? Skinny Cat

[Beardsley]

My 19 year old siamese Cat is on Insulin and wet food only. Kiwi Peak Beef and he is only 8 lbs and want to put some weight on him. Have tried Pumpkin mixed with his food. Any Ideas???

 

[Tanya and Ducia]

Hi @Beardsley ,
good to see you found your way here!

(Quick tip: if you do not get responses - type up some short reply to your own post - this way your post will go to the top of the list and is seeing by more people. Repeat as often as needed because every new post pushes all the previous ones down the list).

Kiwi Peak Beef and he is only 8 lbs and want to put some weight on him.

Per attached below food list Ziwi canned is about 90Kcal average per 3 oz can.
How many cans/ how much Kcal do you feed a day?
2 cans Ziwi = 180 Kcal would maintain weight level for a none active healthy cat.
4 cans = 360 Kcal a day should help to gain.

Pumpkin is good to help with pooping issues.
I never heard it's been used to gain weight.

The attached below Food Chart is for the US market but I was told by a Canadian that most is available in Canada.
My cat gained nicely on Friskies Pate - 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 5.5 oz can a day. Your boy may need 2 or 3 a day.
You'll need to experiment and see which foods he likes, eats and gaines.
Anything that is below 10% carbs as per Food Chart below is acceptable for a diabetic. Try to find something that is higher in total calories per can than the Ziwi cans.

Here is the list for Canadian Foods (it could be outdated thou): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ZVTk_tYNVRaoG_3Dfy64/edit?pli=1#gid=964479244

I didn't get it from your post - does he eats all right or is there appetite loss/ decrease in the picture?
Here are some helpful links just in case:

Suggestions on How to Stimulate Kitty's Appetite
Syringe/Assisted Feeding (Video and Tips)


There are many issues that can cause this.
One of them is the thyroid gland problem, the other is high BG levels, and the list goes on and on.
If you feed Beef, a known allergen, were there any diarrhea/ vomiting incidents?

Frankly, it's very hard to understand or figure out the way to go without spreadsheet and not knowing any medical detailed and/or the current appetite. Any seemingly small thing is important - the feeding schedule/ frequency, the amount given, the water intake, meds, the BG level + current dose, etc.

Many knowledgeable people will shy away from posting because they need to see all of this info.
Please review the yellow starred posts on how to create spreadsheet, the profile and how to navigate the Forum:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/suggestions-tech-support-testing-area.6/

I am not able to advise anything except increasing the caloric intake and watch closely.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/syringe-assisted-feeding-video-and-tips.144367/

 

[Beardsley]

Hi @Beardsley ,
good to see you found your way here!

(Quick tip: if you do not get responses - type up some short reply to your own post - this way your post will go to the top of the list and is seeing by more people. Repeat as often as needed because every new post pushes all the previous ones down the list).


Per attached below food list Ziwi canned is about 90Kcal average per 3 oz can.
How many cans/ how much Kcal do you feed a day?
2 cans Ziwi = 180 Kcal would maintain weight level for a none active healthy cat.
4 cans = 360 Kcal a day should help to gain.

Pumpkin is good to help with pooping issues.
I never heard it's been used to gain weight.

The attached below Food Chart is for the US market but I was told by a Canadian that most is available in Canada.
My cat gained nicely on Friskies Pate - 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 5.5 oz can a day. Your boy may need 2 or 3 a day.
You'll need to experiment and see which foods he likes, eats and gaines.
Anything that is below 10% carbs as per Food Chart below is acceptable for a diabetic. Try to find something that is higher in total calories per can than the Ziwi cans.

Here is the list for Canadian Foods (it could be outdated thou): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ZVTk_tYNVRaoG_3Dfy64/edit?pli=1#gid=964479244

I didn't get it from your post - does he eats all right or is there appetite loss/ decrease in the picture?
Here are some helpful links just in case:

Suggestions on How to Stimulate Kitty's Appetite
Syringe/Assisted Feeding (Video and Tips)


There are many issues that can cause this.
One of them is the thyroid gland problem, the other is high BG levels, and the list goes on and on.
If you feed Beef, a known allergen, were there any diarrhea/ vomiting incidents?

Frankly, it's very hard to understand or figure out the way to go without spreadsheet and not knowing any medical detailed and/or the current appetite. Any seemingly small thing is important - the feeding schedule/ frequency, the amount given, the water intake, meds, the BG level + current dose, etc.

Many knowledgeable people will shy away from posting because they need to see all of this info.
Please review the yellow starred posts on how to create spreadsheet, the profile and how to navigate the Forum:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/suggestions-tech-support-testing-area.6/

I am not able to advise anything except increasing the caloric intake and watch closely.

My 19 year old siamese Cat is on Insulin and wet food only. Kiwi Peak Beef and he is only 8 lbs and want to put some weight on him. Have tried Pumpkin mixed with his food. Any Ideas???

My 19 year old siamese Cat is on Insulin and wet food only. Kiwi Peak Beef and he is only 8 lbs and want to put some weight on him. Have tried Pumpkin mixed with his food. Any Ideas???

Thanks for your advise. Beardsley is eating 1 can of Ziwi Peak Beef a day and is active. He likes to be held all day long.

 

[Tanya and Ducia]

Beardsley is eating 1 can of Ziwi Peak Beef a day and is active. He likes to be held all day long.

Hi there,

one can of ZIWI Beef (about 90Kcal) is certainly not enough.

In my humble opinion he needs 4 cans x 3oz each day, or more for now. Add some water to each serving, like a tablespoon.

Best to split the portions and make it available throughout day and night.

You may(unwittingly) be putting your kitty at risk of DKA (ketoacidosis) if his BG numbers are high and he has not enough food. Please increase his food intake asap. DKA is very serious condition.
@Beardsley

 

[Gracie85]

Are you feeding the 85g/3 oz can or the 185g/6.5 oz can? If the 85g/3 oz can, that is nowhere near enough. If you are feeding the larger can, which is enough for an average cat, but he is still very skinny, then you need to feed him more than the one can. Add in an extra meal each day, rather than try to get him to eat more at a single meal. Our diabetic cat needed to gain back two pounds (he's a big guy and should be at 13-14 pounds), so he gets 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime. Once we got him back up to the right weight zone, I just trimmed back the amount at each meal by a little bit, rather than remove a whole meal. This way if he starts to lose weight again, I can easily just add a little more in at some or all meals and not throw off his now-established schedule.

 

[Beardsley]

Are you feeding the 85g/3 oz can or the 185g/6.5 oz can? If the 85g/3 oz can, that is nowhere near enough. If you are feeding the larger can, which is enough for an average cat, but he is still very skinny, then you need to feed him more than the one can. Add in an extra meal each day, rather than try to get him to eat more at a single meal. Our diabetic cat needed to gain back two pounds (he's a big guy and should be at 13-14 pounds), so he gets 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime. Once we got him back up to the right weight zone, I just trimmed back the amount at each meal by a little bit, rather than remove a whole meal. This way if he starts to lose weight again, I can easily just add a little more in at some or all meals and not throw off his now-established schedule.

He gets 6.5 OZ can and has food all day. looking to get a new Diabetic pen so I can do 1/1/2 units or less. Found Caninsulan Vet Pen. Pork Insulin. Will do my home work.

 

[flyingduster]

He gets 6.5 OZ can and has food all day. looking to get a new Diabetic pen so I can do 1/1/2 units or less. Found Caninsulan Vet Pen. Pork Insulin. Will do my home work.

You will find it a lot easier to just get syringes and draw up the dose yourself rather than rely on the pens to have adjustments. Cats often need 0.25u adjustments! And you waste so much when priming a pen every single time. Plus caninsulin isn’t typically the best insulin for cats (so my girl is proving to me! I intend to get her changed from it!)

 

[Beardsley]

I got Beardsley to eat a full plate today for Lunch. Put Dried Sardines on it like Salt. Hope his weight will go up. Used my Bullet to grind them up.