What to feed an elderly cat

Hello my cats are 10 now. Recently the male cat has been sick a few times after food. He had a scan and test at the vet and they were all ok the vet just said he's probably eaten something from outside that upset his tummy.

I feed them some chicken in the morning. Then they have a pouch at dinner and then again at tea time. Then just before bed time they have some science plan biscuits.

Basically I want to know if I'm feeding them correctly and If there's anything I should do to avoid my male cat getting an upset tummy and being sick?

Thanks in advance!!

Laura

Hello my cats are 10 now. Recently the male cat has been sick a few times after food. He had a scan and test at the vet and they were all ok the vet just said he's probably eaten something from outside that upset his tummy.

 

I feed them some chicken in the morning. Then they have a pouch at dinner and then again at tea time. Then just before bed time they have some science plan biscuits.

 

Basically I want to know if I'm feeding them correctly and If there's anything I should do to avoid my male cat getting an upset tummy and being sick?

Thanks in advance!!

 

Laura

I have a Persian that's 13 years old went off his food and started to get skinny he has had a monthly check up at the vets for years as he is a much loved cat the vet performed all the usual checks urine, all the bloods etc all came back clear so decided to change his food to Felix As Good as it looks Senior variety woofs it down and putting on weight again so I would say change his brand of food.

Yep, I'm wondering if it's the biscuits as he's been sick a couple of hours after eating that. No win situation though as he's a long haired cat and hates me grooming him so get the biscuits that help with fur balls! He's high maintenance!! Xx

When our old buster (17) started losing his appetite I boiled him chicken breasts, chopped up small - poured the broth on top which gave him fluids, he loved this and apparently it's easy on their stomach done this way xx

I would move them onto a senior diet if possible too, if only to keep his weight up.

Most healthy cats that are sick after eating have one of two issues:

1) they're being little piggies and eating too much, or they're eating too many biscuits which have then swelled in the stomach as they absorb moisture. Both of these are completely harmless regurgitation of the excess food. This tends to increase with age and is really not an issue (apart from the waste of food and the fact that you have to clean it up!).

2) their bodies don't tend to process fur balls as well as they age, leading to more sickness if they try and eat whilst they have even quite a small fur ball. If your cat is long haired, or has dense fur, or is shedding and grooming quite a lot, you can help this one with a little Katalax (or generic alternatives) to help the fur balls shift up or down and thus open their stomach up better. Again, this is harmless even if left.

The real importance here is that the dangerous causes of sickness, like liver problems, have already been excluded, which is great.

I have known a whole selection of cats that have turned out to have diarrhoea on the meat version of one food but not on the fish version, cats that have occasional sickness on a chunky product but not on the same pate texture of the same product and all sorts of other things which mean that there's just no way that anybody can tell you which things are going to suit your cat, but I'd certainly look at whether a change of food makes the sickness better or worse.

Hope you get him sorted on a food that he keeps down properly

---------- Post added 27-02-2015 at 18:30 ----------

Yep, I'm wondering if it's the biscuits as he's been sick a couple of hours after eating that. No win situation though as he's a long haired cat and hates me grooming him so get the biscuits that help with fur balls! He's high maintenance!! Xx

Oooh, spooky that I was typing my response just as you added this. I'd suggest that you keep giving him the biscuits but just measure how many you give him, or give the same amount in two separate meals so that he doesn't have the chance to fill his stomach with so many at the same time.

Thanks for your replies!

I am going to change his diet . He is a greedy bugger. He visits all the old ladies on our road daily for bits of food. To have a cats life!

Yep, I'm wondering if it's the biscuits as he's been sick a couple of hours after eating that. No win situation though as he's a long haired cat and hates me grooming him so get the biscuits that help with fur balls! He's high maintenance!! Xx

I typed a long reply about my fifteen year old cat but the post logged out! Decided not to post as might not be relevant but now I can see it is.

My fifteen year old has a sensitive tummy and is long haired. He could only eat basic Whiskers chicken cat food. Any other flavour or the ones with gravey or jelly upset his tummy and gave him the runs. We changed him onto dry hairball biscuits as he was being sick with hairballs every other day. He has been on this for over a decade.

He has recently being diagnosed as diabetic and went off his food. To get him to eat two quick meals rather than graze we changed the hairball biscuits to another brand and mix them with a little high protein cat food, the stuff that is like human food. Its £1.57 a tin but it lasts two day when mixed with biscuits. The vet originally said not to pamper out cat but when his weight dropped below 3kg they changed their mind. He has always been around 4.2kg so to drop below 3kg was bad as he is a big cat (Birman). He is now stable and is a little above his 'regular' weight but the vet said hes fine.

If yours is long haired it may benefit from high fibre hairball biscuits. These are proper food not cheap cat treats.