Please Help! What foods will make my cat gain weight fast and safely?

[Miracle]

Hello Cat Parents! Please Help! My 18-Year-Old Maine Coon cat has squamous cell carcinoma under his tongue. He has pancreatitis and has been temporarily taken off chemotherapy. All tests have shown negative for other illnesses. They think that he is having a reaction to the chemotherapy, even though he was doing well on it. We have been syringe feeding a/d Urgent Care, baby food, cat treat sauces, and have tried w/d multi-benefit. What other types of foods would make him gain weight fast? How fast could he safely gain weight? Thank you in advance!

[Mollycat]

What does your vet suggest? Rapid weight changes are rarely safe.

[Ruth B]

It is certainly a case of talk to your vet first and I've no experience with that type of cancer, but the one thing I could thing of that might help is kitten food. It is normally higher in protein than many adult cat foods and the dried food pieces are a lot smaller which might help if he likes dried food. However I've had a couple of cats who got through to their late teens and both became very skinny in their later years. Until, literally their last couple of days with us they were still active enough, so while I was keeping an eye on their weights and the vets couldn't find any specific cause for it, we just accepted it as part of their growing old. Tiggy was so skinny in her last months that if she had ever got out of the house and garden and someone had found her they would have rushed her to a vets thinking she needed urgent treatment. Like I say, talk to your vet, but it could be that his weight isn't as much of a problem as you think it might be, and if you can manage to treat the pancreatitis and cancer then it could be he will just appear to be all skin and bones for the rest of his life, but still be happy and active.

[fjm]

I agree about consulting your vet - I would think at this stage the key thing is to manage the pancreatitis, and a canned recovery food that you can dilute a little and syringe feed or a liquid food may be best. Fat content is not as critical in cats as it is in dogs with pancreatitis but the recommendation is to avoid high fat levels even so - kitten food can be quite high which is another reason to ask your vet for advice.