? 7/14 Monty / AMPS 144 / +3 148 / +5 160 / PMPS 140

Tom & Monty

Tom & Monty

Member Since 2020
Good morning all. Today marks a happy milestone for Monty's testing, this morning he saw the AlphaTrak and ran to the testing spot purring!

I had two questions today. I know cats are not tolerant of rapid diet changes, but how much of a "change" is a change. For example yesterday I fed him Lily's Kitchen Hunter's Hotpot rather than his usual Lily's Kitchen Classic Chicken Dinner for two of his four meals and his poop was quite soft in the evening. My assumption was that they'd be equivalent foods, should I just stick to classic chicken dinner?

Secondly, his vaccination boosters are in a few months and it will be the first time he's had vaccines with diabetes, is there anything I should know?
 
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Tom & Monty said:
I know cats are not tolerant of rapid diet changes, but how much of a "change" is a change.
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Usually we suggest adding 25% of a new food each day until they're changed over but if at any time you see signs of tummy troubles, slow down even more. Go to 10% of the new food to 90% of the old, or give more time in between changes like 25/75 for a few days before going to 50/50 for several days then 25/75...etc...etc.

Tom & Monty said:
Secondly, his vaccination boosters are in a few months and it will be the first time he's had vaccines with diabetes, is there anything I should know?
Click to expand...

If he's a strictly indoor cat, he probably doesn't need them at all. If your government requires a rabies, you can have a titer run that shows if he has built up enough immunity already so he doesn't need a booster or you can talk to your vet about not doing vaccines at all. Some vets are willing to put older or chronically ill cats as exempt for any more vaccinations.
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
Usually we suggest adding 25% of a new food each day until they're changed over but if at any time you see signs of tummy troubles, slow down even more. Go to 10% of the new food to 90% of the old, or give more time in between changes like 25/75 for a few days before going to 50/50 for several days then 25/75...etc...etc.
Click to expand...

My hope was that those two foods are similar enough that I could use them interchangeably. I don't want to move him over to Hunter's Hotpot, but the multi-packs of food of various flavours are sometimes cheaper than the single flavour packs for some reason.
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
Some vets are willing to put older or chronically ill cats as exempt for any more vaccinations.
Click to expand...

Looks like in the UK I'm not forced to give any vaccines by law. However, I would like him vaccinated unless there are reasons not to other than financial. Would diabetes or pancreatitis be complicated by vaccines in your experience? Perhaps I should just ask my vet next time I see them.
 
Tom & Monty said:
My hope was that those two foods are similar enough that I could use them interchangeably. I don't want to move him over to Hunter's Hotpot, but the multi-packs of food of various flavours are sometimes cheaper than the single flavour packs for some reason.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert but I would think that once you gradually get him used to Hunter's Hotpot, you should be able to use them interchangeably. I have done this with my kitty.


Tom & Monty said:
Looks like in the UK I'm not forced to give any vaccines by law. However, I would like him vaccinated unless there are reasons not to other than financial. Would diabetes or pancreatitis be complicated by vaccines in your experience? Perhaps I should just ask my vet next time I see them.
Click to expand...

See this article by Dr. Lisa Pierson on vaccinations.
https://catinfo.org/vaccines-for-cats-we-need-to-stop-overvaccinating/
 
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Are there any topics about human glucometer recommendations for UK? I'm curious how Monty's numbers are shaping up against human calibrated dosing methods.

Ideally I'd want something that requires as little blood as the AlphaTrak and I want to not spend £1 per test!
 
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