# 18 year old cat



## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

I am looking for advise on what to feed her, she is an indoor out door cat and has hunted most of her life until about 4 years ago, she was also feed crap biscuits. Her body condition has been fairly poor for a while but in the last couple of years has gotten really skinny. It was clear she was not absorbing any food just pooping it out. For the last month I have been feeding her bits of raw, lamb hearts being her favourite she has gained a little weight but she really is past her used by date. She is still fairly active and purrs and stuff and I am struggling to take her to the vet because I probably wont bring her home again. In the mean time what would be the best food to give her. She manly has hearts because she loves them they are cheap and easy to buy fresh, is that bad.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

Heart is great... as i think its a huge source of taurine, which cats need to live as they do not make their own. I know that ground meat contains very little.

beef muscle 10 mg/oz raw 1.7mg/oz cooked
beef liver 5.5 mg/oz raw 
lamb 13.5 mg/oz raw 3.6mg/oz cooked
chicken 9.5mg/oz raw 2.3mg/oz cooked
fish 36mg/oz raw
shrimp 48mg/oz raw

For most cats anywhere from 75mg-300mg is good.... its not stored by cats so its hard to overdose.... you can even supplement if you don't think they are getting enough.

There is a thread here about it.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

My cat who is nearly 17 refuses to do PMR in any form so I feed her premade raw and it helps immensely with keeping her eating, increasing her moisture content (great for the old organs), eliminating regularly, keeping weight on, etc. I add salmon oil to help out additionally and so far she seems to be doing great! Maybe try adding a little more variety and switching her totally to raw since she already seems to be doing better with a little bit of lamb heart. 

Don't think that a cat is on the verge of death just because they're getting up there in age, cats can live well into their 20s if they feel like it, and it sounds like your cat is a tough old bird who wants to hang in there a while longer!


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

Thanks for the replies. She is only on raw food as there was no point to feeding her biscuits. I probably didn't explain to well but she has little bits of beef, chicken, venison etc but mostly hearts I tried liver but that gave her black tar poo, I will try again only much less. I will add some fish oil in too. She is getting very senile and gets lost outside on the door step lol she does seem to hang on in there.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

KittyKat said:


> Heart is great... as i think its a huge source of taurine, which cats need to live as they do not make their own. I know that ground meat contains very little.
> 
> beef muscle 10 mg/oz raw 1.7mg/oz cooked
> beef liver 5.5 mg/oz raw
> ...


Chicken has that much taurine? I had no idea!


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

You might want to have her checked by the vet, older cats are extremely prone to Hyperthyroidism which can cause the weight loss as well as something like kidney failure. My dad has a cat who has had kidney failure for 3 years now and he's still going strong (stubborn old thing) he's 20 1/2 years old now.


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

I probably will take her to the vet soon, they have rung a few times to see if she is still alive. I guess I don't wont to hear the bad news and make the pts decision, I have done that many times and it is still hard.
Cprceetar does your Dads cat have a special diet? Meds etc


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

NZ Raw said:


> I probably will take her to the vet soon, they have rung a few times to see if she is still alive. I guess I don't wont to hear the bad news and make the pts decision, I have done that many times and it is still hard.
> Cprceetar does your Dads cat have a special diet? Meds etc


The ONLY thing that cooney will eat are CHEAP canned foods. He lives on things like Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies....and gets about 5-6 meals per day. I know it's not ideal, but he wouldn't eat ANY of the kidney diets from the vet. I think it's the moisture in the diet that's helping him as well as him just being an onery cuss LOL!


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

OK so I tried her again with a little bit of liver to go with chicken and hearts. Keep her in the laundry with a dirt box and again she did runny green black poo (on the floor as she slept in the dirt box). Is it too rich or ? should I just not bother with it.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Try to do just liver with chicken but no hearts. Then try hearts with just chicken but no liver the next day.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I have a friend with a 22 year old cat and a 19 year old cat. They seem to be doing fine - but i would get her checked, weight loss could be alot of treatable things. It seems older cats are prone to diabetes, also.


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

Diabetes I didn't think of that, she has a few signs, weakening of back legs and fragile skin, doesn't drink any more than normal though. Thanks for all the replies I will get her checked this week and keep you all posted. I am really happy that she has put on some weight and that is all due to feeding her raw.


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

We have just spent an hour with the vet, she is emaciated this I already knew but it was doing her no harm, she is happy lively and nimble. No causes have been found or suspected other than old age. Her heart rate was up a bit. I have ordered blood tests and will have results in a couple of days it may be thyroid but that wasn't detectable on the out side. I love my vet I hear lots of your guys stories about other vets but mine just told me to feed her raw lambs hearts LOL, fish oil, and put manuka honey on the pressure sores she has on her back feet. No lotions potions or science diet. The outcome was basically she has to die of something.


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

Just had all her blood results and everything is normal , which has led me back full circle to what to feed her to help with the weight. I reckon she absorbs raw food better and would like to keep going with that. So I am looking for high fat , protein sources. Plus adding perhaps butter to fish oil to try and get her to eat it. Thanks for all your replies I feel so much better for taking her to the vet, at least now I don't feel I have neglected the poor old girl. :smile:


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