New member, so glad I found you!!

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With my black eared girl, I first warmed the ear with a old film canister filled with warm water (pill bottle also works), then had a small flashlight with a piece of gauze/make up pad on it on the bottom of the ear. That gave me a surface to support the ear and poke against, and shined enough light to see the veins. Vaseline was essential, blood just disappeared into her black hair. Just a very fine layer of it. I had several epic fails and tears to start. I was more upset than she was.
 
Katherine&Ruby said:
Here's a good picture @Bron and Sheba (GA)!
laur_danny_famoussweetspot.jpg
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yeah thats where I was aiming when I failed last night, the video i watched at the hometesting link did not use that spot at all, little confusing to me now. In the video he calls the sweet spot a spot on the other side of the ear closer to the skull i thought. Will watch again
 
is there a particular reason most folks feed pate?

my boy has never been a fan. Prefers stuff like the DM Savory Selects (which he is eating pretty well, although he ate it better the first time he had it and now....yeah. seems to be tiring of it as people expected.)

Ive got a variety case of 24 Fancy Feast Classic Pate cans on its way via Instacart this morning
 
Hendrick's mom and dad said:
is there a particular reason most folks feed pate?

my boy has never been a fan. Prefers stuff like the DM Savory Selects (which he is eating pretty well, although he ate it better the first time he had it and now....yeah. seems to be tiring of it as people expected.)

Ive got a variety case of 24 Fancy Feast Classic Pate cans on its way via Instacart this morning
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Try adding a teaspoon of warm water to the pate to make it into more of a gravy.
There are other low carb foods available that are not pates.
FOOD CHART
 
There are low carb foods that are a bit chunkier. Weruva Cats in the Kitchen cans are good options. They list all of the carb percentages on their website. I fed Ruby Lamburgerini for a while and she liked it though that is a little higher carb (7 or 8%). You want to aim for less than 5%, at least until you have enough data from testing to see how he reacts to carbs.
 
thanks, I fed a mid-morning snack aprox 3 hours after shot, couple spoonfuls of the FF pate (tender beef one and chicken one) with a spoonful of warm water, he ate about half of what i put in front of him after presenting it twice
 
Poor Hendrick! I hope you can find a food he enjoys. I am sure that someone has already pointed out the drawbacks to the Purina DM food.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Poor Hendrick! I hope you can find a food he enjoys. I am sure that someone has already pointed out the drawbacks to the Purina DM food.
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well after eating a few bites he urinated (normal amount, yay) and had a very solid and hard bm which stuck to his bum and I had to remove with a tissue. Then after that movement he wanted more food so I gave him some more pate and some freeze-dried raw treats, he ate a few treats which is good

the other 5 cats ate the FF pate REALLY well. Man I am so so so lucky to be working from home right now

Question: what's the consensus on feeding a cat sliced turkey breast or ham off the bone from the deli? My Hendrick goes nuts for the turkey, or did before FD anyway. one of teh first signs that something was not right with him was him turning his nose up at the turkey. But he would eat the sliced "ham off the bone" deli meat (Wegmans)
 
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Be careful on deli meats. Often they are "honey baked ham" or turkey is brined, which means soaked in sugar and salt. See if the people at the deli can tell you how it was prepared.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Be careful on deli meats. Often they are "honey baked ham" or turkey is brined, which means soaked in sugar and salt. See if the people at the deli can tell you how it was prepared.
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right, that is one thing I was worried about. I know the ham is not honey ham, it is just straight off the bone slices. But the turkey, not sure if brined. Need to find out

it seems he may have developed a bit of an aversion to the turkey since I kept offering it when he was experiencing DKA and nausea. :(

sad. used to be his fav thing on the planet other than temptations...which of course he no longer gets any of but we'll keep some around in a hypo kit with the karo since they are like pure carbs.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I left a message for you on Mister Billie’s thread. Can you answer it on this thread please :)
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Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
@Hendrick's mom and dad
If your kitty is recovering from DKA he should be eating eating one and a half times as many calories as normal. If he’s not you may need to get an antinausea medication from the vet
Are you testing daily for ketones. ?
Can you please put DKA in the signature please so we are aware when helping you. Thanks.
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yeah the vet didnt say anything about the extra calories in fact we were told to put him immediately on the only every 12 hours feeding plan and let me tell you, that doesnt work for getting in extra calories! As I'm sure you all well know. Thanks so much for the help here, because of you guys I have been feeding him way more now, snacks and small meals in the first hours of the cycle last snack at +6.

He already seems improved just over the last 48 hours compared to before I was doing this. Appetite is good, for the most part. Wants his dry food more than anything of course

Ketone testing -- have meter on order. Haven't been able to get ketostix yet for urine test

Will update sig
 
Wendy&Neko said:
With my black eared girl, I first warmed the ear with a old film canister filled with warm water (pill bottle also works), then had a small flashlight with a piece of gauze/make up pad on it on the bottom of the ear. That gave me a surface to support the ear and poke against, and shined enough light to see the veins. Vaseline was essential, blood just disappeared into her black hair. Just a very fine layer of it. I had several epic fails and tears to start. I was more upset than she was.
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used a pill bottle with warm water that is a good tip ty. My wife did the stabbing this time and although we were not fully successful we did draw more blood than last time so we are considering this progress. Need some vaseline I think, we did without and I see what you mean

He got a freeze dried raw salmon treat afterwards, he loves these!! I wonder if being so low carb though, if he is actually lowish BG...if they don't really help yknow

thing is, no idea wtf his BG is!! arggh this is killing me not knowing. I mean we're only giving 1u 2x a day but still. is it enough, is it not enough, is it too much....bah. I want to get hometesting down so do curve at home but the vet appt for curve is Tuesday. We'll see.
 
Good news? Hendrick weighed in this morning at 10 pounds on the nose!

which means he has not lost any weight since he was discharged on Monday, that is the same weight they gave us at discharge. (He stayed right around 12.5 for years before Dx FD.) We didn't realize we should be weighing him daily right now, dammit. At least I think I read that somewhere on this site, yesterday.

he also hasn't GAINED any weight but that doesn't surprise me much when we were only feeding every 12 hours for the first couple days after discharge. Thanks to this community last 48-72 hours we've been offering food and snacks every 2 hours for first half of cycle, then nothing for the last 6 hours of cycle so he'll eat well at evening dose time.

Still struggling to find a wet food he'll gobble down like he will his "cat biccies" as my wife calls them (she is from Mackay AU). When I make the slurry out of pate, he licks and licks it round and round but not a whole lot goes down. And he gets it up his nose and then calls it a day immediately! With dry food he has no issues and finishes what i put in front of him. We are giving him a Stella and Chewys raw coated kibble for dry food atm, rather not give him ANY dry but he needs to eat so not going to fight that battle when he is recovering from DKA. At least thats what seems to be best as far as i have learned at this point.

Behavior continues to normalize incrementally. He feels a lot less weak last couple days. Of course, without the hometesting we are flying blind so who knows wtf is going in that little feline body.
 
My wife bought the Stella and Chewy's yesterday without checking, I looked the bag over and thought well...freeze-dried raw, has to be low-carb right?

so just now I was actually checking, after giving some to Hendrick last night and this morning.

28% carbs wtf!!! arghhhhhhh. stuff was so expensive too. Sigh.
 
Hendrick's mom and dad said:
My wife bought the Stella and Chewy's yesterday without checking, I looked the bag over and thought well...freeze-dried raw, has to be low-carb right?

so just now I was actually checking, after giving some to Hendrick last night and this morning.

28% carbs wtf!!! arghhhhhhh. stuff was so expensive too. Sigh.
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Oof yeah, looking ingredients over for the one variety it has those random things like kelp, dandelion, pumpkin seed.

I would not weigh daily, I would do it weekly, or twice a week max. And do it consistently - after eating, after poop (take it from someone who's baby had trouble with weight gain!). If your first weight is no poop for a day and been eating, and next time it's after poop and not eaten for awhile, that's up to 3+ oz difference. I forget what the healthy weight gain is, but it's no more than 4 oz per week at his size I'm pretty sure
 
Have you considered topping the wet food with crushed up kibble? Not ideal being high carb, but better than the whole bowl full

Or FortiFlora...stuff is garbage as far as probiotics go, but it's the same stuff they put on dry food and usually helps entice them to eat.
 
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my boy is feeling pretty good this morning. If I had a BG reading i would wager his numbers look decent around 10-11 AM because he seems to be the most "himself" around that time of morning last few days. At least since I started offering food/snack every 2 hours for the first 6 of the cycle anyway. Again I can't thank the community here enough, too many names to mention I don't want to leave anyone out so I'll just say EVERYONE. :)

Trying not to get too high or low when he seems better-ish or when he seems less himself but it's so hard. I'm such a sap.
 

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FrostD said:
Have you considered topping the wet food with crushed up kibble? Not ideal being high carb, but better than the whole bowl full

Or FortiFlora...stuff is garbage as far as probiotics go, but it's the same stuff they put on dry food and usually helps entice them to eat.
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definitely planning to get some FortifFlora yes, and yea a couple kibbles on top does get him to eat more...mainly the kibble part leaving wet food haha.

At +2 today he ate every bite of the wet food (Wellness Core Shreds Chicken/Turkey) presented, it was only about a quarter can but he is a grazer and never eats much in one sitting so that is actually fantastic. Pate, it seems, is just not his jam. He needs chunks.
 
Red & Rover (GA) said:
Dr Elsey's Clean Protein, Epigen Wysong 90 and Young Again are low carb dry foods. A small bit crunched up and sprinkled over the wet food may help. It is best to get them off kibble.
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thanks for the suggestions and yeah our ultimate goal is little to no kibble at all. we are in full transition mode for 6 adult cats including Hendrick:

Shylo (Hen's litter brother, a lilac point Siamese), Kayla (5 year-old female rescue, breed unknown. Russian Blue mix maybe), Roxy (12 year-old Blue point Siamese female), Oreo (5 year-old male Oriental Shorthair, black) and Chester (3 year-old brown tabby rescue, male)

so needless to say we have our hands full atm!!

Today Hendrick seemed more himself than ever. Lots of energy, ate well at +2, snack at +4, and +6, starting hunting for food about 2 hours before evening dose, could tell he was hungry. Withheld.

Ate very well at dinner (purina DM savory selects with warm water added)

Also ate a few freeze-dried salmon treats after shoot. We will try a +3 BG hometest at 9:15

Hendrick and his brother Shylo at dinner time on a bench in the kitchen waiting for food:




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I made the same mistake with the raw COATED kibble. You can return any food to the store if you keep the receipt. Just tell them the cat doesn’t like it and get your money back! Stella and Chewy makes some good freeze dried raw foods that may be appropriate for your cats if they aren’t seniors because they have bone matter in them which is high phosphorus and not good for aging kidneys.
 
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