Getting a cat to eat wet food....

[johann]

My Satan kitty (aka Gracie) has had kidney disease for about 3 years. She is 7 (?) yrs old now. So its been an ongoing issue for quite some time. She was originally on a dry food only diet before I knew how bad it was. She then went to canned food diet...usually Wellness or Solid Gold. This went on for a brief time, maybe 6 months of her eating and maintaining her weight pretty well.

She went on a hunger strike about a year ago. Dropped from 15 lbs down to 6-7 lbs. This went on for around 2 months, and I tried every concievable food for her to eat (raw chicken, cooked chicken, canned tuna, raw fish/cooked fish, cheese, etc). I finally said "enough" and made an appt to put her to sleep 2 days later. During that 2 days, I bought some cans of Fancy Feast to get her through. She loved it.....gobbled up 2 cans a day and started looking better. I've tried numerous times to slowly get her back to a good food (mix in a tiny amount with each feeding) but it never works.

Now that she's finally back up to a 9 lbs (decent weight, but still a bit skinny)...she's decided that she no longer wants Fancy feast either. She started getting really skinny again, so I broke down and bought her some dry food (orijen) to mix in. She ignores the wet food and picks out the dry to eat.

Is it worth trying to get her back onto just canned food? Last time it almost killed her, and I'm not sure if she/I can handle it again. She drinks an absurd amount of water. Last time I measured her intake it was around at least 30 oz. Her last set of labs showed that her kidneys were worsening.

Any advice, or even just words of encouragement?

[SherylM]

I"m sorry Gracie is in kidney failure. Unfortunately this is what happen to most cats as they age. I don't have any medical advice but I can tell you my experience that I had with Luigi my 17 yr old siamese cat that just went to the bridge. For the last seven years of his life he had been in kidney failure. He was dx when he was 10. The vets tried to get me to put him on their "special diet" of wet food, he hated it. Then they put him on the dry food "special diet". IT is very hard to get a cat to eat wet food after they have been raised on dry food. You have to be patient. Then I did some research and realized (for me) that quality of protien was better than quantity (they suggested low protien). I changed him to a good quality kibble and a good quality canned food. I put them in two different bowls and let him eat what he wanted. Sometimes he ate dry, sometimes he ate wet. I figured as long as he was eating that was the important thing. He also drank a huge amount of water. He lived for another 7 years this way.

I don't know if this method is along your lines of thinking, but it gave me 7 more years with my baby. They were good years and I cherished every one.

[Holden's Mom]

I've had three cats in kidney failure and I hydrated all three cats. The vet taught me how to give the sub cutaneous fluids an all three cats did live longer than the vets expected. As for the food, I gave them whatever I could get them to eat; that was no easy chore. At times, when the cats refused to eat, I gave them wet food, either Hills A/D or Royal Caniin Recovery through a feeding syringe. After a couple of days of feeding this way, they would usually regain appetite and eat on their own,

Just this week I received an email from NewMax Health that was most interesting. Though this is for humans, I am going to ask my vet about this, for cats and dogs. Here is the link to this very cheap help for kidney failure:

Health, fitness and medical advice

Hope your kitty starts to eat and feels better.

Pam and Autry