Metacam for an elderly arthritic cat - your experiences please?

bacardi66

Unbelievably after a week of offering chicken, prawns, every variety of gourmet catfood you can think of which he just ignored - he has finally eaten! I just went to Pets at Home on a last ditch attempt to find something to tempt him and one of the things I picked up was a tin of their Ever So Mousse with sole - well Ive never smelt anything as revolting in my life but he ate over half a tin that's more than he's eaten in a week! So I will wait and see what happens next.....

Gold_Dust_2

Woohoo! Maybe the stimulant is finally kicking in or maybe he just has bad taste in food, whatever it is - congrats!

Gold_Dust_2

How is it going?

bacardi66

Gold_Dust wrote: »

How is it going?

Ah thank you so much for asking. No real change really - he will eat a bit of food maybe a couple of tablespoons a day, I haven't given him the metacam on days when he has barely eaten and although he had two doses of the stimulant I think he spat most of it out!

Ive been encouraging him to go outside and he did sit in the garden for a bit yesterday.

He really has changed though over the past few weeks, he used to polish off two sachets of catfood a day and a good portion of Royal Canin dried food. Activity wise he used to be in and out through the catflap several times a day as well.

I think that he could be nearing the end but as he still seems to have some quality of life I will see how things go in the next few days. It is heartbreaking though - I've had him for nearly 20 years and he has been the most loving and well behaved cat.

Gold_Dust_2

Oh no . It's good that he went out, but his intake isn't so good. Have you asked the vet about trying the Hills a/d? It packs a punch, so even if he eats a little of that it'll do him some good. Have you thought about assist feeding? Syringe feeding, basically.

20 years..wow. That's a nice long life .

bacardi66

Gold_Dust wrote: »

Oh no . It's good that he went out, but his intake isn't so good. Have you asked the vet about trying the Hills a/d? It packs a punch, so even if he eats a little of that it'll do him some good. Have you thought about assist feeding? Syringe feeding, basically.

20 years..wow. That's a nice long life .

Im going to ring the vet tomorrow and see what they think - I have been hand feeding him bits of food and if I put the food under his nose he will eat a bit. I don't think he would appreciate syringe feeding - I tried it with water and he got very annoyed and turned his back on me

He has had a lovely long life Ive been incredibly lucky that he is nearly 20 and has never had any real health problems until now - I just want to do the best by him. His brother died suddenly from heart failure 5 years ago so I never had to make any decisions at the end of his life.

Thanks for asking Gold Dust how is your boy doing?

Gold_Dust_2

Haha, they do know how to confound us! His poor brother, that must have been horrible. Well he's in good hands .

My cat is eating OK, thanks for asking. Slowing down noticeably but gently, he's not going downhill too badly. The vet has estimated a month for him, so he's going to get spoiled rotten for sure.

bacardi66

Gold_Dust wrote: »

Oh no . It's good that he went out, but his intake isn't so good. Have you asked the vet about trying the Hills a/d? It packs a punch, so even if he eats a little of that it'll do him some good. Have you thought about assist feeding? Syringe feeding, basically.

20 years..wow. That's a nice long life .

Gold Dust thank you so much for your recommendation - I went to the vet today and got some Hills a/d - she suggested I mix it with some warm water to make it more like a paste - and he lapped it up! Im so happy that he is eating something other than lick e lix and the odd prawn! I had a chat with the vet about his options and she said to give him another week and if he doesn't pick up then to think about having him PTS as she thinks he might have cancer which they haven't detected. So it will be a week of Hills a/d and Metacam to see how he goes.

Im glad to hear your boy is bearing up ok - I'm sure like mine he is being spoilt at every opportunity

Gold_Dust_2

I'm so happy to hear that it helped, and that he's eating some real food! That stuff is really good, so even if he eats a little of it he'll benefit. I hope he rallies for you.

Gold_Dust_2

Hi Bacardi, how goes it?