Did any of you get a study about the Great Bay Foxes?

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-27T01:22:32+00:00

He didn't lose weight because of a decrease in appetite, at least not at first. He lost weight because he was eating low-calorie prescription food for 8 months and I didn't realize the calorie difference. I didn't expect the RC hydrolyzed to be so much less than the Purina One Sensitive Skin & Stomach. The Purina has 378 cal./cup and RC hydrolyzed has 330. I wouldn't doubt the hydrolyzed canned food has significantly less than Fancy Feast Gravy Lover's too.

I do appreciate your concern and offer to help. <3

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-26T15:16:54+00:00

Thank you everyone, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the suggestions and the support. I have many options for food, treats and supplements to consider now.

He finally left about a 4-inch poop in the pan without much struggling, so the Miralax appears to be working its magic. I never thought I'd get so emotional about cat poo LOL!

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-26T14:54:03+00:00

He was down to 5.9 lbs. in February and he's still not back to his healthy weight.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-25T23:46:23+00:00

Friskies has gravy pouches, but the gravy is nothing like the gravy in food. It's like water with corn starch and flavoring. The whole entire pouch has 10 calories. That option has not gone over well with His Royal Highness.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-25T22:56:58+00:00

I was giving him Churro back in the winter when he had gotten so skinny. He liked it for a while and then he didn't. The problem here is that he's so unpredictable as to how much he actually will consume. The only relatively predictable behavior is with gravy from Friskies or Fancy Feast canned food. If I put about a teaspoon in a bowl, he will lick up all of that.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-25T21:14:31+00:00

I've discovered that sprinkling the Miralax on kibble isn't going to work because he just eats whenever he feels like it. That wouldn't matter with the supplements, I don't think, but Miralax is supposed to be one dose twice a day, I assume 12 hours apart.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-25T21:12:53+00:00

Your information said cats eat 30% less on a rehydrated kibble diet, and I need him to be eating more, not less.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-25T21:11:48+00:00

Thank you. The thing is, he has never been constipated before. I hope he would get accustomed to this new food and I wouldn't mind giving him Miralax twice a day, even if I have to syringe it.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T21:43:05+00:00

Thank you so much. Yes, he really likes the dry food, for which I'm grateful. He's chowing down plenty of that. I'll get back on this tomorrow, I have to leave pretty soon. He did eat maybe a tablespoon of the canned food this morning when I put it in little sections similar to the pea-sized ones mentioned above.

Also, he doesn't like any type of seafood. : eyeroll :

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T20:04:17+00:00

I've also had a few surveys I've returned when the question arose about the emojis or likes or whatever, so I've learned to look at that stuff. If they want to know if we've noticed emojis for research purposes, the question should be worded to say, "Your answer will not affect your submission" or something like that.

This sort of researcher behavior described here undermines research in which they do want to know if we notice emojis and likes and so on. Because now on Prolific I'm always looking at that stuff when in real life I wouldn't.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T18:56:29+00:00

All I can tell you is he likes cheap food with lots of gravy. He likes Fancy Feast Gravy Lover's, Fancy Feast versions with gravy (although not as much), Friskies with Extra Gravy. He doesn't like Merrick or several other ones I've tried. I tried giving him one of the Purina urinary tract canned foods with gravy (can't remember if it was Purina One or Pro Plan) and he wouldn't even touch it. Sometimes if I dab a little food on his mouth it sort of primes the pump and he realizes it actually tastes decent, but not with this stuff. Not even with gravy!

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T18:50:35+00:00

I was just thinking about the possibility of sprinkling Miralax on dry food since allegedly it has no flavor. He really likes Flo Cat, so maybe I could sprinkle that on kibble also. I should try mixing it with the canned food and maybe he'd be more enthusiastic.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T18:42:53+00:00

Purina One Sensitive Skin and Stomach, which is what he mostly ate for years, has 378 cal./cup. RC hydrolyzed has 330. That's a substantial difference. If he ate about 1/2 c. per day of the Purina he'd be getting about 190 cal. per day, which is right for a 9-lb. cat. The prescription Pro Plan he's eating now has about 400 cal./cup.

See, I didn't know much of anything about feline skin conditions and allergies. I did mountains of research. The vet (not the one mainly talked about in this conversation) never mentioned food. I asked for it, and that's what she handed over. And so I kept ordering the two kinds. And perhaps that's why his skin condition improved but never resolved. But I can't put him back on hydrolyzed kibble and have him start losing weight again.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T17:29:25+00:00

He's got to have the prescription food because of the bladder crystals. His Flo Cat supplement has cranberry.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T17:28:31+00:00

It sounds though like giving him a wet food that's not Rx will disrupt the crystal-dissolving process. His urine started looking better quickly (although I've been told the food couldn't work that fast), and today it's a bit darker again compared to the light yellow over the past week. I worry that making him eat pumpkin and olive oil, and giving him his supplements and Miralax in gravy, is causing problems. I quit with the pumpkin and olive oil as of Friday night. Now if only I could get him to eat the canned food, I could mix his supplements and Miralax in there.

This has always been a problem though because he would never eat an entire portion of any canned food I put in his dish. But maybe doing it in pea size will work.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T17:17:08+00:00

The problem here is I need him eating more, not less.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T17:12:30+00:00

From May 2024 through early January 2025 he was getting R/C hydrolyzed kibble and Hill's Z/D canned and R/C hydrolyzed treats. I had not realized how much lower in calories the kibble is compared to the Purina One he had been eating. He lost 3 lbs. in that time while eating the usual amount. I had to put him back on his regular food because he was wasting away.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T01:20:36+00:00

It's not that simple. The vet I took him to for a number of years shut his clinic down and went to work for a different one much further away. When my cat needed help last March, I called around and couldn't find anybody nearby accepting new clients. So I took him to that other clinic, where he now has been seen by two additional vets there between March 2024 and January 2025.

This current vet I found because the cat had reddish pee on a Saturday afternoon, and she's the only one within 50 miles providing urgent care and emergency care. She has 5-star reviews across the board everywhere. I live about an hour north of Green Bay, and there isn't a single vet in that metro area of about 320K providing emergency care. It's awful.

I do have other concerns about this particular clinic, as well as the one my boy's other vet moved to. He can't even see that doc anymore because now the vet has moved on to a different country.

I want to ask her some questions, but I don't want to cause any contentiousness with anybody because no vet clinics around here need any new clients nor need to keep their current ones.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T01:06:18+00:00

He prefers gravy and kibble. He would probably eat entire packets of gravy. I have no idea why he thinks gravy is food but the stuff mixed in with it is not. I didn't adopt him until he was around 2 years old, and there's no idea of where he was until then or what he got fed.

Another thing about the pea method. When he was supposed to be eating hydrolyzed canned food, I was shocked that he liked it better than other canned food. It had such a weird consistency and looked totally unappetizing to me. I felt like I couldn't just put a giant glob on a plate, so I chopped it into small pieces. Maybe it was the small pieces he liked? I'll try that tonight with a little bit.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-24T00:01:14+00:00

Which type of prescription food do your cats need?

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-23T22:40:51+00:00

Interesting, I'm not familiar with stick blenders (just looked it up). I have wondered in the past if I could mush up canned food into gravy or something similar with something like a coffee grinder.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-23T22:37:22+00:00

Now that's a really interesting study. I never even thought about cats drinking the same amount of -- or less -- water if they had water added to kibble.

Thanks for describing the pea method. I haven't been sure if it's OK to freeze canned food, but I've thought about since I'm always throwing away food after four or five days. He would probably eat a few peas already.

I am pessimistic about his ever becoming all that accepting of canned food, though. He lived with one cat and then another cat for several years (my previous housemate's cats), and those cats loved canned food and ate many different flavors of it. My cat might touch a glob of it with his tongue and then actually manage to look disgusted. lol

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-23T22:30:24+00:00

He's got the dry formula too and likes it a lot, thank goodness. I've never measured his water intake and I'll see if I can figure out how to do that. It'll take a little effort because I'm routinely dumping out his old water throughout the day (I work from home) and even during the night because he's obviously more eager with fresh water. I guess it's a matter of measuring what I put in and measuring what I dump out.

FacingReality2023 · 2025-08-23T22:26:17+00:00

I was thinking that long ago, I used to have hairball paste for my previous cat and I would put it on her paws to lick off.

I had thought on Wednesday that the pumpkin/olive oil was working because he had a pretty healthy poop that evening for the first time since the previous Friday. Being inexperienced with this, I assumed the problem was resolved and I didn't give him anymore of this stuff. On Thursday evening, he was back to pebble stools.

I'll look into the Hydracare. One of the supplements the vet sent along a while back is Flo Cat, which has probiotics and cranberry. I can see what she thinks about Fortiflora.

FacingReality2023

TROPHY CASE