6/11Willy AMPS~101|1.5~88

Last Condo

Happy Saturday everyone!

I appreciate all the input and support from my last condo about Willy and potential acro. My vet isn't open on weekends so I might try to find a time that she can meet with me next week and we can discuss it. Is there anything I should know when talking to her? I have a feeling she probably won't have any experience in this area so I may need to prompt her a bit. I originally wanted to wait to have him tested when he does his next fructosamine in August but I don't think I can wait that long without knowing.

We made the switch to Evo 95% Chicken and Turkey and it seems like everyone loves it. I think they are bummed that I am giving them less of it because it's higher in calories (per oz) than Fancy Feast and with Willy, we really do have to keep track of what he is eating or he packs on the pounds. We have been giving him 2.6-2.7 oz of Evo per meal (same calories as a 3.3oz can of Fancy Feast) with half a can of Fancy Feast for some variety. It SEEMS like the Evo has a bigger impact on his BG but keeps him SOOOOOO much more stable/flat during his cycle. I could be imagining this, of course, but I'm always hopeful!

My house smells like vinegar right now... we are cleaning our living room carpet. It's a lot of work but it looks and smells so much better in here. DH is taking a turn since I've done 60% or so of the living room so far (we have been doing it in chunks so we can move the furniture around).

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Good luck on the acro testing. I can't wait to see how it turns out!! I see you're changing foods also. I'm not having as much luck as you, though!! I always measure Champ's food on a scale so I don't overfeed him and notice that, while FF cans say they are 3 oz, they're actually a little less. I think it's amazing that you feed Willy so much more than I feed Champ, yet Champ outweighs him by two pounds!! And I need to reduce his food intake because he's not losing any weight with the 6 oz a day I'm feeding him. Maybe Willy exercises more than Champ, because Champ is a real lump!!! :lol:

I'll keep my fingers crossed about the acro testing!!!! Have a great day, Stephanie!!

:lol: :lol: Have you tried using fortiflora to get him to eat stuff? Some cats go absolutely CRAZY over it. I will try to get you some links for things (Wellness BG wonkiness, Fortiflora and Fortiflora coupons if there are any) tonight and post them on your condo so you can look at them.

Willy weighs 15.5lbs, I believe. When he was much younger, this was the weight he really hovered around. Before he went DKA he was around 17lbs and after the whole ordeal he was down to 11ish. We started with 4 cans of Fancy Feast a day!!! They wanted us to feed him as much as he could eat (which is more than 4 cans, but he will eat until he throws up if we allow it).

Our new vet really wanted us to cut back his food intake to 220 calories/day (give or take 20-30). She was calculating this based on 15 calories/pound for weight loss. It worked out to be 2-2.5 cans of food. We wound up compromising around 3 (to her dismay) because Willy is super super super food obsessed (always has been-- this is why we absolutely cannot feed him any treats) and 3 cans is the lower limit to keep him out of the trash for *most* of the day (he will start getting into the trash about an hour before feeding and about an hour after feeding). We really REALLY water down Willy's food to make this work. It's like 60% water and 40% food.

I really wanted to incorporate Wellness into the mix for variety but my civvies really really really don't like it. I like feeding a variety of foods because some may contain different levels of vitamins/minerals, even if it's unintentional. I always have a staple food that I feed everyday and mix in a bit of this or that for the variety. To be honest, my cat's wouldn't care if I changed their whole bowl of food at once but I try to do it slowly or in small amounts. With Willy's diabetes I am careful about incorporating new foods because he seems to have some strange reactions to certain ingredients (beef, fish). I completely disregard all feeding instructions on cans and just calculate based on what I think he should be eating +/- a tbs if he is acting funny. If I followed them I think Willy would be getting more than a LARGE 13oz can of Evo per day (they state half a can per 7lbs of body weight). That's over 500 calories... SERIOUSLY?!

Willy is a huge bum but he is so food driven that anytime we go into the kitchen he will follow us... just in case. This is the extent of his exercise! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I am going to see if I can talk to the vet next week about the Acro test. I think she's going to need a few days to do some research before I bring Willy in because I have a good feeling she won't know much about it (I don't expect her to, either, I just would like her to be eager to look into it). I am trying not to be worked up about it but I feel distressed.