Topic: RIP baby Max: PLEASE READ UPDATE THREAD (Read 72663 times)

clarenmax · « **Reply #30 on:** May 06, 2009, 09:24:55 AM »

I can't offer any advice hun, just wanted to wish you good luck today and hope that you can find something Max will enjoy eating

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #29 on:** May 06, 2009, 08:51:27 AM »

we are heading back to see the normal vet in a min. But I had to change the aptment time as have a med one of my own that I've waited 2 months for, only to find that the junior nurse forgot to rebook us a double one so it could be a rush. Max put my heart in my mouth last night as did one tray visit, howl, nothing but went back in after a few mins and did wee. This morning I think he has weed too. As for food, I took out my stash of old i/d from under the bed (where OH finds them and rolls his eyes!) and his Maxness has eaten 1/4 can this morning..almost. 1/6th anyway. And he's drunk twice. I'm sure there are investigations needed but there is a psychological element too as he is needing so much reassurance. Last night he howled to be let out of the lounge and promptly went and hid under the bed. That was after having such a huge fuss made of him by us both! We are falling over ourselves to fuss and love him, it's just that maybe he is coping less well with Swampy than before. He could also be hiding because he's feeling unwell. I think it's both.
Should get bloods back today. I will ask for periactin, thanks.

got to rush.

Desley (booktigger) · « **Reply #28 on:** May 06, 2009, 07:41:40 AM »

Sorry to hear he is still having problems, but it is common for CRF cats to have urinary issues, I would be tempted to ask the vet for some Cystaid, to help soothe the lining of his bladder. Although you should avoid fish foods due to the magnesium content, as it is all he will eat, I would give it to him regardless, as it is important he eats or you are risking HL, especially as he has already lost so much weight. Periactin can work incredibly well. Has the vet checked his mouth?

Sue P (Paddysmum) · « **Reply #27 on:** May 06, 2009, 07:37:34 AM »

Kate, hoping you can get Max sorted today, bless him. Trying to get cats to eat when they don't want to can be a major undertaking. The only advice I can add to that already given is to try anything and everything, tinned, packets, trays, fresh, cooked and raw, to see what will tempt their appetite. And it may have to be little and often, if all they will eat is a couple of mouthfuls at a time.

Sending hugs for you, Max and Swampy.

bonnielass · « **Reply #26 on:** May 06, 2009, 07:22:01 AM »

Sorry to hear Max is still feeling under the weather,i do hope you can sort him out at the vets and find whats troubling him,will send some positive healing vibes for both Max and Swampy and

for you

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #25 on:** May 05, 2009, 19:35:00 PM »

just heard it may still be the locum tomorrow. I really want him to see his usual vet and get a diagnosis and treatment plan in place.

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #24 on:** May 05, 2009, 18:48:58 PM »

thanks Gillian

I am all at sea. He used to gobble up any fresh chicken but not anymore, no idea why. OH has some beef to munch up tonight so maybe we'll try him with a little of that (but it was cooked in garlic). I'm hoping we can get some more answers tomorrow. I think he should be scanned really, ultrasound, as the vet didn't think he'd need sedation. The problem is he's been off his wet food for a while now. But he drinks a lot and today he had sub cut fluids. Maybe I will have to give him those at home earlier than expected, for his bladder as much as his kidneys? It's all a bit overwhelming with both him and Swampy needing so much care. I was counting on Max being healthy for quite a while as he was in fine shape in his last proper health check in Jan and his April bloods weren't too bad either.

Gillian Harvey · « **Reply #23 on:** May 05, 2009, 17:47:07 PM »

Will he eat plain raw or cooked meats? try adding extra liquid to his meals too.

His pH does sound ok though, so, its likely there is an infection as there was blood in his urine, which the vet is already addressing with the antibiotics.

Crystals usually only cause a problem (like a blockage) when they clump together with other stuff in the bladder - something triggers that clumping, be it an infection, diet, low water intake, stress, etc. I expect you've already got feliway diffusers plugged in? but if not, deffo have one or two of those going.

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #22 on:** May 05, 2009, 17:17:45 PM »

Just heard there are crystals in his urine sample. He won't eat the prescription diet for FLUTD, I'm sure. Are there any other def oks or nos on diet for it? I'm waiting to hear if the locum thinks he should be kept in hospital overnight in case he blocks again. I hope not.

Just been reading about FLUTD. It seems that urine kept a long time can crystallise so it looks like he may have to have another test, especially because the pH was 6, which is apparently not high risk for crystals. Plus, like Desley says, avoid oily fish..that's all he'll eat right now. Help.

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #21 on:** May 05, 2009, 17:02:08 PM »

I've just got back, laden with various tins for Max from PAH and Asda and then the Sainsburys own brand sardines in tomato sauce....only to find that the Hi life tuna flakes I picked only 1 tin of, thinking it's complementary, is actually now a complete food

anyhow I tried him on a hi life ocean whatnot pouch and he ate a square off the plate, that's all. I also bought some chicken pouches and some whiskas senior.
I saw the gourmet gold and wondered what it was. Thanks for the offer, can we see how we get on today, but it's so kind. I may have to go back anyway. I am also supposed to try him on i/d which he used to eat.
I've hidden it all under the bed as OH is going to freak out at the cost of it all and how much we'll have to throw away. But if he hates any one kind, if anyone wants it (pouches) let me know and I'll try to get it to you at some point.
Max has an appointment tomorrow at 9.15am with my usual vet so we'll see. He did do another wee while I was out so I'm hoping and praying the vet last night has unblocked him. If he shows any signs of blockage after 6.30 tonight it's the emergency vets again so pleeeeeeeeease no. They all say it's far too dangerous to leave even until the morning.

pappilon · « **Reply #20 on:** May 05, 2009, 16:24:07 PM »

Aww poor Max and you.

Could you ask your vet for PERIACTIN tablets, its appetite stimulater ! Every time i manage to get 1/2 to Phoebe she starts eating within few hours. My vet says it do no harm to her and she has CRF and H.Thyroid.

Gourmet Gold with ocean fish is very mshy and you can get it from most super markets, if you already done your shoping then pm me your address and i send you some tomorrow , i also got some almo nature today to try for her, i have never tried them before but can send you the salmon one to try for Max?
At the moment i am in the same situation with Phoebe, she is not eating so am trying all different food !

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #19 on:** May 05, 2009, 16:21:59 PM »

The little tins of hi-life turkey and gibblets are not complimentary and are pate and quite smelly, mind ad is very smelly.

Just wondering whether Max is stressed cos of Swampy and cos Swamp gets so much attention?

I so agree with the Italian vet and think Max should be allowed to eat anything he wants at his age.

Janeyk · « **Reply #18 on:** May 05, 2009, 14:27:38 PM »

Will he eat some Whiskas supermeat tuna flavoured? it is very mushy and smelly - Byron enjoyed hers this morning and I know it's not the best of diets but if he will eat it it's something.

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #17 on:** May 05, 2009, 14:14:10 PM »

I'm off now to just load up with whatever I can find that has no chunks. He won't chew. He won't eat blended chunks either. He seems to like smelly fishy food at the moment. He is a nightmare when he is well to get to eat wet food, so when he isn't...oi. Thanks for the help, I'll just see what I can find. The vets said to try whiskas etc senior but think it's all chunks in jelly? They say they've not seen a cat refuse a/d before either. Well he thought it was revolting.
He did come to the kitchen and has produced a poo, so I still live in hope.

My computer fan is so loud I think there's something wrong. Hope I can still get online to Purrs.

Janeyk · « **Reply #16 on:** May 05, 2009, 14:12:39 PM »

I bought Byron some Hi Life pouches at the weekend and she loves them, I was surprised! as she usually just licks foods other than Whiskas supermeat, she gobbled one down so fast last night it came straight back up

Hope Max starts to eat soon poor boy

CC & The Pussycat Guys & Dolls · « **Reply #15 on:** May 05, 2009, 14:10:48 PM »

Aww poor Max

Maybe mushing his food with a little warm water, it will create an aroma

The poor fella must not want to eat cos of his bowel problems.

Gillian Harvey · « **Reply #14 on:** May 05, 2009, 14:06:02 PM »

What about Applaws Kate? its not pate style, but could be worth a try? The Hi Life pouches are complete.

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #13 on:** May 05, 2009, 13:21:05 PM »

There's a locum on duty today. She wanted to keep him in, to see when he ate. I told her he won't eat in hospital, he'll just hunker down so she's sent him home after giving 150ml sub cut fluids, antibiotic injection and taking bloods. She says his bladder's quite empty, which is good.

However I just CAN'T get him to eat. When he came home, he went expectantly to the kitchen looking for food so I opened a can of a/d - nope. So I gave him some sardines (the last bit) and he ate a tiny teaspoon ful then stopped. He then had a play with me and is asleep and seems content. But he's lost an awful lot of weight since January - down from 5.8kgs (too fat but he was eating so well then) to 5.1kgs now.

I'm going to the supermarket later, looking for pate foods as he won't eat chunks and will get more sardines too. Hi life I'll get. Anything else that is irresistable? I'm getting so anxious. The vet said despite the constipation there's not a lot in there to come out. He must eat or will be in hospital on a drip tomorrow.

Does either Asda or PAH have the Hi life? Max has just eaten a small plate of Hi Life tuna (please may it stay down). Is it a whole or complementary food and is it not too bad for him (CRF)? The Italian vet last night said if he is 15, he should get what he likes.

Leanne · « **Reply #12 on:** May 05, 2009, 10:42:51 AM »

Poor Max, lots of vibes for you all

Michelle (furbabystar) · « **Reply #11 on:** May 05, 2009, 10:12:02 AM »

Good luck today xx

Bazsmum · « **Reply #10 on:** May 05, 2009, 10:00:07 AM »

Positive vibes for Max at the vets~~~~~hope he gets well soon!

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #9 on:** May 05, 2009, 09:57:58 AM »

He really won't eat more than a teaspoon of anything so is going to the vet at 11.30. He did a wee in the night but the emerg vet thinks he may block again. He's also constipated, poor little Max. Unsurprisingly he has lost weight too. I don't take notes for Max but think he last ate properly (dry food) on about thursday or friday last week. Sometimes he goes off food so we don't take much notice you see. But the emergency vet made a good point when I said he's often too sleepy to bother to go to the tray -he said is he too sleepy to drink (no) so he needs a check over. He's been off his usual wet food for longer than that. I hope I'm not told to just monitor him, as I've been doing that all weekend. I think he needs full investigation using anything non invasive. The emergency vet said putting in the catheter was so easy as Max just sits there - he freezes and pretends it isn't happening - so it should be possible to scan his tum or bladder without sedation. I don't want him having any sedation if possible. I'm so worried.

Desley (booktigger) · « **Reply #8 on:** May 05, 2009, 07:57:59 AM »

Did they check his blood pressure, as that can cause excessive vocalisation, as can hyper-t. Glad it was nothing too serious and you can find something he will eat - fish can contribute towards urinary problems though.

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2009, 01:11:21 AM »

Poor Max and hope that his prob gets sorted but its not easy.

I have Franta who went through a period of not eating until he was ill this year and the vet tried everything to get him to eat. He is about the same age as Max and is very fussy, moreorless its lick the jelly from felix and eats his biscuits and thats it!

Kocka my first cat refused to eat and would let herself die rather than eat anything she decided she didnt like and she lived on AD diet off my finger for about 3 yaers cos it was the only thing I could guarantee to get into her and she also ate other things she fancied from time to time but it was a nightmare.

I tried all the foods around at the time and had a cupboard stacked with food she had liked once!

My vet said to let her eat anything that she wanted cos to eat is better than not eating.

I would try AD with Max to try and get him eating again and I also found that hi-life turkey and chicken giblets.....its a little tin with yellow on, and is a soft pate type food went down quite well. The others in the series are quite different.

I also resorted to sainsburys pouches and she would like the gravy ones from tesco where she just licked the gravy. In the end she went onto eat whiskers supermeat from tins which was totallt daft as that had been rejected when she ate normally.

Are you sure his teeth are OK?

The shouting is probably hunger and or the start of dementia maybe, Franta is quite shouty too and Kocka suffered from dementia in her last couple of years but she was a moggies and older.

I know Max is a pedigree and I dont know if his bredd is like birmans who on the whole dont live as long as moggies ands other peds.

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2009, 00:54:27 AM »

I feel so bad about moaning about my little Max monster. Tonight he went to the tray 4 times in 1/2 hr, scratched and yelled but didn't produce anything so we went to Vet's Now AH clinic. He had to have an emergency catheter (no anaesthetic) to produce urine. I was so scared as the vet said that he may have to operate if the catheter didn't work. But he got a lot out of Max but he'll have to go to the normal vet in the morning. His urine has some blood in it. The vet he saw was brilliant. He's Italian and a really serious vet. I was scared too we'd see someone lousy on a bank hol night. He knew we'd got lost trying to find the vets so only charged us the before 11pm rate too, despite seeing our Max at 11.30 so I am impressed and will drop him a line to thank him, because OH and I were quite aggressive at first about how we were going to bring Max home tonight and the vet was saying well, I hope you can, but I can't let a cat with a blockage go home or he will die.

We don't know why he was unable to wee as he did wee this morning. The emergency vet also says he has a slight heart murmur. I'm so wired now, I'm probably going to be up all night, but I'm so so glad that I took him. You hear bad things about Vet's Now, but this guy (Davide) was excellent. Poor little Max. His witch of a mum is trying to find a wet food he likes - it looks like I'll have to find some palatable pet junk food as he now won't really eat enough senior food. I don't suppose sardines in tomato sauce is either balanced or has enough water in it. (any suggestions on the food please? nothing high in phosphorus).

I'm so scared though about what may be wrong and what tests my poor little one will need. Both the normal vet and I sort of took Max's health for granted as he had bloods and a health check 2 months ago and was fine (early CRF but otherwise fine). He is 15 1/2 and I suppose sometimes I forget that and focus on Swampy, who is so obviously old and high care.

Sorry to go on. No idea which other cat mums or dads are up at this hour! Please send prayers and/or vibes for Maxi too.
they are in their bed, licking each other. They are so important for each other.

bunglycat · « **Reply #5 on:** May 04, 2009, 21:19:00 PM »

I know how you feel - i am having problems with Winston at the moment .
I open a sachet -eats a couple of mouthfuls and then off he goes . Later on he comes for food again -he wont eat what he left , so i open another one and he either ignores it completely ( depending on how he feels!!) and goes off again or just has another few mouthfuls and comes back again a couple of hours later .
I have been opening about 5-6 sachets a day ( none of the others are keen on felix ) .
I have enough food left at the end of the day to feed another 6 cats !!
Its his birthday on wednesday and he will be 11.
He has got a nice bit of cod loin for tea- bet he doesn;t leave that !!!

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #4 on:** May 04, 2009, 21:13:17 PM »

We have a battle of wits. Max has eaten a mouthful of dry but otherwise is holding out. I'll give him some wet food later but I'm sure he'll just ignore it. He's getting worse as he gets older. I KNOW he's hungry too.
This morning after his plate of sardines (which he licked clean) I gave him a little more....no I won't have any...then goes just into the passage, stares at me and yells his head off.
I'm going to try lactulose too as with an empty tum, I think he may eat more. OH is getting fed up at all the food we have to throw away or leave out for the fat foxes.

Kay and Penny · « **Reply #3 on:** May 04, 2009, 12:34:34 PM »

I had a Siamese who loved liver, but would eat hardly anything else - so I used to boil up a small amount of lambs liver in water, and then mash her cat food with the liver water

I found if it smelt of liver she would eat it - most cats love liver so you could try this as a last resort - it isn't expensive

bonnielass · « **Reply #2 on:** May 04, 2009, 10:30:57 AM »

Oh dear Kate im sorry to hear that your having this problem with Max, Eddie my oldie (17 ) is a real picky eater,he will tuck into turkey or chicken and occassionally a bit of tuna/sardines but he refuses point blank to eat cat food and would rather go without so i know where your coming from,i could scream sometimes as i know hes hungry but he wont touch it,i do get him raw turkey mince from the supermarket and he will eat that for a day then refuses that also its a battle of wits as to what he will eat ,he does like RC biscuits but if he had his way he would live on chicken all the time, my other oldie George (19) will eat anything and everything thank goodness, I do hope you can find a solution to this for Max

swampmaxmum · « **Reply #1 on:** May 04, 2009, 10:13:46 AM »

Max is 15 1/2. He's recently started to get constipated. He gets lactulose which sometimes works well, but sometimes he sicks it up (even if I give it slowly). He goes demented if I give him katalax so lactulose is better. Max isn't like Swampy in that he's a lot more nervous about everything, especially vets. So I try to sort him out at home.
He's been refusing to eat his normal food for a few days, only eating a bit of dry when utterly starving. Totally refusing anything but a nibble at his senior turkey or chicken food (wet) which he would normally eat ok.
I'm used to him being fussy, but this is different. It's a real battle of wits. I don't think he is ill as he did try to lick my chicken curry plate!

Yesterday in desperation - he cries a lot in hunger although won't eat - I gave him 1/3 little tin of sainsburys sardines in tomato sauce which he loved. Then not more so he ate a tiny bit of dry last night and this morning an equally tiny bit of chicken wet food (I mean a teaspoon). Apparently he's not supposed to only eat sardines all the time or as his only food and I know he'll go off them anyhow as that's what he does.

I know a lot of you live with oldies who are picky eaters but I've not had this problem before. My old cats in Cape Town ate chicken and fish (no fancy cat foods out there then) and Swampy eats his k/d without complaint so far. How do I balance Max's emotional hunger striking with his need to eat? Should I give him the sardines once a day and then leave him to eat other, better food when he's desperate. The noise level gets quite bad!
I will ask the vet but any advice would be really appreciated.

Author Topic: RIP baby Max: PLEASE READ UPDATE THREAD (Read 72663 times)