Please Advise about Fish Oil

Status
Not open for further replies.
skybar22

skybar22

Very Active Member
I want to try fish oil for Morgaine and would appreciate some suggestions on what brands are best. There are so many various brands and the price range is pretty extreme. I would also appreciate suggestions on how much to add to her food. She is a large 16 pound cat who needs to lose 2 pounds. I feed her 5 small meals a day, totaling about 230 cal.

As mentioned previously, her triglycerides are high at over 1200 4+ hours after eating her food. Her BSs have been good, around 104-135 without insulin and she eats Pro Plan canned food. low carb, under 4%. She spilled at +2 in her urine when she had blood drawn and her BS was 191 under vet stress. The vet was perplexed by the urine glucose as he said she wasn't near the threshold but maybe her threshold is lower.I really want to try to get those triglycerides down. They were 800 a year ago before switching her to all wet food and that was also 3-4 hours after eating so on a low fat diet, 1/2 dry, she still had high lipid numbers.

My goal is to decrease the lipids and get her to lose 2 pounds, hoping it will help maintain her BS in the normal range without insulin. She clearly does have diabetes and has not had to take insulin. I'd like to try to keep it that way. She has showed signs of diabetes when her BS is just slightly elevated. She will drink and urinate more often, not excessively but I notice it.

So, any suggestions and advice, especially about basic supplements, would be appreciated. Morgaine is 13.
 
Examine the fat content of the food you are feeding - fat has roughly 8.3 calories per gram vs protein at 3.5 calories per gram. (Per Binkys page on canned foods - go to the bottom) A lower fat food may be helpful for the weight loss.

Also, "the solution to polution is dilution" (a paraphrased chemistry saying) - if you can add some
water to the food, it provides some volume without calories. If you take a bit of the food you would normally feed out and replace it with a bit of water, that may help gently reduce calorie count.

Dr Pierson has some specific tips on managing obesity in cats here.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I actually have consulted with Dr. Lisa and that is why I came up with the 230 calories but we shall see. Morgaine is not very active. I think her ideal weight would be 13-14 pounds. She is a very large cat and looks like a Maine Coon though she is not.

I did look at Janet and Binky's page, many times. I do not see any low fat low carb foods. All the lower fat foods have high carbs. When I spoke to Dr. Lisa a year ago and shared the high triglycerides, She said to not worry about that but they have gotten higher. The problem with foods is that Morgaine is incredibly finicky and I spent days and a small fortune trying out multiple foods after FF changed their formula. She will only eat Pro Plan Chicken and Liver and sometimes she will eat Whiska's tubs. I have tried Merricks, Wellness, Evo and several other high quality foods. I even tried raw and cooked for her, adding the nutirents she needed but she would not eat any of that. So I guess it is better for her to eat Pro Plan than not eat. It has a very good protein %, like 42% and very low carbs.

Question, would adding protein, like lean or even freeze dried chicken help to cut that fat down? Adding water just makes the small amount I feed her too watery.

So as far as fish oils go, I have heard that salmon oil is not the best thing to give cats and that the oil can become rancid in an open bottle. I was considering fish oil capsules so if anyone has suggestions that would be great. I am leaning toward a human formula since there is a greater choice of products.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top