BTW, thanks! January 1, 2011 5:15 PM   Subscribe

I just want to say, "thank you."

Way back in May, I posted this AskMe about my cat Mister. Because of the great advice on that thread, my kitty, while far from slim, is now a much healthier, more active cat. I just want to say - Thank You! to everyone for the wonderful advice, both in the thread and in memail.

I hope this is the place to do this. It's been so long that I thought if I updated the thread no one would see it.
posted by patheral to MetaFilter-Related at 5:15 PM (30 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite

I'd pet that.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:17 PM on January 1, 2011 [39 favorites]


I don't think I've ever seen an overweight black and white cat in real life. If I did I'd call it a holstein-pig.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:21 PM on January 1, 2011


Well, picture-wise, at least you didn't shove it in a scanner.
posted by Askiba at 5:46 PM on January 1, 2011


I remember that thread. It was the cause of my switching my cat Trilby from dry to canned food. Trilby was steadily gaining weight on the dry even though he never ate more than the recommended portion amount on the bag, and I believe that making the switch kept him at a healthy weight. Trilby's vet heartily approved of the canned diet.

I bet I'm not the only one besides patheral who has a healthier cat thanks to that thread. AskMe does some incalculable level of good in the world because so many of us benefit from things posted and answered by others.
posted by orange swan at 5:47 PM on January 1, 2011 [4 favorites]


You should update the thread, too. Anyone who responded or favorited and uses Recent Activity will see your update. I love late updates on old AskMes, personally.
posted by donnagirl at 5:48 PM on January 1, 2011


Glad to see this post, and your update on your handsome Mister. Yes, that AskMe had some of the best cat advice I've seen here, with major credit to idb's girlfriend. It'd be terrific to see more of that kind of high quality advice in pet threads.
posted by vers at 5:55 PM on January 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


I guess I didn't think of that donnagirl... I updated the thread too.
posted by patheral at 5:56 PM on January 1, 2011


Some people live and die on MeFi via Recent Activity. Yay for your kitty, and yay for AskMe!
posted by donnagirl at 6:05 PM on January 1, 2011


Glad your cat didn't have to endure this.
posted by special-k at 6:16 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Oh hey, awesome! That thread inspired us to switch our fatter cat over to wet food for evening feedings, which along with watching her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't eat the other cat's food as well, has led to a slow drop of a couple pounds down to about the same as her wasn't-fat-in-the-first-place sister.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:28 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'd pet that.
posted by mathowie at 5:17 PM on January 1 [4 favorites -] Favorite added! [!]


Curse you Mathowie, and your unexpectedly pithy comments that land like a suckerpunch on the gentle unsuspecting reader! Now I've got to go clean up apple juice off of my computer screen.

*goes to look for mac screen cleaner cloth*
posted by anitanita at 6:37 PM on January 1, 2011


I don't think I've ever seen an overweight black and white cat in real life. If I did I'd call it a holstein-pig.

that's funny - i associate white cats with black spots as fat cats - i've known 5 or 6 of them and they've all been seriously beefy and round.
posted by nadawi at 6:39 PM on January 1, 2011


I was just thinking it was a while since we had a MeTa thread where people could post AskMe followups. patheral, do you mind if other people join in with some of their results as well?
posted by hermitosis at 6:46 PM on January 1, 2011


I was just thinking it was a while since we had a MeTa thread where people could post AskMe followups. patheral, do you mind if other people join in with some of their results as well?
posted by hermitosis at 8:46 PM on January 1


I don't mind at all.
posted by patheral at 6:49 PM on January 1, 2011


Also in May, my four-year-old cat Gatsby came inches from death from kidney-failure. (I spent way more money than I could afford to save him, but I love that cat and it was graduation weekend and I wasn't thinking straight anyway.) Switching from dry to wet food changed his condition almost immediately upon returning home.

Seriously. Dry food is awful for cats in the long-term. Use canned food. Please. For Teh Kittehz.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:59 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Is it wrong that while you are excited about Mister's healthier more active lifestyle, I thought that the picture of him crashed out on the pillow was adorable? Hey even sleek(er) active cats deserve a catnap now and again.
posted by kaybdc at 8:08 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


My cat recently died after a long intestinal illness. Although we switched her to canned food as soon as her first symptoms appeared, it was too late.

The dry food was high quality and vet-recommended, but it turned out to be very bad. Further consultations with specialist vets yielded recommendations for canned food only for any future cats.

Dried food is bad news, people.
posted by charmcityblues at 8:35 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


A lot of people are talking about wet food, and I do feed Mister wet food in the evening, but he also gets a serving of dry food in that blue ball in this picture (also linked in the original post). I think chasing around the ball to get fed -- which was recommended in the May thread -- is one of the things that's helped him get his energy back.
posted by patheral at 9:18 PM on January 1, 2011


The Toronto Humane Society employee (who was not a vet) who processed my cat's adoption told me I should just feed Trilby dry food, and that wet food should be just a once-a-week treat. However, a) they also told me to say no and clap my hands rather than using a spray bottle to discipline Trilby because it's "cruel", b) they somehow missed the fact that Trilby was deaf, which kind of made the advice in a) completely wrong instead of just dumb, and c) the THS got shut down for animal cruelty about four weeks after I adopted Trilby, so what the hell do they know.
posted by orange swan at 9:18 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Dry food is bad, bad, bad. Our two have been thriving on a frozen raw diet since we brought them home from the shelter two years ago, but I'm not doctrinaire about it — the really important thing is not feeding one's cats kibble, I figure.

And what a handsome fellow Mister is!
posted by Lexica at 10:03 PM on January 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I remember that thread! I didn't know it was bad for cats to lose too much weight quickly, so that information stuck with me for some reason even though I don't have a cat. It's good to see Mister doing so well.
posted by misozaki at 4:31 AM on January 2, 2011


So, uh, I've been feeding these feral cats with the wet cat food that comes in plastic peel-to-open packages. Is that OK, or does it need to be actually canned?

And uh, anyone want an adorable affectionate young feral?
posted by orthogonality at 6:19 AM on January 2, 2011


The vet contributing to the thread says that by canned food, she does mean all wet food, regardless of the packaging — packets, or any size of can — and that the brand doesn't matter.
posted by orange swan at 11:44 AM on January 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


patheral, thanks for the update - I missed this thread at the time. I also have a large cat who mostly eats dried food so will consider switching him (though he's very fussy about wet food and will only really eat Beef and Heart in a Delicate Gravy). What does Mister weigh now?
posted by paduasoy at 2:09 PM on January 2, 2011


patheral, thanks for the update - I missed this thread at the time. I also have a large cat who mostly eats dried food so will consider switching him (though he's very fussy about wet food and will only really eat Beef and Heart in a Delicate Gravy). What does Mister weigh now?

Mister is pretty picky too - he only eats tuna & egg and tuna w/sauce. Of course I can only buy him the Friskies or 9Lives but he'll only eat the tuna. I guess they don't need variety like we do, so tuna it is.

I'm not sure about his weight because I haven't really weighed him lately, I only know he's way more active (he actually *pounces* I never thought he would pounce, it's pretty incredible since before he would only half-heartedly bat at things from a lying position) and he looks thinner.
posted by patheral at 5:18 PM on January 2, 2011


I'm glad to hear the SlimCat toy is working for people - I just bought one because my cat is just at the edge of what her vet wants (and I don't want to be yelled at) and I think it would be good for her brains.

Meanwhile, what dry food are folks using? I mean, I know SciDiet isn't the best stuff, but the first four ingredients of my dry food (Wellness Core) are protein (fish, chicken, etc). Over our many cats' lives, my family has never had a vet recommend switching to wet food except in the case of a special diet - our cat suffering kidney damage gets a special food due to processing proteins poorly. The vets have, however, recommended switching to higher quality dry foods with more meat, which is how I ended up with my current food.
posted by maryr at 7:49 PM on January 2, 2011


Mister could be the brother of PointyCat - I love black and white "moo cats". I am so glad he is better. What a handsome boy!
posted by pointystick at 6:24 AM on January 3, 2011


I remember Mister! He looks so much like my Prufrock.

I don't think I kept up on this thread though. So I should replace dry food with wet food? My cats are very healthy and not overweight. They share a packet of wet food in the morning, and sometimes one in the evening. The free-eat Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck dry food. It was the food with the highest amount of protein at the pet store, which is why I chose it. The only wet food they'll eat is the janky Whiskas in packets. Isn't it better for them to have good dry food too then only bad wet food?
posted by apricot at 9:40 AM on January 3, 2011


Orthogonality, I find that actual ferals (as opposed to strays, who don't really know how to deal with the world without owners) get quite a lot of "wet food" on their own. The deal with dry food is that domesticated cats need quite a lot of additional moisture in their diets, and, well...feral cats get that.

Hey, folks, people who talk about pets getting "no more than the amount the bag recommends," BAGS LIE. They vastly overstate how much food an animal needs. Feed pets based on the amount that they need to stay at a good weight, not the amount the bag suggests. Re-evaluate from time to time.
posted by galadriel at 11:20 AM on January 3, 2011


Mister looks like a special snowflake indeed. He's just a beautiful cat and I'm so glad he's doing well. Yay, AskMe.
posted by mintcake! at 8:28 PM on January 3, 2011


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