? 7/14 Monty / AMPS 144 / +3 148 / +5 160 / PMPS 140

Good morning all. Today marks a happy milestone for Monty's testing, this morning he saw the AlphaTrak and ran to the testing spot purring!

I had two questions today. I know cats are not tolerant of rapid diet changes, but how much of a "change" is a change. For example yesterday I fed him Lily's Kitchen Hunter's Hotpot rather than his usual Lily's Kitchen Classic Chicken Dinner for two of his four meals and his poop was quite soft in the evening. My assumption was that they'd be equivalent foods, should I just stick to classic chicken dinner?

Secondly, his vaccination boosters are in a few months and it will be the first time he's had vaccines with diabetes, is there anything I should know?

 

Usually we suggest adding 25% of a new food each day until they're changed over but if at any time you see signs of tummy troubles, slow down even more. Go to 10% of the new food to 90% of the old, or give more time in between changes like 25/75 for a few days before going to 50/50 for several days then 25/75...etc...etc.

If he's a strictly indoor cat, he probably doesn't need them at all. If your government requires a rabies, you can have a titer run that shows if he has built up enough immunity already so he doesn't need a booster or you can talk to your vet about not doing vaccines at all. Some vets are willing to put older or chronically ill cats as exempt for any more vaccinations.

 

My hope was that those two foods are similar enough that I could use them interchangeably. I don't want to move him over to Hunter's Hotpot, but the multi-packs of food of various flavours are sometimes cheaper than the single flavour packs for some reason.

 

Looks like in the UK I'm not forced to give any vaccines by law. However, I would like him vaccinated unless there are reasons not to other than financial. Would diabetes or pancreatitis be complicated by vaccines in your experience? Perhaps I should just ask my vet next time I see them.

 

+3 is slightly higher than the AMPS, probably because food. I'll check at +6 to see how low he gets.

 

Got a +5, higher still, perhaps it's time for me to put the dose back to 0.25?

 

I'd hold this dose for a little longer.....with that FS on 12/7/20 and the "NS" (No Shot) that followed, he's only been on the .10 dose for 4 cycles

 

I'm no expert but I would think that once you gradually get him used to Hunter's Hotpot, you should be able to use them interchangeably. I have done this with my kitty.

See this article by Dr. Lisa Pierson on vaccinations.
https://catinfo.org/vaccines-for-cats-we-need-to-stop-overvaccinating/

 

Are there any topics about human glucometer recommendations for UK? I'm curious how Monty's numbers are shaping up against human calibrated dosing methods.

Ideally I'd want something that requires as little blood as the AlphaTrak and I want to not spend £1 per test!

 

If you scroll partway down through this post on UK Information, you'll find a section on meters.

 

Thanks! And holy cr*p the gluco navii test strips cost £8 for 50, I'm paying £47 for 50 on the AlphaTrak!

 

You have discovered why most people switch or start out with human meters.