It's a cat food question
July 21, 2015 2:29 PM Subscribe
My question is essentially what is the best food option for an elderly cat with tooth problems (and potentially digestive as well)? And the caveats are that this is in the UK, on a limited budget, and the owner is both somewhat frail (so labour-intensive options are out) and stubbornly determined that she knows best - so I'm looking for personal experience and online resources/guidelines that I can present in the most straightforward manner.
Background - I've been away from home for a few years and my mother lives alone with our cat, who is around 18 years old by now. When we took him to the vet the last time I was back around 3 months ago it turned out that he has very bad build-up behind his teeth and also a heart murmur which makes surgery inadvisable. So I asked if that meant it would be better for him to be fed softer food and the vet agreed - but I just went home to visit them and discovered my mother had interpreted that as soaking dry cat biscuits in water - which is obviously absurd. She had tried him on pouched food but that gave him diarrhoea so she's rather resistant to trying that again. When I visited I gave him some tinned sardines and cold chicken - but I don't know if that is a sensible course to recommend to her?
My mother really does mean well and loves him but does have a tendency to get caught up in slightly bizarre opinions and become defensive when she perceives them to be attacked - and I'm just feeling a little lost as to what to say - and obviously very concerned about the cat (he has been losing weight and energy at a disturbing enough rate already over the last few years).
Note. I've given these details for context but I'm mainly just looking for factual advice - I'll be passing it on to my mother's friends that live close by and who I think she'll listen to and can keep an eye on the situation - but I want to be sure that I'm giving the best opinion I can. And certainly if sorting out a better diet doesn't make a difference I will be taking him back to the vet of course.
Background - I've been away from home for a few years and my mother lives alone with our cat, who is around 18 years old by now. When we took him to the vet the last time I was back around 3 months ago it turned out that he has very bad build-up behind his teeth and also a heart murmur which makes surgery inadvisable. So I asked if that meant it would be better for him to be fed softer food and the vet agreed - but I just went home to visit them and discovered my mother had interpreted that as soaking dry cat biscuits in water - which is obviously absurd. She had tried him on pouched food but that gave him diarrhoea so she's rather resistant to trying that again. When I visited I gave him some tinned sardines and cold chicken - but I don't know if that is a sensible course to recommend to her?
My mother really does mean well and loves him but does have a tendency to get caught up in slightly bizarre opinions and become defensive when she perceives them to be attacked - and I'm just feeling a little lost as to what to say - and obviously very concerned about the cat (he has been losing weight and energy at a disturbing enough rate already over the last few years).
Note. I've given these details for context but I'm mainly just looking for factual advice - I'll be passing it on to my mother's friends that live close by and who I think she'll listen to and can keep an eye on the situation - but I want to be sure that I'm giving the best opinion I can. And certainly if sorting out a better diet doesn't make a difference I will be taking him back to the vet of course.
Don't use bullion cubes. They have too much salt.
posted by parmanparman at 2:51 PM on July 21, 2015
posted by parmanparman at 2:51 PM on July 21, 2015
Catinfo.org is the bible of cat nutrition. It's VERY extensive, so here's the short[er] version (pdf). Here's a page (pdf) on transitioning a cat from dry food to wet food - basically, if the cat doesn't like the wet food or has diarrhea, you need to transition slowly, but it doesn't mean that the cat won't eventually adjust to the new food.
posted by insectosaurus at 2:53 PM on July 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by insectosaurus at 2:53 PM on July 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
Tinned fish is great if you can get them in oil or water, the brine ones will be too much salt.
Chicken is definitely good! At that age it's often about getting them to eat at all, so if he has an appetite for anything I think that's good (or at least this is what I've been told by the vet about my 18y old cat).
They said any fish or meat is fine, as long as there is some variety.
posted by symphonicknot at 2:57 PM on July 21, 2015
Chicken is definitely good! At that age it's often about getting them to eat at all, so if he has an appetite for anything I think that's good (or at least this is what I've been told by the vet about my 18y old cat).
They said any fish or meat is fine, as long as there is some variety.
posted by symphonicknot at 2:57 PM on July 21, 2015
My 14-year-old cat loves this frozen white fish pet food. It's marketed as 'dog food' but it's made of minced fish and nothing else so it's perfect for cats. I have a tupperware that's exactly the right size for a block and I defrost it in the fridge. I give her small portions, about a tablespoon per meal, and she pretty much inhales it. It's a great source of protein. You can buy it at Pets at Home.
I think this might be a good option for your mum's cat. It's really easy to eat, very soft, and my cat, at least, finds it irresistible.
posted by essexjan at 2:58 PM on July 21, 2015
I think this might be a good option for your mum's cat. It's really easy to eat, very soft, and my cat, at least, finds it irresistible.
posted by essexjan at 2:58 PM on July 21, 2015
Obviously the cat is not geared to protein but he needs it. I suggest you do something kind of unorthodox and do beef or chicken broth as a separate meal between dry food, which is causing the buildup of plaque that you cat won't drink enough water to deal with. You could find a cheap slow cooker and getting bones, pigs feet, or even using bones from your mom's cooking will provide the fuel. It will provide a small amount of protein but also much needed moisture to help the cat clear plaque. He might pee more and his poop might be more smelly.
Every store bought broth I've seen has onions and/or garlic, both of which are deadly to cats.
Transitioning to wet food is difficult, but it is better for them.
posted by ridogi at 6:19 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Every store bought broth I've seen has onions and/or garlic, both of which are deadly to cats.
Transitioning to wet food is difficult, but it is better for them.
posted by ridogi at 6:19 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
My 19 3/4 yo cat and I are in a very similar situation. My cat had always been free-fed Whiskas dry food (Senior formula since she was 7) and she is in pretty good nick except for a slight heart murmur, arthritis in her back end and bad back teeth. I transitioned her to soft wet food when the vet gave us a free sample of Royal Canin wet food (NZS5 per meal), along with the hint to add a bit of water to make it into a porridge-like consistency. I saw first hand how Milly immediately abandoned her dry food for the wet food and I felt terrible about how painful it must have been for her to crunch through all those meals on a bad tooth.
What I do now is to buy Whiskas Chicken in Gravy pouch food (~$2 per meal) and then I puree it in a mini (~500ml) food processor with a tablespoon of water for a minute - otherwise Milly would just lick up all the gravy and leave the food chunks. When she was trying to live off the gravy alone, her urine became too dilute for the vet to see if her kidneys were working properly. But once it is pureed, her USG moved into the normal range. She has always been a petite cat but she is maintaining her 2.2-2.3kg weight range on this diet.
posted by Pigpen at 6:37 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
What I do now is to buy Whiskas Chicken in Gravy pouch food (~$2 per meal) and then I puree it in a mini (~500ml) food processor with a tablespoon of water for a minute - otherwise Milly would just lick up all the gravy and leave the food chunks. When she was trying to live off the gravy alone, her urine became too dilute for the vet to see if her kidneys were working properly. But once it is pureed, her USG moved into the normal range. She has always been a petite cat but she is maintaining her 2.2-2.3kg weight range on this diet.
posted by Pigpen at 6:37 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have a too-late-for-the-edit-window correction to my comment above: the Whiskas Chicken in Gravy is NZ$2-2.30 per FOUR pack of 85g pouches (from the supermarket), so more like 50-60c per meal. Much more budget friendly, obviously!
Also cats are prone to intestinal upset when their diets are in changeover, so I wouldn't read too much into the diarrhoea , unless it persisted for too long. When I first started pureeing pouch food for Milly, I used the Whiskas Tuna in Sauce flavour selection exclusively, reasoning that fish oils=good for an arthritic cat. She had a few runny stools, so the vet suggested I try chicken, which resolved the problem..
posted by Pigpen at 1:14 AM on July 22, 2015
Also cats are prone to intestinal upset when their diets are in changeover, so I wouldn't read too much into the diarrhoea , unless it persisted for too long. When I first started pureeing pouch food for Milly, I used the Whiskas Tuna in Sauce flavour selection exclusively, reasoning that fish oils=good for an arthritic cat. She had a few runny stools, so the vet suggested I try chicken, which resolved the problem..
posted by Pigpen at 1:14 AM on July 22, 2015
I'm going through exactly the same thing right now with my 15-year-old cat. He's been free-fed Purina Cat Chow his whole life, but bad teeth were causing him to not eat much. Then he would "supplement" his diet with grass and bugs and whatever from outside, and vomit all over the place. Lovely.
I've tried a bunch of things, and what seems to work best is a can or two of any chicken-and-liver wet food (quality/brand/price doesn't seem to matter), supplemented with a feeder full of Iams Proactive Health Digestive Care. I'm now going to experiment with mixing in a little water--he seems to have trouble getting to the bits that stick in the corners of his bowl.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:52 AM on July 22, 2015
I've tried a bunch of things, and what seems to work best is a can or two of any chicken-and-liver wet food (quality/brand/price doesn't seem to matter), supplemented with a feeder full of Iams Proactive Health Digestive Care. I'm now going to experiment with mixing in a little water--he seems to have trouble getting to the bits that stick in the corners of his bowl.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:52 AM on July 22, 2015
I don't have elderly cats, but my cats are fed on the Nature's Menu frozen raw cat cubes.
Each box has about 67 cubes, retails at my local shop for around £2.45 per box, and I feed my cats about 22 cubes per day.
It's basically raw chicken and duck/rabbit that is packed into handy frozen cubes. I defrost them in the fridge before I feed them, and they come out very soft when defrosted. Shouldn't be a problem for an elderly cat with teeth problems. They do have some small bits of bone, but overall raw food is the best and easiest for cats to digest, and my cats love them.
posted by the_wintry_mizzenmast at 3:49 AM on July 23, 2015
Each box has about 67 cubes, retails at my local shop for around £2.45 per box, and I feed my cats about 22 cubes per day.
It's basically raw chicken and duck/rabbit that is packed into handy frozen cubes. I defrost them in the fridge before I feed them, and they come out very soft when defrosted. Shouldn't be a problem for an elderly cat with teeth problems. They do have some small bits of bone, but overall raw food is the best and easiest for cats to digest, and my cats love them.
posted by the_wintry_mizzenmast at 3:49 AM on July 23, 2015
Take care in feeding large amounts of fish to a cat! Fish can be a significant source of food allergies in cats, perhaps because it's not a prey that the original wild cats would've ever encountered in the desert. My cat LOVES fish cat food, but he always vomits it up explosively. If you do feed fish, stick with commercial cat food fish, which has thiamine added; plain fish diets a la canned tuna can give cats thiamine deficiency.
The ideal cat food is usually one close in nutritional value to a small bird or mouse. Poultry like chicken or duck and small mammals like rabbit are both widely available in cat food.
posted by nicebookrack at 9:51 AM on July 23, 2015
The ideal cat food is usually one close in nutritional value to a small bird or mouse. Poultry like chicken or duck and small mammals like rabbit are both widely available in cat food.
posted by nicebookrack at 9:51 AM on July 23, 2015
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posted by parmanparman at 2:41 PM on July 21, 2015