make my cat happy

Plus vitamin shots once a week and an antibiotic in his food every day. Poor little guy, he lost about 2 of the 10 pounds he used to weigh. But he’s eating again and seems to be much happier.

Hopefully we can taper back on all these medications after things start to level out.

We’re experimenting with various medications to find just the right combination. But the things we’ve tried already seem to have made a big difference. He’s eating way more, things seem to be coming out a big firmer on the other end, and his temperament seems more at ease and relaxed. Leaving work early today for a vet visit and another steroid shot.

Next step: A third attempt to have him examined by a home-visit veterinarian.

This time we’ll give him more drugs before she comes. The last two times she was unable to examine him or get blood samples, and she left with bandaids on her hands.

Also we’ve been making more of an effort to play with him a little each day. His mood seems to be improving.

In his water, daily. Apparently this is some kind of herbal tincture to ease stress in humans, but it works on cats too.

He’s back to his old diet in measured amounts. He gained more than a pound in two weeks of free feeding—so clearly that’s not sustainable.

So I got him some lower-calorie food, to mix in with his regular food, thinking this would allow us to continue the free feeding while at the same time slowing down the health consequences of such gluttony. Wrong! He seems to love the new food so much he just gobbles it up, runs into the other room to poop, and comes back to gobble some more. Perhaps the free feeding isn’t going to work. If anything it seems like he eats more of both foods because he’s hoping to get the new one he loves. This morning I put them out in two separate bowls so he could choose which one to eat without having to eat the other one accidentally (because they’re mixed together).

I also put some golf balls in his food bowl to slow him down; he has to nudge them out of the way with his head to get the food.

He’s chill and relaxed all the time, he never cries or hisses or swats at us. It’s beyond what we hoped for… all the way to something maybe not so good again. My boyfriend says Zorro seems like he’s in a stupor. A gluttonous stupor.

I was delighted when I measured the food he ate all day yesterday, and it was about the same as we used to give him in one day. But he ate almost that same amount again in the night. So his total calorie intake is about twice what he used to get. Minus his wet food, which he unbelievably didn’t finish.

I’m still letting him free feed today, but maybe I’ll put a golf ball on his plate, like some people recommend for making cats eat slower, or maybe I’ll switch to a lower calorie food. And of course I’ll work on making him happy in other ways, by playing with him and giving him lots of love.

... to the point where recently he seriously acts like he’s going to die if his bowl is empty. Which it is most of the time, since I give him three timed feedings each day. He acts pissy towards us about 85% of the time (not for 15 minutes after each meal, but then it starts up again).

Today I began experimenting with allowing him to free feed. I put three times his usual daily amount of food in a big bowl this morning, and tonight I’ll measure what’s left and assess whether eating that volume of food, and possibly gaining weight, would be a greater threat to his health and happiness than this constant misery is.