Help Needed! My Cat Is Skinny, Will Feeding Rice Help?

[FrankieNMurphy]

I'm thinking of adding to his diet baby rice food. He eats a special HP/SO diet, and for added weight, I put him on baby food - chicken & broth. Someone suggested adding a baby rice mix as well for empty calories.
Has anyone done this? He is 9, fairly healthy and really lazy. He doesn't like wet food at all, except his Baby Food.

 

[abyeb]

I wouldn’t recommend the rice food. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning that they get the nutrition from meat, not grains. I would recommens asking the vet for suggestions of what to try.

 

[bear]

If your cat's Vet has put your adult male cat on SO diet, make sure you know why.
I encourage you to ask how that diet works.
Also, since it sounds like he is on a special controlled diet, please discuss changes to his diet with the Vet to make sure you are not shifting too much from your Professional Feline care team's targets.

 

[bear]

If your 9 year old is loosing weight on his special diet, let your vet know that too.
She/He may best be able to tell you what to try to augment the calories. Some of the SO wet foods come in different options with different calorie makeups.

 

[FrankieNMurphy]

Thanks, guys. I know why he is on the SO, and he was actually losing weight before I brought him to the vet. Then, adding baby food to his dry food, he put on 2 lbs. He was also on Prednisolone for IBS and was weaning off it. He ate more when he was on it, and my vet said he may have to be on it indefinitely. So I bought another 100 tablets for him online. I was just thinking he wasn't gaining any more weight.

 

[LTS3]

Do you give your IBD cat B12 injections? IBD cats often have low levels of B12 which causes weight loss.

Pred can cause diabetes-like symptoms like increased hunger. Most IBD cats don't need to be on pred for life.

 

[FrankieNMurphy]

Yes, he gets .5ml every Friday - should I increase it to 1ml? I was hoping to get him off all meds soon, including the Pred. His appetite is ravenous, to be sure! So, I lowered his dose of Pred to 1/2 every other day and am feeding him more wet food in the morning and at night now.

 

[jen]

That is pretty frequent, I would probably see if the vet wants you to double it. Ideally off all meds would be great but that can be hard with IBD. So does the pred make him ravenous or is he always ravenous? I know you said you know why he is on a special diet but has he had full bloodwork to see if everything else is functioning properly?

 

[FrankieNMurphy]

He's had thorough blood work, urine cultures, etc. The pred does make him ravenous - he wakes me up every morning at 6 am to feed him! I do want to get him off all meds, so your suggestion about the Pred being to frequent, I'll take your advice. It's $70 to just TALK to my vet!