Tilly is a 9 year old feline female neutered Tonkinese. When she came to live with us 4 years ago, she had had all her teeth extracted due to stomatitis. Her mouth is completely healed. She may have herpes, as she has chronic clear discharge from her eyes and nose.
She has been tested for food allergies/sensitivities. The test revealed she is sensitive to beef (cow, buffalo and bison), chicken, corn, soy, cow milk (strong reaction), oatmeal, peanut and peanut oil (strong reaction), potato (strong reaction), quinoa (strong reaction), rice (strong reaction), salmon and salmon oil and sweet potato. From this test, recommended “safe” foods are duck, lamb, goat, goat or sheep dairy, pork, turkey, white colored fish and rabbit. (Note she does not seem to like white colored fish, however). She has been eating either Instinct wet Turkey Limited Ingredient Diet or Wellness Core Smooth Turkey and Duck Recipe.
She currently takes quite a long time (45 minutes to 1 and a half hours) to eat, with constant attention and encouragement, 1.4 ounces of food in the morning and in the evening. This slow eating started about a month ago. Before current eating pattern she ate about 1.95 ounces of food twice a day.
In the last several months, she has lost a pound in weight. She is a small kitty, and now weighs 6.4 pounds, perhaps a good weight for her if we can maintain it. We recently started adding Nutri-Cal to her food.
According to the vet, her blood work looks good, with the exception of creatinine being high (3.1 mg/dL) and phosphorus a bit low (2.8 mg/dL). Her free T4 values look good. (Blood work can be supplied if desired.)
When she is congested, she likely cannot smell her food well. Lately we have been giving her 1 mg Chlorpheniramine Malaate crushed in her food to help with her sinuses. This seems to have greatly helped with her constantly running eyes and nose and congestion, but we are concerned about long term use and her hydration. She appears dehydrated. We mix about 5 teaspoons of water into her food to supplement whatever water she gets from the food. We do not see her drinking from the waterdish.
Twice in the last 6 months, we tried giving her Hills Z/D. After a couple of days, her congestion was worse and she did not want to eat. Apparently hydrolyzing the constituents of Z/D was not enough to counter her food sensitivities.
She was taking ¼ ml Azithromycin in oil by mouth twice a week to help control overall chronic symptoms. She is no longer taking this. We continue to give her 1000 mcg of vitamin B12 twice a month.
We tried mixing powered Lysine into her food. As with the case of a littermate, this seems to induce vomiting clear liquid. Without the Lysine, she does not appear to vomit.
She has lost a bit of her playfulness, which we greatly miss. She remains very loving.
We are looking for suggestions to address the chronic underlying cause(s) for her congestion, running eyes and runny nose. Could these issues be a result of her previous stomatitis?
She has been tested for food allergies/sensitivities. The test revealed she is sensitive to beef (cow, buffalo and bison), chicken, corn, soy, cow milk (strong reaction), oatmeal, peanut and peanut oil (strong reaction), potato (strong reaction), quinoa (strong reaction), rice (strong reaction), salmon and salmon oil and sweet potato. From this test, recommended “safe” foods are duck, lamb, goat, goat or sheep dairy, pork, turkey, white colored fish and rabbit. (Note she does not seem to like white colored fish, however). She has been eating either Instinct wet Turkey Limited Ingredient Diet or Wellness Core Smooth Turkey and Duck Recipe.
She currently takes quite a long time (45 minutes to 1 and a half hours) to eat, with constant attention and encouragement, 1.4 ounces of food in the morning and in the evening. This slow eating started about a month ago. Before current eating pattern she ate about 1.95 ounces of food twice a day.
In the last several months, she has lost a pound in weight. She is a small kitty, and now weighs 6.4 pounds, perhaps a good weight for her if we can maintain it. We recently started adding Nutri-Cal to her food.
According to the vet, her blood work looks good, with the exception of creatinine being high (3.1 mg/dL) and phosphorus a bit low (2.8 mg/dL). Her free T4 values look good. (Blood work can be supplied if desired.)
When she is congested, she likely cannot smell her food well. Lately we have been giving her 1 mg Chlorpheniramine Malaate crushed in her food to help with her sinuses. This seems to have greatly helped with her constantly running eyes and nose and congestion, but we are concerned about long term use and her hydration. She appears dehydrated. We mix about 5 teaspoons of water into her food to supplement whatever water she gets from the food. We do not see her drinking from the waterdish.
Twice in the last 6 months, we tried giving her Hills Z/D. After a couple of days, her congestion was worse and she did not want to eat. Apparently hydrolyzing the constituents of Z/D was not enough to counter her food sensitivities.
She was taking ¼ ml Azithromycin in oil by mouth twice a week to help control overall chronic symptoms. She is no longer taking this. We continue to give her 1000 mcg of vitamin B12 twice a month.
We tried mixing powered Lysine into her food. As with the case of a littermate, this seems to induce vomiting clear liquid. Without the Lysine, she does not appear to vomit.
She has lost a bit of her playfulness, which we greatly miss. She remains very loving.
We are looking for suggestions to address the chronic underlying cause(s) for her congestion, running eyes and runny nose. Could these issues be a result of her previous stomatitis?
