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Margaret and Pearl (GA)

Margaret and Pearl (GA)

Member Since 2020
My "yay" moment for the day...I called around to every single pet store in a 60 mile radius and I found 8 cans of Pearl's food (enough for 6 days). I also found a couple beef and pork-based foods at the frufru shop that miiiiiight work long term. I have not tried them out yet.

They are: (1) Essence Ranch and Meadow https://essencepetfoods.com/recipes/cats/essence-original/wet/ranch-meadow/
(2) Dave's Beef and Beef Liver 95% https://www.davespetfood.com/product-page/cat-s-meow-95-beef-beef-liver-canned-cat-food

I have a quandry. Pearl needs to have a dose reduction at some point. SHe is in normal numbers for around 8 days now (the recent blues are ALL explained by the food experiments with higher carb - so I don't think I should restart the count for # of days in normal numbers, since at this point it isn't really about dose but about carb percent) - but I don't know when to reduce her.

I was thinking to get her back stabilized on "her" food for a couple of days, then start experiemnting with a new food again - all before reduction. But can this cause problems b/c it will be too long in a dose with normal numbers?

Or, do I reduce her first and then stabilize her with her normal food and work with finding a new food that will hold steady with her BG?

My confusion is b/c she has had the blue blips - but they are all because of the higher carb/different protein foods I was trying, NOT because the dose doesn't work for her. Any advice?
 
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Hi Margaret, I'm not great with dosing as there are others more experienced than me. But I'd stick with this dose and see where the food experiment goes. If she drops low, you'll have your answer and can reduce accordingly. This is only if you're home and can monitor her. Would hate to have you reduce and then see all of her numbers go up because of her very sensitive tummy reacting to the new food and a dose that doesn't work against it? Changing too many variables at once makes it hard to see the effect of one against another.
 
PerfumedCatMom said:
Hi Margaret, I'm not great with dosing as there are others more experienced than me. But I'd stick with this dose and see where the food experiment goes. If she drops low, you'll have your answer and can reduce accordingly. This is only if you're home and can monitor her. Would hate to have you reduce and then see all of her numbers go up because of her very sensitive tummy reacting to the new food and a dose that doesn't work against it? Changing too many variables at once makes it hard to see the effect of one against another.
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Thanks for this, Katherine! So, my plan is to put her on her usual food for a few days to get her tummy functioning normally (but I don't know whether to do this at the current dose or at the reduced dose which she qualifies for with her usual food). My thinking is, if I reduce her and she holds steady, then that is a good dose and I can hopefully find a food that works with that reduced dose. I already know the current dose works for her, so I don't want to waste the few days of her usual food that I have (if this makes sense) - I want those foods to be able to be used to "test" her dose so to speak. Does this make sense? I am having a hard time thinking it out. As I write, maybe my real question has to do with how to make the most out of the last 6 days of her normal food that I have in terms of using it to determine which dose will be best for her (current or reduced).
 
So if you ignore the blues and just look at her nadirs, she hit 60s today and on 5/30, but she hasn't gone much lower on all of the other days. Maybe I'm being a little aggressive here, and you know Pearl better than anyone else, but I think she might need more juice for a little longer. BUT, if you're coming up against this deadline of the food running out, then reduce and see where she goes. You can always come back up to 1.5 if you need to. Right?
 
PerfumedCatMom said:
So if you ignore the blues and just look at her nadirs, she hit 60s today and on 5/30, but she hasn't gone much lower on all of the other days. Maybe I'm being a little aggressive here, and you know Pearl better than anyone else, but I think she might need more juice for a little longer. BUT, if you're coming up against this deadline of the food running out, then reduce and see where she goes. You can always come back up to 1.5 if you need to. Right?
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True. Can always come back up.

I’m not super worried about her not real low NADIRs - she has been pretty flat at these numbers for a few reductions now. I’m just trying to figure out how to make the best use of that food in terms of her BG. So yes I can reduce then come back up. I just calculated the carbs on the beef foods, 6% so double what she normally would get (if she will indeed eat it). Maybe I am thinking too hard and confusing myself.

I could always hold her normal food and start the 6% immediately. In that case I would not reduce.

If I do her normal 3% food until it’s gone then yes I think I would have to reduce given her pattern recently of reductions in normal numbers.

Thanks for helping me think that out - I think those are my 2 options.

so I guess the big question is then just which one to pick to use now - new food or usual food.
 
This is where the food calculator from Tufts may be helpful :).

1) Do you know how many calories you typically feed her per day?
2) Do you know what the calories are in the old food? The new food?

Use this info with the Tufts calculator to figure out what the actual amount of carbs you have been been and will be feeding Pearl per calories fed vs general %. Plug in the #s with the old and then the new food. If the new food happens to be more caloric vs the regular food, the amount of carbs you are actually feeding with the new food may in fact not be double the amount of the old food. Does that make sense?

When looking only at %s, it appears to be double the carbs, but if the calories are higher in Food B vs Food A, she is not going to need to be fed the same amount of the new food as the old food and this in turn reduces the amount of the nutrients (including carbs) that she will be getting.

Given that you are trying to determine what the cause and effect is with the food, this would be important to know.

.
 
Time for a dumb question. If Pearl prefers a beef variety of food, have you given any consideration to a raw diet for her. Ground beef or even bison can be easy to find at a grocery. There are pre-mixes (i.e., a powder that contains all the nutrients and supplements necessary for a nutritionally complete diet) that you can purchase. Many of us who feed our kitties a raw diet use EZ Complete from FoodFurLife, but there are others, as well (e.g., Alnutrin, TC Complete). It might be easier to to go this route if you're having trouble finding the brand of food that Pearl likes/tolerates.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Many of us who feed our kitties a raw diet use EZ Complete from FoodFurLife, but there are others, as well (e.g., Alnutrin, TC Complete). It might be easier to to go this route if you're having trouble finding the brand of food that Pearl likes/tolerates.
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Do you know if EZ Complete is selling anything to new customers? They continue to show “sold out” and sales only to existing customers. I don’t know if the other companies are having similar issues.

I guess you can drop a call if this is a direction you want to go and see if they can do anything for you given the circumstances.
 
Tomlin said:
Do you know if EZ Complete is selling anything to new customers?
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They are resuming shipments starting next week to new customers. There was a pandemic-related shortage from their supplier of eggshell calcium that has held up production, but they have it again now and have been making and testing new batches before they go out. This is information I got from Laurie.
 
@Tomlin -- I don't know if they've started shipping again. I read elsewhere that they would be starting up soon -- the person gave a date which I don't remember. I think they will send a sample but I also don't know if that's possible if they are backlogged.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Time for a dumb question. If Pearl prefers a beef variety of food, have you given any consideration to a raw diet for her. Ground beef or even bison can be easy to find at a grocery. There are pre-mixes (i.e., a powder that contains all the nutrients and supplements necessary for a nutritionally complete diet) that you can purchase. Many of us who feed our kitties a raw diet use EZ Complete from FoodFurLife, but there are others, as well (e.g., Alnutrin, TC Complete). It might be easier to to go this route if you're having trouble finding the brand of food that Pearl likes/tolerates.
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LOL, it's not a dumb questions Sienne! Pearl is just a very odd cat. Will not eat people food (unless you have carrots or beer on hand). Will not eat many cat foods (loves dry - I have contemplated Dr. Elsey's but have not tried yet). I don't know if she thinks she is her own unique species or something. So I have hesitated trying raw. And I have to also be super-simple for me, since I have major health problems and have to work outside the home - minimal effort has to be the name of the game. I always thought raw a lot of work - but maybe Pearl won't give me a choice on the matter.

But I can try some beef to see how it goes, I am making some ground beef today so have some on hand.
 
The pre-mix makes it very easy. I use EZ Complete. I mix 1/2 C of the mix with water, the ground meat is added and you mix that in thoroughly. I put the food into ice cube trays and freeze. For 2 lbs of food, it takes about 20 min.
 
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