Am I feeding my cat enough?

I'm wondering what the source was for the gidardia? One of the negatives of dried food besides leading to urinary tract infections is its a bacteria breeding grown. I've slowly decreased the amount of dried food and increased wet & freeze dried raw. Mainly to try to prevent urinary tract infections and keep my cats hydrated. What I've noticed is their stools are a bit smaller and they don't seem as hungry, although begging for food is in the feline genetic make up so that doesn't ever go away completely. I've been using Nature's Variety Instinct and they gobble it up most of it, then finish off the rest 60-90 minutes later.

I've stayed away from feeding human food scraps after witnessing my parents cat beg for food at each & every meal time. Good luck with Oliie, seems like you're on the right track.

Red Dog said:

I'm wondering what the source was for the gidardia? One of the negatives of dried food besides leading to urinary tract infections is its a bacteria breeding grown. I've slowly decreased the amount of dried food and increased wet & freeze dried raw. Mainly to try to prevent urinary tract infections and keep my cats hydrated. What I've noticed is their stools are a bit smaller and they don't seem as hungry, although begging for food is in the feline genetic make up so that doesn't ever go away completely. I've been using Nature's Variety Instinct and they gobble it up most of it, then finish off the rest 60-90 minutes later.

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Giardia is a protozoan, not bacteria, so it won't grow on food that's left out. It is usually spread by ingesting water or soil that has been contaminated with another carrier's feces, so it's most common in outdoor cats. When indoor cats get it, I think the common theory is that it was tracked in on shoes.

Yeah, Ollie could have picked up giardia from pretty much anywhere.

So that almost 300kcal a day allowance is a little too much -- Ollie weighed in at 4.5kg on Sunday. Still within acceptable amounts but we decided to reduce his food back to where it was. We're still going to keep an eye on him, but based on that I think I know where his ideal calorie intake is.

Unfortunately, the second dosage of giardia medication doesn't seem to have worked, so we've switched him over to Royal Canin Gastro (dried). This was something our vet had recommended on a list of progressive treatments/tests to figure out if there's an additional underlying cause (ranging from the gastro food all the way up to an endoscopy + biopsy).

What was the medication called? Panacur is mild and usually has fewer side effects, but some giardia is resistant to it and flagyl (metronidazole) is more successful. Flagyl also has an anti-inflammatory effect on the bowels, so it's prescribed for lots of diarrhea situations. Of course I'm not a vet, that's just what I've learned from shelter care.

Just checked with my husband and it was panacur. It might be worth asking about flagyl on the follow-up call with the vet tomorrow.

So we switched Ollie to RC Gastro dry and medically he seems to be doing fine -- using the litter tray once a day (instead of the 2-3 times he was before) and much better formed too.

However, we noticed he was also starting to do out of character things -- coming up and licking his (empty) food bowl. Yesterday he finished his meals (dinner & evening meal) and both times looked over at us and meowed as if to say "there's no more food but I'm still hungry".

We weighed him on Thursday (after the bowl licking), 4.3kg. Weighed him again today (after the meowing at us), 4.2kg! I double-checked on the back of the packaging and he's getting the recommended calorie intake for a normal weight 5kg kitty. Even if he's classed as underweight he's still getting something like 90% of the recommended food/calorie intake necessary for weight gain and he's losing weight.

We've once again started to up his food intake, and I'm wondering if I should just let him eat. Still check his body weight but not freak out unless he's starting to get kitty chubby. Husband says with the slightly upped food this morning (20g vs. 15g) Ollie seemed to be more content.

I would supplement with grain free canned, more filling, less poop, less carbs

Oh no, munging again! (I love that word so much now that I use it whenever Edwina starts going for her empty bowl...)

Yes, it definitely sounds like upping Ollie's intake again is a good idea. He's so young that he's probably still burning up the calories. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our vet told us that it's perfectly normal for a cat's weight to fluctuate a little, but it sounds like Ollie really does need a little more to eat. It's so hard to find the right balance! (I'm still trying to figure this out with Edwina, though her sister is an indifferent grazer. They're a very challenging pair to feed!)

It's great to hear that his litter tray is looking better with the new food. Are you feeding him only dry food? bonepicker may well be on to something about canned food being more filling for him... but I remember that Ollie had some stomach issues, so I'm sure that's taking precedence for you!

bonepicker, I would if I could. See below:

Lisa, yes, he does seem to be munging again, but this time from actual real hunger than anything else. He is on 100% dried, Royal Canin Vetinary Diet Gastro. We had been given a few packs of the wet version from the vet a couple of weeks ago (when we first tested to see if he had a parasite, the vet hoping that food might help reduce his issues in the meantime) but all he's done is lick the gravy off them and left all the chunks, even when we tried to mash everything up super-fine. He really only seems to like pate/terrine style wet food, so unfortunately all dried it is unless we can find a way to get him to eat the Gastro wet.

Our vet gave us a huge long list of potential gastro problems to work through, and when we told her that Ollie seemed to be improving on the gastro food she went "Great! Keep him on that for eight weeks." (We'll probably be calling up in ~4-5 weeks time and query about how to introduce new foods into the diet.) My understanding is that either being on this food temporarily will help settle his stomach and we can get him on other foods, or we find out he has a sensitivity or allergy to something that's in his regular food that's not in the gastro food and we can start picking over what he can eat without digestive discomfort. Or, worst case scenario, he needs to be on this or similar food for life.

Anyway, his food intake has been upped, his digestive issues are settling down so...I guess I'll just keep an eye on his weight and see if he seems to be drastically losing or gaining weight. I dunno if there's a dangerous weight gain amount, or should I just be keeping an eye on his body shape?

It sounds like you may have some interesting times ahead with the food. Feeding cats is not as easy as most people think it is!

As for weights, though, yes, I just keep an eye on our cats' shapes and appetites, both of which seem to vary slightly along with changes in season and activity (they have some lazy days!). I like charts like the one below for gauging a cat's shape. (  I remember you mentioning that Ollie's very fluffy -- maybe you could smooth down his fur to look at him? 

I'm certainly finding out that feeding cats isn't the simple science I thought it was!

Ollie is reasonably fluffy -- a semi-longhaired cat which makes it difficult to see where his belly is. He's more "longhaired sleek" than "big puffball of fur". On that chart I'd probably say he was a 5 (but wow there doesn't seem to be that much leeway between ideal and overweight there). I'll see if I can get him settled down for a feel tonight -- I know I've been easily able to feel his spine so I'll see how easily I can feel his ribs.

Ovetia said:

 
(but wow there doesn't seem to be that much leeway between ideal and overweight there).

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They do not! And Edwina looks different every time I look at her!

Well I was able to check on Ollie last night and body shape-wise he seems to be okay. I can feel his spine when I pet him, and I can feel his ribs okay if I put one hand on each side and lightly press in. Of course, I'm worrying a little that I can't feel them enough now If I pet with both hands on his side I can feel a good and noticable dip where his waist is (on that diagram), and his belly fluff doesn't seem to drop down too low, so...I think he's okay.

It sounds like Ollie is right in that ideal range. The big thing that I watch with Edwina is that she doesn't get more "padding", though she naturally has a stockier, rounder body type than the long, sleek Ireland. I suppose that plumper-looking body type is why the vets have emphatically said Edwina is not overweight when I've asked. (Like you, this is a concern to me after dealing with our previous cat's weight problem.)

Good luck with the food... I hope Ollie continues to do well!