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Old 11-06-2012, 12:28 PM   #1  
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Default Protecting my cat, from the dreaded whitespot

We have a very fat, very spoiled, old cat (13 years old, so not that terribly old).

She was very fat when we got her from the humane society, and we initially were able to get a couple pounds off of her (the less you feed her, the less she moves, and the more she begs - yowls for food).

We feed her small amounts of food three times a day (if we put more than a meal's worth, usually about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup, she'll bolt it down quickly and then throw up).

So about an hour before each meal, she'll start crying piteously (and more and more loudly) until she's fed.

If she falls asleep, she's convinced that she's missed a meal, and will start crying to see if we will feed her.

She's also getting kitty dementia, because she will sometimes forget she's been fed and will start yowling, trying to lead us to her bowl to fill it, and we'll walk into the bathroom with her, where she'll see that she still has food and will then start to eat it, unless.......

there's a white spot in her bowl (that is that the white is showing through from the bottom).

Apparently she considers the dish "empty" if any of the dish can be seen. In fact, if she hasn't eaten all of her breakfast, she will still yowl for lunch if there's any dish showing through from the bottom.

Now, it's gotten to the point that she will not eat from her bowl, if there's a white spot showing.

Not only that, but she will snuffle to the bottom of the bowl to create a white spot before the next meal.

This morning I fed her breakfast, and she began yowling almost immediately. I'm getting tired of "showing her" that she still has food, so I I've been ignoring her complaining, figuring she would eventually discover that she has food (at least this is what usually occurs).

Today, she didn't stop complaining, so I decided to go in and check to see what was up with her food that she needed help with, expecting to find either a white spot in her dish or a "floater" in her water dish (if a piece of food or an insect gets into her water dish, she will complain until someone removes it).

I figured the water dish was probably the problem because she hadn't had time to create a white spot (or so I thought).

Instead, I found a "white spot" in her food dish, the size of a pencil point - not even 1/4 inch in diameter. Usually the spot has had to be the size of a nickel before she'd complain (although she has become very proficient at creating said white spot ).

It's my fault, I've been shaking her bowl every time I go to the bathroom (where her food dish is) to protect her from the dreaded white spot. I thought I was being clever, but instead it has just made her even more OCD about the white spot.

In general, she's very OCD and disturbed by any change in our (her) schedule. She's still not adjusted to the time change (waking us an hour early and expecting breakfast). The other night, hubby was out with some friends and was out later than usual. The cat woke me with dreadful crying (the kind that would suggest she's in severe pain it's so intense). I didn't even get up to see, because this is also a habit of hers. If hubby is late, she'll wake me (expecting me to do something about it?) I'm not sure, but she definitely feels the need to "sound the alarm" that something is not right with the world (you should hear her when he's not home during a storm).

Last edited by kaplods; 11-06-2012 at 12:35 PM.
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Old 11-06-2012, 12:38 PM   #2  
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Aahhh, cats. Gotta love 'em, right?? I have a little black cat I adopted from the SPCA. He was a year old when I got him and was born there from a feral mother. I like to call him my "little garbage cat" because he's a rescue. You'd think a rescue cat that spent the first year of his life in a shelter would eat whatever you gave him. Not this one. I've had to go through so many brands of dry and wet cat food to find the ones he was willing to eat. So much money wasted... I finally found the brands and flavors he'll accept (Blue dried cat food and StarKist Chunk Light tuna), but he'll only eat it if it's been microwaved and only if I stand there and feed him. It used to be he'd only eat if I stood there and watched him. If I left the kitchen, he'd follow me, but yowl and cry to be fed. So I'd follow him back into the kitchen and stand watch while he ate. Well, now he'll only eat if I hand feed him. He'll get up on his back legs and knead the air with his front paws while I spoonfeed him. It's not cute. I don't know why he does it and I've tried to just leave him and his food alone all day while I'm at work, but I'll come home to a starving cat and a bowlful of food. I love him, but it's one of those special kinds of love
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Old 11-06-2012, 12:55 PM   #3  
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Food issues are crazy with cats aren't they, and you can't just let a cat not eat.

We learned that the hard way, when we tried to get Chub Chub to eat a new brand of food. We figured that if she got hungry enough, she'd eat it. On the third or fourth day of her hunger strike, we woke up to hear her crying in intense pain. Her belly was incredibly hard, and she would hiss at us every time we touched her the slightest bit.

We took her to the vet, and he said that with cats, not eating can actually be very hazardous.

She will eat two different foods (that look identical - we laugh that her food has to be beige and round).

I had two cats that were fed Kroger cat food dark brown in an x shape). When I moved town where it wasn't available, I bought Meow Mix, which the cats would except - but they would only eat the dark x and y shaped pieces (I gues the y's looked like broken x's).

Hubby is incredibly anal about sticking to a "schedule" so the cat absolutely loves him. She's not so fond of me, I guess because I'm more unpredictable (which she complains about constantly).
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Old 11-06-2012, 12:58 PM   #4  
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Wondering if you try a dark colored bowl...or somethng close to the color of her cat food. Of courseI know som ats would just freak ou at the tought o a DIFERENT bowl.

We feed my cat Purina cat food, it is shaped like little "X"s. I he bites a piece f food and one of the "tails" ofthe "x" breaks off and falls in the bowl he will not eat it. Only complete "x"'s. He could have a whole bowl of crumbs and he wouldn't eat tem if he was starving.

With that said, please asy prayer for my kitty. His name is Pitter, he had a procedure done this morning to clear his blocked urinary track. He will be in the kitty hospital untl Friday. I am allowed to visit him every afternoon though.
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Old 11-06-2012, 01:00 PM   #5  
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My cat will eat meow mix... only to have him puke it up 15 minutes later. And the color they use in that stuff stains the carpet orange.
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Old 11-06-2012, 01:11 PM   #6  
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That's so funny, I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a neurotic cat! It's funny because he is so resistant to cat food, but will gobble up the dog's food. My vet told me to not let him eat too much, so I have to stand guard over BOTH their bowls. He also won't eat cat treats. I've tried all kinds, but he's just not interested. He will, however, eat dog treats. His favorite is the Milo's Kitchen brand chicken jerky. He's so aggravating, but I can't help but love him so much. He's got the softest blackest fur and these huge green eyes. You can't stay mad at that!

KateB - I will definitely have your kitty in my thoughts. I hope everything goes well for him! I gave my cat a can of Blue canned cat food in I think salmon flavor, and he ate it all then proceeded to walk around the living room throwing it all up and it stained my carpet this horrible brownish orange color.
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Old 11-06-2012, 01:21 PM   #7  
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My cats are very much into their routines, but Angel has started a new one. The last week or so she's been crying for us in the middle of the night, and she won't stop til one of us gets up. We don't even have to touch her, or anything, getting up and going to the restroom is enough. Sometimes this happens a few times in the night. We love her, but it's getting old fast.
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Old 11-06-2012, 02:32 PM   #8  
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Oh, our furrybabies!! Gotta love them!
Agatha ALSO hates the white spot at the bottom of her bowl. Same with my cousin's cat. It's a thing with our feline friends, I'm sure of it!
I like the idea of a bowl that "matches" her food. It might trick her...at least for awhile. ;-)
Agatha knows when I come home from work that it's dinner time. So when I have a day off, she'll "ask" for dinner ALL DAY LONG!!!! I give her dinner only in the evenings. She does have dry food available, but not canned. We have a routine: dinner, brushing while watching tv, & then bedtime. She, too, is a "senior" cat.
She is nearly 13 yrs old (calendar wise), feral & still not 100% sure about us. We've worked with her for the last 12 years, but I'm not sure what happened to her before we adopted her. She doesn't trust us completely though we've never given her reason not to. Oh, well. How do you explain that to a cat? Can anyone tell me?? Thanks!

kaplods: Agatha only eats Kit & Caboodle/Moew Mix. Purina shreds (ONLY!!!) for wet. How crazy is that! She KNOWS the difference & will starve first.

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Old 11-06-2012, 02:51 PM   #9  
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MrsTryingAgain - That has to be one of the coolest cat names I've heard yet! I've got the opposite problem with my kitty. He has to be the most naive trusting thing I've ever seen. When a new person comes to the house, he is the first one at their feet meowing for pets and rolling over so they can rub his belly. No apprehensive kitty stares, no slowly walking over to them.. He goes straight for the belly rubs. He also approaches dogs he doesn't know. He's been trying to get out the front door when I open it and it scares me because even though he's the boss of my 70lb dog, that doesn't make him the boss of my neighbors' dogs. And there are a lot of dogs in my complex. I'm afraid he'll try to roll over to get belly rubs from a moving car or he'll walk up and stuff himself into the mouth of one of the neighbors' dogs.
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Old 11-06-2012, 06:15 PM   #10  
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Buy a new bowl the same color as her food... or paint the bottom with a glass friendly enamel and then coat that with a resin to seal it.
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Old 11-06-2012, 07:13 PM   #11  
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We're just about to try something new with our old lady cat. I asked the vet if cat's get Alzheimer's cause she is getting so weird about food and of all things the doorbell - if it rings she runs to it and starts hissing and is not terribly pleasant to anyone that comes in. She also wants food in her dish at all times and often comes begging even if there is something in it. The vet said that something like 80% of cats over 10 have some form of arthritis and this can make them behave strange. So we have some "treats" that I think are like people glucosamine that we are going to try for the next month and see if it changes her behaviour any.

Gotta love them!
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Old 11-06-2012, 09:33 PM   #12  
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Cats are so interesting. My female cat Sophie will gorge on her canned and vomit too. So she gets a small spoonful three times a day. I smash it down so she cannot eat too quickly. Before I did this she would drop her canned food to the floor (she sets on a perch/cat climber) and try to eat my male cat Ollie's food then her own. She will also gorge on kibble and be sick. I have to monitor her eating.

As soon as she hears us move after 3 am she meows for food. Lol
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Old 11-09-2012, 05:50 PM   #13  
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We inherited a cat named Sophie from a lady that passed away. Sophie is overweight and has a terrific appetite. She is also bigger than my original two cats. It has been decided that Sophie should eat in the bathroom off the utility room, with the door shut, so she doesn't finish eating and take over the other two cats' food. Cats being cats, it is always kind of a circus getting them to their assigned spots. Sophie always finishes first and spends the rest of her time in the bathroom sticking her paw under the door and meowing at the other cats to distract them from their food so she can get it when I let her out. It is also fun when all three of them barf up the food. I gave them some real juicy food that they loved and ate so fast it came right back up. Yuck.
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Old 11-10-2012, 04:14 AM   #14  
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oh how I miss my cat.

Whiskers lived a full 16 years (for a calico that is slightly over their predicted lifespan) and was weird for all of those years.

She always had a dish of dry kibble, to nibble on (she never had a weight problem) and then twice a day she got wet food. Special Kitty from Walmart. and occasionally she might accept fancy feast fillet mignon. Unfortunately, she would often just lap up the gravy then let the rest dry up and get thrown out.

We tried just buying gravy, that wouldn't do.

So I started only giving her half of a pouch, so she only wasted one pouch a day.

SHe also would help herself to the dog's food. First dog ate Pedigree mixed with wet, current dogs eat Ceasers I think....

Of course this cat would also eat ajax when she could (if she found a cloth used to clean the bathroom) and when we washed the floors with pinesol she would roll and lick the floor.
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Old 11-10-2012, 03:20 PM   #15  
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I'm starting to feel like we need pics in this thread.... If it's one thing I never tire of, it's pics of silly kitties. I'll start off with my Oscar. He reminds me Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. He's weird, needy, and loves to lick the tip of my nose.
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Last edited by Lakilaulea; 11-10-2012 at 03:26 PM.
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