Supplements for multiple cats

I have three cats, Bowie (7 years), Buddha (6 years), and Izzie (6 years). Bowie has feline herpes, and Buddha has a history of urinary blockages but has had the PU surgery. Izzie has hairballs pretty much once every two weeks. I want to give them supplements for each of their health issues, but I want to get advice on what to give and what to be careful giving.

I did try to talk to my vet about all of this, but she doesn't believe in supplements. She also doesn't believe in feeding cats only wet food, which I am doing.

I would have to give all three cats the same amount of supplements because I put them into their wet food at night. They eat each others bowls and switch bowls often, so that's why I can't target one cat with one supplement. I started giving them L-Lysine 500mg every other night. I also give them 2 tablets of Vet's Best Urinary Tract and Vet's Best Hairball Remedy split among all three cats, but I only give them this maybe every three days. I am buying Cosequin tomorrow for Buddha's bladder, to give every night.

I want to give them slippery elm and egg yolk lecithin for Izzie's hairballs, but I want to make sure it's okay to mix all of these supplements together.

So in summary, is it okay to give slippery elm, egg yolk lecithin, Cosequin, L-Lysine all together? What doses are the best? I know 500mg for L-Lysine, and one capsule of Cosequin. What mg tablets or capsules should I buy of the slippery elm and egg yolk lecithin?

Slippery elm I buy loose powder. General instructions are 1/4 teaspoon that you mix with 1 teaspoon of water, let it gel up (mix it and let it gel), and then mix into food. But I think feeding this daily is overkill. This is likely something needed only a few times a week, if. You might want to try the egg yolk lecithin first and see what happens.

The EYL only comes in 600mg capsules: there are only 2 manufacturers, Swanson and Nature's Plus. Swanson has some rice flour in it, so it is dry and easy to pour. Nature's Plus is sticky, and a PIA to get out of the capsule. Unfortunately, the dose is very cat dependent. I have one cat that needs 1/2 a capsule a day; I have three that off-season need 1/2 capsule 2x a day; in season, they need a full capsule 2x a day.

There isn't any reason not to mix all of these, but that's going to be a costly solution, to give each cat the full dose of everything.

Why not just not allow your cats to eat out of each other's dishes? I used to let my cats play musical bowls. When we switched food types, and we had to get specific about who was eating what, I stopped it. They were fed in assigned places, given a certain amount of time to finish, and I just have to stand there and play "police" to prevent them from swapping dishes. But the result is that they eat out of their own dishes and finish up in about 5 minutes, so it's not a problem for me to give them the time to eat, and everything they get is individual.

The problem is my cats don't eat all at once. They wander back and forth and eat small amounts. Should I try the "if they don't eat it all in 10 minutes, pick it up"? Will they learn to eat it all? Also, I live with my parents. They have a cat that doesn't get along with one of my cats, so at night I keep all three of my cats in my bedroom (it's pretty big). When my cat Buddha first got a urinary blockage, I fed him his prescription food separate from the other cats by putting him in the bathroom but he freaked out and wouldn't eat. I tried to put the other cats in the bathroom, and they did the same thing. I think they're used to eating in my bedroom and don't understand eating in other places?

Well, there's no reason not to feed them all in your bedroom. You just need to establish the concept of meal times. I live in an RV with 8 cats, so think large bedroom. They all eat within fairly close proximity - it's just an established "spot" and an established time. Like as a family you sit around the dinner table and eat at your spot at dinner time.

My cats used to free feed kibble. Then I added canned, one meal, then two meals. I picked it up after they walked away from it, so it was more of a treat than a meal. We rescued a really sick cat, found a holistic vet, who instilled the fear of kibble in me. :lol3: We switched to timed meals of canned food, and it wasn't easy. But it was really worth it in the long run, because I missed the fact that one of my cats was losing weight until it was almost too late as I allowed bowl swapping and had no idea how much of what who was eating. Being able to monitor how much each cat eats is a GREAT way to monitor their health.

There are tips here on how to establish meal times: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264675/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals-and-new-food

That is all GREAT advice! Thank you so much!!!

I have some questions though. My week is jammed packed. Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays I work at a pet store (usually either 8-5 or 3-10). Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to school from 9-3. Friday is my only day off. It's difficult to establish a routine with feeding because of my wacky schedule. What I usually do is feed them when I wake up (so usually around 7), then again when I get home from wherever (usually around 3) and then at night around 6 or 7. Some days, the feeding times are off by an hour or two. Is this okay? Will they still recognize established feeding times?

They have a designated spot for feeding and drinking, which is away from their litterboxes and play huts/scratching posts. Whenever I say, "Are you hungry?" they all spring up from wherever they are and come to the food mat. I will try watching them more carefully and "policing" them not to eat out of each others bowls. This may save a lot of money because one of my cats is on prescription urinary food (Royal Canin Urinary SO 5.8 oz cans). I usually feed all three cats that at night, and my vet said it was okay to feed to cats without urinary issues. In the morning I feed them 5.5 oz high quality wet food and in the afternoon I feed them a 3 oz pouch. A problem with feeding them different foods is they won't touch reheated food. I've tried everything to get them to eat reheated food: microwaved for like 5 seconds, mixed with hot water, put enticers on top, heated up by putting in baggie sitting in hot water. I split the can or pouch between the three of them. So if I only feed two cats the regular high quality food, there's going to be a portion leftover.

Is the re-heated food from the fridge? If so, try freezing it instead. It doesn't acquire other smells that way.

For "timed" meals, time itself isn't so important, especially if your schedule doesn't work well for routine. It helps, but isn't critical. In fact, you're already over the major hurdles: you don't free feed, and they "get" meal time. All you have to do is not let them play musical bowls, and establish there's a set amount of time they have to eat what's in their bowl. Yes, it's PIA. But they'll adjust. ...and for this one, hunger works in your favor. If they're puzzled at their food being picked up because they don't want to finish what is in THEIR dish, they just may be hungry enough at the next meal to eat their own food.

As LDG said, hunger goes a long way when training cats to eat when and where. As far as a schedule, my cats eat breakfast anywhere from 5 am to 10 am. What I do when I want to sleep in the next day is serve a midafternoon snack and dinner is late. Then they're not starving the next morning.

LDG said:

Is the re-heated food from the fridge? If so, try freezing it instead. It doesn't acquire other smells that way.

For "timed" meals, time itself isn't so important, especially if your schedule doesn't work well for routine. It helps, but isn't critical. In fact, you're already over the major hurdles: you don't free feed, and they "get" meal time. All you have to do is not let them play musical bowls, and establish there's a set amount of time they have to eat what's in their bowl.

Yes, it's PIA. But they'll adjust. ...and for this one, hunger works in your favor. If they're puzzled at their food being picked up because they don't want to finish what is in THEIR dish, they just may be hungry enough at the next meal to eat their own food.

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I policed them tonight. I only let them eat from one bowl. It worked for the first few seconds or so, but then Buddha wandered over to steal some food from Bowie's dish, even though he has plenty in his own dish. I don't know why they do this... It's like they think I gave the other one better food or something. I kept putting Buddha back to his dish, so he finished his bowl and wandered around the room. Izzie kept trying to look at Bowie's bowl and wouldn't finish her food. Bowie finally got to eat his whole bowl without any disturbance! Izzie left about half of her food in the bowl. Should I just throw it away (it wasn't enough to really save), or can I let Buddha eat the rest? Would that be breaking the "one cat one bowl" routine?

By freezing, should I put it in a plastic tupperware? When defrosting, should I just leave it out and let it thaw naturally, or should I defrost it in the microwave?