- Joined
- Aug 28, 2020
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- 37
- Purraise
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Old poster, new name.
This is both a rant and seeking advice. So a little back story. Early on we tried some chicken flavors of cat food but Cat B threw them up otherwise it was always a combination of some novel protein (Lamb, Venison, Salmon, Pork, Rabbit) in both wet/dry.
Cat A (7 yrs old, Male): Noticed he felt a little skinny. Brought to vet and he had lost a little less than 2 lbs (17 to 15). Teeth were okay and Vet ran a kidney panel.Everything came back normal except for 3 markers which in totality suggest early kidney issue. One was white blood cell count (slightly low) but said that could be stress from the visit., Another was Creatinine which was slightly elevated but could be related to slight dehydration. Recommendation was to increase intake of wet food transition to a "Senior diet" and re-evaluate in a couple of months.
We noticed that he wasn't eating his dry food (Instinct Rabbit) and thought that it was because the food bin had allowed it to go rancid. This dry food is also high in phosphorous. In addition he really wasn't eating much of his wet (Instinct Venison). He's a nibbler rather than a eater like his brother. So in a panic I embarked on a quest to find lower phosphorous dry and wet. Tried a few samples of dry which he ate but rejected once we bought a bag. I think we've found some wet (Dave's Low Phosphorus Chicken and Fussie Cat Chicken/Herring) which we can rotate in with Venison wet. He did like Instinct Salmon but that led to an issue with Cat B (see below). We can still only entice him to "eat" the wet with crushed treats and he's 1/3 of the way through a course of Mirtazapine. He will not touch any dry but we haven't yet tried to re-visit instinct Rabbit via fresh bag.
Cat B (7 yr old, Male): Had a stomach issue last March/April. I had been feeding the cats a rotation of wet/dry foods and all of a sudden this guy developed an issue. We got it sorted out by moving to two proteins (Venison wet, Rabbit dry). Fast forward to August and while we were trying to get Cat A to start eating I forgot about the issue we had with Cat B a few months prior. Long story short it appears the Cat B is allergic to Salmon. It really did a number on his digestive system. He just finished a course of metronidazole and is halfway through a box of FortiFlora.
Questions.
Cat A: Any suggestions on how to convert a nibbler into an eater? I've transitioned from panic, to sadness, to annoyance with sadness. I now feed my cats 5 times a day and I need this guy to eat all of his portion at every feeding because it either goes to waste (wet), gets eaten by brother, or I pick it up and re-heat an hour or two later adding more crushed treats. Reheating is exhausting because it takes 4-5 feeding to get him to down a 5 oz can of wet. One day he's a chewer (Will eat pieces of steak) and the other day he's a gravy only.
Cat B: Since he's finished his course of metronidazole I'm nervous that he'll relapse because I've added chicken to their diets for Cat A. Since Cat A is a nibbler I really can't feed them separately and I can't wall off half the house
All suggestions welcome on how to tackle this situation. The last thing I want to do is go through the agony of having to decide which cat I want to put up for adoption.
This is both a rant and seeking advice. So a little back story. Early on we tried some chicken flavors of cat food but Cat B threw them up otherwise it was always a combination of some novel protein (Lamb, Venison, Salmon, Pork, Rabbit) in both wet/dry.
Cat A (7 yrs old, Male): Noticed he felt a little skinny. Brought to vet and he had lost a little less than 2 lbs (17 to 15). Teeth were okay and Vet ran a kidney panel.Everything came back normal except for 3 markers which in totality suggest early kidney issue. One was white blood cell count (slightly low) but said that could be stress from the visit., Another was Creatinine which was slightly elevated but could be related to slight dehydration. Recommendation was to increase intake of wet food transition to a "Senior diet" and re-evaluate in a couple of months.
We noticed that he wasn't eating his dry food (Instinct Rabbit) and thought that it was because the food bin had allowed it to go rancid. This dry food is also high in phosphorous. In addition he really wasn't eating much of his wet (Instinct Venison). He's a nibbler rather than a eater like his brother. So in a panic I embarked on a quest to find lower phosphorous dry and wet. Tried a few samples of dry which he ate but rejected once we bought a bag. I think we've found some wet (Dave's Low Phosphorus Chicken and Fussie Cat Chicken/Herring) which we can rotate in with Venison wet. He did like Instinct Salmon but that led to an issue with Cat B (see below). We can still only entice him to "eat" the wet with crushed treats and he's 1/3 of the way through a course of Mirtazapine. He will not touch any dry but we haven't yet tried to re-visit instinct Rabbit via fresh bag.
Cat B (7 yr old, Male): Had a stomach issue last March/April. I had been feeding the cats a rotation of wet/dry foods and all of a sudden this guy developed an issue. We got it sorted out by moving to two proteins (Venison wet, Rabbit dry). Fast forward to August and while we were trying to get Cat A to start eating I forgot about the issue we had with Cat B a few months prior. Long story short it appears the Cat B is allergic to Salmon. It really did a number on his digestive system. He just finished a course of metronidazole and is halfway through a box of FortiFlora.
Questions.
Cat A: Any suggestions on how to convert a nibbler into an eater? I've transitioned from panic, to sadness, to annoyance with sadness. I now feed my cats 5 times a day and I need this guy to eat all of his portion at every feeding because it either goes to waste (wet), gets eaten by brother, or I pick it up and re-heat an hour or two later adding more crushed treats. Reheating is exhausting because it takes 4-5 feeding to get him to down a 5 oz can of wet. One day he's a chewer (Will eat pieces of steak) and the other day he's a gravy only.
Cat B: Since he's finished his course of metronidazole I'm nervous that he'll relapse because I've added chicken to their diets for Cat A. Since Cat A is a nibbler I really can't feed them separately and I can't wall off half the house
All suggestions welcome on how to tackle this situation. The last thing I want to do is go through the agony of having to decide which cat I want to put up for adoption.