Liebling:-)))

Some of you know that I have 21 years old Sussi, cat. I begin notice something wrong with her...

Normally she know her meal time and wait for her meal until last month... It seem not bother her anymore...

At first she was excited when she saw me carry canned cat food from basement to kitchen... then suddenly she lost her excitment and went off to living room... I was like eh? Normally she followed me to kitchen and wait for her meal... but she doesn't.

I put cat foods on their dishes... Kim & her 2 daughters Flecky & Blacky, cats waiting unpatience for their meal... Sussi?

All what I do is carried her back to kitchen to have her meal... Sussi eat happily... but not much... Kim tried to pinch Sussi's food... but it's okay with Sussi... eh? Normally Sussi hissed Kim for touch her meal.. but she doesn't anymore...

Sussi want to sleep on her favorite window sill but she can't jump up or down anymore so we has to do for her. She look canned cat food on the kitchen table and *nodding* and sleep... I wake her up and carried her from window sill to her meal time...

Stairs - she can walk up but hard to walk down... very slowly...

She lost her front of her teeth - begin to lost one of her eye sight. (half of her left eye sight).

It look like that we have to remind Sussi for her meal time... Everytime we want to feed the cats - Sussi are not around... - We let 3 cats finish their meal then we prepare the cat food for only Sussi and then pick Sussi from anywhere up and carried her back to kitchen to have her meal... We have to keep our eye on her and make sure that Sussi finish her meal before 3 cats tried to pinch her food.

It look like that Sussi is an alzheimer? She forget her own meal... ? It's us who remind her...


Have you experience like this to deal with your pet like this before?

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Deafness

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Sunshinelady

Dear Liebling,

I will let you to know. yes I am feeling Sussi got alzheimer, but not that much.
as far as I feel, Sussi will be not stay long alive.
Sussi has not too much care about something food.
I recommened you, please look more to Sussi, what it is doing. If it is not stand up or something few fit, then carry it to Doc... or you know about Sussi.

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The laughter is the best medicine.

Liebling:-)))

Yes I has the feeling that Sussi has an alzheimer. We can't do anything to help her but we have to remind her about her meal time.

Sussi has a little tumor (lump) like a small ball on her left side between her arm and chest but the Vet said that it's good tumor and no need to have an operation to remove it because she has no pain... She will get med if she has pain... It look like that she forget that she has pain?

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Sunshinelady

*umm* Sussi has a little tumor, then you don´t need to say your doc, that Sussi´s tumor should be remove. not make sense, because Sussi already 21 yrs old.
that is my opinion.
really, very interesting that Sussi has no pain with her tumor. yes, I thought too, it look like that she forget something..
Do you know my friend Elke, she has a rabbit. It has one tumor of her breast, same like your Sussi got like a small ball on left her breast. Elke did asked to doc about operation. The doc said to her, not make sense, because it cost too much around 150 Euro, but who knows tumor can be back coming again. the Doc means, better let it alone.

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The laughter is the best medicine.

Angel

*curious* Can you please post a picture up of Sussi's tumor I'm interesting to know what it looks like...I've had cats almost all my life and I haven't seen one tumor on any of my cats..

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"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is brought in our life, OR in the life of another." ~ Helen Keller

Mistyrose

I dont think its Alzheimers...this disease is something to do with
memory loss. I think your 21 year old cat is just old, 21 is really
old for a cat. Its mostly age related that she is not eating, she is
losing appetite and possibly because of the tumor.
My dad had a 16 year old Siamese cat that just lost his appetite,
he would not eat or drink..not even his favorite dish..tuna fish..he
loved that so much! So we took him to the vet and found out that
he had a tumor in his stomach that was so large. The vet said it could
not be removed. There was nothing he could do for him so had to put
to sleep so he would not suffer...it was sooo heartbreaking!
We did not want Jasper to suffer anymore ..so we had to say goodbye
to him then i saw the twinkle in his eye like its okay......Jasper knew
it was time.................oh well....*snifflin*........

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Im not deaf, im just ignoring you!

Reba

Sometimes older cats lose their sense of smell. If they can't smell their food, they don't want to eat it. Sometimes switching to a real stinky canned cat food helps to "tempt" the interest of the kitty for food.

Also, if kitty's teeth hurt, then kitty won't want to eat. It sometimes helps to switch to a real soft food.

There can be many reasons why an elderly cat doesn't eat.

LuciaDisturbed

I agree. My cat is not elderly, he is only 8 years old but I suspect that one of his teeth hurts, cause he has been refusing to eat dry food...I noticed he was losing weight and started making wet food for him and now he is gaining his weight back. I will continue to do this until I have enough money to take him to the vet to have his tooth taken care of. So far my plan is working and he is eating often. What I do is I take dry food, mix it with water, put it in the microwave for about a minute, and then mash the food for about 10 or 15 minutes and then make sure it is not too hot to eat, and then I give it to him, he will eat it. I've been doing this for the last few days.

I would buy wet food but I am so terrified to, what with all the recalls lately...so many recalls that I don't even know what wet food is safe for my cat to eat! If my cat dies from the wet food that was on the recall list it would break my heart into a million pieces! So I just make do with the dry food and water and make my own wet food for him, it's working so far.

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Implanted left ear 10/11/06, activated 10/16/06 - Nucleus Freedom

DeviantArt

Liebling:-)))

Everyone, thank you for answer my thread here. I will answer some of your posts later.

Sure, I will... I will get my hubby to held Sussi while I can try to close to lump (tumor) on between her arm and breast. I will try later or tomorrow.

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horselover61

Sorry to hear that but Sussi is very old. How would you know if she had tumor maybe it is something else unless u go see the vet. Your cat is not doing too good so far and I know it will be hard for you to let her go. I would be in the same shoe with you too. I will be praying for you and your family for your love one.

Opal

Other suggestion is to put a wood on window sill and the ground, she can walk on the slide rather than jump on the sill and floor which can be difficult for her age. Like the wheelchair people using it.

Sussi is lucky to live a long life.

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Liebling:-)))

Here is 3 pictures of lump (small ball between breast and arm).

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Liebling:-)))

Yes, I know. The Vet told us that it´s not necassary to have an operation because it´s too expensive and Sussi is too old. She examined and said that it´s good tumor... Sussi suffer no pain... and said that tumor will grow bigger up to few years time. She only put Sussi sleep if she suffer pain...

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Liebling:-)))

First of all, I want to say that I am very sorry about your Jasper and know how you feeling. My hubby & I adopted 6 weeks old Sussi from farmer few months before our 1st year wedding anniversary in 1986. I can image it´s very hard for us to let her go if the vet tell us the time to put her sleep.

I search the website to find out either the pets do have form of Alzheimer diease... I found the interesting link...

Senior Cat Can Suffer From Alzheimer's Disease

We remind her about her meal time... but she didn´t forget her favorite is butter and milk... that´s all.

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Liebling:-)))

It will tell something wrong with cat or dog if their nose are dry. I check Sussi´s nose... It is still wet which mean is she has no problem to smell anything but the problem is her memory loss. She have no interesting to anything except butter and milk.

Yes, that´s right... I noticed that Sussi have mud on her mouth as she tried to get mud out of plants to "rub" her mouth... until I found out that she get mud from plant to rub her teeth to aviod pain... Interesting.

Yes I made soft with fork on cat food with fork that it´s easy for her to chew...


Yes, that´s right.

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Liebling:-)))

Interesting post.

Sussi eat wet food for over 21 years. Sussi only have dried foods when we are out of the house all the day (outing trip, etc). It can affect cat´s stomach infection if they eat dried foods too much.

I don´t feed my 4 cats dried foods but wet food (canned cat food). With dried foods, we are very limit... use only if we are not in the home for all the day.

About teeth, it´s not necassary to get cat to the Vet... The cats can take care themselves like what Sussi did with mud from the plant to rub her teeth to aviod the pain... Few days later then she is okay.

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Liebling:-)))

Yes the vet told me that it´s good tumor. You can see the 3 pictures of small ball of lump.

I will do if the vet advised us to put her sleep but the vet said that Sussi is fine with no pain...

for your thoughtful

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Liebling:-)))

Yeah, Sussi can´t jump to the window anymore but she sat on the floor waiting for us to carry her to her favorite window sill or jump to the chair then table then window sill. If she want to out of window sill... she sat and waiting for us to carry her back to floor then she can walk... sometimes she jump from window sill to table, then chair then floor... only if we let the chair stand next the window which easy for her...


Yeah, she experienced our one bedroom rent apartment, then house, watch my 2 pregnancies, babies grow to teenagers, watch Kim had kitten, etc.... Sussi love Kim´s 2 daughters...

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Angel

Aw poor kitten cat.. Thanks for showing these pictures, I've seen that on a dog before but it was on TV...

How's she's doing today? ..

I'm not sure if RR told you but Panther has another liter of kittens and one of the kitten looks exactly the same color fur as Sussie here...I'll post a picture of them later sometimes in another thread...

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"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is brought in our life, OR in the life of another." ~ Helen Keller

Angel

I know exactly how you feel, I fed my oldest cat lams food for 7 years until I found out it was on the recall listing, and yes it does terrified me cause I don't know if I'm feeding all of my cats the right food or if it's going to be add on the listing later on ..

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"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is brought in our life, OR in the life of another." ~ Helen Keller

Reba

Maintaining Your Cat's Health

You can maintain your cat's overall health in two important ways:1) schedule an annual preventive visit (including shots and an examination) with your veterinarian as well as other visits as needed; and 2) perform daily home examinations—petting and health care go hand in glove.

* Do a nose-to-tail checkup every time you cuddle with your cat on the couch. Call your veterinarian if you detect any abnormalities during these regular checks. Start with the head. Are your cat's ears clean and pink? Do they give off an unpleasant odor? Have mites appeared as a black, waxy mess inside the ears? Are the eyes bright, clear, focused, and free of discharge? Are the gums pink and the teeth clean? Has tartar appeared along the gum line? Is your cat's breath inoffensive? Don't check a cat's nose to see if it's cold and damp—contrary to myth, this is not a sign of health.

Proceed to a neck-to-tail inspection. Feel your cat's body for lumps, bumps, puffiness, sores, and any irregularities. Also look for flea dirt (which resembles black pepper and turns red when wet), scratches, and parasites. Be sure to check behind the ears, between the toes, and down the entire length of the tail.
* Next, treat your feline companion to a good brushing. Rubber curry brushes are excellent at removing dead skin cells and loose hair. Fine-toothed metal combs are specifically designed to lift fleas out of the coat.

It's important to brush your cat daily to remove as much loose hair as possible. When cats groom themselves, they ingest a great deal of hair, which is often vomited out as hairballs. If your cat brings up hair, talk to your veterinarian to evaluate the situation and find out about hairball remedies.
* Keeping your cat's claws clipped is an important part of grooming. If not kept at the proper length, a cat's claws can actually grow into the paw pads, so attend to the claws weekly. If you have never trimmed a cat's claws, have your veterinarian show you how. Briefly, you should snip off just the sharp tip (about an eighth of an inch) of each claw. Do not clip into the pink section of the nail, where a blood vessel and nerve endings reside.

Often, people believe declawing is the only way to address inappropriate scratching. However, it can be a painful procedure for your cat, and it is almost always unnecessary. Cats can be easily trained to scratch only in appropriate areas, such as well-placed scratching posts.
* All cat owners should have at least one book on cat care (recommended by a veterinarian) that includes a section on emergency first aid. Home care alone is not appropriate in most cases of serious illness or injury; there are also some emergency procedures that could keep your pet relatively comfortable on the way to the veterinarian. Familiarize yourself with emergency procedures before an emergency happens.
* Never give your cat any medications, including aspirin, without the advice of your veterinarian. Many common human drugs (like acetaminophen [Tylenol]) are poisonous to cats.
Maintaining Your Cat's Health | The Humane Society of the United States

Reba

A moist (not wet) nose on a cat is healthy but it doesn't indicate whether or not the sense of smell is functioning. Much of the cat's sense of smell happens inside the mouth, in the Jacobson's Organ, and how the brain responds to that.

Your vet has probably already informed you that milk is not healthy for cats, especially when it gives them diarrhea.


That might soothe her pain but you have to be careful that she doesn't get an infection from the mud.

Of course, your own vet can give you the best information.

Mistyrose

Thank you, Liebling..Jasper was special to me because I took care of him
after my dad died...it was about 6 months later Jasper got sick and died..
weird.
Wow, that is interesting that pets do get a form of Alzheimer like humans
do..amazing! Sounds like your cat, Sussi has that, aww. I guess you
have to help her to remember to eat whenever its time to eat. I didnt know
that cats like butter, but thats good as it is soft food and its easy on
teeth. Might try the cottage cheese? Jasper liked that too, so might have
her try that?

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Im not deaf, im just ignoring you!