Pumbaa
Member Since 2012
1) My cats free feed all day and night long. They don't overeat, and, normally, they each consume about 1 to 1-1/4 5.5 oz. cans of food a day. Some days they are hungrier than others, and I give them more food. Other days, they don't finish the can they split at mealtime, but I make sure they have food out overnight in case Pumbaa's BG starts dropping.
All day long, I test Pumbaa's BG with no idea if he just ate or not (except for before his PMPS tests). When I pull their food at AM +10, I notice that both cats come looking for food at that time, and must be hungry. (The civvie, Larry, actually goes hunting for crumbs around and on their feeding table before I get their main meal down to them.) And I understand how you don't want a PS number influenced by a food spike, but if they are free-feeding all day, and grazing in small amounts, does that really matter? Since they are grazers, all of the BG tests during the cycle could be influenced by when Pumbaa last grazed.
I have to say that Pumbaa has really changed even in the last month, and he seldom snarfs down a gob of food at his AM and PM feedings. He eats a bit, goes and gives himself a bath, takes a nap or plays, comes back and eats a little more, goes and takes a nap or plays, etc., all day long. I'm glad that his brain figured out that he's no longer constantly hungry like he was when he was first diagnosed.
2) I have bags of used syringes I've collected over the last 3 months. What do I do with them? I know that sounds stupid, but I know enough to not throw them in the garbage can, I just don't know where to turn them in for disposal.
3) How do you convince family and friends to get their cats off of kibble, before they, too, experience what we are experiencing?
My mom, for example. She knows all about what I have been going through with Pumbaa, the constant testing and sleepless nights, etc., and I've done everything in my power to encourage her to remove the dry food from her 2 cat's diets, not only for the potential for diabetes, but also potential kidney problems, as well as the fact that her two cats barf constantly (they check out fine at the vet), and I am the one who has to try to get the stains out of her white carpets.
Just today, I had to pick up a bag of Iam's Feline Low Residue at her vet for her, and that is absolute crap. First 3 ingredients are: Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal and Corn Grits. She's paying $4.29/pound for unhealthy crap to feed her cats, but insists that they don't barf when they eat this. (Yeah, right. In the last couple of years, seldom does a week go by when I'm not scrubbing nasty barf out of her carpets.) Now that my cats are grazing on the canned food and not snarfing-and-barfing, I only rarely have to clean up after someone barfed up a hairball, which surprises me because they are also getting olive oil with their canned food morning and night. Pre-FD, when they were only getting canned food in the morning, then free-feeding on kibble the rest of the day, I was cleaning up barf a lot more frequently than I do now. Especially from Larry, who would binge and purge on the dry food regularly. He doesn't do that with the canned food.
My entire family has had cats for decades, and Pumbaa is the first one to come down with FD. Maybe that is why my family is so resistant to changing from free-feeding them kibble. I worry especially about my brother's Maine Coon, as he only gets dry food, and from what I understand, Maine Coon's are more predisposed to FD than other cats. I might be wrong.
Anyway, have you converted anyone with civvies to get their cats off of kibble before it's too late? If so, what did you have to do to convince them?
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Looking forward to your responses on all three questions!
Suze
PS: Here's a shot of Pumbaa, with his buzzed flank about a week after buzzing off the fur. I do this on both sides of his body so I can alternate the shots, and can't tell you how it has helped me see what I am doing during injections. Not just preventing fur shots, but also to make sure I'm not grabbing any muscle. The fur grows back in about a month, so I have to buzz him again, but it's worth it, and he stands still for this, thankfully. Anyway, I wanted to share because he doesn't look "evil" in this photo for once. *LOL*
All day long, I test Pumbaa's BG with no idea if he just ate or not (except for before his PMPS tests). When I pull their food at AM +10, I notice that both cats come looking for food at that time, and must be hungry. (The civvie, Larry, actually goes hunting for crumbs around and on their feeding table before I get their main meal down to them.) And I understand how you don't want a PS number influenced by a food spike, but if they are free-feeding all day, and grazing in small amounts, does that really matter? Since they are grazers, all of the BG tests during the cycle could be influenced by when Pumbaa last grazed.
I have to say that Pumbaa has really changed even in the last month, and he seldom snarfs down a gob of food at his AM and PM feedings. He eats a bit, goes and gives himself a bath, takes a nap or plays, comes back and eats a little more, goes and takes a nap or plays, etc., all day long. I'm glad that his brain figured out that he's no longer constantly hungry like he was when he was first diagnosed.
2) I have bags of used syringes I've collected over the last 3 months. What do I do with them? I know that sounds stupid, but I know enough to not throw them in the garbage can, I just don't know where to turn them in for disposal.
3) How do you convince family and friends to get their cats off of kibble, before they, too, experience what we are experiencing?
My mom, for example. She knows all about what I have been going through with Pumbaa, the constant testing and sleepless nights, etc., and I've done everything in my power to encourage her to remove the dry food from her 2 cat's diets, not only for the potential for diabetes, but also potential kidney problems, as well as the fact that her two cats barf constantly (they check out fine at the vet), and I am the one who has to try to get the stains out of her white carpets.
Just today, I had to pick up a bag of Iam's Feline Low Residue at her vet for her, and that is absolute crap. First 3 ingredients are: Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal and Corn Grits. She's paying $4.29/pound for unhealthy crap to feed her cats, but insists that they don't barf when they eat this. (Yeah, right. In the last couple of years, seldom does a week go by when I'm not scrubbing nasty barf out of her carpets.) Now that my cats are grazing on the canned food and not snarfing-and-barfing, I only rarely have to clean up after someone barfed up a hairball, which surprises me because they are also getting olive oil with their canned food morning and night. Pre-FD, when they were only getting canned food in the morning, then free-feeding on kibble the rest of the day, I was cleaning up barf a lot more frequently than I do now. Especially from Larry, who would binge and purge on the dry food regularly. He doesn't do that with the canned food.
My entire family has had cats for decades, and Pumbaa is the first one to come down with FD. Maybe that is why my family is so resistant to changing from free-feeding them kibble. I worry especially about my brother's Maine Coon, as he only gets dry food, and from what I understand, Maine Coon's are more predisposed to FD than other cats. I might be wrong.
Anyway, have you converted anyone with civvies to get their cats off of kibble before it's too late? If so, what did you have to do to convince them?
**********************************************************
Looking forward to your responses on all three questions!
Suze
PS: Here's a shot of Pumbaa, with his buzzed flank about a week after buzzing off the fur. I do this on both sides of his body so I can alternate the shots, and can't tell you how it has helped me see what I am doing during injections. Not just preventing fur shots, but also to make sure I'm not grabbing any muscle. The fur grows back in about a month, so I have to buzz him again, but it's worth it, and he stands still for this, thankfully. Anyway, I wanted to share because he doesn't look "evil" in this photo for once. *LOL*
& won't have anything to do with it. Smearing on her paw or mouth does not work, as later I find it on couches, floor, etc. I do not want to place it in her mouth because she is a finicky eater, so I don't want to set up any eating aversion issues. She does still get fur balls. Olive oil in food did not seem to help them. 