two months, but will get worse and sooner or later, suffer. After thinking about it, asking the right questions and making sure the doctor thought I was making the right decision, I signed the paper to put Sheba to sleep. As I looked at her wheezing--almost like a pneumonia sound--I knew I was doing the right thing and the doctor told me that if I wasn't he would tell me I wasn't. As I looked in her eyes, call me weird, but when her eyes met mine I knew I was making the right decision. I cried right in front of the doctor and the nurses---I'm very embarassed about that. A 42-year old male crying! They told me they are used to that. I wonder if they just are saying that. I'm crying now. I will have her urn in a few days and somehow, someway, it's my hope, if not belief, that we will see each other again...in a better place.
I already miss my little friend....

 

I am so sorry. I was really expecting to hear good news.

I'm sure the vets have all seen their fair share of people crying. I know I would lose it in the same situation.

Your cat is at peace and no longer in pain. But, it doesn't make your pain any less...

Once again, I'm sorry to hear it.

 

I'm so sorry to hear the bad news :cry:

 

I'm so sorry. :cry: Thanks for letting us know.

 

I am so sorry for your loss. :cry: *HUGS* I've been down the same road with Pooky, our very first kitty and I know how you feel. You did the right thing and Sheba is no longer suffering.

 

Dale,
So sorry to hear of your loss. She is with the angels now.
Raven

 

I am so sorry.... I just had to make that same terribel decision and I understand the sobbing at the office. I was unconsolable and remain so upset. It is so hard saying goodbye.

Take care

 

Some Additional Notes and Personal Thoughts From Me:

I lived with my father. I was one of his caretakers, and due to Parkinson’s disease, he spent a large part of his last two years of his life in his blue chair. He lived with Sheba all these 15 years. Dad passed away less than two years ago. While I, of course, grieved his death, I also had great joy because I knew he was in a better place and free of his failing body.

The night of his passing, I was sitting in my bed writing a poem about my father for his service, and Sheba, as she often did, jumped-up beside me and (strangely enough) increased my faith and actually gave me peace because she seemed joyous as well; I guess I’m not making sense, but it was as if she knew what happened and was reinforcing my faith by her demeanor that night.

I kept my dad’s chair and moved it into my study. Sheba often slept in that chair over the last two years—when I didn’t have books or other junk on it. Be sure I will never get rid of that ol’ blue chair!

About ten days ago Sheba did eat well, finally, but only seconds later she brought-up her food, and I noticed after she did this that her breathing was very pronounced, and she was wheezing with each exhale. Something was wrong. That night, as she jumped up on my bed (her breathing more relaxed now), she gave me a look as our eyes met that I won’t forget. It was a look I haven’t got from her before, and I made a mental note of it at the time. I interpreted the look as “I’m not going to make it.” I don’t know if cats/animals can tell these things or not, but as soon as she gave me that look I got sad, prayed for her, and gave her extra love from that moment till her passing. Her look caused me to half expect that she wouldn’t be alive when I woke up in the morning. As Sheba continued to not eat well, my mother even commented that “she (Sheba) wants to go up with Ken (my dad).” I got angry when she said that, because I didn’t want to hear that---that I was going to lose a beloved pet; a part of me was in denial, I guess.

Cats, as we know, have a routine; Sheba’s routine for the last two weeks of her life, was every night, at the same time, she’d jump-up in Dad’s old blue chair and sleep for a couple of hours.
On the afternoon, of what would be her last day, I was pacing the floor, getting things ready and waiting for my appointment time with the vet. Fifteen minutes before I was going to leave to the vet’s office and after I brushed Sheba, she goes upstairs and jumps into Dad’s old blue chair and just sits there staring down the stairs at me. I was standing downstairs in the living room and we held eye contact for literally fifteen seconds until I broke eye contact---you can never out stare a cat! Again, you will call me absurd, but the look was unmistakable. It was as if she was saying, “I’m ready. Are we going to go?” “What are you going to do?”

I can’t get that stare out of my mind’s eye. She lay down and spent the remaining five minutes resting in the chair until I came to get her. I put her in our makeshift pet carrier and off to the vet we went. I didn’t know that that was the last time she’d ever be with us. She wasn’t the least bit agitated during the ride or waiting in the office—perhaps her weakening state made it so.
Then, of course, we know the rest.

Surviving 15-year old Sheba is my other cat, Brooke. Brooke is 17 years old and for some reason doesn’t seem to miss or even mind the disappearance of Sheba. Maybe cats know things, who knows. Maybe they are wise in ways humans don’t quite understand.

I’m left with some hellish images that I try not to think about: her heavy, wheezy breathing in the vet’s office, her looking at me as we said goodbye---not really “seeing me” because she was in such discomfort, me signing my name to the permission slip with Sheba two feet from the paper---the hardest signature I have ever had to write. And of course, the ugliest photograph I have ever seen in my life: her x-ray results. With the nurse in the room I told Sheba, “We’ll see each other again, maybe.”


I guess there are degrees of suffering; I don’t know if Sheba was suffering or not. She purred, so I have learned one thing: just because a cat purrs doesn’t mean they are 100% healthy. I Think I can say, with some degree of certainty, that she was in some discomfort. That eases some of my guilt.



It is quite a thing to have to put your beloved pet to sleep; but it is quite another thing to have to do it when you weren’t emotionally Expecting it. I couldn’t bare bringing Sheba back later---in a week or so--- to have her to be put to sleep (in a worsen state), so that entered into my decision-making process to do it now.

Of course, countless others have had to do this with their pets---many on this forum, so it greatly helps to know that I’m not in this alone. I can’t tell you how much your kind regards and comments have meant to me. Everyone grieves in their own way, and I’m hoping to have peace over my situation.


But I do keep beating myself up: what if I didn’t take her to the vet (she’d be with me right now); what if I didn’t sign my name—maybe treatment would have extended her life a little. Does Sheba feel I betrayed her?

As many of you know, it’s difficult, especially going to sleep, knowing that your friend won’t be sleeping at the bottom of the bed anymore. I still shed tears as I lie there at night. I guess I would have better peace about things if I knew she was okay in a far, far better place, but I never before thought much about that with animals. All of us would like that peace.

Until that peace comes, I feel so guilty. I guess that is normal. She trusted me and I signed her death warrant. I have to live with that. I can’t help thinking how she must hate me for what I did and what I made her go through in that office. Anyway, thanks for letting me talk about things and my belief system in a personal way. Religion is a deeply personal thing and I hope, in time, I will have peace about things.