Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone! I need some advice. I am having litterbox problems with our cat and really got GREAT advice from the message board and the members here. However, I have an elderly kitty who is VERY finicky right now. She has trouble eating dry food, but if she eats canned food, she will gulp it down and throw it up almost immediately afterward (it's like it's too rich and it's like candy to her that she eats it so fast or something!). We really don't want to get her started on canned food, but I really feel like she isn't getting enough to eat. She begs for food because 1. She is old and is going through the whining/howling stage now and 2. She wants her canned cat food! Is there anything I can give her to help make sure she is eating enough? I had heard once of giving them little bits of baby food and also heard of pedialyte. I'm afraid she would throw that up too though. She has nothing physically wrong with her -- we had a bevy of tests done a couple of months ago. And my vet is horrible and really doesn't have much interest in elderly cats...reminding me that most cats don't live more than 12 years and she is now 14. She is very playful and acts like nothing is wrong with her. Just having some litterbox problems (urination only) with her right now that we are trying to work through.

Thanks in advance!!!

Kristi

If you have time, you may want to "spoon feed" this cat - just give her a spoonful of wet food at a time and let a few minutes go by before she gets more. This cuts down on the vomiting a lot.

You may want to seek out another vet since yours is obviously not an expert on elder cats. It is not uncommon for an indoor-only cat to live to 17 and beyond!
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Thank you SO much for your help. You are so sweet to answer all of my questions.

We have switched her from Iams Hairball to Iams Active Maturity Hairball Formula and it seems to be helping her a lot. She likes it AND she has only thrown up once since we began it (which was last Thursday--today is Sunday!).

As for her urination problems. We have "confined" her to the room where we keep the litterbox (it's our computer room) while we are away so that we can make sure she doesn't have accidents while we are at work. It was HARD to do that, but she is adjusting VERY well to it and is urinating in her litter box for the first time in forever!! My husband and I jumped for joy when we saw urine in there and we promptly rewarded her for good behavior with 2 treats. BEFORE, unfortunately, we were yelling at her for going in the wrong place. It really backfired (plus made us feel extremely bad disciplining our "baby". So now when we see her sniffing around, we watch her and she doesn't like it and goes to the litterbox !

She actually likes the room and we have bought her a comfy new bed and a window sill perch for her (which she LOVES!).

With some training, we will get her back on track!

Thanks again,
Kristi

I am glad to hear things are working out!
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!