Every regular on here knows my male manx breed cat (Tiger) was a kibble addict for almost 16 years. I finally got him to eat wet canned food (Nutro Natural Choice & Sheba) starting this past June of 2013. The problem, he would only eat 4 1/2 ounces a day. At the time I started him on wet, he weighed 11 1/2 pounds.
Fast forwarding, at Thanksgiving he was down to 8 1/2 pounds and he looked terrible. I could actually feel the up and down ridges in his backbone's vertebrae. The day after Thanksgiving, I went down to Petco and bought him his old favorite kibble, Nature's Variety Instinct (Chicken). He woofed that down in a big hurry. I got his weight back up to 9 pounds in a very short period of time, but he still didn't look or feel right when I petted him. He still felt very boney when petting him down his backbone, not as bad as he was at 8 1/2 pounds, but still not good.
But at his 16 1/2 years of age now, I didn't want to keep him on all kibble diet. Since he won't eat more than 4 1/2 ounces of wet food for a 24 hour period, I decided to feed him a combination of wet and dry kibble. I put some kibble in a paper towel, pulverize it to a fine powder, then mixed it in with his wet food. Next, I add a teaspoon of water to this mixture making it into a kind of thick soupy gravy mixture. He likes this mixture. He's also been a heavy water drinker all his life too. Even when he was on all wet food, when he wanted a drink of water, he'd act like a cow at a water trough. He would take l-o-n-g drinks.
I took him to the vet this past Tuesday (Jan 7th) for his semi annual senior wellness visit. He weighed 9 1/2 pounds. His blood work and urine were perfect. Everything else was perfect except his teeth need a dental cleaning and he also needs to have two anal glands expressed. Tiger has great genetics for teeth. His last teeth cleaning was 3 years ago (January of 2011).
At his present 9 1/2 pound weight, he sure has a lot of energy. Runs all over the house at a full gallop sometimes. Plays more too. I can't feel the vertebrae in his backbone anymore either. My vet said to keep feeding him this mixture and to watch his weight by weighing him once a week.
As a side note, my vet is going to clean his teeth today (Jan 9th) and she's only going to give him 1/2 dose of anesthesia based on his present weight to put him under to clean his teeth and express his anal glands. During his last teeth cleaning 3 years ago, he also got a 1/2 dose based on his weight. She only gives him 1/2 dose because of his senior age. She said she'll call me when he's ready to leave the vet's office to go home with me. I'm hoping everything goes well for him this morning.
Fast forwarding, at Thanksgiving he was down to 8 1/2 pounds and he looked terrible. I could actually feel the up and down ridges in his backbone's vertebrae. The day after Thanksgiving, I went down to Petco and bought him his old favorite kibble, Nature's Variety Instinct (Chicken). He woofed that down in a big hurry. I got his weight back up to 9 pounds in a very short period of time, but he still didn't look or feel right when I petted him. He still felt very boney when petting him down his backbone, not as bad as he was at 8 1/2 pounds, but still not good.
But at his 16 1/2 years of age now, I didn't want to keep him on all kibble diet. Since he won't eat more than 4 1/2 ounces of wet food for a 24 hour period, I decided to feed him a combination of wet and dry kibble. I put some kibble in a paper towel, pulverize it to a fine powder, then mixed it in with his wet food. Next, I add a teaspoon of water to this mixture making it into a kind of thick soupy gravy mixture. He likes this mixture. He's also been a heavy water drinker all his life too. Even when he was on all wet food, when he wanted a drink of water, he'd act like a cow at a water trough. He would take l-o-n-g drinks.
I took him to the vet this past Tuesday (Jan 7th) for his semi annual senior wellness visit. He weighed 9 1/2 pounds. His blood work and urine were perfect. Everything else was perfect except his teeth need a dental cleaning and he also needs to have two anal glands expressed. Tiger has great genetics for teeth. His last teeth cleaning was 3 years ago (January of 2011).
At his present 9 1/2 pound weight, he sure has a lot of energy. Runs all over the house at a full gallop sometimes. Plays more too. I can't feel the vertebrae in his backbone anymore either. My vet said to keep feeding him this mixture and to watch his weight by weighing him once a week.
As a side note, my vet is going to clean his teeth today (Jan 9th) and she's only going to give him 1/2 dose of anesthesia based on his present weight to put him under to clean his teeth and express his anal glands. During his last teeth cleaning 3 years ago, he also got a 1/2 dose based on his weight. She only gives him 1/2 dose because of his senior age. She said she'll call me when he's ready to leave the vet's office to go home with me. I'm hoping everything goes well for him this morning.
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