cooking chicken at midnight

I swear I have the pickiest cat in the entire world.

Odie has decided he did not want to eat today. He did not want his FF chicken that he's been happily eating for over a week now. He did not want FF salmon. He did not want Fromm's Salmon + Tuna. He did not want Friskies Turkey. He ate a small amount of people tuna and drank some of the juice.

It is now after midnight and here I am boiling some boneless skinless chicken for mr. pickypants in hopes that he will eat some.

He's still on the buprenorphine. His BG numbers have been slowly improving these 2-3 days. And then today he does not seem to be feeling all that great and is refusing to eat.

The things we do for these furbabies.
Odiesmom

 

How long has Odie been on the buprenex? And when was his last bowel movement?

Buprenex is an opiate and, as such, can cause constipation. While Odie's on the bupe, you should try encouraging him to consume extra water -- add it to his food, give a very thorough cleaning to his bowl / fountain (if a fountain, make sure to clean the motor and replace the filters), consider adding a pet fountain, put an extra bowl of water at the end of each floor of the house / apartment, change the water in each bowl at least once a day, try adding ice cubes to the water. If Odie's getting sub-Q fluids and is otherwise healthy, a slight increase in the amount of fluids during the period he's on opiates may help trememdously.

If Odie is currently constipated and depending on when his last bowel movement was, he may need to see a vet to determine how much he's impacted and whether he needs an enema.

Once he's started having bowel movements, if the extra water doesn't keep things moving, you may want to think about adding some Miralax to his food for the time that he's on the buprenex. When using Miralax, it's essential that you add extra water to his food.

 

Bowels are fine... he just went a couple of hours ago - formed, soft, normal looking. Funny light beige colour, but it's been like that since he started eating the FF shredded white meat chicken. He's peeing okay too.

I'm adding water to all his food. I mixed the tuna juice with at least half water too, so he's probably drank about 1/2 cup of liquids today.

He is currently quite happily eating the boneless skinless chicken i just cooked him. At least it's food in his stomach.

He's been on buprenorphine since last Tuesday. 0.25mls every 8 hours.

 

> He is currently quite happily eating the boneless skinless chicken i just cooked him.

Maybe 'cause it's warm? That sometimes seems to help get some interest. If it happens again, you might try giving his food a couple/few seconds in the microwave.


ETA: I'm not sure how much longer he's supposed to be on the bupe, but keep an eye on his BMs while he's on it. From Wikipedia's entry on opiods (for humans):

 

Yeah, I've tried warming his food... he usually turns his nose up at it even more.

Food has been a crazy issue since he first got sick a year and a half ago. We've literally tried more than 75 types of food at this point... including all the high-end stuff I could find, raw foods, homecooked (duck, goat, turkey, lamb) foods, dry foods (yes, I know but at some points the vet just wanted *something* into him).

He's picky to begin with and about 2/3 of stuff he won't even touch once. Then of the stuff he will touch, he eats something for a bit, then as soon as he feels sick, he associates it with that food and refuses to eat it ever again.

He's been on mirtazipine (does not do well on it at all) and cyproheptadine (does ok on it).

Hmm, seems he's done eating. He's had about 1/4 cup of chicken. Better than nothing.

 

*sigh*.
at 7am he woke me up, bringing me to the food... this usually means he wants breakfast. He now will not touch any chicken. He will not touch any of the other cat foods. He ate a few bites of people tuna. He will not drink any tuna juice+water.

I could go out and get some fresh salmon or a roast beef. I could get a meal or two out of that... but then we'd be right back to this point when he then refuses those too.

I left a message with his internal medicine vet. She's not in yet for the day.

 

how about trying baby food - beechnut stage 1 meat flavor is best

 

Back from the grocery store...

He will not touch Beechnut chicken, beef, or turkey flavours. He will not touch Friskies Mariner's Catch.

I am now cooking him some steak in hopes that I can get something into him.

:cry:

Odiesmom

 

You can always try some KFC. My cat begs for it and when he doesn't feel well, that's one of the few things he'll nibble at.

 

I just want to say that I feel for you - it's so hard when they won't eat, yet seem hungry. UGH! I hope you and the IM vet figure out what's bothering him soon!!!!

 

Oh my goodness, you are a saint to go to such extremes to get Odie to eat! I really feel for you. I'm sooo lucky that two out of three of my cats will eat absolutely anything, and the finicky one isn't really that bad. She does have certain things that I can count on that she will always eat, she just isn't keen on anything different. I hope you can figure out what is going on with Odie soon and get him back on track!

 

> He will not touch Beechnut chicken, beef, or turkey flavours.

Beechnut Veal+Veal Broth??

 

I didn't see the beechnut veal... I'll look next time, but I suspect it'll be a no judging from his reaction to all the other ones.

I did manage to convince him to eat about 1/2 cup of fast-fry steak cut up in tiny pieces. He's seeming perkier now - of course since he doesn't feel so weak, but how to convince him of that!?!

The vet just prescribed metoclopramide 1/4 tablet x2 daily. I just gave him his first dose. We'll see if that helps with the nausea.