My cat isn't eating but wants to, and has high protein. What's wrong?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Based on these lab results, I would suspect renal disease. BUN, Amylase, magnesium and CPK all can become altered with renal impairment. The weight loss may be due to muscle wastage due to chronic renal disease or something else may be going on. I would consider having Tigger's urine specific gravity checked and also send out an SDMA test to see if the kidney's are the main problem. At 14.5 years of age, renal disease would be high on my list of causes of these symptoms. Other problems such as cancer and inflammatory diseases may be the cause of the symptoms as well. I would recommend having your vet pursue additional testing to get more of a definitive answer on whether or not the kidneys are impaired and if not, coming up with further recommendations on diagnostics and treatment. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Poor Sachi! Significant weight loss and inappetence are certainly a major concern. I'm glad to hear that his blood work (I assume a CBC, chemistry and T4?) was unremarkable. However, foreign body intestinal obstruction/blockages, intestinal malabsorption issues that can cause inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), chronic pancreatitis, or cancerous processes, do not necessarily cause changes on screening blood tests. If Sachi has not yet had abdominal x-rays or an ultrasound, consider talking to your vet about these tests as his next diagnostic step. If he has a foreign body obstructing his intestines, this is a surgical emergency, and these tests would be helpful in obtaining a diagnosis. If pancreatitis, IBD or EPI are more highly suspected, consider talking to your vet about testing for vitamins B12 and folate, as well as TLI and fPLI. I hope this helps!

I understand what you are saying. Unfortunately, if you have run blood tests and there is no evidence of kidney or liver disease, no evidence of any significant infectious disease, or any sort of electrolyte balance, the most likely cause for an extended period of inappetence and weight loss in an elderly cat is cancer. Specifically, the cancer is usually gastrointestinal lymphoma. X-rays and ultrasound would help in trying to confirm or rule out this diagnosis, but this is an all too common and unfortunate end to many kitties. I would continue to try and just feed her anything that she wants. Literally anything if it gets her eating is fine. I hope you and Suki can figure things out.

Is there a chance you can obtain a copy of the lab work and post it here as a picture? We could look at the values and give you our thoughts from there. Low protein can be caused by a few main problems decreased protein intake, protein loss, and decreased production. The lab work may be helpful in giving clues on the cause. Thanks in advance and we will look for the lab work in a new question soon. Thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I am sorry to hear that Kitty is not feeling very well. With the description and blood results, I worry about a condition known as hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) or triaditis (inflammation of the pancreas, liver and small intestines). For fatty liver disease, a feeding tube is generally recommended to help bring cats out of this condition as nutritional support is key and extremely important in these cases. I would recommend an abdominal ultrasound as the next diagnostic step to help better determine what the cause could be. If Kitty is still not wanting to eat, you need to consider hospitalization and feeding tube placement to help her get through this. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

I am so sorry to hear Fluffy is unwell. I am very concerned about her condition from what you have described. It is certainly possible that Fluffy has eaten something she shouldn't that has become stuck. Does she make a habit of chewing on things like toys etc? Unfortunately in an older cat like Fluffy I am more concerned about a mass/cancerous process that is affecting her internally. Lymphoma is a very common disease in older kitties, and can cause significant thickening of the jntestines as well as weight loss and decreased appetite. Unfortunately the best thing for Fluffy is to be seen by your regular veterinarian. They may recommend some tests such as blood work and X-rays, although a thorough physical exam should provide a lot of information about her condition. If you are not able to seek veterinary care immediately you can encourage Fluffy to eat and drink by offering tasty foods such as canned food, or meat based baby food. I hope you are able to figure out what is going on with Fluffy soon, and that you can keep her comfortable.

Hi there and thank you for using Pet Coach to address your concern. Based on your history and description, I would recommend an abdominal ultrasound as the next diagnostic step. The protein being low could be related to a GI inflammatory disease or intestinal cancer. X-rays do not show enough detail of the intestines or organs so things can be missed on x-rays that would show up on an ultrasound. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.