Thread: Maine Coon not putting on weight

Originally Posted by ChriK8

I enjoyed reading about Martha. I found this thread after searching for weight gain of a Maine Coon kitten. I wanted to share my story of my kitten, as it's so similar to yours. My Maine Coon kitten was from a shelter at age 7 months. (I know he's perhaps not truly a Maine Coon, but he has so many of the characteristics, including the most important... not making my allergic husband sneeze!). He'd been in the shelter for many weeks and had chronic diarrhea just as you described (yellow and runny), his whiskers were also very broken off! The shelter tried all different things... de-worming, medications, vitamin supplements, with no results. (Fortunately they did not give up on him... I guess because he was so gorgeous!). Finally they tried a strict diet of no grains. This worked, but when we got him, he had diarrhea again. We were feeding him a dry kibble of no-grain duck. Then we tried a wet food, as this is supposed to be better anyway. This was the cure!!! Only a wet food of DUCK with NO GRAINS. Several brands are available. I think Martha might have very good results with this, and if anyone else finds this thread do try this. We were so upset that our beloved kitty might suffer with this chronic issue and for the last several months he has done really well! The tummy issue has so many potential causes, and can involve numerous tests -- many with inconclusive results -- this is an easy solution to try. You can also try a little canned organic pumpkin as a treat. Attachment 5374

Beautiful kitty, glad you got him sorted out.
Actually it's the Siberian Cat that's suppose to non-allergenic , but they share many of the same wonderful traits as the MCC.

Hi Anna, I never thought about pronouncing the user name...! I'm Christine and my cat is Caspian. He is a Black Smoke coon! How clever you could tell!

His eyes are aqua/green when he is happy and more pale yellow when he is 'on alert'. As a kitten his fur was mostly black and then the gray started to come in. And his fur kept growing! He has a big ruff now. As for the tail, I guess he was shaved (you can see his funny tail tip in the pic) because of his diarrhea at the shelter. Now his tail is draping and really like a big feather. Reading this forum here has made me realize how lucky I am that things are OK now. We've had him since Oct/Nov. just like Martha's description here. Interesting how they are similar.

Your kitties are beautiful!! Fabulous expressions.
Thanks for responding and making me feel welcome. I've not done a forum before. How fun to share cat stories and advice.

Thanks for the info. Yes he is a good looking cat! I will keep the advice you gave in mind. I've already seen a little fluctuation in the looks of the cans I give. (more moisture or less, etc.) I'm also hoping it might be a kitten thing, and now that he's older (a year) and not stressed from his difficult start to life that things will continue to get better.

Originally Posted by cooncatbob

Beautiful kitty, glad you got him sorted out.
Actually it's the Siberian Cat that's suppose to non-allergenic , but they share many of the same wonderful traits as the MCC.

Very true. The all important thing here is that we have him in the house and my husband THINKS he is non-allergenic! Therefore he is. Hubby gets quite allergic to some cats, actually most cats. After not having a cat in my life for over 20 years I am in heaven now! I did lots of research on Siberians and MC cats and they do have a reduced allergen, but scientists have not nailed down the specifics. Some Siberians are dramatically less allergenic, but there is no guarantee the offspring will be. Most people think that long hair means more allergens, but this is not true. There are many ways to live with a cat if you are allergic.

Originally Posted by ChriK8

He is a Black Smoke coon! How clever you could tell!

Not that clever, really. My Monty aka El Monto is black smoke too, albeit he shows more silver in his fur than Caspian does.

By the looks of Caspian, particularly his face and ears, I see more Siberian than Maine Coon. So I think Cooncatbob might be right.

Re the allergies... I had always been skeptical about the supposed hypo-allergenic qualities of MCs. But we have a number of friends who suffer from asthma and/or allergies, and all of them are pleasantly surprised at how little discomfort they experience when visiting our place! (We only have Coons, no other cats.)

Thanx for your kind words about my crew.

Originally Posted by ChriK8

I enjoyed reading about Martha. I found this thread after searching for weight gain of a Maine Coon kitten. I wanted to share my story of my kitten, as it's so similar to yours. My Maine Coon kitten was from a shelter at age 7 months. (I know he's perhaps not truly a Maine Coon, but he has so many of the characteristics, including the most important... not making my allergic husband sneeze!). He'd been in the shelter for many weeks and had chronic diarrhea just as you described (yellow and runny), his whiskers were also very broken off! The shelter tried all different things... de-worming, medications, vitamin supplements, with no results. (Fortunately they did not give up on him... I guess because he was so gorgeous!). Finally they tried a strict diet of no grains. This worked, but when we got him, he had diarrhea again. We were feeding him a dry kibble of no-grain duck. Then we tried a wet food, as this is supposed to be better anyway. This was the cure!!! Only a wet food of DUCK with NO GRAINS. Several brands are available. I think Martha might have very good results with this, and if anyone else finds this thread do try this. We were so upset that our beloved kitty might suffer with this chronic issue and for the last several months he has done really well! The tummy issue has so many potential causes, and can involve numerous tests -- many with inconclusive results -- this is an easy solution to try. You can also try a little canned organic pumpkin as a treat. Attachment 5374

Thanks, I have heard about pumpkin but haven't tried it yet, I will look into it

So glad your kitty is feeling better too, it's horrible when you just see them getting worse and feel helpless. For a while I wondered if we were ever going to get to the bottom of it, but thankfully she is now going great. She's even bigger and more fluffy since the last pictures and is an absolute sweetie. She's now topped 4kg's and we are all really happy xD

We are continuing with the prescription diet and hoping that in the future we can control her IBD with just diet and not have to rely on the medication, but either way we are just so happy shes ok now.

All the best to everyone and their kitties :D

Well.. I know I'm bumping up rather an old post but I stumbled across it on Google and can only wish I had seen it earlier. Your lovely little Martha must have been from the same litter as my girl (I think I even recognise her from visits ), if not, then the litter after as I know this was the breeders last ever litter.

I'm so glad that Martha is on the up, we too had months and months of problems with our girl - not too dissimilar to yours, but ours was diagnosed with pancreatitis which has now thankfully completely cleared (touch wood!) for over 6 months. Her weight and general growth from when she came home to us and about 6 months ago was poor to say the least and we felt completely helpless! It felt at times like we were stuck in loop of her being better, putting on weight.. and then she'd come down with another bout of illness and she'd lose weight again, so I completely feel for what you've been through!

We didn't contact the breeder (although she now knows about the pancreatitis) as I never for one moment thought it was anything that was her fault (and still don't, for the record) but sounds like she did an amazing job in your case which I would never have doubted her to do - our gang went back to stay with her this May for a week and she was SO pleased to see how well our girl had come on since last year a real shame she no longer breeds as I'd go back in a heartbeat if/when the time comes to add another MC to our bunch. Marthas crazy fur is exactly how Pyrrha's was... She's impossible to groom, lol!

Keep in touch, you're the first fellow Elyskats owner I've stumbled across

Originally Posted by Pyrrha

Well.. I know I'm bumping up rather an old post but I stumbled across it on Google and can only wish I had seen it earlier. Your lovely little Martha must have been from the same litter as my girl (I think I even recognise her from visits ), if not, then the litter after as I know this was the breeders last ever litter.

I'm so glad that Martha is on the up, we too had months and months of problems with our girl - not too dissimilar to yours, but ours was diagnosed with pancreatitis which has now thankfully completely cleared (touch wood!) for over 6 months. Her weight and general growth from when she came home to us and about 6 months ago was poor to say the least and we felt completely helpless! It felt at times like we were stuck in loop of her being better, putting on weight.. and then she'd come down with another bout of illness and she'd lose weight again, so I completely feel for what you've been through!

We didn't contact the breeder (although she now knows about the pancreatitis) as I never for one moment thought it was anything that was her fault (and still don't, for the record) but sounds like she did an amazing job in your case which I would never have doubted her to do - our gang went back to stay with her this May for a week and she was SO pleased to see how well our girl had come on since last year a real shame she no longer breeds as I'd go back in a heartbeat if/when the time comes to add another MC to our bunch. Marthas crazy fur is exactly how Pyrrha's was... She's impossible to groom, lol!

Keep in touch, you're the first fellow Elyskats owner I've stumbled across

Thanks so much for the post and I am also very sorry for bumping a thread that is now years old and not replying sooner! I had been meaning to come on here for some time, but time goes so quickly!

We are glad that your little one is doing well, Martha grew to six kilos and is a giant fluffy cat, we thankfully managed to stop the medicine and control her diet.

It took lots of trials with different foods but I wanted to post back and say that Porta 21 is the ONLY food she can seem to eat without having an upset. We tried lots of expensive medicated food and none of it worked.

She does have a few health issues, (possible polyups, she has sneezing fits) probably due to the stunting and poor start she got off to, but she is mostly a healthy cat now with the diet she is on and is living an active and happy life

I know exactly what you mean about the fur, Martha's is so long it nearly drags across the floor.

Thanks again to everyone on this forum for helping us out, giving us advice and listening to us when we needed help. We will try to visit here more often

Hope all of your kitties are well

And here are a few pictures to show where she was and how she is now, the last couple are a bit dark sorry.

I've just re-read the thread and can't believe how far she has come and how worried we were about her. You wouldn't ever think she was the same cat in those early pictures.