5-month old kitten lost her appetite

[JoanneDM]

Last Friday, Bodhi ate a strip of packing paper that I failed to notice laying around in a grocery box, dimensions of the piece of paper she ingested are about 1 inch by 4 inches. The next day I gave her 1/2 tsp of vaseline and another 1/2 tsp of vaseline the following day. Since then she had 4 big bowel movements in 6 days.

Although she has been eating ok, I had to use food appetizers, namely powdered lamb liver and nutritional yeast, to entice her to eat now and then, actually most of the time, much more often than before.

Bodhi ate well at breakfast today (Thursday) but only ate half her lunch and did not eat her dinner. I sprinkled some nutritional yeast and she licked that off of her raw food. The powdered lamb liver doesn't work any more to get her appetite going.

I added nutritional yeast in the palm of my hand and she ate that. So she wants to eat, it's just that she does not feel like ingesting heavy food, just nutritional yeast, which tells me there is something not right inside.

What food can I prepare for her for an upset stomach? Is there a remedy I can try to help with her appetite?

At bedtime (around 11 pm), I gave Bodhi 1/2 tsp of vaseline--she loves to eat it, in case there is paper left in her stomach irritating her.

It's Friday morning, Bodhi did not eat her dinner at all yesterday and she is not eating her breakfast this morning, even after engaging in vigorous play for 15 minutes and sprinkling nutritional yeast on her food. It looks like there may be an obstruction and I will have to bring her to the emergency clinic this morning or afternoon...I will be waiting though to see if I can get a response from you in the hours to come.

Update: It's now 8:50 am EST (Friday). After her food being left out for about half an hour without her touching it, I was able to get Bodhi to eat all of her breakfast but I had to hand feed her to get her to eat. If there was an obstruction, would she have still refused to eat?

What can I do about her appetite? Whatever you have to propose would be so much appreciated.

@Dr. Christina @Dr. Jeff @Dr. Jean Hofve

 

[JoanneDM]

@Dr. Jean Hofve would you have flower essence product to help stimulate appetite for situation described above?

 

[Dr. Jeff]

If there was an obstruction, would she have still refused to eat?

Great question! Yes, sometimes the only sign of an obstruction in a kitty is not wanting to eat.

What's her BEAM score?

What can I do about her appetite?

You may want to have a vet exam and x-ray to rule out an obstruction before trying to stimulate her appetite. It's super rare to need to use an appetite stimulant for a kitten.

So start by looking at her overall picture (as seen through BEAM), consider a vet exam and sometimes well just don't want to eat the same thing as yesterday (and the day before and...).

Have you tried other kinds of cat food, baby food, chicken, sardines, etc?

 

[JoanneDM]

I switch food at every meal time, her BEAM is good except for the A, appetite. She is playing vigorously and she appears happy, tail in the air.

And so even if she is eating but I keep having to stimulate her appetite, I should still get her checked for obstruction, correct? Any idea if an ultrasound would be better than an X-ray to detect a blockage?

 

[JoanneDM]

or could it be an irritated stomach? If so, what could I do for that?

 

[Dr. Jean Hofve]

Hi Joanne, darn that silly Bodhi anyway... she is a pistol!

Ultrasound is excellent for soft tissue, much more accurate than x-ray.

Since she is feeling fine but not eating, that suggests the paper may still be in her stomach, so now would be a good time to get her checked out. Especially since it's Friday. If the blockage were lower down, I think she would feel worse.

Dang, where is Superman and his x-ray vision when we need him?!

Happy Tummy is the flower essence for things like this, but right now I think we need to find out what's going on.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

I switch food at every meal time, her BEAM is good

Wonderful!

Any idea if an ultrasound would be better than an X-ray to detect a blockage?

Either one would work. An x-ray is usually way cheaper and more accessible

what could I do for that?

Aloe, slippery elm, marshmallow root are all great for soothing the stomach. However as Dr. Jean said, you may want to get her checked out first.
.

 

[JoanneDM]

I have aloe vera juice inner fillet at home...is this what I can give her and if so how much and how often?

She is very energetic and playful, so it does not make sense that she has low appetite...

We're on our way to get her checked out....wish us luck.... thanks for your guidance, much appreciated

 

[JoanneDM]

We're back from the animal hospital and no obstruction has been found ... what a relief and thank goodness I have pet insurance However, the veterinarian reported some food or other stuff still in her stomach, she could not tell if this was leftover packing paper or not ... but Bodhi last ate her regular food intake for lunch at around 1:30 pm, 8 hours before the X-ray and so I'm thinking, wouldn't the stomach completely empty after 4-5 hours since mealtime? ... Could this be packing paper then, and if so, I'm wondering if you could speak to how this looks on the X-ray?

She also mentioned what she found in the colon: it could be bone fragments (indicative of a raw diet) or something else ... could this be packing paper? ... I'm also feeding her air-dried blue mussel and air-dried venison lung to give her something to crunch on--could these be other possibilities of what could be in the colon since they are hard like bone?

It may all be well, but any insights about the presence of packing paper and how likely it's stuck in there, and if stuck, what to do about it, would be very much appreciated. Also, if it's food left in her stomach, this would mean slow digestion, correct? If stomach should be empty of food 8 hours after meal time, how could I support better digestion?

P.S. She had another major bowel movement this morning at 9:30 am: elongated stools totaling about 5 inch in length....no sign of paper ... could it have all been disintegrated, or any paper clumps left in her colon?

 

[Dr. Jean Hofve]

The dark area in her stomach looks suspiciously like a wad of paper that has been bunched up by the muscular stomach. It is way too big to fit through the pyloric valve.

This has nothing to do with gastric emptying time. She is digesting food (that is getting past the wad), and pooping, so the rest of the tract is clear. There is no gas or other sign of obstruction in the intestines.

I've seen hairballs that clearly hung around in the stomach for a couple of weeks before the cat finally vomited them out.

At this point we don't want this giant mass to get into the intestines, so no more vaseline.

Unfortunately, hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) does not dissolve paper.

We could just wait till it gets so soaked and battered and irritating that she vomits it up.

BUT. If you haven't read my partner Jackson Galaxy's book, he describes what happened when his cat vomited up a hairball and it got stuck halfway up the esophagus, where it pushed on the trachea, causing the cat to choke and pass out. Luckily he heard the cat try to cough. Next stop, emergency clinic.

Now... visualize a Ford Taurus, Jackson driving like a bat outta you-know-where through the back streets of Denver, me in the back pumping an ambu-bag on a sedated cat (20-minute drug, 25-minute drive), to get to the bigger better emergency clinic, where they used the endoscope to pull out not only the blocking hairball, but three other huge hairballs from the stomach. No telling how long they had been there, but it had to have been weeks or months.

We *really* gotta work on this habit of hers, pica is not normal. It's one of Dr. Christina's early signs of imbalance.

Other docs, any ideas?

 

[JoanneDM]

I want to take her to the emergency hospital tomorrow or better yet Monday, when more veterinarians will be on duty, and have them use the endoscope to pull out the paper stuck in her stomach instead of waiting for her to vomit it out. Would this be doable for paper like for hairballs? Or would they need to go in and open up her stomach through surgery. One way or another, I want to get this out of her this Monday

 

[Dr. Jean Hofve]

It can be done with an endoscope. She feels fine so it's not an emergency.

 

[JoanneDM]

Thank you Dr. Jean from the bottom of my heart for this information ....

I know what happened. Bodhi is in my life to teach me to be heart centered and live a balanced life. When I brought her home she was experiencing separation anxiety ... I know because, now and then, at rest her breathing rate went over 100 breaths a minute ... that is what I think triggered the pica. I'm not used to living in the heart and didn't have it in me back then to be more comforting.

My first cat had pica, he was found in a place not suitable for cats and I think he went hungry as a very young kitten because when I would put food in his bowl he would eat it up quickly every time--I read that cats who do this, are conditioned to eat what food is in front of them right away because they don't know when the next time they'll be able to eat. He would eat plastic the instant there was plastic falling on the floor and he would always find plastic laying around before I could catch it. He never grew out of it.

However with Bodhi, it's different. I would test her and put the type of paper she used to ingest on the floor in front of her, and watch her reaction. She doesn't try to eat it right away. For those times, where I see her about to bite into it, I project my love toward her and she then walks away from the paper ... I think there is hope that once I get myself balanced and be in my heart, she will be fine too.

I am taking the Trust Technique course and I think this will help a lot. Also, I'm going back to practicing my meditation regularly again. I'm so very appreciative for your guidance.

 

[Dr. Jean Hofve]

Oh bless you sweet Joanne, you're doing a wonderful job with her and wow is she a TEACHER right down to her little toe beans! And it's so true that to help her get balanced, you also need to be balanced. I know, easier said than done! Keep going, it will be fine!

 

[JoanneDM]

Thank you for your warm, encouraging words

 

[JoanneDM]

I have wonderful news! Bodhi passed the ultrasound amazingly...this time she went through imaging fully fasted; she had gone about 16 hours without having eaten, and her stomach showed that it was completely empty. How about that? This means that Bodhi once again pulverized the paper she ingested ... packing paper that is, to be more exact, not as rigid as regular paper. She is truly a super kitten!

I was really nervous since that Friday when she ate a big chunk of that paper. And every time she had a bowel movement, I would check her stools (with plastic gloves) for any signs of paper and there were none. I tend toward anxiety in these kinds of situation, perhaps she was picking up on my stress and this was affecting her appetite? Or perhaps, she is showing signs of pickiness? ... well, at least I'm so happy to have gone for the ultrasound so that next time (hopefully it won't happen again though) I won't have anything to worry about, I now know for sure, she can handle it ... as for me, thank goodness I have pet insurance

 

[Dr. Jean Hofve]

Whew! So glad to hear that!! Silly kitten!

In this case, I guess you *can* buy peace of mind, eh? Yes, pet insurance is a good investment for you!

 

[Dr. Jeff]

I have wonderful news! Bodhi passed the ultrasound amazingly

Yay Bodhi!

Great work Joanne!!

How are you liking the Trust Technique course so far?

Personally, I think trust in natural and universal laws are fundamental. Especially when it comes to dispelling the fear of the unknown...

 

[JoanneDM]

When I realized that Bodhi ate 2 pieces of packing paper (photo: top left [about 1 inch by 4 inches], and smaller but still sizeable piece, bottom left), something inside told me to give her tuna water (from mercury tested tuna cans). Now, I know that tuna is not good because of high histamine content. But for this limited use, I just read online that histamine can actually enhance gastric acid production. I gave it to her, twice a day, for 2-days in a row ... perhaps this helped?

Today she has low appetite still but this could be due to the stress of yesterday; the hospital told me that it could take her 24 hours to get back to normal ... My theory for reduced appetite last week [with some instances of good appetite] is that chemicals leaching from the ingested paper into her bloodstream resulted in some nausea. I'm giving her Adored Beast's Felix' Flora that contains humic and fulvic acids to help with the detox ... not sure though if this is what is the problem ...

I really don't want to resort to giving her canned food or giving her beef and pork raw food which I find to be species inappropriate. I'd like to stick with raw turkey, chicken, duck, rabbit and perhaps lamb, and alternate poultry and red meat from one meal to the next until the full patty is consumed and then switch.

Is lamb okay for a kitten? Or could I just stick with rabbit, given that cats have been known to feed just on mice all their lives, correct?

I'm also working on my stress level, by getting back to my regular meditation. About the Trust Technique, I went through the free basic training, but not had a chance yet to really get into it [life so hectic at this time but I intend to start today putting it into practice], and I have bought the full course and hope to get that going this week-end when caught up with time-sensitive work ... more to report later ...

P.S. I'm concerned that the X-ray showed stomach content even 8 hours after her last meal...shouldn't the stomach be empty after 5 hours following meal time for sure? Could this be a sign of poor digestion? Any insights would be greatly appreciated

 

[Dr. Jeff]

not sure though if this is what is the problem ...

Great point Joanne! From the homeopathic perspective the root of the problem is energetic. Not physiological, so foods, supplements, etc. help the symptoms, but not the cause.

s lamb okay for a kitten?

Yup.

Could this be a sign of poor digestion?

Potentially, but most important is to trust that her body will do the best it is able to do along with your love and support.