8/19 Saima AMPS 259, +6 247

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jennifer & Saima (GA)

Jennifer & Saima (GA)

Member Since 2011
Yesterday's thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=50251

I got Saima's spreadsheet up (I think), and her BG numbers are down a little bit today. I hope that trend continues--though not too much, of course! I don't have any meetings midday, so I'm going to try and time my lunch break so I can get a +6 reading. Had a huge problem getting BG readings yesterday. I tried and tried for about 1/2 hour at lunch and finally had to give up and go back to work. Same thing for PMPS. Had to give up and give her the insulin at some point. I ran out and got some 26g lancets yesterday evening, and those seem to be working much better for now.

Now my "data dump" of everything that is in my brain that I'm worrying about. Sorry for the length.

Saima's appetite was back at least temporarily yesterday (a huge relief) and she is drinking quite a bit of water again. Other good signs: She came over to the base of the stairs to greet us when we got up this morning, and scratched on her "approved scratching location" (she doesn't like scratching posts, but is allowed to scratch this plastic crate tower thingy in the pantry) to get a treat this morning. She hasn't been doing that for the last several days. She is still lying down almost all the time--I think her legs are quite weak and bothering her. I feel awful about it. :sad: I really need to get on top of finding some methyl-B12.

I couldn't get her to eat too much this morning. I gave her Fancy Feast Turkey & Giblets thinned down with Cat Sip, and it doesn't really seem to be her cup of tea. (So far she only seems to be at all interested in the Cod, Sole, and Shrimp variety, which worries me because that's a lot of seafood, and even that she won't eat much of.) Freeze-dried salmon and FortiFlora on top helped a little, but not too much. DH gave her some deli turkey and freeze-dried salmon on its own, and tried to tempt her with some pieces of chicken liver, but she only ate a few pieces. I left her dry food out because I think she still needs to get some more calories into her, and I don't want to put her off her food again. We did mix it half and half with her old food and Wellness Core just to try and lower the carbs a little. I'd still say she's eating way better than when she first came home from the vet, and I am really thankful for that... I just want to stay on top of it and make sure she is getting enough. I need to find a good source of information about how many calories she needs per day, and start crunching some numbers to see what I should be trying to get into her.

I think I'm going to try to find a source for Primal raw food around here. She ate a few pieces of raw steak quite enthusiastically the night before last, so although I know beef is not the best for cats, I might try the beef and salmon variety to start with if I can get it. Later on it would be ideal if we could go to venison or quail or something for her allergies, or a homemade version, which is a little too intimidating for me to start with. I'm still worried about phosphorus, but she is not actually diagnosed with CRF, so I'm going to worry about that later.

OK, I guess that's it. Thanks for listening!
 
Re: 8/19 Saima AMPS 259

Hi guys .. glad to see saima's numbers are coming down! I hope you are able to get the spot checks later today .. have you tried rubbing her ears, or warming the edges of them up? Sometimes that would help mocha's ears bleed better ..

I'm glad to hear she had a pretty good morning, with treats and scratches .. hopefully the B12 will help out her back legs ..

Good luck in getting saima to eat better .. I know there are quite a few raw feeders on the board, maybe they can lead you in the right direction .. we use special kitty wet cat food from wal mart .. mocha goes to town on it .. but thankfully she has never been a picky eater ..

Have a great weekend!
 
Re: 8/19 Saima AMPS 259

good morning! that's a really nice amps for saima today! as she starts feeling better her appetite will hopefully pick up as well.

if it helps for comparison, punkin eats a little more than 3.5 fancy feast cans a day (9.5oz) - he finishes off anya's plates at every meal. by the charts he should get 4 cans a day for calories. he's very inactive, weighs 14.3lbs, 13+ years old.

glad to hear she's scratching her thingy. that's one way i can tell when punkin feels better. he lays his ears back and scratches the floor like a kitty. i trim his claws so it's not like he gets too far with the whole thing, but he enjoys it.
 
Re: 8/19 Saima AMPS 259

That calorie information does help. She was 14 lb 15 oz at the vet's on Monday--a good weight for her would be more like 12 or maybe 13. Or maybe less, I dunno, but she has never really weighed less than 12 lb as a full-grown cat, so it seems like the amount Punkin is eating would probably be reasonable for her. In her pre-illness younger days she would eat between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of regular dry food a day, and never "cleaned her plate."

Now for the daunting prospect of getting 3+ cans of food into her when right now she won't even eat one... I really hope I can find a kind she likes. I feel like I've tried them all at one point or another with no luck.

Thanks, folks. Have a good weekend.
 
Re: 8/19 Saima AMPS 259

Saima's SS is up and working!!

For neuropathy, Zobaline is methyl-B12 that is formulated for cats. You can buy it directly from LifeLink or it's available on Amazon. The advantage of this formulation is that there is no sugar or flavoring.

Another option to try that may entice Saima to eat is to pulverize some of her dry food and sprinkle it on top of the canned. As far as calories per day, Dr. Lisa's website, provides the following formula:
Required calories per day = [13.6 X optimal lean body weight in pounds] + 70​
She notes that this is generous with respect to the calories. However, it will give you a ballpark. It's also a great site for info on feline nutrition, if you've not seen it yet. Janet & Binky's list has the calorie counts for most foods. FWIW, my guys really didn't like Wellness Core. They like regular Wellness just fine.

With respect to beef, it's not that beef is bad for cats. Some cats are sensitive or allergic to beef. Gabby tends to puke if she eats beef. Since you mentioned allergies, I'm guessing that this may be the case with Saima.

I feed poultry flavors. Making raw at home is not problematic especially if you use a powdered pre-mix that you can buy. When I was making and feeding raw at home, I use TC Feline premix. I linked the product info page. You may need to contact them for a US distributor. Apparently, the store info on their website is for Canada. Dr. Lisa's website also has info on raw diets. I really liked the quality of Feline's Pride. Shipping was just expensive.
 
Re: 8/19 Saima AMPS 259

Nice AMPS! :-D Check out the Max's House link I gave you yesterday, the have a very good chard towards the end of the page. Calories really depend on the weight and activity level, inactive adult about 18 kcal/pound, active adult 20 to 30 kcal/pound.

Right now it sounds like anything she is willing to eat would be good. Go through J&B's list and look for some foods w/ more calories per can. That way you don''t need to make her eat quite so much.
 
Ann--thanks for the reminder--and I am sorry I'm not always reading everyone's information thoroughly yet. I am spending my time unproductively panicking and obsessively scouring the boards (and trying to get a few minutes of work done here and there... not so successfully) rather than fully taking in all of this great information.

Lunchtime update... she doesn't look like she is feeling too well today, and she is definitely unhappy that I keep coming at her and harassing her with food. She just looks ill and unhappy. I am trying not to completely panic and lose hope. Here is what she has eaten so far today. I am really lucky (if it ends up working out) that I found a local source for Primal food. I ran over there and picked some up when I left the office, then went home and tested her BG and tried to feed her stuff. I also found some Merrick Cowboy Cookout at this pet store, but she got up and actively moved away from it when I tried to get her to taste it. :sad:

Overnight or perhaps just before bed last night--about 5 g of dry food
This morning--a couple of chunks of freeze-dried salmon, a few small pieces of deli turkey, about 1/6 can of Fancy Feast Turkey & Giblets with a couple of tablespoons of Cat Sip, a few pieces (maybe 3?) of cut up chicken liver
Lunchtime--a chunk of freeze-dried chicken breast, about 1/2-2/3 of a defrosted (actually it was almost cooked--I microwaved it a little too long) nugget of Primal beef & chicken variety. She actually ate this really readily, then seemed to abruptly decide she was done and refused to eat any more. Then a decent amount of Cat Sip--perhaps a few tablespoons--and a few bits of deli turkey.

Based on the calorie guidelines, it seems to me like if we could eventually get her to eat perhaps 4 Primal nuggets per day, she would be in good shape for calories and it would be a good low-carb diet for her. Right now that seems impossible, but at least it's something to shoot for.

On the bright side, she hasn't has anything high-carb yet today. Maybe that will make her feel a little better in the end.

ETA: I ordered some Zobaline today. I wanted to find a local source but in the end I realized it would be as quick to just get it online by the time I get a chance to go to the health food store. Whenever I think "I'll start her on x soon" or "I'll get y for her this weekend" I have to mentally add "... if she lives long enough." I can't believe I allowed her to get this disease.
 
Re: 8/19 Saima AMPS 259

Wellness Kitten formula works amazingly well to get calories in a cat. I would highly recommend you try this food. I would be very good for syringe feeding.

EVO Cat & Kitten formula is also good, as well as Wellness Chicken and Turkey flavors. All are high calorie.
 
I have some various Wellness (including the kitten) at home, and will try that. Thanks.

I will put on my big girl pants and just do the syringe feeding, but I feel so hopeless about it. It took me probably 10 minutes to get 5 mL in her last time, and she hated it. I'm afraid I'm going to turn her off eating forever and have to make her miserable with force feeding every day for the rest of her life. :sad:
 
Thanks for that tip. She doesn't like those foods per our attempts to feed them to her about a year or so ago, so I doubt she would eat them on her own, but calories is the key right now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top