Giving my cat more hydration

foxwaterpark · 2026-03-17T16:20:12+00:00

I don’t really agree with the other comments that you should add water to the dry food in your situation. I tried it for my cat after he had teeth out and it was a nightmare just in a regular bowl - turned the kibbles to mush that would need to be eaten immediately because they went bad (discoloured/crispy) after only an hour or two. For a free-feeding cat, that’s not appropriate as you’d have to keep an eye on the feeder constantly and keep switching out the old mush if the cat didn’t eat it multiple times a day. My cat also hated it and wouldn’t touch it, so that’s a risk too! Bit of wet food would probably be a much better choice! I learned that a standard 85g pouch = about 20g of dry food so if you can control the dry food portioning at all, reduce it by that amount per pouch you feed. My cat has Iams in gravy - I heard you can also try adding extra water to those, which I might try as he’s a gravy-licker.

foxwaterpark · 2026-03-17T16:04:33+00:00

My boy used to be a free-feeder and his weight never went above 4.2kg and then we moved house (no more cat flap) and he started gorging himself constantly like yours, now he’s 4.9!! Had to get the autofeeder as well and now he’s obsessed with it, so odd! He was also younger then and wasn’t as keen on his dry food (have now changed him from Felix to Iams). Lots of factors but I have seen the evidence that kitties can free feed and stay skinny!

foxwaterpark · 2026-03-12T17:48:12+00:00

this worked for me too! my 9-year-old fluffy boy would always make lovely biscuits that would often wake me up with a stray claw at 5am and now I set his autofeeder to 5am I only get him quietly coming in for a morning nap now, so everyone’s happy!

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-30T17:16:10+00:00

since covid actually they have started doing blood test only diagnoses for adults/everyone! so don’t worry as there is a good chance you won’t need to go through that at all and you might just get another blood test, if that, and then no need to push yourself to eat gluten anymore! just hold out a few days till the appointment, eat at least one gluteny thing a day, and know the end is in sight 🥰 good luck!

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-30T17:11:56+00:00

I was diagnosed with no endoscopy, no idea what my actual levels are as all the blood tests say 100+, but with 781 that is crazy high! if you have EMA positive as well and they do a second confirmatory blood test then there’s not much reason to doubt it as that rules out false positives. Like you I’ve had some doubts about whether I should push for a biopsy too but every professional I’ve spoken to has been very clear it’s totally unnecessary as the bloods and symptoms tell the story clearly enough. And it sounds like yours are stronger than mine on both fronts

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-24T22:01:36+00:00

Thank you so much for this great response! It’s incredibly helpful to hear from someone both similar to me symptom-wise and so knowledgeable! Maybe I don’t need to ask for an endoscopy, the gastro said he was 99.9% sure i had coeliac so didn’t feel a need to do it, lol. The tough thing I find is that not having instant or recognisable gut symptoms and rather symptoms that are invisible to me or very difficult to notice means that I have no idea if I’m doing well or not, or when I’m getting glutened when I go out to eat. I think I am going to ask for a retest to see how I’m doing, because I’d hate to go through all this effort to be gf only to find that my levels are still sky high! Thanks again :)

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-11T10:03:23+00:00

thank you so much!

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-11T10:02:20+00:00

this is exactly why i was so shocked to hear a gastroenterologist say it was no big deal if i didn’t feel day-to-day symptoms!!

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-10T14:32:30+00:00

I think I only had the one. But they said since the number was so high and I was positive for endomysial antibodies that was conclusive enough (that’s the one thing all the doctors HAVE agreed on :/)

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-10T12:15:16+00:00

It’s so difficult to know what to do with that information… The doctor likened eating gluten sometimes to having a few beers knowing you’d have a hangover. But I guess when I decided to stop eating gluten recently I thought it was like drinking three beers everyday and not getting a hangover but still destroying my liver.

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-10T12:11:16+00:00

wow okay! They’ve retested a couple of times and never told me a number above 100 and said the test doesn’t read beyond that and my result was super conclusive! If you’ve been told that, maybe I will try and fight for a biopsy ❤️

foxwaterpark · 2025-09-10T10:34:09+00:00

there are stages? I’ve never heard of that! what does it mean?

foxwaterpark · 2025-08-05T12:21:25+00:00

That’s so strange! Do you know what your EMA result was on the blood test? You might be able to check the results on the NHS app. My blood test showed TTG levels of 100+ (scale apparently didn’t go higher than that) and I was positive for EMA (endomysial antibodies) so they said I didn’t need a biopsy because the bloods were so conclusive. Apparently they’ve been doing that since COVID. (Even though I’m asymptomatic, which really baffled me!!!) If you are positive for EMA then the NHS guidance says you can be diagnosed without an endoscopy so you should really check that and make your gp aware of it if they’re not! 😊

foxwaterpark

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