my mind is a blank slate
I'm supposed to be working on my Friday story, based on Delores's word challenge, but I've got nothing. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
I've thought about it off and on most of the day, but nothing is 'gelling' for me.
Yet.
I want to take the Rosa-Travis connection further. He's.............hmmm.
This morning Angel had a visit to the Vet for his annual vaccinations.
I'm pleased to report he is in excellent health, Angel that is, and I suppose the vet is too..
He did mention Angel is a long cat when he helped me drag him out of his carrier. First he didn't want to get in there, then he didn't want to get out.
(He's like a 5 year old who doesn't want a bath, an hour later he's still in there in freezing water playing battleships!)
Now for the bad news. The very nice young vet said he wouldn't want to see Angel gaining any more weight. He's a hefty boy, my Angel, but he doesn't eat all that much. I'll weigh him tonight and find out exactly how heavy he is.
Vet asked how much and how often, I give Angel half a tiny can of food each morning, the other half at night and dry food available all day. And all night. I just leave it there. Like everyone else I know.
I learned that the dry food is high in calories and I should remove it from temptation at once. Even though Angel appears not to be eating much of it, a new regime is required. The vet recommends the small can of food, (the whole can 85 grams) each morning, dry food at night and nothing else all day.
oh boy! Angel isn't going to like this one bit.
And I'm going to have to listen to the pitiful "don't you love me anymore" meowing.
Until he gets used to it.
Wonder how long that will take?
I've thought about it off and on most of the day, but nothing is 'gelling' for me.
Yet.
I want to take the Rosa-Travis connection further. He's.............hmmm.
This morning Angel had a visit to the Vet for his annual vaccinations.
I'm pleased to report he is in excellent health, Angel that is, and I suppose the vet is too..
He did mention Angel is a long cat when he helped me drag him out of his carrier. First he didn't want to get in there, then he didn't want to get out.
(He's like a 5 year old who doesn't want a bath, an hour later he's still in there in freezing water playing battleships!)
Now for the bad news. The very nice young vet said he wouldn't want to see Angel gaining any more weight. He's a hefty boy, my Angel, but he doesn't eat all that much. I'll weigh him tonight and find out exactly how heavy he is.
Vet asked how much and how often, I give Angel half a tiny can of food each morning, the other half at night and dry food available all day. And all night. I just leave it there. Like everyone else I know.
I learned that the dry food is high in calories and I should remove it from temptation at once. Even though Angel appears not to be eating much of it, a new regime is required. The vet recommends the small can of food, (the whole can 85 grams) each morning, dry food at night and nothing else all day.
oh boy! Angel isn't going to like this one bit.
And I'm going to have to listen to the pitiful "don't you love me anymore" meowing.
Until he gets used to it.
Wonder how long that will take?
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Oh dear. Jazz has 'fat pads' too. And dieting has not made us popular.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
Elephant's Child; I've sat him on the scale and he jumped straight off, but I got the reading, he is a smidgen over 5 kilos.
ReplyDeleteHis fur is so thick, too....that would have to add some weight! Set up a gym in the laundry for him! :)
DeleteLee; my laundry is also my bathroom, there's no room in there. He has a huge climbing tower/scratching post in the back porch and also spends time racing from porch to front door and back watching cars and people.
DeleteOh dear, poor Angel! He is just big boned :)
ReplyDeleteOur cat was adopted from a shelter in December at 1 year old and she was the skinniest cat I had ever seen. She eats a huge amount though and now she is... not skinny any more. She isn't fat, but is getting solid and I have been cutting back her dry food, but it is hard! Cats tend to blackmail you by threatening to shred furniture and curtains until you feed them. I assumed she would start eating less as she got more comfortable in our home and as she built up her weight and strength, but no - if we let her she would just keep eating at the same rate!
Wow! I give a small amount of canned food...similar to one of those small cans to my two furry mates in the mornings...to share. Sometimes they eat it; sometimes they eat only a bit. Late afternoon I chop up fresh meat for them so that's their dinner each night... they share the one bowl of meat through the night. Like all cats...they graze rather than eat it all up at once. I always have some dry food in a bowl. Sometimes they graze on that, too...other times, they're not interested, but it's there if the mood strikes.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I don't give them milk...they drink only water.
Ear plugs, for you, might work! lol
Oh dear, my sympathies to both you and Angel!
ReplyDeleteI'm writing a post about cat food, because our older kitty Grumpy has kidney issues - in fact her kidneys shut down totally at the start of 2014, we're extremely lucky she survived that. Now we have to feed her a special kidney diet (called k/d) prescribed by the vet which is pretty expensive. Then our vet stopped stocking it, so I've had to find another source for it..
ReplyDeleteOur Grumpy was more than 5kg, she lost a lot of weight with the kidney shut down and had to be syringe fed a wet mix of watered down k/d tinned food for 2 months until she started to eat on her own again - my other half should have been a vet nurse, he is that brilliant with animals.
Jackie K; I don't know about his bone size and I've never seen his dad, so don't know about his size either. Angel's mum was smaller and eventually got really thin because the owners didn't feed her or the kittens and my daughter stopped feeding her too (it was so hard to stop), she simply couldn't afford it. But Angel really doesn't eat much. He almost never finishes what I put out.
ReplyDeleteLee; I used to put out a small can of food twice a day, but angel never ate it all, so I went to a half a can twice a day and still he almost never finished it. I may stick with the half can twice a day but cut back on the dry food amount I put out. his bowl usually has about a cup or so of kibble, I'll cut that right back to a quarter cup and also take away any wet food he doesn't finish.
Jac; I think we'll be okay, I'm putting myself on rations too, I have thirty pounds to lose. Of course if Angel gets too hungry I'll review what I'm doing for him.
Snoskred; I had a cat with kidney failure, about twenty years ago, he could only eat special food from the vet at a huge price that I couldn't afford, so I had him put down. I couldn't give him away, nobody wanted a "sick" cat. Angel's kidneys are fine, his heart too, I'll try feeding him less dry food and see how he goes. I'll keep checking his weight too, probably once a month.
Did he weigh the cat???? There is diet kibble available. It might even be enough to just not leave it out all night. Maybe a little more exercise? You're going to have a cranky cat for a while though.
ReplyDeleteI am a firm believer in give them their food and what is not eaten within a few minutes is removed and thrown out. Always fresh food, including fresh dry food. I think your vet advice is correct. Certainly no food left out for Angel to occasionally nibble at.
ReplyDeletePoor Angel. He doesn't understand "for your own good."
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose you could get Angel on a treadmill?
ReplyDeleteDelores; he didn't weigh Angel but he was holding him, he's certainly an armful. I don't think diet kibble will be necessary. removing all food except for mealtimes will be enough. He seems to be okay with that so far. When I got home from town he sat by his placemat (on the floor) for a while, just looking at me, but I ignored him and he wandered off.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; he always gets fresh canned food and any not eaten is frozen in an old ice cream tub until rubbish day; I don't like my bin to get stinky and attracting ants and flies. Dry food was left out, but now I'm giving just a small amount and taking the dish away when I don't want him snacking. I think this will be a good system. As long as I keep his weight steady and not gaining is the plan I think.
Joanne; he's going to learn and I hope quickly.
joeh; I don't have one, there's no room for one, but he does a lot of running back and forth between front door and back porch, plus jumping on and off the bed, table, tallboy etc.Out on the porch he has two climbing tower/scratching posts as well.