Thanks for all the replies: I guess I have unrealistic expectations that he'll never have "normal" variations again, as I'm so paranoid.
Abby - Paddy is looking amazing. His dry skin has completely cleared up, he's looking glossier and I weighed him last night. In the ten days he's been on the raw food, he's put on 700 grams. He'd been stuck at 10.9kg for a month, and was actually looking skinny - no covering on his ribs - while eating Chappie. He's grown half a centimetre higher and a centimetre longer too, in the same ten-day period.
I've mentioned on another thread that his frightful, sad, almost manic obsession with food seems to be waning: yes he's keen, and when we're eating he's looking hopeful, but he's calmer and isn't nudging, whining and pacing if he doesn't get food. Also - when I moved him onto raw, I went "cold turkey" (pardon the pun) on two fronts.
First - just did it - no migration over from one to the other. Second - because of the colitis, I'd still been feeding him three meals a day at nine months old. Vet thought smaller portions might help with digestion. Immediately cut out the midday feed - first full day, he was pacing round at lunchtime like "yeah funny - where's my food??" but has settled happily since then on two meals.
Funny thing is how surprisingly small the quantities you feed are. The books recommend two to three percent of bodyweight per day. So at 11.6kg, his new weight, that amounts to 350g per day. With raw food, that doesn't look a lot - but it seems to satisfy him totally.
Fingers crossed: I so want this to work for Paddy....
One final thing: I'm back to "skivvy's hands" - all the washing worksurfaces and hands because I'm still paranoid about raw food....Husband pointed out that some anti-bacterial wipes would do the worksurfaces, and a thorough hand wash/nail brush session at the utility room sink....Just need some handcream now!
