cat update

[firecat]

angus had four enemas and probably the same number of x-rays. he is coming home tonight because he won't eat at the vet hospital and they need him to eat in order to get the rest of the poop out.

once he has started eating again, they want him to be on prescription weight loss / high fiber food and they want me to implement portion control, which means i will no longer be able to free-feed the cats. this stresses me out for two reasons.

1. chasing the cats to different parts of the house a couple of times a day isn't particularly compatible with my own disabilities.

2. i don't want to do things to angus that make him unhappy in his day to day life. he gained a lot of weight on a pretty normal amount of food for a cat (based on my previous experience with cats). when i free feed him, he seems to eat moderately. but if his food bowl becomes empty then once he gets some food he gobbles it so fast he regurgitates. that suggests to me that he has a history of being starved (either because he was feral/stray or because previous owners had him on a diet). since being constipated also makes him unhappy and constipation might be related to his weight, i am willing to give a weight loss treatment a try. but if it comes down to a tradeoff between his living longer vs. living happier, i'd rather that he lived happier.

other things possibly contributing to his condition: he has some arthritis of the spine which may be causing him to not want to "position." he isn't active enough. of course when a creature is constipated it is disinclined to be active, so that's a vicious circle.

advice/comments/anecdata welcomed.

Comments

[mithriltabby]

I forget if I’ve mentioned this around you before, but just in case I haven’t: Yeti has problems with constipation. One of the recommendations for this is pureed pumpkin, which cats can eat safely and it gives them fiber to help get everything through their system. What we’ve been doing is mixing 1 tbsp of pureed pumpkin with a forkful of tuna flakes at bedtime and serving it to each cat. Yeti eats some of it and is doing OK; Cleo loves it and is visibly slimmer as a result of having so much filler in her diet.

[firecat]

I've been using metamucil instead. The vet said that once Angus is on the w/d food he should not get additional fiber. But I will keep that option in mind. Thanks!

[mithriltabby]

When the fluffs were small, we gave them baby food mixed with the non-orange metamucil when they were sick, and they loved it. But that would get expensive...

[firecat]

I just put it in their wet food and add water to make a thick gravy out of the whole thing.