The on-going saga of Montgomery...
We've made some big changes since his trip to the naturopath at the beginning of the month. The biggest change is that he no longer gets dry food at all. So far cat, cat's pancreas, and cat's small intestine all seem agreeable to this arrangement. He is currently eating Science Diet Light and Purina OM wet foods, something that we plan to change in the New Year. He did not get the trapped gas or explosive diarrhea he's experienced with diet changes in the past, to everyone's relief. (If you have not experienced a cat with explosive diarrhea, consider yourself lucky). Anyhow, as of Sunday, it will be a week without the kibble. The other new thing is that he gets red light therapy twice a day, morning and night. I ask him to "go to your cube and I'll plug you in," he goes quite happily because he really loves this thing.
Results? He's not bloated anymore. He has less difficulty going to the bathroom, and there is less stool when he does, though it is darker, but the Science Diet is fairly dark, so there you go.
So my question (see, I got there), is what's normal? How often should a normal nine, going on ten-year-old cat go to the bathroom, and how much (he's a massive seven and a half pounds of fury) should there be of it? He has EPI, IBD and SID, and a small intestine that looks like it was installed by a blindfolded drunk (he's been X-rayed), so I understand this cat will never be normal, but it would be nice to have some sort of idea what that is...?
We've made some big changes since his trip to the naturopath at the beginning of the month. The biggest change is that he no longer gets dry food at all. So far cat, cat's pancreas, and cat's small intestine all seem agreeable to this arrangement. He is currently eating Science Diet Light and Purina OM wet foods, something that we plan to change in the New Year. He did not get the trapped gas or explosive diarrhea he's experienced with diet changes in the past, to everyone's relief. (If you have not experienced a cat with explosive diarrhea, consider yourself lucky). Anyhow, as of Sunday, it will be a week without the kibble. The other new thing is that he gets red light therapy twice a day, morning and night. I ask him to "go to your cube and I'll plug you in," he goes quite happily because he really loves this thing.
Results? He's not bloated anymore. He has less difficulty going to the bathroom, and there is less stool when he does, though it is darker, but the Science Diet is fairly dark, so there you go.
So my question (see, I got there), is what's normal? How often should a normal nine, going on ten-year-old cat go to the bathroom, and how much (he's a massive seven and a half pounds of fury) should there be of it? He has EPI, IBD and SID, and a small intestine that looks like it was installed by a blindfolded drunk (he's been X-rayed), so I understand this cat will never be normal, but it would be nice to have some sort of idea what that is...?