Feeding my cat?

Question

My cat Minnie has pancreatitis (her pancreas is inflamed, and when she's having problems with it, she vomits and loses weight). She had problems with it last week and I took her to the vet and he gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and a B12 shot. That helped her a lot...but she's still so skinny from it. He doesn't feel she needs to be on meds at this time. The vet prescribed the Eukanuba low residue food, which she gets everyday. He also suggested giving her a couple of tablespoons of canned pumpkin to help her gain weight. She won't eat it...even if I mix canned cat food with it. So I just give her the canned food and she loves it and eats every bit of it. But she's still so skinny (5 lbs and her bones can easily be felt)....does anyone have any suggestions on how I can help my cat gain a little bit of weight? Serious answers only please!

Answer 1

We just went through this in March with Hudson, he threw everything up and was so sick for 4 days--they had him on fluids (I'd gotten him in within 5 hours of his throwing up so they had him in there fast, first thing in the morning).

He'd dropped a lot of weight too. Because he's diabetic, they had to make sure he only had certain foods, a high protien but low carb dry, or actual meat.

Some cats get chronic pancreatitis where it comes back again and again. We only had the one bout of it, I'm hoping it doesn't return.

What I have him on is EVO or Royal Canin Siamese 38 for the dry (EVO is 50% protien, the RCS is 38%). He gets 1/4 of a 6 ounce can of 9-Lives Super Supper, which is their lowest carb wet food. And I gave him some baked chicken pieces (no bones or breading, just the meat) and we had a one pound tube of frozen ground turkey, I had it thawed and sliced him a 3 tablespoon section off and microwaved that till it was room temperature, mushing it so none of it cooked but it was warmed through.

He did real great on that. The frozen stuff was fresh (I was going to make turkey chili but the cats ended up eating it all, it only cost me $1 from the discount store). He was an outdoor cat before coming to us so he likes raw meat, but I make sure any he does get is very fresh so there are no problems.

One of our other cats was VERY low weight - she dropped 2 1/2 pounds in 5 weeks when she went crazy with her thyroid, and putting her on the EVO food put a pound on her in 2 weeks. I could feel all the bone in her shoulder blade, she was so skinny! Now she's much better, in 3 weeks she's put back those two pounds.

EVO is $17 a bag, but for one cat that would last 2 months, so it's sort of ok on the budget. The Royal Canin Siamese 38 food is $9 a bag, and lasts a good month or more for one cat. I do like the EVO, it's a good food. I just wish it would come down a bit in price. Neither of these are at the grocery store, you get them at the pet supply places, and if they don't have it there, they can order it for you.

Answer 2

Hi
First of all, pancreatisis cannot be diagnosed without a PLI test being done. The reason I mention this is that many times pancreatis can be misdiagnosed. Your vet would have to send away for the results so I doubt that was done. Please insist on that.Your vet may have diagnosed judging from blood tests showing Lipase and amylase which are digestive enzymes. Hope this helps
In any event with pancreatis, and even with elevated numbers, you may want to consider feeding a raw food diet.That you can make low fat. That stuff the vet gave you isn't great food. If not raw, you want to feed canned foods that are low in fat. Many wellness brands are fed to cats with pancreatis. Also merrick's poultry flavors (ie: thanksgiving day dinner, grammy's pot pie, and turkducken). Those seem to work well for some You want the fat under 35% of calories.
Here is a link for making raw diets
http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm
You should also keep some pepcid ac around for flareups. Your vet can give you the injectable kind or you can buy at the store and give 1/4 tab

Answer 3

You could feed your cat some cooked chicken, fish, or beef mixed with rice for a meal or two. Milk gives cats diarrhea & can cause lactose intolerance, so give none or only small quantities. However, if its milk or starvation, I guess you give milk. I don't know if you just forgot to pick up food at the store & this is a one time thing, or if you have no means of providing for the cat. If you have no money & need food, sometimes the Humane Society or other groups can assist for a short perior of time. Please make your kitty a priority & be sure you are meeting it's "Needs" before meeting your "Wants".

Answer 4

I have had good luck with Purina Friskies Chef's Blend. My cat doesn' t hardly eat any meat any more. There are some tuna treats that he's crazy about. There are some excellent web sites on cat nutrition, though I can't find them now because I lost a lot of my addresses when I had to reformat my hard drive.

Answer 5

Offer Minnie baby food meats like:turkey,chicken,beef,veal ...I found an article but am not able to find the whole story any longer and did a search on it. A veterinarian told this family to feed their cat that and also goat's milk too. It survived coming to USA in a crate from China.


I have offered the above diet to my two kittens and our older cat loved it too when we got our kittens she thought it was a pretty darn good deal to have them (the kittens) at our home .

Answer 6

This is going to sound disgusting, but go with it.

Get a can of tuna in oil.

Start by feeding kitty half or so with the oil dumped over it.

Then, start mixing in the pumpkin with the tuna and the oil.

You should be going for a half and half mixture.

The fish oil is much more potent than the cat food, so it will cover up the smell.

You should be going for about half a can of tuna night with the oil and the two tablespoons of canned pumpkin.

Answer 7

I don't know much about this, because it hasn't happened to me, but here's a thought: If the doctor ordered you to give her canned pumpkin and she won't eat it, I think all you can do is force her to eat it, I'm not sure about what food a cat can eat to gain weight, but cheer up, I'm sure more people will answer this question : )

I still hope my answer helped though, and good luck to you and you cat!

✭gabydt8✭

Answer 8

Try a weight supplement from any pet store. It is inexpensive and is exactly to help with issues like this.

Here's an example:
http://www.jefferspet.com/ssc/products.asp?CID=0&area=cat&dept_id=155

Call your veterinarian and see if this option is right for you and your kitty.

Answer 9

I think there might be a special food for underweight cats.........if not, take her to the vet and say, she isn't eating the pumpkin is there anther way? If not, i don't know what to tell you then