Help me think outside the box

Hey, everyone.

I wrote a few weeks back about Chloe having a UTI.

Well... long story short, it wasn't a UTI, it was a bladder stone. She had major surgery and is finally recovering.

The vet told me she HAS to be on a special diet. This is a diet that costs $45 for a 16 pound bag. With 5 cats eating in my house, that will wipe me out financially. The vet doesn't care how I do it, but she insists on the perscription diet.

So, I am trying to think of a way to feed Chloe her diet and keep the cats on their cheaper diet.

Have any of you put your cats on a feeding schedule?

I was thinking of either: feeding all the cats canned food three times a day so they don't suck up the expensive dry food. Or, putting them all on a schedule; Or, leaving the old dry food out and having Chloe eat the expensive canned and hope she doesn't eat too much of the old dry food (which the vet doesn't recommend but said we could do as a last resort. If we do this, we have to take Chloe in for checks on her bladder).

Any suggestions on what I should do?

We just bought a cat fountain last night to help promote Chloe drinking more. They say it should help from keeping the stone from forming again.

I'm so frustrated right now on all of this. We're trying to pay off all our debt and make a major life change. But, things like this keep happening and I've seen roadblock after roadblock.

Any advice? Does anyone know if there are over the counter foods that do the same thing? (The vet wants us on Royal Canin SO.)

 

Not 5 minutes ago, I accidently clicked on a banner ad on a different site and found this:
http://www.nekofeeder.com/?gclid=CKbI0- ... WAodsm2QVg

-Chelle

 

That's so interesting! I'd have to think about how to use it to my advantage. It's certainly a thought, though!

 

Hi. Glad she is doing better. Sorry it has gotten so frustrating, though. I didn't check out the link that was posted for you. Perhaps that is your solution? Does she like her expensive food? If so, just feed he in a separate room 2-3 times a day. If she eats some of the cheaper dry food that is out, oh well. Or just don't leave dry food out? It's really tough when you have a bunch of cats. Just do your best. How long does she have to be eating this new food?

 

I know those prescription diets are so expensive! I don't know what the price difference would be, but i believe the Hill's equivilant to the Urinary SO would be the c/d Multicare. Purina also makes vet diets, but the quality may not be as good. When I worked in a Pet Supplies Plus several years ago, they sold an OTC food that was supposedly comparable to some of the prescription diets, but for the life of me I can't think of the company right now.

We had a client at the animal hospital where i work that has a cat with chronic problems for developing crystals and she has him on c/d dry and wet mixed with a good portion of distilled water.

As far as feeding everybody goes, i think the easiest thing would be to just pick up the dry food instead of leaving it down all day and put everybody on a tighter feeding schedule. I feed mine every 12 hrs (7am and 7pm) but you can adjust to whatever works for your schedule. Then I would feed everybody at the same time, but put your special diet kitty in a separate room to eat so that they are not sharing each other's food.
This way, everybody is ready to eat all at the same time and you can monitor them more closely as to who is eating what and how much.

Also, this will prevent overfeeding and you can use a measuring cup to scoop the food and regulate how much is being consumed of both the more expensive and the cheaper food so that they aren't unnecessarily stuffing themselves silly and burning through the food too fast. It'll help you be able to control their weights a bit better too.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Chloe's on this diet for as long as she's around. Apparently this problem can easily come back.

Right now we've been giving her the prescription canned food about 3 - 4 times a day and leaving the dry food out. We bought Purina One Urinary dry food so if she eats dry food, it's at least formulated for her problem. (The vet at first said don't let her eat anything but the special food. But, she said if we HAD to, we'll see what happens.)

I did find out that the difference b/w the prescription and over the counter foods for Urinary health is that the prescription foods are formulated and proven to make a cat drink more and keep their urine dilute. The over the counter foods are able to lower magnesium (the problem the causes stones) but don't stimulate drinking.

Because of that we also bought the cats a water fountain. I read up (and heard here) that a cat drinking a lot of water is helpful. I also give her dry food way oversaturated with water and she loves to drink it.

As for the feeding schedule, we've debated on that. Two of our cats are 10 and so used to free feeding that I fear getting them on a schedule. If it comes to that, we'll do it. But, I don't want to yet. When we separate Chloe in a different room and feed her, she thinks we're trying to medicate her and she won't eat. She'll only eat canned when all the cats are joining in. It's sad but true.

I think I'll make an appt. for Chloe in a month and see if my current way is working. Hopefully if they catch a stone early enough, we can give her bunches of water so she can pee it out. Apparently there's no medicine to dissolve the stone once it's too large.

I've been so scared the past few weeks and I've been watching her like a hawk. I hope that my plan works.

 

Sorry I don't have any suggestions. Sounds like your kitties are really keeping you busy.

I hope poor little Chloe is improving each day and your new routine gets easier for you.

 

The Neko Feeder looks brilliant. That way only chloe would get to the description food. But then again, what if she prefers her old food?

I hope you find a solution that works well for all of you.

 

Thanks. So far I'm feeding Chloe her special canned food three or four times a day. I bought over the counter urinary food for all the cats. I've caught Chloe eating it several times, even though she's getting canned, too.

I have an appt. with her in a couple weeks to check up on her status. I'll tell the vet what we're doing and just keep a close eye on Chloe.

That feeder looks really cool. But, I'd need two... one for Chloe, and one for the four other cats. I'm not sure if they'd be willing to eat in a confined space and if the four cats would share that one spot.

So, we'll see how my plan's working next vet visit. Keep your fingers crossed!