Tag Archive: nutrition

A Shivery Bob Update – June

Written on June 28, 2010 by

This, I do not get. I think Shivers is going through a second kittenhood. I mean, it’s never too late to have a good childhood, right? This is silly, though. She’s started wailing joyfully whenever she finds a feather to play with. You have to understand that she has a voice like an old lady who’s been smoking since childhood. She sounds like someone’s twisting her tail, even though she couldn’t be happier. In fact, she’s so happy, so just has to sing. At all hours. Also she’s started tormenting the other cats just after noon, when they’re sleepy and at their most vulnerable. The other cats are so used to deferring to her and showing deep respect that they have absolutely no idea how to react to her trying to initiate a play session. If she keeps it up, she might break them.

I’ve considered taking her to the vet to have her kidney values rechecked so we can see where she’s at, but I have a superstitious dread of checking. As if it would somehow influence things to go downhill faster. Why mess with a good thing?

I don’t get it, but I am definitely not complaining.

I need to say that having a cat who needs special care is an unexpected mixed blessing. I think it falls somewhere between providing hospice care for an ailing parent, and looking after a child that you may not have long. Having been through neither of these, I know what Travis and I face is just a shadow of what those experiences must be. What surprises me is the tendency towards apathy and the occasional forgetting of the fact that she’s sick, and her days are limited. When Shivers came into my life, I was planning to exit, stage left.   Now that she’s starting to leave my life (and hers), I think I’m being taught that every day counts. I’ll never have this day again, once the sun goes down. What did I do to mark it? I try to remember to do so, and not just let the days stream by.

It will all pass so very quickly.

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Easy Gauge of Health

Written on March 22, 2010 by

An experienced vet who specializes in cats mentioned that pets can generally lose 20% of their body weight before an owner notices. This was even true for Travis and I, who are somewhat obsessive about our furry family. It happened to Maggie a few years ago, when her teeth started bothering her. We didn’t notice until her collar was pretty loose. I felt awful about it.

One thing I keep hearing from vets is what an important gauge of health weight is. Think about it. A sudden gain or loss in a person would mean a trip to the doctor, right? Same for pets. A sudden gain can mean diabetes, for instance, and a sudden loss could point to thyroid or kidney issues. It’s really easy to make a habit of weighing a cat once a month, and writing the weight on the calendar. Twenty percent of body weight gained or lost is a big deal in an animal that may only weigh 10 pounds to begin with.

Shortly after Shivers was diagnosed with kidney disease, we invested in a baby scale. We use it about once a week because we need to keep a close eye on Shivers. One of her nicknames is “McRibs.” She really can’t afford to lose any weight, and if it were to suddenly drop… well, we’d have to notice in order to zip her to the vet right away. When she gains, even if it’s just a few ounces, we do a little happy dance.

You can see the model Travis and I decided on, below. It’s about $50, which meant we really thought hard about purchasing it. Even so, it’s one of the less expensive models out there, and one that’s both accurate and precise. Check out the reviews – I smiled over how many of them mention using it for pets rather than for babies.

If you have an ill cat or cat you’d like to help lose weight… well, a scale is a one time purchase. Ours shows no sign of wearing out. Plus any illness you can nip in the bud by noticing a significant difference in weight will mean the scale paying for itself in short order. A quickly caught illness is always a cheaper vet visit than an advanced illness. It’s been a great investment for us.

Keeping an eye on your cat’s weight is a helpful and inexpensive way to notice health changes. If nothing else, it’s worth stepping on a human scale while holding your cat and at least keeping a general log of weight for them.

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Keys to Healthy Food for Your Cat

Written on February 15, 2010 by

Guest Post by Travis:

All of us want the best for our feline friends, but choosing healthy foods can be difficult and confusing. Most any name-brand food will keep your cat going, but there’s a big difference between surviving and thriving. We were motivated to learn more about food when our eldest cat started losing weight and energy. Some simple dietary changes made a dramatic difference in her health and happiness. If I had to explain what we did in five seconds or less, it would come down to: “More canned food. Much less dry food.”

The main thing to keep in mind is that cats must eat meat to survive, as they can get key nutrition only from animal sources. The problem is that grains are much cheaper than meat, so many dry cat foods end up being based mostly on corn and wheat. A cat’s digestive system is not designed to process nutrition from plants. Any food you buy for your cat should contain meat as the main ingredient, and a minimum of corn, wheat, soy, etc. These plants should be considered filler, as they have little nutritional value for your cat. Excessive carbohydrates in a cat’s diet are directly linked to higher risks of diabetes and obesity.

Being descended from desert creatures, cats are designed to get most of their water from the food they eat. Cats have a very weak thirst impulse, and will often drink water only when they’re clinically dehydrated. Many cats who are fed mostly dry food are dehydrated all the time. The answer? More canned food. Contrary to the persistent myth, canned food will not rot your cat’s teeth, and most dry foods do not really clean their teeth. Cats who are fed canned food will take in 50% more water overall, and have a much lower risk of bladder or kidney problems. Canned foods are also usually much lower in carbohydrates.

We recommend that you avoid foods containing “by-products” and “beef and bone meal.” These are parts of an animal unfit for human consumption, often including beaks, feet, diseased organs, etc. This is not a healthy source of protein, and chemicals used to treat or euthanize a sick animal often make their way into the food.

Finally, it’s good to rotate your cat’s diet as often as possible. Feeding just one food can result in food allergies and nutritional deficiencies. If you’re feeding dry food, gradually mix the new food with the old over a period of a week or so – this helps most cats accept it. There are also some supplements available to help with the transition.

If you would like additional information or references, please feel free to contact me. While not a vet, I would be happy to help. The book Your Cat is also a fantastic resource for keeping up-to-date on feline nutrition.

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Prescription vs. Store Bought Foods

Written on February 11, 2010 by

Here’s the thing. Prescription diets are held to tighter tolerances than non-prescription diets. They’re not allowed to change the proportions or ingredients without giving a massive heads up. So while they probably contain corn and other ingredients that don’t belong in cat food, they’re at least predictably unsuitable. Prescription diets have their place, and for many cats they can help with clinical signs of illness.

Consider also that it might not be in the best interests of the company to help your cat too much. A diabetic cat that goes into remission won’t need to keep buying expensive prescription food.

Non-prescription foods can be found that are grainfree, or otherwise very suitable for a cat’s obligate carnivore lifestyle. But their companies can change them willy-nilly without warning. This means you have to read the label every time you purchase canned or dry cat food. Every time. It can be quite a headache. The manufacturers don’t have to advertise changes. This can be disastrous to an ill cat. Giving non-prescription food is a risk, and requires doing a lot of homework. However, doing this means it’s possible to find a food with feline-appropriate ingredients.

There are pros and cons to both, when you have an ill cat, including price. If you’re strapped you have options among the non-prescription foods.

Listen to your vet, ask a lot of questions, and get more than one opinion. Be sure the doctor you’re speaking to has extensive experience with cats, and isn’t just generalizing from what they know about dogs. Make the very best decision you can.

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No News is Good News

Written on February 10, 2010 by

*This is just our experience, and shouldn’t be taken for medical advice.*

Shivers is doing very well, considering her kidney issues. Actually, she’s doing well for a 13 year old, and fantastic for a 13 year old cat with chronic renal disease (CRD). She still plays pranks on the other cats, chases toys, and curls up in our laps looking smug. Not much has changed on the outside. Functionally, the only changes we’ve noticed is that she drinks and urinates more. She’s skinny, but she always has been.

It’s been difficult to keep any weight on her from day one, when I adopted her 11 years ago. Silly thing. We weigh her every week or so, since that’s an easy way to gauge health. I did a little happy dance last week when she gained 4 ounces. Since the majority of cat owners (including me!) won’t notice a weight change until it’s a 20% loss (or gain) a scale is a smart investment. It takes 3 minutes to do and can help catch many illnesses early on. No brainer.

The first thing we did when we found out she had kidney issues was to put her on an all-canned food diet. It helps keep her hydrated, which is a huge issue for cats with CRD. They just can’t drink enough water to keep their kidneys going. By preference, she’d also be getting subcutaneous fluids to help out with that. The vast majority of cats tolerate it surprisingly well.

When we had our cat supply shop in Eagle two years ago, we had some wonderful owners come in (*waves to Connie*) with a cat going through kidney issues. It spurred us to dig in and do our research. Travis really hit the books, and read every current study he could get his hands on. He continues to stay current. Actually, it’s starting to look like an obsession, but in a good way. We also asked many questions of our vets. Then we made a hard decision. It was the right decision for us, but may not be for everyone.

We decided not to put Shivers on the Science Diet prescription K/D food. Our reasons were varied, but they boiled down to this: We didn’t think she had more than a few weeks left, at best. So we tried to choose quality over quantity.

Shivers’ kidney values were awful. We promised her she could have anything she wanted, provided it wasn’t harmful. She’s taken us at our word and is now utterly, unreasonably spoiled. Her favorite canned food is Avoderm Select Cuts (“chunks in gravy,” not the pate’, naturally). She likes the chicken version. As I said, she’s always been hard to keep any weight on so trying to switch her other to another food would have been disastrous.

Science Diet K/D has the lowest phosphorous content of any canned food out there. It’s not protein that hurts a cat’s kidneys – it’s phosphorous. I kid you not. The original 1940s studies done by Dr. Mark Morris were conducted on dogs. The results were then generalized to cats. Cats are obligate carnivores and dogs aren’t. This means that cats must eat meat to be healthy. They can’t process corn, wheat, or soy in order to get protein. It has to be meat. In addition, dogs have a lower protein requirement than cats. Dogs can do just fine on a food that is lower protein. Without protein (from meat), cats will suffer muscle wasting, as well as a multitude of other health issues.

Studies in the 1980s started pointing to phosphorous as a vital culprit for kidney issues. However, it’s hard to get cat food that’s both low phosphorous and higher protein. They tend to go together.

K/D is a good choice in terms of phosphorous, but it’s not so hot in the protein department. Again, since we didn’t think we had very long, we chose a lower phosphorous but sufficiently high protein canned food so her last weeks wouldn’t be made uncomfortable by muscle loss and general body aches. We were lucky because Avoderm fit the bill, completely by chance. We are so grateful to have had the chance to run a retail shop, for which we did much of this research so we were ready when our cat started to have issues of her own.

Of course, we made this decision about diet last June. Eight months ago. I know! We’re as shocked as you are. As I type this, Shivers is sitting next to my left elbow, looking pleased with herself.

Shivers still has a good body composition and hasn’t slowed down a bit. The only sign in terms of her behavior is that she’s more demanding about getting snuggled. If not for her excessive drinking, we might doubt her diagnosis.

In the end, none of us know how long we have, or how long others have with us. We’ve lucked out. In trying for quality over quantity, we got both. This kind of thing almost never happens. Travis and I think Shivers will stick around as long as she wants to, and then will let us know it’s time.

Until then, she gets anything she wants. Mostly.

Sources:
Cat Nutrition: http://www.catnutrition.org/index.php
Feline Nutrition: http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm
Hodgkins, Elizabeth M, D.V.M. Your Cat. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007.
Morris Animal Foundation: http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/about-maf/history/

Food Tables:
Katkarma Food Data Tables: http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canned.htm
UK Food Data Tables: http://www.felinecrf.org/tinned_food.htm

If you’re having trouble finding canned foods, check out H3 Pet foods, Bark’n'Purr, Northwest Pets, and, of course, Amazon.

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