Needing direction on many fronts as a new member

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How are things going with Oreo the Foodie? Have you figured out a way to keep him from eating all the food at once? :lol:
 
Hello again KPassa,
It's lovely to hear from you. Oreo did in fact figure out that rotating feeder in no time flat but I think it was the smell of the liver PureBites that drove him insane. When I put in chicken PureBites he was more relaxed and for the past two nights I have put in each of the five slots a little of his raw food. He gets a little something on the hour from 1AM till 5AM - so far so good. I originally thought the feeder was broken but it was Oreo who pushed the mechanism off its tract. Will see how this all plays out but it does feel better knowing he gets some food at night. In the meantime, what really drives me crazy is the fact he doesn't seem to feel full at all. I find myself wondering how others cope with their foodies who never seem to be full even after they just ate. This is a cat who free fed for 15 years and is now having to deal with controlled feeds . Oreo seems to be crying and restless looking for food on most days and particularly after his 6 PMPS. This constant meowing and restless behaviour makes it difficult to enjoy him. Have you had any experience with a foodie ? Thanks . Linelle
 
Hi Linelle and sugardude Oreo and welcome to the FDMB. No ideas from me on how to keep Oreo satisfied with his food intake but I wanted to say hi anyway.

Oreo's appetite will be diminished as the insulin dose gets balanced better for his needs. My foster cat Wink was eating 11-13 ounces at first but is now down to 6-7 ounces.

I think the raw food you are feeding is low carb. The only ingredient in there that I see that would add some carb content is the liver. I'd stick with feeding that food for now.

Where do you live? Sounds like, from reading through some of your posts, you might be up in Canada.
 
Not much advice from me, either! :lol: I was dealing with a growing kitten who ate twice as much as an adult to begin with, plus had a ravenous appetite from unregulated diabetes. The one time I let Michelangelo truly free-feed, he consumed upwards of 600 calories in one day when he was still a little 5 pound, 6-month-old. What I ended up doing was giving him unlimited access, but portion-controlled it, only putting a little bit out at a time. One thing that worked well was I started mixing in water with the food. His eating amount decreased overnight as well as his water consumption. If you're not already doing that, I would suggest you start adding as much water to Oreo's food as he'll allow. There's a tipping point with Mikey that if I add too much water, he won't eat it till it dries out a bit and is less watery.

You might also want to read this thread on feeding kitties as much as they want that might be helpful.
 
You guys are "on it". Wow, I think I hit the Jackpot with two answers to my question ASAP. Kpassa I have in fact started to mix water with his food to stretch it out so to speak and I do think I could perhaps add even more because Oreo seems to inhale whatever is in his dish. I do wish he would find a mouse when he is outside one day for that extra bonus of protein. I did try your thread suggestion but it said something about an error- thank you anyway for taking the time/energy to do this for me. I suspect if I put down his food allotment for the day ,it would be gone in about 20 seconds. With this portion control he has lost a little weight going from 17 lbs to now, as of today, 15 lbs.9 ounces. Now that he has a feeder in the night, he is in fact getting a couple of extra ounces a day. I don't think I can cut him back any more during the day because he'd drive me and anyone else who will listen to him, crazy looking for that endless supply of food. He currently get 6.5 ounces daily and has been getting that amount all along since I started to care for him with all the details involved looking after an elderly, obese,diabetic cat. Just to be clear with respect to his food, I thought he may be getting a little constipated so I added a bit of the Fancy Feast to the slurry - one small tin of Fancy Feast added to a 3 day raw supply.

And my thanks you to Deb and Wink. Absolutely ,when Oreo's numbers are in the green zone, there are moments when he actually has his old loveable pre diabetic self back; it's these moments that make this whole process quite exciting.

I am writing this from my home in Toronto, Canada . My thanks to you both.
 
Looking at your SS and reading your comments. Nice and thorough! Thanks. I do have one question. What does the abbreviation BAR mean on the SS? I'm pretty sure it does not stand for Bachelor of Architecture :lol: , but must be an abbreviation for something.

What meter are you using? Human like a Bayer Counter or a pet specific one like the Alphatrak? Sorry, I did not find a mention of which meter you are using in the post. Probably missed it somewhere.

If you add the meter you used and the type of insulin to your user control panel, profile, edit signature, it will be there on each post and it would help us out a bit.
 
Hi again Deb and Wink ,
Dr Pierson said to put BAR on his chart if he is Bright, Alert, and Responsive and/or ATG for Ain't That Great; I suppose a few words tells a better story. In Oreo's case it should mean Bright, Alert and Ravenous ... As for a meter, I am using a NANO Accuchek - a human one. I've got it down now and it only needs a little blood. The meter waits for quite a long time for the blood. I didn't want to use something that only gave me 5 seconds to get a reading. That's the plus side. The negative side is the cost of the strips and as you know, if you don't get the blood on that first try, you need to use another strip. I am using Lantus . As for user control panel ??? My son got some sort of info on something for me. I'll have to get him to help with this other info as well.
 
I think I like the Bright, Alert, and Ravenous explanation better. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Thanks for clueing me in.

Here are some detailed, step by step directions on updating the user control panel, edit signature to help out you and your son when he has a chance to get the information in there for you.

User control panel instructions.

Would you please provide us with some more information and put this in your user control panel? It helps us to help you better. This will take about 5 minutes of your time.

Think of this as having some very useful information at our finger tips for those that are replying to your posts. One reason we like to see this information in your signature is because if there is ever an emergency situation like a possible hypoglycemic episode, we don’t have to ask a lot of questions like what meter you are using to give you the best advice. Doing this signature update is totally optional, but it does help us to
help you better.

If you are willing to do this, would you please do those updates when you get a chance? Thanks.

Go to the upper left corner of your screen and click on the words, User Control Panel
On the next screen, a row of tabs is presented. Select the Profile tab
On the next screen, there are a number of choices along the left hand side. Select Edit Profile.
Go down to the location field and enter your country, state/province, and city if you are willing to share that info.
Click on submit to save this change.

Still in the User Control Panel, Profile tab, this time select Edit Signature from the left hand list of options.
A free form text box appears. Type the information in here.

We like to see information like your first name, your cats name age and sex, the diagnosis date for the diabetes like this (DX 4/30/13), what meter you are using for testing, what insulin you are using , what you are feeding (wet or dry, what brands/style of food), any complicating health issues your cat may have, any additional medications your cat is receiving. If you are using a pet specific meter like an Alphatrak or Ipet, please change the font size on that text from Normal to Large (using the drop down arrow list in the middle of the editing commands)

Click on submit to save this information. Now, this will appear at the end of every post you make. You can update the info when you need to.

There is an additional document you can create to provide even more information about your cat. This is also optional to create this google document and link it into your signature. The profile is in addition to the synopsis info in your signature. See this link on the how to's of profile creation. http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=79123
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Ooo! I like the idea of BAR and ATG! I might start incorporating them into my spreadsheet. :thumbup
 
he's hungry partially because as an uncontrolled diabetic he's not getting the nutrients from what he's eating as well as he was before. so it takes more calories to get the same amount of calories metabolized into his system. the sugar floating about in his blood that you are measuring is the energy that fuels his body, floating about and not able to get into his cells. he's also hungry because he's losing weight.

are you trying to get him to lose weight? because cats cat get extremely sick if they lose weight too quickly. weight loss that is planned has to be very slow. the risk of too quick weight loss is called fatty liver, or feline hepatic lipidosis. if you mean him to lose weight, it has to be done very slowly. i don't know over what length of time is that he's lost the 1.5lbs. i'll check with someone who has experience with this, but the recommended weight loss is very slow. i'll find out the recommended oz/week that is a safe rate of loss and get back to you.

i would immediately let him eat enough that his weight stabilizes. it's important.
 
i sent a message to Karrie/Maverick who is very experienced on cat weight loss. i asked her what the safe rate of weight loss is, if the cat needs to lose weight. here is her answer:

Safest thing to do is to get a baby scale or a scale that weighs to the ounce or better. Amazon has them very cheap often with free shipping. A pet scale or shipping scale would be an option. No more than 1 to 2% a week and every third week give the liver a week to rest by maintaining weight. FHL can happen very quickly and its never worth the risk to try and lose more. The FHL cycle can hit a cat rapidly - some in as little as few days. If someone is trying to manage a cats weight, please explain to them how cat's biologies are very unique - their liver clogs when it uses body fat to make up for a calorie deficit, and can lead to full liver failure. Hope this helps.

Every cat owner should have a scale. After Maverick recovered from FHL - the monthly weigh in caught his diabetes before any other symptoms were present.
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i told her his what his weight loss is and she says:

They should start weighing right away to see if it is a trend downward. Have them keep an eye on food intake to make sure they continue to eat well. FHL can be something that starts slowly and as the liver gets clogged with more fat, they eat less, liver gets worse etc. That is a big weight drop.

Sorry - weighing daily or at a minimum weekly. Same time of day and make sure they weigh after pooping. Its not the daily weight that matters but the trending of the weight.
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hope this all helps you! please keep asking if you need more help. there is an unbelievable wealth of cat health experience among the various people here.
 
Again some wonderful information from a variety of sources ; those who commented on the BAR and ATG you can thank Dr Pierson for that and I'm glad I was able to pass something useful on to you people who have been so generous with your time and information. Deb and Wink, although my son is like trying to herd cats, he'll help me with that panel info today.

KPassa- how great it is to have a few letters that can speak volumes about our cat's daily progress. Having said that, it is important to have everyone understand the language otherwise we could be madly off in all directions with wild guessing and assumptions. And,I could have lots of fun with these letters but ....

Julie and Punkin ,hello again ,and as usual, you, along with these others, continue with thoughtful responses. I have incorporated Oreo's weight from the vet's office, I think,on my SS; I believe he was 17 lbs. Since we adopted Oreo on August 16/13, I was weighing him on our less than accurate home scale (in one day he would weigh in with a weight that looked suspiciously like a Sumo wrestler and a few hours later he would be a few pounds lighter). I purchased a salter baby scale . Since then, I've been weighing him once a week and now with this added info from Kerrie Maverick I will weigh more often. Dr Pierson is aware of his weight.

Hope this addresses each of your responses. Thank you all.
 
Since you mention some constipation, 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of plain psyllium powder may be added to the food to help with that. Bonus is that it also provides some bulk which may help the cat feel more full.

See Feline Constipatio for additional ideas.
 
Hello BJM,
Thank you for this information with respect to a possible constipation issue. Oreo is an in door out door cat which makes it difficult to truly assess whether or not he has constipation. Having said that, I do see feces in his litter box some days not others; apparently this can be normal for those on a raw diet. I started to add some Fancy Feast to his raw and he has had more frequent bowel movements in his litter box. I did check out your information on the link provided and does that Laxese sound remarkable based on the testimonials - if you can believe them. Do you know of anyone who has actually used the stuff? Dr Lisa also writes about her use of psyllium powder in her web site. I'll watch what happens with the added Fancy Feast to the raw going forward. I also wondered whether the Fancy Feast would add a bit more bulk to the raw diet as well; the Fancy Feast seems more densely packed.
 
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