Questions About My Lucy's Nutrition

[joeynox]

Please forgive any errors I typed this on my phone and the formatting was going crazy

Hi, I haven't posted in years but I thinks it's time for a post. My Lucy is 18 yes old now and she's been battling IBD for a good 5+ years. She's always been a small cat probably 8 pounds at her heaviest but now she's only around 4ish. She's very skinny. We've tried every food brand, raw foods, homemade , meds, pill, everything. In the end after wasting so much on expensive foods andand import different animal meats the only thing that keeps her somewhat steady is friskiest turkey in gravy and I dunno why. Anyway I can't get her to gain any weight, she will eat good for a few days and then vomit. At this point she looks emaciated. Then will eat a bit and is ok. She walks and moves around great, and jumps around fine. I just wish I could get her to gain weight. She also vomits after pooping.

I cat give her dry food because it makes her belly full with gas (literally) she looks like a balloon. She also hasn't been to a vet in like 2 years due to financial issues (I was laid off for a bit) and her in NYC a typical vet visit after blood work a visit etc typically runs $200-500 ($200 if I go to the humane society) otherwise her visits cost more than mine.

Can anyone recommend a food easy on the tummy to help with her gaining weight. No seafoods/beefs (cause instant pukage) and anything limited diets I've tried and it's failed .I mainly stick with turkey.

 

[MissClouseau]

She really, reaaally needs a vet. I will leave it to the USA users for suggestions on how.

For food, probably the safest options are boiled meat + multivitamin, and, wet food with simple formulas. At that age I would go grain-free to keep it simple. Naturea chicken if you can find where you live. I would also go with mousse texture formulas in case she has trouble with chewing and at 18 she probably has some dental issues. (You can use a blender for chunky food to make it mousse-like too. It doesn't work with all cats though.)

Turkey alone isn't enough nutrition.

You could try food for kittens. They are more dense in calorie.

But this suggestion might be a bad suggestion. If she has kidney disease or diabetes for example, she needs special food.

 

[Talien]

Freshpet Select Turkey & Turkey Liver Cat Food

It's not quite as good as raw food, but I've had good luck with this stuff with my 15 year old IBD Cat. She went through a severe bout of vomiting and dropped from 9 LB to 7 LB and I couldn't get her to gain weight, she held pretty steady at 7-7.5 LB when I switched her to raw food but all 4 of my Cats stopped eating it (I suspect the formula changed because they all stopped suddenly at the same time) so I bought some of the Freshpet while I looked for another good raw food. They all love it and are doing well and my senior is gaining weight slowly but steadily, so I may just stick with it. It's not too expensive either.

The only thing is it's not available online so you'd have to find a store near you that carries it.

 

[daftcat75]

Is Lucy getting B-12? All that vomiting can burn through her B-12 stores quickly. Once depleted, it becomes exceedingly hard to replace it from diet alone.

How about a meat stock? It will help heal and seal her gut. Hopefully less vomiting and better digestion.

I make a turkey meat stock for my 15 year old with IBD like so:

Into a crock pot, I fill it about 1/3 of the way with bone-in meaty cuts, preferably with joints like wings. I cut the joints with a knife or kitchen shearers. Unlike bone broth, I'm interested in the collagens (gelatin but also glucosamine) from the connective tissues rather than the bones. Since I don't eat turkey myself, I'm starting with uncooked pieces. The times are shorter if you are using cooked pieces or leftover bones. I add a splash of apple cider vinegar to help with extraction (a teaspoon for every gallon of water) and I fill the crock pot with water just to cover the meat. The less water, the more concentrated the stock. I set the crock pot for 10 hours on low and come back in the morning. In the morning, you can either skim the fat and then strain, cool, and store. Or you can strain, cool, store, and skim the fat off the top after it has set up in the fridge, covered for 8 hours. Either way, you want to cool your strained liquid in a cold water bath before you put a steaming container in your fridge. At 10 hours, I'm looking for the meat to easily drip off the bone. I am not looking to cook the bones until they fall apart like in bone broth. If you did it right, after it has chilled, covered in the fridge for 8 hours, you should have a yellow to clear jelly or even something like a gelatin dessert. I portion it all out to ice cube trays and freeze it (retaining a few tablespoons for that first day until the ice cubes are ready.) From ice cubes, it is simple to take a few into the fridge the night before. My Krista will eat the cold jelly from the fridge. But sometimes I will place a teaspoon to a tablespoon in a plastic baggie and warm it up for her in warm water. Even though it's been cooked, I treat it like a raw product. I generally put it on a plate by itself. If I put it with food, I want to make sure she eats all that food. Whatever she doesn't eat in 30 minutes, I'll take up and replace with food that doesn't have stock. We had a rough learning curve learning how long stock can be left out and how long it can remain in the fridge (not very long according to Krista--a couple days?--hence the ice cubes.)

Meat stock contains all the goodness of bone broth but in lower quantitites. More is not always better. In bone broth, there is more glutamates which certain individuals (humans and cats) are sensitive to (like MSG headaches.) Meat stock is a gentler form. I would start with a few teaspoons a day and increase as you know how well it treats her. If Lucy's results are like Krista's, you should notice almost overnight improvements in her digestion and stool quality. If she has arthritis, you may even notice an improvement in that too as meat stock will have naturally occurring glucosamine and chondroitin. The meat stock isn't a balanced food on its own and shouldn't replace food. But it is more like a multi-vitamin that will also encourage healing of Lucy's IBD gut.