Need food help

My civie Peanut has a mass in her chest cavity. We are going to the UofMN on tuesday for them to look at her and plan for going in and taking it out. The problem is that she feels crappier by the day and now only wants food she can lap up, doesn't want to eat any chunks. We are currently watering down the food really well so she laps up the juices, but each day she seems to want less and less.

My question is - can she get enough nutrients out of that? If we go to something like baby food or cream so she can get more calories, will she be ok without full feline nutrition until the Tues appointment?

I will be looking for some gravier foods today and need to talk to the vet again about pain meds, but I don't think she wants to start anything so close to going to the U. P is currently refusing to eat her lasix pill pocket, but I think if we get it into her mouth she'll chew it.

 

What about using a hand blender and liquifying her canned food? This way you can use less water and still get the consistency.

 

Will Peanut tolerate syringe feeding? I not infrequently have to syringe feed two of mine since they do not ant to eat enough by themselves.

 

I've thought of syringe feeding, but was concerned about the WHY of her only wanted the liquid, know what I mean? If its because it really hurts, how much do I force the issue? Will lapping up the juices and maybe some more gravy be enough to get us to Tues or do we force the issue because she NEEDS more?

I did try blending some wellness core because it seems smoother, but no luck. Her energy when she is awake seems good, increasing day by day actually. But the periods of activity are relatively short. She get excited about the food and seems to want to eat, but then just laps.

 

You could try some NutriCal, it's a paste, similar to hairball remedy. Depending on where the mass is, maybe it's hitting something in her belly that's making it hurt to eat. Is she blocked in any way? Still pooping? Any vomitting after she eats?

 

If she seems interested in food, but does not consume...then there is probably pain.

Either mouth pain or swallowing pain.

 

Is NutriCal something I find at PetSmart type stores or pet specialty or vet? She is definitely interested in food. I just tried baby food and FF gravy lovers and she liked the baby food until she got a taste of the gravy lover's and then she licked two bowls of that free of gravy and keeps looking for more.

Talked to vet and she is going to give us a low dose pain med and some AD food today to see if the she will eat that with the appy stimulants in it. I know its not the highest quality of food, but anything in her is better than nothing. It also looks to be 13% carbs on the Binky charts so even though its not the best for Smokey, if she gets into it I don't have to worry too much.

The mass doesn't seem to be close enough to the stomach to interfere with that, but it may putting some pressure on areas between her mouth and stomach so getting the food to go through there may be causing pain. The biggest interference is with on of her lungs, which in turn is making her right side of her heart work harder.

It very frustrating to see her have more energy and seem to be feeling better, yet going the wrong way on food. I just want them to get it out of her so she can feel better again. Stinkin' long holiday weekend :cry:

 

Don't know if this will work for you, but we syringe-feed canned Wellness turkey (and ocassionally, Wellness chicken). We don't blend it, but add a tsp of water to an ounce of food and then push it through a small food strainer - looks like this. We add a couple of tsps more water after it's gone through the strainer just to make it soupier, since she needs the hydration as well. I'm not sure this step is necessary if you're just letting her lap it up instead of syringing; you could evaluate and add some water if you think it's needed. The strained food will be of thickish consistency, very lap-able, and not chunky at all (can't be chunky or we can't draw it up the food syringe, and I manage to draw all of it up).

 

I like the strainer idea, I may try that for Lilly Grace.

I buy NutriCal from my vet. It's not a script thing, they have it on the counter for sale. I haven't checked other places for it.

 

I have some Gravy Lovers sitting on the counter in a strainer just like that ;-) I will try it with some of her other food too, see if we can get something besides gravy into her though I don't think the extra calories are bad. She's fine with the extra water since she's on Lasix she is drinking more.

I may ask for some syringes for feeding when I pick up the pain meds just in case she gets less interested in food over the long weekend.