cat update
25 Jun 2010 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firecatangus 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.
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.
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Date: 27 Jun 2010 10:23 pm (UTC)However something high fiber or some kind of stool softener might be a good idea. Something to keep the "mail moving" so's to speak.
I'm surprised it is taking all these enemas. I was at an animal er where they brought in a cat with blockage and they were showing the owner how to manually move the blockage along so it would come out.
Ask the vet for some other ideas besides a cat "diet" for weight loss; laxatives, stool softener, more fluids in the diet, whatever.