Great numbers...but not drinking water?

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Harukyo

Harukyo

Member Since 2019
Something that I've noticed the past couple of days about Kyo's habits. Around 3-4 days ago, I haven't been able to catch her at her water bowl at all! And she eats/sleeps/drinks/bathrooms in my room! So I know her routines quite well. She is on a strict wet food diet (FF classics pate) and she eats about 5-6 times a day. Her numbers are looking great and she actually looks like shes heading towards remission. But its concerning me that I haven't seen her drinking much if at all! No other poor physical signs, her gums aren't tacky they are nice and moist so shes not dehydrated...

I noticed that it started around the time she started reading good numbers and receiving no insulin. Maybe I'm just not use to how much a cat drinks when not fighting diabetes? What do you guys think, am I being a worry wart? :rolleyes: or maybe theres some strategies I can do to get her to drink more?
 
You can add water to her food and make a little "cat food soup" as I call it. I do that with my elderly cat as she will hardly drink water from a dish. I also had a cat that would only drink flowing water so we got him a little water fountain thing, he drank quite a bit more after that. Maybe she is getting enough water from the wet food itself so she doesn't feel the need to drink too much anymore. I know I have heard that cats get most of their liquid from their diet, and thats why a wet food diet is preferred overall. But I would still keep an eye on whether or not she is peeing just to make sure something isn't going on. These cats sure don't make things easy on us humans!
 
Right?! Like if its not one thing its another... I'll try the cat soup! Thanks for that idea! She did pee this morning, but I haven't seen her go again so I'll keep an eye on it.
 
Sophie doesn’t drink water at all. She has 3 water sources throughout the house (small bowl, big bowl, running fountain, sometimes a strategically placed water cup) but she gets all her water from her food. I also add water to her food just to make sure she’s getting enough. She’ll let me make it into soup, but I know some cats don’t like that so it might be good to start out with a little bit and add more until you find out how much she’ll let you get away with lol
 
Most cats (non diabetic) on a wet diet rarely drink water. Cats on a dry diet will drink but it’s never enough to make up the difference between a wet and dry diet.
I rarely see my cats drink out of the bowl. I feed my cats ( non diabetic) a raw diet but add a teaspoon or two of warm water to each meal.
Sounds like Kyo is acting like a normal cat. I’d just add a bit of water to his meals as suggested above.
 
Weighing in, also sounds pretty normal to me. My civvie cats haven’t been touching their water bowl nearly as much since we’ve all switched to wet (the 3 civvies have some backup dry but it is used sparingly)...... Alice was always water motivated more than many, and she loves her “wet food soup” .... But most aren’t as much as she is. My indoor/outdoor cat seems to only touch her water if she has had dry food, for the most part. Alllllll the cats are definitely still peeing, so they are okay. :)
Just keep an eye on the box. Give her some broth or add a spoon of water to food, and it will not be a big deal. Alice almost always gets extra water added to her food.

Also, I am not used to Alice’s better-regulated appetite, similar kind of thing. When she doesn’t want to eat 3 cans a day, I worry because it is different, even if it is probably a good sign.

It’s still better to ask than not, and now the conversation is here in case someone else is searching and wondering, too. :)
 
AliceMeowliss&Cassandra said:
I am not used to Alice’s better-regulated appetite, similar kind of thing. When she doesn’t want to eat 3 cans a day, I worry because it is different, even if it is probably a good sign.
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LOL I feel like this has been my life the past week. For months I've been really trying to pay attention and note any changes I see in her diet/mood/litter box use/water ANYTHING that would give me indications of what's wrong/not wrong because I didn't know about home testing back then! Even though she has made such huge strides since switching to LC wet food and I've been able to home test just fine, I can't shake my hypervigliant mentality...but that's also probably my own anxiety lol.

Like you and your kitties I'm still learning what her "true" appetite is since I was used to months of her crying for food alllll the timeeee. Even when I thought it was just the diabetes talking! Gosh, I shake my head at myself every time I think back to those days just going to the vet every two weeks and how long she had to suffer until I finally took matters into my own hands. :(

She's gone from inhaling literally as much as she could (dry food) to not even finishing 2 and a half cans of wet food most days in about 2 weeks time. I just started her on a feeding schedule where she eats every 4 hours now and she didn't even finish 2 and a half tablespoons of food this morning. And I'm just here like :nailbiting::nailbiting: why aren't you more hungry?? Lol oh man she keeps me on my toes. I'm continuing to look forward to really figuring out what her normal is :cat:
 
Bron and Sheba said:
Most cats (non diabetic) on a wet diet rarely drink water. Cats on a dry diet will drink but it’s never enough to make up the difference between a wet and dry diet.
I rarely see my cats drink out of the bowl. I feed my cats ( non diabetic) a raw diet but add a teaspoon or two of warm water to each meal.
Sounds like Kyo is acting like a normal cat. I’d just add a bit of water to his meals as suggested above.
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It's crazy just how much of a difference the wet food made! I can't even imagine feeding any dry food to the future cats or dogs I'll have! This whole thing has really irked me. The fact that I was made to believe that whatever formula of dry food I would buy was actually good for a cat to eat. I fell for the marketing hard and when I finally began to dig into what is in this dry food I was disgusted. Before DX Kyo loved this Rachel Ray Nutrish food (indoor formula) and the other day I looked up it's carb content because she got into it...OVER 40%!! Good God I was sick to my stomach knowing that I fed her that for years. I trusted these companies to know what was good for my pets and dry food is everywhere! It's like the standard pet food! Haha oh Bron, sorry for the rant. I just think back on how much I didn't know before I found this community and all of you awesome people. I'm glad Kyo is just being a normal cat on a wet food diet. Thanks for all you do!
 
Harukyo said:
It's crazy just how much of a difference the wet food made! I can't even imagine feeding any dry food to the future cats or dogs I'll have! This whole thing has really irked me. The fact that I was made to believe that whatever formula of dry food I would buy was actually good for a cat to eat. I fell for the marketing hard and when I finally began to dig into what is in this dry food I was disgusted. Before DX Kyo loved this Rachel Ray Nutrish food (indoor formula) and the other day I looked up it's carb content because she got into it...OVER 40%!! Good God I was sick to my stomach knowing that I fed her that for years. I trusted these companies to know what was good for my pets and dry food is everywhere! It's like the standard pet food! Haha oh Bron, sorry for the rant. I just think back on how much I didn't know before I found this community and all of you awesome people. I'm glad Kyo is just being a normal cat on a wet food diet. Thanks for all you do!
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Like you, I didn’t know. We all have to learn sometime! The Best Thing is that how you will always know. :) I spent thirteen years nearly, feeding everyone wet food as a “treat” and now that I know what I know.... I’m like..... whaaaat??? What was I thinking?!!!

And for some people and for some cats, it all works out okay. They live happy lives on dry food, and do just fine, and their humans can afford to care for them that way and so they have a home.

You mentioned dogs too, so I will tell you this: my mom’s Chinook gets with his dinner sometimes some egg, sweet potato, brown rice, plain Greek yogurt, and even carrots for a treat, and garlic to repel fleas etc..... even dogs have some versatility. Cats need meat meat meat meat meat.

And it’s okay it took you time to figure things out. Alice was a walking skeleton by the time I got a better handle on things. I was tracking her fecal score and weight and all sorts of things trying to “fix it” but no amount of fixing was going to happen without home testing and insulin better than NPH. We do our best and thankfully we learned what we needed to learn soon enough. Alice looks amazing now and she’s happier. :)

If Kyo could understand this in a way that she could say thank you to you, I am sure she would. You saved her life, just by doing your best. :)
 
You're gonna make me cry Cassandra :arghh: Thanks for the kind words. I talk all high and mighty about the wet food since its literally saving Kyo's life, but damn do I miss the price tag of the dry food. $7 bag would last me almost a month! Now its $50 a month...my goodness I still cringe every time I think about it :blackeye:
 
I switched from fancy feast to friskies just cause you get twice as much for less than what a small 3oz can of fancy feast costs, atleast in my area I do. A small can of ff is like 80 cents, where as a 5.5oz can of friskies is 58 cents. Its still more than what I would spend buying dry food but we can't win em all!
 
Cyberlizard said:
I switched from fancy feast to friskies just cause you get twice as much for less than what a small 3oz can of fancy feast costs, atleast in my area I do. A small can of ff is like 80 cents, where as a 5.5oz can of friskies is 58 cents. Its still more than what I would spend buying dry food but we can't win em all!
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I just looked into the pricing for friskies and that would be so much more economical for me. The FF classics that I feed Kyo right now are 2-3% carbs and more protein and fat balanced than most brands I see on the food chart. The friskies seem to be about 4-5% and half as much protein% to fat% so I wonder how that would affect Kyo even though I know those numbers aren't always actually correct. I get hung up on the littlest things :facepalm: thanks @Cyberlizard for making me aware that there is a more economical option because if Kyo responds well to it than you've just saved me quite a bit of money!
 
We all worry about different things! I was worried FF was too high in phosphorus cause I have some pretty old cats that might be prone to kidney issues, thats why I even switched to begin with, the savings were just a bonus haha
 
Lauren, if you feed Friskies, watch to see if BG goes up a little bit -- it has rice in it, and while its carb % is close to 4Health and Blue Wilderness and FF, I have noticed a difference .. at least one other catmom did too -- apparently Catcat is more reactive to rice than to potato -- it's not a BIG difference, but it's the reason I feed Friskies at night only
 
CandyH and Catcat said:
Lauren, if you feed Friskies, watch to see if BG goes up a little bit -- it has rice in it, and while its carb % is close to 4Health and Blue Wilderness and FF, I have noticed a difference .. at least one other catmom did too -- apparently Catcat is more reactive to rice than to potato -- it's not a BIG difference, but it's the reason I feed Friskies at night only
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Thanks for the heads up! I figured something like that would be the case. I'm not looking to switch her food until shes hit full remission (on OTJ trial right now) because I'd rather not add another diet variable into our progress just yet. She has been reading quite low on my Relion Micometer though, and I wonder if a slight carb increase would keep her more within normal ranges. Thats all just speculation though and I just purchased an AT2 so I can get more accurate numbers when the vet wants them. I wouldn't have even though to compare the ingredient list like that...still learning so much every day lol:bookworm::bookworm:
 
Harukyo said:
Thanks for the heads up! I figured something like that would be the case. I'm not looking to switch her food until shes hit full remission (on OTJ trial right now) because I'd rather not add another diet variable into our progress just yet. She has been reading quite low on my Relion Micometer though, and I wonder if a slight carb increase would keep her more within normal ranges. Thats all just speculation though and I just purchased an AT2 so I can get more accurate numbers when the vet wants them. I wouldn't have even though to compare the ingredient list like that...still learning so much every day lol:bookworm::bookworm:
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You could try to incorporate part of a can of friskies here and there and see how she does!
It really is much cheaper. And it never hurts to have multiple carb content choices in your toolkit of sugar kitty supplies. :D
 
if you're as careful with a dollar as I am, check to see if there is a Dollar Tree store in your area, because that's where I'm finding the 15 ounce cans of Friskies pate, for a dollar -- ignore the Meaty Bits, those are too high carb, but at least at the one here, I've found Poultry Platter, Mixed Grill, and Turkey&Giblets, all classic pates
 
Harukyo, I read your post, and replays. Sounds just like my Buddy. When diagnosed with FD. Two weeks ago and even before that, he drank ALOT of water. 20+ oz a day. ( I track daily ) Two weeks in treatment with lantus and ( ONLY ) A wet caned diet. Where before he eat primarily dry. STUPID Me. His water intake started decreasing and now he's drinking 4 to 6. Was worried at first. But soon realized he's drinking more like he should.
 
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