Paula Nowak
Member Since 2018
Hi this is Paula with Elvis. In about the last week, Elvis has not been eating as much as he should. For example, take today; it is already 6 Central Time where I'm at in Rockford Illinois and Elvis has only eaten a little more than a small can of Fancy Feast and maybe another quarter of a can. I'm hoping that by 5 the next morning which will be in about 11 hours oh, that he will have finished his other half and then eats another can which means he will have had two and a half cans and he rarely ever goes beyond two and a half cans and has been doing this since November of last year when he first got diabetes. I know Doctor Lisa Pearson had said that she had never seen a cat that had gotten hepatic lipidosis otherwise known as fatty liver disease if they've had at least 15 calories per pound for ideal weight. I'm not sure what Elvis's ideal weight is but I do know that he is around 20 lb now but I am sure he lost a little in the last few months probably not more than a pound though. I calculated his ideal weight at around 12 pounds but that would mean that he would have to eat 2 1/2 cans of Fancy Feast because the Fancy Feast turkey and giblets which is the only food he will eat is 96 calories a can, and I don't think that's a lot of calories. I'm really worried here and I'm wondering if there is any kind of an appetite enhancer that I can give him. At one time when I thought he wasn't getting enough food, I tried to feed him with a food syringe and that was a total disaster and it went all over and he started gagging and it was just a big mess all around , so that is not going to work. I myself am disabled so I can be home all the time and I don't mind at all being with Elvis because he is my baby and I love being with him and I will do whatever I have to do to keep him regulated in all ways. My roommate and I are now concentrating on getting him to eat enough food, which has been difficult in the past week. This has happened before, but then he sort of snapped out of it and started wolfing his food down. Someone said on here that oh it's probably because of his blood sugar but his blood sugar is basically been in the two' s in the evening and the threes in the evening. I have seen him in the blues in the greens though here and there. I guess this is because he's a diabetic, so maybe the best thing to do is probably just to keep watching him and putting the food in front of him like we've been doing and saying to him , chicken dinner Elvis, good boy chicken dinner. I know I said I give him turkey and giblets but he knows the word chicken because he used to get chicken a while back but now he won't eat it any more and then we say good boy good boy and then he eats. I think he associates the good boy with eating and that we are praising him for eating so that's why he eats. If anyone has any ideas or knows if there's any kind of a powdered mix that I can mix in his food that won't change the taste of his food because that's all I can do at this point. He doesn't like anything that tastes funny so it has to be masked by food. I remember someone on here telling me to give him salmon oil and he totally hated that. I can't give him anything that goes in the mouth cause he's not going to like it , he starts foaming at the mouth and starts gagging and I'm not doing that to him. So if anybody has any ideas I'd appreciate it, thank you.
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