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jayla-n-Drevon

jayla-n-Drevon

Member Since 2015
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone has suggestions for safe slow weight loss for a kitty? I honestly do not know why Drevon is not losing weight because he is on no dry low carb (wellness-core-fancy feast -tiki-weruva-against the grain)
I rotate foods often because he is picky and I have another with CRF (he is not overweight).

The only treats they get is pure bites chicken-I grind them in my vita mix so they get the "dry fix"
Drevon is a big cat--he would be good at 16-17 pounds. He is currently almost 20#
He was down to 19 and he has gained a few ounces. He gets fluids (maybe I weighed him with extra fluids) but still he needs to lose weight. I am always afraid of hypo and wondering if I feed too much?
We are on day 4 of lantus (been on vetsulin and pro zinc) and his numbers are looking better but I really believe he can go into remission if I can get his weight under control. 6oz a day seems like not enough??
 
Every cat is different when it comes to how much they need to eat to maintain their weight. Do you have a scale you can get accurate weights on him?

I recently started China on a "diet" so bought a baby scale so I can keep track of her weight. I've also bought her one of these "Da Bird" cat toys...exercise will help burn calories in cats just like people!!...and it has the added benefit of making insulin more available to the cells so it's a "win win"!

There's all kinds of good info on this page of Feeding Your Cat on safe dieting.
 
Chris & China said:
Every cat is different when it comes to how much they need to eat to maintain their weight. Do you have a scale you can get accurate weights on him?

I recently started China on a "diet" so bought a baby scale so I can keep track of her weight. I've also bought her one of these "Da Bird" cat toys...exercise will help burn calories in cats just like people!!...and it has the added benefit of making insulin more available to the cells so it's a "win win"!

There's all kinds of good info on this page of Feeding Your Cat on safe dieting.
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Hi! Yes we use a baby scale...
I got a new laser and he is playing more…. I will check out the page suggested--
He was just chasing his "brother " and I made a "carpeted ramp" from the loft is like 11 feet long so they can play and use the stairs or the ramp--he couldn't fit thru the bars :(( he managed too squeeze thru and I had just given fluids which didnt help! I will keep working on it ;) Ty!
 
SpecklesandMe said:
How many calories per day are you feeding Drevon?
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It is hard to determine that because he will never sit and eat a can or 1/2 a can (2.8 oz cans)
he takes a few licks of a few different kinds-
he does eat the pure bites chicken probably more than the cans but it is 1 ingredient so I don't really restrict that very much because he doesn't eat a full meal with the wet-
I worry about fatty lipidosis with him if he doesn't eat- I think the can food he does eat is mainly to please me--I do think he is getting used to no dry food as well and I found 1 he seems to like felines pride rabbit-but he only eats about 1/4 of that, if I leave it overnight he may eat another 1/4 or at most another 1/2 but never a full can.
He licks the juice from a tiki 0 carb flavor-spits out the meat.
 
Hmm... that's a tough situation. I will say that my vet always used to give me a look when I would say I was trying to get Speckles to lose weight in more recent years. He was pretty against me trying to after Speckles got older. I guess he was worried that with the diabetes and age-associated changes, weight loss would be inevitable at some point, and it was better to start at a higher baseline weight to keep him from wasting away too quickly. I don't know... It seemed a little counterintuitive to me; so I never totally stopped trying a little to get Speckles to lose weight though... I was just more cautious in my approach, I guess.
My non-diabetic does that with the Tiki Cat too. The only thing she eats with both the juices and the meat is the Proplan Savory Beef and Carrots or Beef and Chicken, but I don't know the carb counts on those. Hopefully someone will have some other ideas!
 
SpecklesandMe said:
Hmm... that's a tough situation. I will say that my vet always used to give me a look when I would say I was trying to get Speckles to lose weight in more recent years. He was pretty against me trying to after Speckles got older. I guess he was worried that with the diabetes and age-associated changes, weight loss would be inevitable at some point, and it was better to start at a higher baseline weight to keep him from wasting away too quickly. I don't know... It seemed a little counterintuitive to me; so I never totally stopped trying a little to get Speckles to lose weight though... I was just more cautious in my approach, I guess.
My non-diabetic does that with the Tiki Cat too. The only thing she eats with both the juices and the meat is the Proplan Savory Beef and Carrots or Beef and Chicken, but I don't know the carb counts on those. Hopefully someone will have some other ideas!
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Hi,
Thank you for the feedback-
I am going to continue to try to get a pound or 2 off him--I am not going to rush it as he is 15 and besides the diabetes he has some kidney issues (fluids daily now--not a lot but does better when daily) I agree with you that the weight and the diabetes = counter productive….
He seems to like this rock star rabbit-- it does have some veggies but he eats at most 1/2 can so considering what he ate pre diabetes he is doing pretty good with diet. I think he probably eats 60% of his food with the pure bites chicken and I think that may be better? No carbs… I know being freeze dried or dehydrated isn't great but at this point my goal is to keep him as healthy as I can and allow him a quality of life that he enjoys. He is such a amazing boy, honestly he is such a joy to be with I just adore him and he has been so patient with me!! My other boy is 16 and I TRY to keep him at 11-12 pounds-he eats at least 2x as much as Drevon and has been getting SQ for 5 years….Luckily Drevon isn't even interested in Ricos food as he eats ID (I know yuck--but he eats it and he is thin to begin with and 16yrs with Ki disease) Rico also eats some fancy feast and other stuff but no dry since all this started so I have to keep him fed as much as he will eat-2 fussy cats!
 
jayla said:
Hi,
Thank you for the feedback-
I am going to continue to try to get a pound or 2 off him--I am not going to rush it as he is 15 and besides the diabetes he has some kidney issues (fluids daily now--not a lot but does better when daily) I agree with you that the weight and the diabetes = counter productive….
He seems to like this rock star rabbit-- it does have some veggies but he eats at most 1/2 can so considering what he ate pre diabetes he is doing pretty good with diet. I think he probably eats 60% of his food with the pure bites chicken and I think that may be better? No carbs… I know being freeze dried or dehydrated isn't great but at this point my goal is to keep him as healthy as I can and allow him a quality of life that he enjoys. He is such a amazing boy, honestly he is such a joy to be with I just adore him and he has been so patient with me!! My other boy is 16 and I TRY to keep him at 11-12 pounds-he eats at least 2x as much as Drevon and has been getting SQ for 5 years….Luckily Drevon isn't even interested in Ricos food as he eats ID (I know yuck--but he eats it and he is thin to begin with and 16yrs with Ki disease) Rico also eats some fancy feast and other stuff but no dry since all this started so I have to keep him fed as much as he will eat-2 fussy cats!
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That's funny because my civvie likes the other Nature's Variety Pride flavor- I think it's called Cheshire Chicken (have not tried the rabbit). Sounds like our kitties have some tastes in common! lol
Let us know how Drevon does! Fingers and paws crossed!
 
SpecklesandMe said:
That's funny because my civvie likes the other Nature's Variety Pride flavor- I think it's called Cheshire Chicken (have not tried the rabbit). Sounds like our kitties have some tastes in common! lol
Let us know how Drevon does! Fingers and paws crossed!
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That is funny… Dre won't touch the other flavors!! My outside cat gets the whole can :)
Thanks for the wishes….I think he is starting to respond to the lantus -and the enzymes and pancreatrophin …..got my pom poms out!!
How is Speckles doing ??
 
jayla said:
That is funny… Dre won't touch the other flavors!! My outside cat gets the whole can :)
Thanks for the wishes….I think he is starting to respond to the lantus -and the enzymes and pancreatrophin …..got my pom poms out!!
How is Speckles doing ??
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Sorry to cause confusion... I feel bad that I don't have "GA" up next to Speckles's name. We lost my sweet boy in Sept to cancer, but he made me love kitties so much (and people on here were so very kind and supportive) that I've stayed on the forum hoping to help out if I can, but I technically don't have a diabetic cat anymore.

Is Drevon on the enzymes and pancreatrophin for pancreatitis or pancreatic enzyme insufficiency? I was just curious...
 
Hi,
I am so sorry….I am glad you stayed :) The people are amazing and I appreciate your positive thought for my Drevon:))
He had some blood work that looked like some mild pancreas issues over the past year, nothing definitive but the reason I had the blood done was because my gut told me it was pancreatitis. It was so mild the vet said it was nothing….but mom knows their babies!!
So he takes the pancreatropin glandular from standard process to help the pancreas function better and he takes Herb smith micro flora which is a pre biotic-probiotic-enzyme and herbs. He does really well on them and his tummy is much better, he lays sprawled out and relaxed and seems to have a better appetite after he gets them.
I am hoping the glandular especially will allow his pancreas to reboot.
It is just a week on lantus and last night he had a lower PMPS so I think we are making progress!
 
jayla said:
I am so sorry….I am glad you stayed
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Thank you!
And I'm glad to hear that Drevon's tummy is doing better. I'm guessing the blood test you had done was the spec fPL. It's really good that those pancreatitis tests are available nowadays!
 
It was actually a regular blood panel--I just had this "gut " feeling-and his amalayse was just slightly elevated but the test was after I believe he had the worst of it…
I have no definitive proof other than mommy instinct and some slightly elevated values (liver slight as well)--his kitty Dr said it was most likely the precursor …
anyways we ended up here … if I was most sure and educated on diabetes I would have switched his diet then but hindsight :((
 
Sometimes instinct trumps all!
Please don't beat yourself up about the diet. Speckles had been on a relatively high-protein wet food diet for about 3 yrs before he got diabetes. There are some things you just can't control unfortunately and we just have to do the best we can for our sweet kities!
 
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