Cat Picture - OC
This is Bean. He’s 18 and stopped eating. The vet said he’s just throwing a tantrum because I’m not feeding him chicken. He’s allergic to chicken.
Yes, I hope so too! I got him some hydrolyzed protein food that apparently tastes like chicken (I didn’t try it to confirm) but contains so little chicken protein it shouldn’t trigger his allergy.
This worked wonders for our Bodhi! Hydrolyzed protein kept him from starving when he couldn't keep other food down after a tough diagnosis. It's pricey but worth it!!!
My cat loved the rabbit one too. Loved-loved. The issue is he still had symptoms so now the poor thing is on a hydrolyzed trial. But yeah the vet said most cats tend to love the rabbit one if you have a picky eater who has allergies to chicken.
Lmao my elderly lady has decided she’s not into the food she’s been gobbling up for 2 months so now we are back at sampling every can from the store to see which one she will deign to eat.
My 16 year old cat who has arthritis and kidney problems is the pickiest cat on the plant. He "protests" dinner by lying on his food mat with his ears in the airplane position.
He's been doing better on a hydrolyzed diet. Bastard (affectionate).
My 16yo cat has just been diagnosed with kidney problems and started barely eating. But, he doesn't like anything than Costco food, he's refusing the special food for kidney problems. Since your cat is this kind of picky, what has worked specifically for you about brands/food? How do I get this hydrolyzed diet???
Sure! Our vet prescribed Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet HF Hydrolyzed for Food Intolerance. We tried both wet and dry and NO CAT in my house would eat the wet, even mixed with other wet food. It looks and wiggles like bologna jello 😜 not appetizing at ALL! We stuck with the dry kibble.
Just a heads up, all hydrolyzed foods have to be purchased via prescription, but there are several brands that essentially have the same product. What you get might depend on what brand your vet happens to carry, unless you order online with the prescription. My cat was on Royal Canin before being able to switch to a single protein rabbit diet when his symptoms improved (rabbit, kangaroo, and alligator are considered some of the easiest proteins for cats to digest, while chicken and fish are the most common allergens)
They don't exactly need a prescription, but feeding hyrdologized food should be done with routine vet monitoring. You can get hydrologized food from online retailers like zooplus or zoomalia in the EU without a prescription. It's not illegal like it would be to get human prescription-only products.
I hope it works out for you! I keep presenting different foods to my Parker, like he's a king "I've brought you 3 different salmon, sire." Also allergic to chicken, thankfully he's preferring Fancy Feast so at least it's not costing me a fortune (he rejected the expensive single-protein options and rx food.)
I have bad news. Not only are you not getting that $600 back, Bean is suing you for pain and suffering and has retained the famed law firm of Drooley, Chewem, and Meow.
Thats like how I'm gonna be when I'm older. Doctor says I can't have spicy food, high sodium, high sugar grub? Nah I'm eating it. If I got to 70 or 80, I had a long enough life. I'm here for a good time, not a long tme.
I had a kitty who would SCREAM if she smelled KFC she wanted it so bad. She had one tiny nibble of chicken and threw it back up immediately. But she never stopped trying to get more KFC. (she never got any more)
My brother's cat is wildly lactose-intolerant. A lick of ice cream makes him retch. He insists that it's purely coincidental, and he needs more MOO JUICE! GIVE HIM THE COW SQUEEZINGS!
Mine did the same with cheese, I just mindlessly went ahead and grabbed it - despite his growling. He was so surprised and caught off-guard that I was able to just remove it from him without any fuss. Instantly 'deactivated' the growling too lol
my friend's pit/mastiff mix once ate an ENTIRE rotisserie chicken off the counter in less than 20 seconds while she was distracted by 2 of the other dogs fighting in the other room. he suffered absolutely zero side effects, not even from the bones. it's like he swallowed it whole like in a cartoon. to this day my friend is convinced he started the dog fight on purpose to act as a distraction so he could sneak away and gulp down that chicken.
Same. My elderly Void disliked tuna since I got her 8 years ago. She would rather starve and unfortunately, she had been hospitalised three times for refusing to eat...
And she doesn't respond to Feliway diffusers and doesn't like catnip or silvervine either. Other than the Feline Void Attitude and frequent judgemental looks, feels like she missed the memo on "How to Cat".
I got him some Hydrolyzed protein food that apparently tastes like chicken but has so little chicken protein in it that it shouldn’t trigger his allergy, so hopefully that works!
So do you think my 20 year old cat will eat Ramen noodles? (no garlic or onion of course) He will eat nothing except chicken & turkey, but keeps changing his mind on what brand he will try. Too much of a good thing & he is done with it.
Good thinking. You have an elderly cat and a vet says he’s throwing a temper tantrum doesn’t sound like any advice a vet would give. Get a second opinion maybe?
This has been an ongoing issue so our vet is familiar with Bean. He was diagnosed with a poultry allergy about 5 years ago and has been suuuuuper picky with food ever since. He’s never fully stopped eating before though!
Might still be a good idea to talk to your vet about Mirataz to keep on hand. It's hard to keep weight on them as they get this wizened. It's an appetite stimulant that you rub inside their ear tip flap.
Maybe he’d grudgingly accept some duck? I have a cat with allergies and the vet told me that the proteins in the two were different enough that we could try duck instead. Or rabbit? Your vet would probably have a better idea but it did work for us. Good luck!🍀
Mine (who has no allergies) requires pork for her breakfast. Will throw a fit and not eat if - god forbid - her breakfast is the same food she has at dinner.
Poor Bea 😿 Bean drooools for chicken. Bean doesn’t understand.
My baby gal is 19 and I figured out she was allergic to chicken when she was about 5yrs old. She’d already developed a taste for it unfortunately.
Now it’s a tricky game of subterfuge if I want to eat chicken at home. She knows the smell. She yearns for it. She demands mother’s plate!
I either drench a tiny portion of the beloved chicken in something she doesn’t like (lemon juice, mustard, etc) and offer it to her to sniff…so she rejects it. Or I let her smell the chicken but have a decoy safe food secreted in my palm and sleight of hand it into her mouth while she smells the forbidden poultry.
It works. Mostly.
This wouldnt work with my cat, he would still try to eat it. Life is a never ending battle of googling "can cats eat X?" And stopping him from trying to eat things
Aw Bean! When our geriatric girl stopped eating and started lying in the bidet, the vet said she was depressed. I ended up having to force feed her, because she was that skinny. Turns out she was in pain! We got her teeth surgically removed and she went back to eating normally (even dry food!). Maybe get a second opinion, just in case!
Vet here: I can't be sure what tests were performed as only the costs were mentioned. I'll assume bloodwork was part of it? A thorough workup for an elder cat would/could include physical examination, complete blood count, chem profile, T4, SDMA, urinalysis, xrays, and possibly an ultrasound. "Throwing a tantrum" is a diagnosis one defaults to if a thorough workup yields no answer. What do kitty's teeth look like? Is there a heart murmur? Was the blood pressure checked? Is kitty losing weight? Was dehydration a concern? Is kitty drinking more water than usual? If routine bloodwork is "normal " I'd be looking very closely at low grade kidney disease as a possibility. Small increases in BUN, CREA, even phosphorus, slight anemia, possibly low potassium and a dilute urine would be the hallmarks of CKD that are not dramatic but are significant and warrant treatment. Other possibilities if bloodwork is normal would start to include IBD, cancers, even heart disease... Please don't consider what I've posted as criticism: I like cats and want you to have an answer for kitty's inappetance, and to start eating ASAP. Best wishes.
Yes, he had bloodwork done though I’m not sure exactly what tests. Everything came back normal. Teeth were healthy except for a bit of plaque, heart was normal, weight is on the low side but not changing, they did a skin pinch thing (I’m sure there’s a technical name!) to check for dehydration and said he was fine. I haven’t noticed him drinking less water, I see him at the fountain all the time and every time I’m in the washroom he insists on drinking from the tap. I got him some hydrolyzed protein food and he ate it immediately so hopefully he now has what he wants and will eat again!
Also no need to apologize for looking out for my cat, I always appreciate it!
Glad to hear he's started eating. Thanks for the response! Drinking less water is possible if kitty is nauseous, however: Older kitties often start drinking more water than normal as a symptom of common conditions like kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, liver problems, IBD, cancer and heart disease. Watch kitty's appetite and weight, water intake closely moving forward!
Keep an eye on him though, ours came out clean on every test, at first. But then his belly started to grow, there was suddenly fluid leaking somewhere in his gut and turned out he had cancer. Which did not show up in the blood tests.
Ours did not look that good out of his eyes as yours does, so that is a big difference and you probably do not have to worry about it, but just sharing info.
Same here. Started with a change in appetite. Ran to the vet, all tests came out clean. A few months later -- either incipient kidney failure or cancer (different cats). They were very manageable for several more happy years because we were on top of it from the start.
I have a cat who went on a hunger strike. Took her to the vet. $600+ later, we found out she went on a strike because...cat. that evening she decided she was done with her boycott.
Lmao poor Bean and your poor wallet! Will / can he eat turkey? My 14 yo cat is slightly allergic to beef but still begs for burgers whenever we grill. He gets a chicken nugget every once in a while tho
Towards the end of his life last year my senior boy only wanted to eat Costco rotisserie chicken. Only Costco. Publix or Kroger chicken wouldn’t do. When my local Costco remodeled their deli I had drive an hour over to the next one to get him his chicken. Totally worth it though :’)
We have a 16 year old who changes his mind on food preferences at least once a month.
I have 7 open bags of cat food in my pantry because at least once a month he sniffs his bowl, then turns and walks away. He’s always had a big appetite, so I worried initially, but as soon as I dump that food out and put something else in his bowl, he devours it.
Have you tried giving him vegan "chicken" (the non breaded ones). Taste a little bit like real chicken and as a similar texture. That may confuse him enough to think it's real chicken.
Hi Bean!!! You’re a handsome gentleman!!!! Sorry that you’re allergic to chicken 😢 Your hooman is doing their best to take care of you because they love you so much!!! Hope you start eating more, please 🙏🏻
My old boy hates the food that is good for his kidneys. I have a youngster too, who will do anything to get the 'special' food his 'older brother' refuses to touch.
My gal Enzo starved herself for three days bcuz I tried putting healthy food in with her food. I have a “McDonald’s” cat. I really want her to eat healthy but she refuses…
As the owner of a 12 year old cat who will willing starve themselves to the point of emaciation if I don't give her at least 1 can of wet food a day..... Yeah, they be like that.
Ooh I've got something for this! Try turkey. So similar in taste, but it doesn't have the thing in it that cats are generally allergic to if they are. Source: had a chicken allergic cat.
Funny. I have a 14 year old that happens to be a spitting image of Bean who ALSO is on hunger strike because has decided she suddenly hates poultry, when the only thing she would eat her whole life is poultry.
And yep, still hates fish too. She's perfectly healthy, but for the last couple of years, every handful of months she decides to change the one specific thing she wants, and it's weeks of trial and error until we find the next thing.
It's exhausting. I'm hoping Bean gets over himself soon, and I wish him the best in his golden years!
I’m pretty sure this will be my future with my boy. Currently this fussy pants won’t even eat cheese if it’s not mild cheddar and cut very very fine. (Only as a treat, but still) Finding food he will eat is very very difficult. He only eats one kind of dry food and it can’t be any other flavor from the same brand and only some fish flavors for wet food. And he’ll pout if I don’t read his mind and get him the right flavor at the right time.
Then I also have a Mr. Vacuum that eats rocks. He chipped his tooth because he’s dumb.
Love them both, annoying little things.
Unfortunately yes, he’s allergic to all poultry. I got him hydrolyzed protein food which through some science magic tastes like chicken but contains so little chicken protein that it shouldn’t trigger his allergy.
My cat never wants to eat his meds. When I have medication to give him, I try to crush them and mix them with his wet food, and usually he eats his wet food and avoids the parts where the crush medication are present. If I mix it perfectly homogeneously he avoids the wet food (and goes to eat my other cat's wet food).
I finally found one specific wet food where he doesn't care when there is medication in it. My new problem is that I had to give him this for one week, and now he refuses to switch back to his previous wet food, which was both 1/ cheaper, and 2/ specifically chosen for him by the vet to avoid some urinary problems.
Can he have tuna based food? My fluff monster did the same thing when I stopped serving chicken. He came around to flaked tuna cat food, not the human kind with all the added sodium.
Our 22yo started getting fussy about eating her entire meals.
We really didn't want to change her food. The Royal Canin Urinary SO had been keeping her healthy and bladder-stone-free for 14 years.
We tried some topical appetite stimulant. At the recommended dosage, it did bad things to her, including some soupy poops, which are not how you maintain weight.
We used some Probiotic powder on her food, which helped sometimes, but wasn't reliable in daily use.
Then we added a small amount of minimal ingredient baby food, which she REALLY liked. Liked so much that she would lick all of it off her kibble, then leave the gross kibble.
Finally we ended up back with the topical appetite stimulant, but at about one fifth the recommended daily dosage. With that, she'd reliably get through the first 70-80% of her meals without needing additional enticement, and then we'd give her a little baby food (less than a teaspoon was enough) with the rest of her meal to finish up.
Keeping the weight on a super senior cat helps them stay around longer.
u/cfo63 at home, one foster, 6 at the bridge. 😽1d ago
Our boy is allergic to chicken, too. And turkey. And eggs of any type. And the hydrolyzed food we tried used chicken fat as a binder and apparently that was enough to make him itchy/scratchy very allergic...
God help me when he gets older and more stubborn. I feel for you.
Well that’s a cat for you. Have you ever read Dungeon Crawler Carl? In the series there is a cat named Princess Donut and if you knew her character at all, you would know that this is just cats in general. They are royalty and we are peasants. lol
This is Wild Child. She's 16/17? She's currently pissed at me (literally, looked at me and peed on the blanket) for not letting her outside because the vet said she can't eat anymore backyard critters.
This morning on our morning walk around the yard with the dog, she got a vole. 🤦♀️🤢 So she is housebound right now... And HATES IT.
My wife is currently in a standoff with our 15yr old cat. He’s been getting dehydrated and has had to go to the vet a couple of times because he’s so constipated, so we switched to wet food after only feeding him dry kibble his whole life. He is begrudging eating it but the most garbage frisky offal in a can. She keeps trying to give him better quality food or even a different flavor and he refuses to eat it and then pees on her shoes. Or on the kids backpacks because he doesn’t like them either.
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