Hello, I haven't been here for a while, but wondered if anyone could help me please (a bit cheeky, I know).

My 16year old cat is asking for food but when I give it to her she wont eat it. She'll lick the gravy off the wet food, and maybe nibble a biscuit or two, but that's it. She then starts asking for food again. I've tried washing her bowl up and trying new flavours, chopping it, not chopping it, with biscuits, without biscuits, but she does the same thing. She gets excited when I put her dish down but then wont eat. I'm not sure if she's drinking. I haven't seen her drink but then I don't normally, as she seems to prefer puddles and bird baths or the dog's bowl.

I've looked in her mouth and can't see anything unusual (but she does have disgusting breath).

I'm seeing the vet later but in the meantime I'd like to hear from anyone with experience of this.

Thank you

Really think the vets is the best and first cause of action.

Definitely see the vet - it sounds as though she has a very sore mouth.

hi Snoop, when you take her in the vet will check her teeth right away--she may well have abscessed gums and loose, rotten teeth that just hurt too much to eat. That isn't in any way a judgement of your care, but it's very common with cats that reach such a good age. See if you can give her something very soft, and no biscuit--scrambled egg is good. Hope she is ok and good luck!

Thanks everyone. I'm seeing the vet at 3pm so I'll let you know what ihappens. I'm just being impatient trying to guess what could be wrong and have got myself all worked up over what could (hopefully) be something simple.
Thanks for listening.

The vet thinks one of her gums looks a little inflamed. He's given her antibiotics for a couple of days, but if she's no better she's having the tooth out on Friday. Poor old girl. Hope she starts eating now - I hate the thought of her having an anaesthetic. Bet I've spelt that wrong, oops.
Thank you all :-)

I had the same with my teenage tom cat  had to have several teeth out, he is such an old man now,... but he  was as good as new and munching away again in a couple of days.. Paws crossed for your girlie...

We bought baby food for our old cat when she had trouble eating.  She was able to lap it up.  we also soaked dry cat crunchies in goats milk for her then slopped it up to lapping consistency.

A vet told me to give dry cruches and they will chuck them to the back of the mouth and swallow, this I didn't notice or try for more than one meal.  You could even slop her wet meat to lapping.

Hope he/she gets better soon.

We gave our elderly cat tasty bits of very tender  meats,she loved tongue which is very soft ,also hi-life chicken and liver pate in the little tins,as she had gone off her regular whiskers and biscuits but she was 20 years old,like us I suppose when elderly we need a softer diet,hope all goes well.

Sheila

> 20 years old

That is amazing.... ;-)

We've had to change our cat from dry to soft food because of his age, although he'll still have a good go at crunching dry biscuits he just can't manage enough to make a decent meal, so he has a mixture of both throughout the day, plus he's always trying to thieve food from us at dinner time, cheese, ham & roast chicken are his favourites :-)

Oh, and sorry to 'trump' the 20 yo old cat, which is a fab age, but ours is 22 :-O I don't think he'll be with us a whole lot longer though as he's started to become abit 'doddery' of late, I suspect it's only a matter of weeks until we have to say goodbye to him, so in the meantime, I'm happy to indulge his penchant for roast chicken :-)

Claire

Thanks for all the messages :-)
She's eaten a fair bit this morning so I'm happy.
Sunshine - that's interesting about the biscuits. I couldn't understand why my cat was ignoring her wet food but still managing a biscuit or two, but it makes sense if she was doing as your vet mentioned.
She's now happily snoring on the sofa (and boy, can she snore!)

It's good to hear of such elderly cats doing so well :-)

Thanks for the tips about softer food too (tongue, baby food etc.) :-)

So glad she has perked up.

Sheilaxx

My vet suggested kitten food as it's highly calorific thus wouldn't
have to eat as much to get the same benefit as a larger amount of
normal 'adult' cat food.

My old boy got to 18 years old with this advise :)

I too changed to wet kitten food, mashed, and tinned sardines in tomato sauce mashed up (her favourite) as my old burmese got older, I wanted to be sure she got enough calories and liquid as older cats don't always drink enough to support dry feeding.  She lived to a respectable 181/2 on this :)

Fingers crossed your old dear recovers

XX

Thank you for posting :-)

She's perked up no end! I've been feeding her a range of soft foods (as suggested on here) with the antibiotics sprinkled on top and she's so much better. She even stole a marmite sandwich off the table today and managed a couple of bites! She must be making up for all the calories she missed.

Thank you so much for all the tips - they've really helped :-)

That's great news :-D  Hope she continues to improve and enjoy life :)

Glad she's improving.  Marmite sarnies, clever girl, my last girl used to paw everything off my plate, including steak, I had to guard every meal. She tought it was funny. That girl was such a character. My girl that struggled to eat lasted until almost 19.

> my last girl used to paw everything off my plate, including steak, I had to guard every meal

My old girl was like this in her younger days, back then I didn't have a dining area so I would just have a plate on my knee in front of the telly. I'd end up putting an empty fork in my mouth without even realising it's contents had been removed.  I would then get a smiling, smug, codescending look.  Cats can just get away with it.

Reminds me of a time my friend and I took our lunch time baguettes into the garden, we sat on the loungers and I turned my head to take a bite at one end when one of my GSDs, Nova, took a bite from the other, yes, she got away with it because I could not stop laughing.