Hurricane Sandy

[Santilli]

JTR:

I'm really sorry to hear about your cats problems, and how young they are/were.

My best friend from high school is my vet, so it doesn't kill me to take my cat in, and she does get regular checkups.
She did get up to 16 pounds due to feeding too much regular cat food, and human food on top of that.

Here is what I've found works. I try and remember that when ever I feed my cat, her stomach is the size of a walnut, and food should be portioned to account for that.
Our problem is she will eat too much, then when the commercial food swells, she throws it up. Hence the small portions.

I feed her canned catfood twice a day, and one time a day mixed with syllium husks. They are what is used in anti-furball treats to keep cats from having furballs build up, causing throwing up.
Kidney failure is a problem with cats, since they tend not to get enough water. I mix in extra water, hot, with her food, and put it in a bowl that's been heated. I also use a ramikin in the middle of the
bowl to try and make her move around a little, rather then pigging down all the food at once. I supplement the Friskies small cans, half at each meal, with bulk Costco cat food, maybe once or twice a day.

On top of that she gets what ever I'm eating, which is usually some form of high protein food, cooked. Tried the raw thing, and I'm not down with that. While cats don't get many of the germs we get, or bacteria,
they will eat things that are not good for them. Cooked chicken bones that splinter and other things are to be avoided.

The diet has worked very well, and she's down to 12 pounds and holding. She eats her food, and mine. This includes cheddar cheese, parm cheese, chicken, steak, salad with ranch dressing, spaghetti with both white and red sauce,
yogurt, etc.

http://www.ehow.com/how_16337_slow-aging-process.html

I'm going to have to check on the teeth cleaning. So far, the diet seems to have kept her teeth in good shape.

She already gets extra fiber, with the syllium.

By the way, I'm not sold in anyway shape or form on high quality cat foods. Look at the labels, and remember that the problem with animal foods is they don't have disclosure laws like human food. I do notice that the same catfood that was 8 bucks a pound, Healthy something, had the same break down as the 1 dollar a pound Costco bulk catfood. That said, I don't trust my cat to that for much other then a snack when I'm leaving, and even then, less then a walnut in amount.

I supplement her diet with high protein, and as little non-protein stuff as I can. Cats will eat, but don't need rice, meal and all the other crap they put in catfood. I've found an excellent supplement in dried duck breasts. They are chew toys for dogs, but 60% protein, and not much else. I break them into little bits, and she eats them.

I tried uncooked frozen food for my cat, but realized I could feed her filet mignon for what they charged for the junk meat. I have found that generally people food is easier to control. Taurine is a problem as well that I need to look into.

I hope this helps.

I am glad that your cats had a few excellent years with you. God Bless them.

 

[jtr1962]

Greg:

You're 100% right about the "premium" cat foods. The problem with commercial cat foods is they use questionable things like meat by-products, and also contain grains. A cat isn't designed to eat grains, period. In fact, humans should have a lot less grains than the food pyramids say. I came across this site which has some interesting information. What I found most interesting was the tidbit about cats having the metabolism to live 30+ years, even though most people consider a cat old at half that. The reason more cats don't make it to 30 and beyond is the unnatural diet we're feeding them. It looks like you're on the right track with what you're doing. Taurine is the big problem if you feed a cat exclusively human-grade foods so you might need to give small amounts of commercial cat food just for that.

I've been adding a little water to dry cat food, especially with Jeannie. She has a tendency to gorge and then throw up when the food swells in her stomach. Adding water pre-swells the food. Since she's recovered from her illness, she's tended to pick throughout the day instead of gorge. Actually, Leno had been the reason we couldn't just leave food out all day. With his inability to metabolize food, he would eat constantly. He also drank constantly which was a sign something was wrong.

Hopefully you'll have many more years with your cat. It always hurts losing a young cat. Up until now, the youngest we've had a cat die was a little past 13. One of our cats made it to a few months short of 20. I thought that was a long time, at least until I came upon the website I linked to earlier. Our other two cats are currently 8.5 and roughly 9.5 or 10. I love to see them all make past 30 now that I know it's possible.

Regarding the teeth cleaning, it's a good idea to have the condition of her teeth checked occasionally but I'm not sold on the idea that a cat should have its teeth cleaned annually like some vets recommend. A natural diet should keep the teeth clean and prevent decay or gingivitis. Ironically, dry food which supposedly cleans the teeth might have been the source of Jeannie's problems. There's no commercial canned food she'll touch, just the dry stuff, or our food.

My usual vet is pretty reasonable but the 24-hour clinic seems to charge 5 times as much for the same procedures. Hopefully we'll never need to see the place again.

 

[Bozo]

I feel your pain. In the past 3 months, we have had two of or dogs put to sleep.

 

[Mercutio]

Losing a pet sucks. My sympathies as well.

 

[Santilli]

Bozo:
I don't think I could handle that. I love dogs, but the ones I would want tend to have a short life span, 10 years. It would crush me to have to put one down.

JTR:
The only good thing I can say about dry cat food is it might be good for teeth, and should be left dry for that reason. That said, the costco version is pretty moist, so I just cut the portions down.

Remember cats eat pretty much the WHOLE animal, including the stomach contents of the animals they kill. So mouser= eating grain, if he's in an area that rice is around. That said, it has no place in catfood.

Wellness Indoor Health uses chicken, and chicken meal, followed by rice as the primary ingredients. One would think you would get a lot of protein. You don't, 30% crude protein, and a little Taurin.
Pretty much the Costco stuff is the same, or a little higher in protein. Chicken breasts have much higher protein then that, as do the duck breasts I have from dog treats: 60%.

Purina makes the little fancy feast can's I feed her twice a day.
One vet I talked to suggested not raw foods, since we aren't giving our animals freshly killed animals, but food we have cooked for your family. I think that is perhaps the wisest chocie.

Before I forget, I get my cat to eat the Purina catfood by heating it up, and adding hot water.She loves it.

My vet did have a line of catfood that he sells. I looked at the ingredients, and the cost, and decided she would be better served with raw filet mignon. Same cost.

My cat is allergic to salmon, or at least what they tell you is salmon in cat food. She pretty much throws it up fast, and everytime. I don't remember her throwing up salmon I cooked, but due to the high fat content, I don't
do that often.

One of the reasons I think you should cook food is cats do get salmonella, and, how would I feel if my cat died because I was giving him raw food?
http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/digestive/c_ct_salmonellosis#.ULkBR5Yplkg

One of the reasons I use the little cans is it's the best value in catfood that doesn't include a bunch of fish stuff. in the 3 oz cans I'm also pretty sure it doesn't develop bacteria, something that concerns me with the bigger
cans, and having only one cat. I am TOTALLY unconvinced that you get what you pay for with catfood. I think it's pretty much the reverse. I do wonder if it's much like the basketball shoes I buy now:
made in a couple giant factories, regardless of label, and no difference other then packaging?

Looks like my cat has good taste, throwing up the salmon:

Something Very Fishy

Article
By Susan Thixton
October 16, 2012
Pet Food Ingredients
16 comments

You're gonna hate this, just warning you now. Guess where most fish is processed? No matter where in the world the fish is caught, no matter what country the fish is sold in...guess where the majority of fish is processed? China. Caught fresh, frozen, shipped to China, thawed, processed, re-frozen and shipped all over the world. Oh, and by the way, chemicals are added during processing in China too.




JTR thanks for the link. I agree with the site, pretty much.