Mini Meltdown & Requested Help With The Basics (Long)

bluebird gal

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Our little guy Monty gave us a scare Monday.  DH took an afternoon break from work to come in to Monty sneezing (what he said seemed like 100x) back to back, then started a hoarse coughing sound like he was going to throw up.  Never did.  I came in heard the coughing again.  We waited, and finally the third time we were off to the local ER vet at 7:30pm.  Worried about an obstruction mainly.  Long story short on the meltdown:  all vitals/temp perfect, xrays taken, vet called us back to view them, upper lungs looked perfect, lower lungs looked a little congested.  Vet thought he may have tried to puke & aspirated a little.  He said he wanted to use Convenia to which we had a brief disagreement to say the least over.  Come to find out his vet tech HAD ALREADY GIVEN THE SHOT!  Jesus, Mary & Joseph was I livid!!  Discussing your course of action comes FIRST in my world.  I cannot believe the vet already told the tech to administer the shot BEFORE he discussed it with us.  Luckily Monty has had no apparent side effects - lethargy, loss of appetite, or way worse.  *melt down over*

On to what I knew would be discussed with our TX vet next month & the assistance requested with --

Monty has been free-fed both wet and kibble since we adopted him at 3.5mos old.  Unfortunately (for all of us) his metabolism turned out far different from his big brother.

Monty has been fed a regular combo of everything from canned Friskes to almost all of the higher end canned  brands.  Even the kibble we have purchased was of the Instinct variety or Wellness Core.  Trying to stay in the grain/gluten free zones with the occasional Fancy Feast or Friskes as a treat.  And every once in a while sardine cutlets.

Monty was progressing pretty much like his brother did.  I could still see a waist, ribs had only a thin layer of fat over them.  However, the past 4mos, even without the Friskies or FF (I removed them totally since he was approaching a year old) he really put on the weight.

He is 15lbs on the dot.  Way too much, even though he is large framed.  I changed their diet that was mainly NV Instinct chicken (high calorie), Tiki Chicken, and the occasional Friskies chicken shreds (high cal/high carb) to the Merrick Cowboy Cookout, Tiki Puka Chicken, and the Weruva Pawlickin Chicken as they were way less carbs & way lower in calories.

On the Dr. Pierson's chart it shows.
  • Weruva Chicken at 65 protein, 32 fat, 3 carbs and 103 calories. (51 per 1/2 can)
  • Cowboy Cookout at 52 protein, 42 fat, 5 carbs and 202 calories. (101 per 1/2 can)
  • Tiki Chicken at 73 protein, 27 fat, 0 carbs and 303 calories. (151.5 per 1/2 can) and they get
  • 1/4cup each of the NV Instinct Chicken kibble at 45 protein, 19 fat, ??? carbs, Kcal = 448/cup.  (112 per 1/4 cup)
Both boys always split a 5.5oz can of whatever is in the food rotation above.  Neither of them finish their half which, mathmatically, would be 2.5oz.  But they will both finish their kibble, with Monty hoovering up any of Si's leftovers (problem solved in this department by placing Si's leftovers in the trash immediately).

If I understand correctly from the perspective of getting your cat to start losing weight slowly, Monty should get 15-20 calories per his weight.  That figure would be 225 to 300 calories total per day.

Since I don't want too few calories I'm curious as to everyone's opinion as to whether I should keep him at the 300 calories until I see our first weight loss?

I will definitely be speaking with our vet once we're back in TX, but what he weighed in at was rather a shock at the 15lbs.  Our TX vet did indicate that frame-wise he was going to be a big boy & could easily be in the 11-13lb range, but I had no idea.  I just knew at 1yr I should be getting back to 2-3 scheduled feedings per day, etc.

For their exercise - both boys play hard, chasing, wrestling, several times per day, and I play with them including the laser, da Bird and various other fishing pole type toys anywhere from 5-20 minutes several times per day individually, and together, until they get bored or crank up their own game of chase/wrestle.

I'm sure this is sort of a rambling mess but I would like to know what you folks think is the most important - the carb counts or the caloric intake on the wet foods?  

I'm also interested in how much fiber cats need?  The vet we saw recommended canned pumpkin which I'm familiar with from the canine world, but this vet stated it also works to help lose weight.  I think I've read enough here that it may help at minimum.

I would rather find/create the correct diet with current, high quality foods than invest in the veterinarian dietary foods that are way more expensive than what I currently pay for higher end foods.  But I'll do what needs to be done to get him back to a healthy weight.

Thanks for any and all input!
 

denice

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Both carbs and calories are important.  Kitties in general do better on a very low carb diet because it is closest to their natural diet.  Of course when it comes to weight loss, just as it is for us, a calorie is a calorie.  For weight loss you want to gear the calories to his ideal weight rather than the weight that he is so 300 calories would be a little high for weight loss.  You don't want to go below 15 calories per pound of his ideal weight to prevent liver issues.
 
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bluebird gal

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Thanks Denise .. I thought after all the voluminous information available here that it was pointing more towards keeping him down to the 225 cal range.  I'm way more scared of diabetes or liver issues so I'll shoot for the lower cals and carbs from here on until we get back to a healthier weight on him.

The sweet baby is already meowing his head off at the times he was used to getting a snack.  We are on day 7 of 6:30am wet, noon lunch snack, and 6:30pm wet feedings. 

The good new is he also started licking the canned pumpkin lid when I opened it and had no issues gulping it down with a teaspoon mixed into his Weruva chicken for dinner this evening. 
 
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