“Do I want to know what that is?”
“Probably not, no.”
…
“Emily, what is that?!?”
“Oh…good.”
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Category Archives: nutrition
The Formerly Bald Bunny known as Rex
This was Rex before he started balding in January, this was his fur loss at its worst, and this was generally what he looked like for several months afterward. You’ll need to see those photos to fully appreciate that this is what Rex looks like now:
Rex has been slowly but steadily improving over this past month. I credit the nutritional changes that were suggested by the helpful member of the Rabbits Online Forum, namely Pam Nock, who recommended a regular dose of Nutri-Cal. I also began feeding him a high-quality show feed alongside his regular pellets at a 50/50 ratio.
Without the Nutri-Cal and show feed, Rex loses weight and begins to lose coat condition, eventually leading to baldness. But even on such a high-calorie, high-fat regimin, Rex is *maintaining* a healthy weight and of course he has a much fuller, healthier coat. We still don’t know what, if any, underlying conditions are leading to his requiring such a change in nutrition. My gut is telling me that it’s probably just old age taking its toll. At any rate, I figured it would be good to give an update on the old man.
this site just makes me sad
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf559623.tip.html
It’s a discussion of ‘Cystitis in Cats’. Feline Cystitis (also called Feline Urological Syndrome or FUS, Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, or FLUTD) is an irritation of the bladder and/or urethra [from SpecialCat.com] It’s the same condition that Miko, Scully and Stephanie were all diagnosed with almost two years ago, a condition that has been completely resolved by switching the cats to a raw food diet.
But there’s no mention of raw feeding on the site. Not at all. On the contrary, there are quite a few recommendations for a prescription diet, the most common being Hill’s C/D. Like most prescription diets, this product works fairly well most of the time, but the goal of a prescription diet is to treat the problem and not the overall picture. Have you seen the C/D ingredients list? Brewers Rice. Corn Gluten Meal. Chicken By-Product Meal. Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid). Chicken Liver Flavor.
I’m sorry – I thought we were feeding carnivores.
There was, thankfully, one person who at least mentioned that canned food is much better than dry when treating urinary tract issues. But if you read these kinds of discussions long enough, you’ll find that even with a prescription diet, canned food, increased water intake, etc., many cats will experience regular relapses. They’ll do well for awhile and then have another flare-up. I know from experience just how maddening that cycle can be.
What’s even more disheartening than the dietary advice is reading about drastic options, like surgery. I just do not understand how veterinarians can denounce raw food as difficult and “dangerous”, and in the next breath recommend reconstructive surgery on a cat’s urethra. Am I missing something?
While I do think that a raw diet is ideal, I don’t believe it’s the right choice for every cat. I just wish that it would be more readily considered as a valid option. Until then, discussions like this will likely be frustrating. I don’t understand how people can be downright paranoid about the miniscule risk that my cats will contract salmonella from fresh chicken, but not think twice about feeding their cat chicken-flavored corn.
back to ground
The cats have been eating whole prey for several months now, and for the most part I’ve been very happy with that style of feeding. I do think that whole foods are the ideal diet for any animal, be they carnivore or not. But just as Peanut can hardly tolerate a single fresh vegetable without terrible stomach upset, what is ideal for our pets may not be what is best for them. And so it goes…
Whole prey (versus ground foods) is rather contingent upon the cats actually eating whole meat, bones and organs. Many will. I have three that won’t. Miko, bless her stout soul, will eat whatever I put in front of her. But her mom and siblings have slowly been turning their noses up at their food, organ meat in particular. Organ meats like liver are a critical part of their diet and provide key nutrients not found elsewhere – they can’t live only on muscle meat and bone.
Over the past two weeks the food strike intensified, and I became genuinely concerned that their finickiness was going to hurt them. So tonight I got the meat grinder out of storage and mixed up a batch: thirteen pounds of chicken meat (breasts and leg quarters), a dozen egg yolks, and a pound of chicken liver. Not a perfect mixture, but for the next week or so it’s an improvement. For some reason I couldn’t find the Taurine capsules, and we’re out of salmon oil; they’ll have to be added later. The taurine is really only necessary because I didn’t happen to have any chicken hearts. Always good to have those handy, you know.
The cats have never transitioned well to new foods, and I was of course expecting some resistance. I portioned out four plates worth and set them down, spaced generously, around the kitchen. Miko, Stephanie and PJ immediately settled down and polished their plates within just a few minutes. Gone. All of it.
And you know, I actually felt bad to see them wolf it down that fast. I’m sure they liked gnawing on bones, and I loved that they had the opportunity to eat as God intended, but I think even they recognized that the ground mixture provides good, solid sustenance. Scully was the only one who remained skeptical. Not that she’d suffer for a few missed meals or anything.
