How Many On Here Feed... (A Bit Long-ish)

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Angela & Blackie & 3 Others

Angela & Blackie & 3 Others

Member Since 2010
... Only 4x or less a day?

The reason I ask this is because I need to start finding work, even temporary, to help bring in extra money. However, I don't want to do this until I know, and feel, comfortable with Blackie being ok during the day while I'm not here (about 10+ hours, depending on where the(se) job(s) is(are), and the driving time, since we are very rural out here. Nearest town is about 21 miles away.. Nearest city... almost 1 hour.

About a week or so ago, I just took away the +3 feeding to see how she reacted, and other than some higher PS #s, which happens, she seems to be doing well with being fed 6x/day as opposed to 8x/day. I haven't changed her insulin dosage at all during this process, and she's still at 3.25u... Probably for longer than needing to be, but I'd rather try to manipulate her #s with food at this time than with the insulin, if at all possible.

I've been doing a bit of research by looking at a few others' profiles on here, and noticed that there may be a few that are feeding twice a day. Granted, I feel that may be a bit much for Blackie at this time, hence the thought of feeding her 4x/day instead of 6x/day (gradually cutting back). There are cats out there that are fed twice/day, even diabetic ones, I'm sure. I'm guessing as long as the amount of food is sufficient enough to last throughout the day, then it may be alright. I don't know.

Right now, she's getting fed at these times... PS, +1 and +2. What I did was I divided the +3 meal over time between the other 3 feedings, and eliminated the leftover gram entirely. She's getting 6.36 oz./day, which is 242.952 calories/day. Her weight, at last check, was 11.52 lbs. (taken a few days ago). If I divided the +2 meal between the PS and +1 meals, each meal would be 1.59 oz., which would still be the same amount of calories/day.

Seeing the recent results of the removal of the +3 feeding, I've been contemplating dividing the +2 between the PS and +1 feedings again to see how she'll react with only being fed 4x/day. Granted, this would only be an experiment again anyway, and if it didn't work out, then I'd go back to giving her 6 feedings.

I would rather not put her in the office (it does have a litter box) for the entire day as even during the PS and +2 feedings, she'll sit there and meow instead of eat (I've had to babysit her and coax her to eat on a number of occasions especially after her shots). I can't leave food out for her as the others will eat it (even the catsicles), and I have a UTI patient (Bubba) who is on a different food, I don't need him eating her food, either.

I'm sure that some of you may feel that I'm being a bit selfish for even thinking about this, and I'm sure that I'll be flamed for it. I understand that. In reality, though, I need to find work, even temporary. I can't with the schedule that she's on right now. Amongst other things, our vet bills are starting to pile up because I've had to take 2 of my civvies (indoor kitty Bubba, and outdoor kitty Shadow... Knock on wood, those are the only 2 right now) to the vet at least twice each in as many months.

I've been searching online for at-home work, but most of them are scams, and I'm feeling discouraged. Very discouraged. Temporary work would be ideal as it'll allow me time to be with her between gigs (or whatever they're called), and work with her a bit more. If nobody feels that I should do it, then I won't. We'll continue to do what we're doing, and I'll start with adjusting her insulin instead. Although I was working towards remission for her, I don't think she'll ever be OTJ. It's been too long (going on 4 years March 2014), and quite frankly, I don't know how to get her there... Thought I did, but I was wrong.

Thank you for whatever advice/input/knowledge/thoughts/whatever that you may provide. Again, please don't flame me. I'm weighing my options right now, and naturally I want what's best for my baby before I do anything else.
 
Angela - I'm sure a lot of people on the board don't even have the option of staying home with their cats. I live on my own (other than with Papaya, that is) and I have to work. There are even people with crazy shift work who just have to do the best they can for their cats. If you have to work, you have to work, and it would be crazy for anyone to give you grief for that. To look after our cats we have to be able to buy the food, insulin, testing supplies . . . plus look after ourselves.

IF you end up out of the house for 10 hours, you would still be able to do the feeding up to +2, right? And from what you said, that already seems like it works okay. If it turns out due to driving time you'll be out longer, then maybe you have to experiment with fewer feedings - but the only way you'll know for sure how PS and +1 feeding works is to try it and keep an eye on her. Sometimes when we face a decision we get stressed about what the ONE right choice is, but often there are multiple choices that in the end can all be made to be workable.

I hope you find a job that is wildly high paying for a few hours of flexibly timed work :lol: but if that doesn't happen just do the best you can with what you get!
 
You certainly aren't selfish. Bless your heart for taking care of several cats. My diabetic cat gets fed 4x a day, as that's all that's consistently possible. For sure there are many other people here in similar positions. You're still doing a great job for your kitty, Angela.
 
Thank you, ladies. I may go ahead and try this to see how she does, and if it doesn't work, then at least I can say that I tried.

I've been out of the workforce for a long time, so I'd like temp work anyway. At least it'll help to get my foot in the proverbial door. As far as "wildly" paying, not in my lifetime. :lol:
 
How is that possibly selfish? Probably most of us have to work, and many have long days and don't have the option of coming home at lunchtime. When Cyclone and then Salem were alive, I was working 8 1/2 hour days with an hour commute each way, so I was away about 10 1/2 hours. Usually I'd leave an hour after test and breakfast and leave a frozen can of Fancy Feast to tide the kitty over until I got home, then test/dinner and test/snack before bed. I was lucky enough to have a job where I could call in late if I needed to stay for a +2 or +3 test, but many people don't have that luxury or can't do it often, and have to shoot a reduced dosage if ps is unusually low. We all do what we can. You need to take care of yourself in order to take care of your cat, not to mention the expenses of FD. My kitties did fine on that schedule - Cyclone was down to a micro dose and Salem was OTJ when they died of causes unrelated to diabetes.

You could look into timed feeders - a lot of people use them successfully.
 
Auto feeders or timed feeders aren't an option for Miss Blackie. She knows how to break into them. I purchased 2 double sided auto feeders in the past, and she was able to get into both of them when we went out for dinner that night. Now, they're sitting there collecting dust. :lol: Thank you, though, Camille. :YMHUG:
 
Hi, Angela, I'm one of the twice-a-day feeders (thought I was the only one ;-) ).
It's not ideal for Ripley's little body, but she is unfortunately the type of kitty that will gladly let our civvie eat her food (Sure! Eat it ALL while I step aside and do nothing about it! :roll: ); plus, Smokey is an aggressive hoover and WILL/DOES take Ripley up on her offer in a heartbeat. Due to Ripley's added vitamins and meds (for FD and CKD), we can't have Smokey eating Ripley's food.
Ripley is such a lackadaisical eater, that she will also only eat if me or my DH are nearby; if we walk away, she does too :roll: .
I guarantee that if we tried autofeeders for both kitties, the score would be zero meals for Ripley and ALL of them for Smokey.
I'm not sure yet what we'll do if (when?) Ripley goes OTJ ~ smaller, more frequent meals are ideal, of course, but that will be a whole different bridge to cross if we get there. (Ripley also does not do well with being locked in a room; something about disliking closed doors ~ we may have to consider locking Smokey in a room and hope she doesn't retaliate... again, we'll keep that in mind for the future.

So here's our schedule:
Mornings: t/s/f Ripley at 5:30am; she spends an hour eating, while I'm getting ready for work ~ there is a lot of redirecting her back to her food (she likes to be near me always!), adding treats to keep her eating, and shooing Smokey away from Ripley's food. I leave for work at 6:30, return home 3:00.
Evenings: t/s/f Ripley at 5:30pm.
No room for mini meals. (Not until we have to incorporate them, anyway.)

Good luck with your job search, Angela! You are such a loving, caring mamabean :YMHUG:
 
Hi Angela. You are not being selfish by looking for work. As mentioned by the others that posted, you need to do whatever it takes to be able to provide for yourself and your kitties. Do you have a neighbor/friend close by that you would trust to come in and feed Blackie? I know it's very hard to trust the welfare of your kitties to another. We, just this week, left my daughter test and feed PurrFace. I think it's good if we all have another person like that because we never know what could happen necessitating it. You're a good bean to your kitties and I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

I wish you much luck in you search for employment. Don't let your time out of the workforce deter you. BE CONFIDENT in yourself. Having interviewed many people for employment I can tell you self confidence can go a long way. Have a great day Angela.
 
Angela, there is nothing selfish about what you are doing. You're thinking about what a lot of us already have to do, balance work and taking care of our furbabies the best we can. I feed Furball 3 times a day around my work schedule. I t/f/s before I go to work. I am able to leave the plates our during the day so if Furball goes low she has food around to eat. I t/f/s dinner after I get home from work. Then I give her a snack before I go to bed. I also leave the plates out so she'll have food available during the night. I do get a morning test when I first get up and an in the door test when I first get home from work so I can tell at pre-shot time is Furball is going up or down.

I hope you can find a job where you can work around feeding Blackie and keeping her safe. You may want to try the schedule you think you'll have to use if you get a job and see how Blackie does with it now when you are able to monitor her.
 
I was contemplating starting the Num Num Shuffle yet again while I AM at home to monitor her, but will be doing that over a period of 7-14 days. I've given this newest shuffle 8 days for her body to finally catch up, and I'm glad to see that she didn't give too many high #s, other than the contraband one. I know that ECID, and sometimes when something works for one kitty, the same thing may not work for another. I t/s/f (the latter within 5 minutes or less) at 6:00, so working outside the home would be ok. The schedule would depend upon the company that I work for. Considering it's about a good 20-25 minute drive into the nearest town from our house, an 8:00 a.m. start would be ok.

Frankly, I would like to see how she does react with only 4 feedings (PS, and +1), and go from there. I won't change the food amount at this point, and may be monitoring her weight on a daily basis right now. So many things to factor in, I tell you.
 
Hi Angela,
I'm gone four days a week for 12 hours a day. On those days I'm extra cautious and sometimes don't shoot or shoot very little if his numbers are a little low. It's worked out fine. His numbers have continued to come down. I think you just have to be careful when you know no one is there to keep an eye on your kitty.

I also leave the wet food sitting (with a little water added before I leave). They don't normally eat it all at once.

Debbie
 
Oh Angela, the mumbeans I've met on this board are the best. Although its ideal to have a 24x7 continuous service for our furry babies, it's just not possible. I'm a SAHM , and I can only manage 4 meals daily. Relax & do what you can. I'm sure Blackie will agree & adapt to your new schedule.
Good luck with your new job!
 
I haven't found a new job yet. I plan on working as a temp for now, which will allow to monitor her part of the time when I don't have a temporary position to work at the time. Unfortunately, I don't trust anyone in my neighborhood to check on her while I'm not here. All I can do right now is try this experiment while I'm still home, and see how it goes. I haven't gone to an agency yet, and won't until I know she'll be ok. THEN I'll proceed with signing up with a temp agency for temporary work. I know of an agency close by, which will be good for travel.

Right now, I'm focusing on Blackie and seeing what she'll do with this next experiment. With regards to the last Num Num Shuffle, and from what I've seen so far, I expected her #s to go higher than they have been. However, they've started to come down, and it's starting to look a bit promising (crossing fingers and hoping that I'm not misreading into that). I'm beginning to think that perhaps she was getting too many feedings, but not necessarily too much food. I don't know. I'm still holding her dose at 3.25u until I've completed the shuffle, and then will wait about a week or so thereafter for her body to catch up.
 
My husband and I both work from home. As a result, we are here to feed 6 times a day with a cube of frozen food out overnight for Basil. He, too, can "crack the code" on any automatic feeder. We set up the webcam one night to find out how soon he was doing it and the answer was approximately 37 seconds after we left the room!

SO my point before I rambled was have you considered leaving out a cube of frozen food? Now my kitty Rosie will EAT frozen food--while it is frozen. But Basil waits. You could even put out two frozen cubes--one in a regular dish and another in an insulated covered dish. †he cover might slow him down a bit.

But please do not feel guilty. You are just a person and can do only so much. Good luck!
 
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