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Miana & Misha

Miana & Misha

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Just wanted to say hello, Jennifer invited me here last month but I finally got the opportunity to join tonight. I recently adopted my second cat that has (possible) diabetes from a shelter in middle GA early this past January (the handsome guy in my photo). After the pain from losing my Tiny after many months of heartbreaking medical complications, I didn't think that I'd ever want to attempt to care for another special needs cat, but when I saw Misha on an animal advocacy page on FB it was decided that we couldn't leave him at the shelter when we went to pick up another cat (Ziggy) that we also had decided to adopt. Now here we are.

So far we're controlling his symptoms with diet, but I can't seem to get the weight off of him. He was 16.4lbs when I adopted him, he dropped to 15.1lbs but recently bounced back up to 16 again. Any other canned food suggestions that might get a pound or two off my roly poly monkey? We're giving him Friskies, but he's partial to beef flavors which don't seem to come in pate' ... and he hates Fancy Feast.


It's nice to meet everyone. :-D
 
Gayle Shadoe & Oliver said:
Welcome.

You can check on Binky's list for some foods that are under 10% carbs and see if you finicky feline likes some variety.
Binky’s Food Lists
Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basics of Feline Nutrition

Are you home testing? If you are, can you post some of the numbers?

About the weight, maybe you just have a big fella on your hands. Since he's lost a bit of weight, maybe the loss will continue with the better diet.
Click to expand...


Thank you! I'm shocked at the carbs in a few of his favorites, which might explain his jump up in weight again. Yeah, he's a big boy, possibly even larger than a Maine Coon we once had - but if you could see a full body shot of him it's pretty obvious he needs to lose a few. The first photo I ever saw of him he looked like a Christmas ham with a head, bless his heart. lol

Not home testing yet, with the ointments for his eye ulcer and meds for his upper respiratory infection I haven't wanted to make him hate me anymore than I have to since we're still getting to know each other. He's getting tested once a week or more by our vet, so far it's been extremely good even after eating and being stressed out from the travel. No highs, no excessive drinking, urinating, etc.. So the vets are pretty confident it was just a dietary issue. He's 100% on wet food, and has been doing very well. I feel blessed for the 6+ years experience I had with my last cat, Tiny, who was an insulin dependent diabetic, I had to learn quickly what to look out for if he wasn't feeling well and I hope it will be the same with Misha.
 
Glad to hear Misha got a forever home. Hopefully he'll be diet controlled and be back to purrrfect soon. Its good that you know about home testing and can keep an eye on it once you get his trust. Jan
 
Thanks nwnews. :)

Just a little update on Misha. His last reading was 101 after eating and being stressed out from the vet visit, still not showing signs of anything. Unfortunately he still has a little bit of a URI left, but the ulcer on his eye is much better and we were able to put him on a steroid eye drop to cut down on some of the swelling that was causing him some irritation. Fingers crossed he'll be off meds again next week.

His weight just looks like it will be an issue for awhile, he's still at 16lbs.
 
Hi,
I had to do some weight management with my sugarkitty, Bob. Once at 22 pounds, we got him down to 18, just by feeding less. He at that time free fed on dry food and got canned twice a day, and he was a little pig! This was pre-diabetes when we didn't know dry food was bad or carbs mattered. In November of 2010, he weighed 18 pounds. Sometime after that he developed diabetes, and when he was diagnosed, he weighed just under 13 pounds. It was a great way to lose weight fast, but the side effects sort of sucked!

Once he began insulin treatment, I changed him to all canned, Fancy Feast Classics. At first, he ate more than normal like most diabetic uncontrolled-BG cats do. Once his numbers improved, my vet told me that his "ideal" weight should be around 14 pounds. Using the data on Binky's canned food lists, I used to "calories per can" numbers to manipulate his weight. Someone here gave me a simple formula that said a kitty needed 20 calories, per pound of ideal body weight, per day in order to maintain that weight. This assumes a normal amount of exercise, and BG numbers that are controlled. So, I would write the calories data on the lid of the cans of FF, and I'd stack them in daily stacks to add up to 300 calories or as close as I could get. His "ideal" number would have been 280, but I was trying to add a few ounces. Over the course of 4 or 5 weeks, on that calorie count, he got up to 14 pounds exactly the next time he was weighed at the vet. Since then, I feed him between 250 and 275 a day, and he's been within a couple of ounces of 14 pounds at every weigh in. He apparently believes 14 pounds is too skinny, because he's very vocal about how I starve him to anyone who walks into the kitchen.

So, use the food charts, and count the calories. You'll have to experiment, because every cat is different, but if you use a ballpark of 20 cal/pound per day, you should have an idea fairly quickly if that amount of calories adds, subtracts, or holds his weight. He will most likely insist that you are starving him if you are trying to take a pound off, so just be patient and not try to put him on a crash diet. And force him to get some exercise. Maybe a laser pointer? Bob was thrilled at the opportunity to chase around a crumpled up empty cigarette pack (after I spent money buying the pointer and "cat toys" he wasn't a fan of), and he likes to play "fetch" too.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks, I'll try that. He has an appetite, that's for sure. I just don't know how to keep him out of the food for the other cat. He even goes after the dog's canned food. He was doing so well at first, I guess since he's more comfortable here his appetite has gotten better (or worse depending on how you look at it).
 
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