I have a 3 year old male cat who other than carrying a few extra pounds has seemed healthy. At his check up a few weeks ago the vet encouraged me to change his food to help manage the weight as he had added several pounds over the last two years and is at risk for diabetes. Later they called back with urinalysis results and said they saw struvite crystals and noted problems with ph and specific gravity. Current weight is 19.1 pounds and the desired weight that they had told me at an earlier appt was 15-16 pounds, although the report they sent me this time says 13 pounds which I can't imagine for him so I think that must have been a mistake.
Pippin's picture is on this thread and as you can see he'll never be a small cat:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...ight=halloween
The vet wants me to change him to a wet, high protein diet. Diet change has always been a problem even when he was a wee kitten and I tried making the change from canned KMR to the powdered stuff. He was eating frantically with the powdered formula and was just acting sickly. I know it shouldn't make a difference but he bounced back immediately when I switched back to the canned stuff.
I've tried previously to get him on weight management and/or a wet diet and eventually gave up. He must have a really sensitive tummy because every diet change I've tried since he was an adult (and all were gradual) has led to some problem: didn't like the wet food, vomitting, diahrrea, stinky gas/poops, or very dry/hard poops. Once he even had vomitting and diahrrea precisely at a change to a new bag of the food which was already eating.
I started out by what I should have been doing all along and that was cutting back on the food he was already eating (Nutro Natural Indoor Adult) and then brought home a canned food from the list the vet gave me. It was Evo chicken and turkey which I thought I might stand a better chance with as he loves raw chicken and chicken baby food. I've just replaced about 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons at one feeding per day for a week now and he loves it but I am noticing that his poops are a lot drier and crumbly, but normal in color. Would this be normal in switching off a higher protein food?
Also, I did want to ask about the urinalysis as they told me to really push water and that surprised me because he LOVES water. This was a kitten who'd be pounding on the door whenever he heard the shower so he could stick play with the stream (once he hopped right in the bath with me...hopped right back out
). To this day if I'm in the bathroom or laundry room he's right there, usually with his head in the stream getting a drink or looking for fresh water in his container. Is the urinalysis really a good indicator of what's going on or is it just a snapshot that would vary depending on the amount of water in the cat's system at that time of day? I can't imagine getting much more water into him.
Thanks for any help with this. I don't want to go any further with a food change if I'm not on the right track.
Pippin's picture is on this thread and as you can see he'll never be a small cat:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...ight=halloween
The vet wants me to change him to a wet, high protein diet. Diet change has always been a problem even when he was a wee kitten and I tried making the change from canned KMR to the powdered stuff. He was eating frantically with the powdered formula and was just acting sickly. I know it shouldn't make a difference but he bounced back immediately when I switched back to the canned stuff.
I've tried previously to get him on weight management and/or a wet diet and eventually gave up. He must have a really sensitive tummy because every diet change I've tried since he was an adult (and all were gradual) has led to some problem: didn't like the wet food, vomitting, diahrrea, stinky gas/poops, or very dry/hard poops. Once he even had vomitting and diahrrea precisely at a change to a new bag of the food which was already eating.
I started out by what I should have been doing all along and that was cutting back on the food he was already eating (Nutro Natural Indoor Adult) and then brought home a canned food from the list the vet gave me. It was Evo chicken and turkey which I thought I might stand a better chance with as he loves raw chicken and chicken baby food. I've just replaced about 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons at one feeding per day for a week now and he loves it but I am noticing that his poops are a lot drier and crumbly, but normal in color. Would this be normal in switching off a higher protein food?
Also, I did want to ask about the urinalysis as they told me to really push water and that surprised me because he LOVES water. This was a kitten who'd be pounding on the door whenever he heard the shower so he could stick play with the stream (once he hopped right in the bath with me...hopped right back out
Thanks for any help with this. I don't want to go any further with a food change if I'm not on the right track.
