Kitty Help?

[Der Cute]

You can get both Cosequin and Dasuquin on Amazon.com for a good 25% less than the vet sells it for. Dasuquin comes in capsules you can open up and mix with wet food. Much easier than trying to shove a pill down her throat. It's flavored so she shouldn't reject it. My vet also suggested fish oil, which has omega-3 in it. It's also supposed to be good for joints. You can also get that on Amazon.

Helping her keep moving can help her joints as well. Walking outside sounds like fun, but I doubt Julie would let me put a harness on her.

I looked at the Cosequin and that looks to be like a good idea. Do you mix the Dasuquin and the Cosequin? I DON'T plan on shoving a pill down her throat; don't you know that it's kittie's job to barf it when you won't find it? I have some people Triple Omega pills for me, could I use that, you think? Or just straight fish oil pills?

Heh. She lied about her age lol. Doc says she's 9, 10ish, pound said she was 7ish. Hah.
Now I need to find some string for her and a horizontal scratch pad for her. (I'm looking for carpet remnants for that)

[Der Cute]

Have to add a couple new pics!

[MaggieTheCat]

I would strongly recommend finding a better food for her than Science Diet. Despite being hyped up as much as it is, Science Diet is actually a pretty bad food for animals; Hill's (the company that makes Science Diet) pays vets and shelters to advertise and recommend their food for them. Take a look at the first five ingredients of the standard Adult Indoor dry formula:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Brewers Rice, Whole Grain Corn, Animal Fat

"by-products" are the non-flesh parts of an animal, like bones and organs. "meal" basically means that it is mashed up. So the first ingredient is mashed up chicken leftovers. The next three ingredients -- corn gluten meal, brewer's rice, and whole grain corn -- are all fillers that add no nutritional value to the food. On top of that, corn is very hard for cats to digest. The fifth ingredient, animal fat, adds flavor but is, again, not nutritionally healthy.

Cats are carnivores. They need protein, preferably good quality protein. Learn how to read the labels of pet foods to determine if they are worth your money or not. There is a ton of information out there on the internet that will go in-depth on pet nutrition, but to get you started, here are the basics.

The first two or three ingredients should be some kind of named meat, meat meal, or meat by-product (like "chicken by-products" or "fish meal".) The first ingredient should preferably not be a meal or by-product at all, just a meat (like "chicken.") Meals and by-products aren't necessarily bad (after all, cats do eat bones and organs of their prey in the wild) but the quality of both of these can vary widely from product to product, whereas a specific kind of non-meal or non-by-product meat is going to be just what it says it is. Stay away from generic "meat by-products" and "meat meals", as the "meat" in those can be anything from chicken to roadkill.

If there are any fillers in the ingredient list, look for quality ingredients like brown rice, potatoes, or oatmeal. Corn, wheat, and brewer's rice are all indicators of cheap, low-quality, hard-to-digest fillers and should be avoided.

Salt and fat, if present, should be further down the ingredient list, maybe #5-10 or lower. The order the ingredients are listed in indicates how much of the ingredient is present in the food, and you don't want salt or fat to be present in high quantities.

While cats are carnivores, I've always found the addition of fruits and vegetables, like sweet potatoes and blueberries, to be a sign of a high-quality food.

There is a lot of debate in the pet food world as to whether dry food or canned food is better for an animal. Dry food seems to be better for their teeth, since it helps break up tartar. It's also cheaper than canned food. Canned food has a higher moisture content (which can be good for cats, since they are desert animals and tend to not drink a lot of water) and you can get a lot of canned foods that are "grain and filler free." I personally think a combination is best.

Avoid feeding the cat too much "people" food, like the aforementioned rotisserie chicken. A bit here and there is fine as a treat, but "treats" should make up no more than 5-10% of a cat's daily diet, and when a cat is probably only eating a cup or so of food a day, that means a teaspoon or two of a treat is enough. If you do want to give her a "people food" treat, make sure it is a lean protein with no added sauces, seasonings, or oils. Rotisserie chicken should have the skin and bones removed, tuna should be packed in water, not oil, etc. Cats require an amino acid called taurine to live and stay healthy. Cat foods in the 70s and earlier didn't include taurine and cats were getting diseases, going blind, and dying for unexplained reasons. Cat foods are now required to contain appropriate amounts of taurine -- but most people food does not, so it should never be a primary source of nutrition for a cat.

We primarily feed our cats a dry food called Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. The first 12 ingredients are:

Chicken, Salmon, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), oatmeal, whole grain white rice, potatoes, cracked pearled barley, millet, turkey, duck

While it does have white rice, it is far enough down the ingredient list that it doesn't bother me. The chicken fat is listed #5 which is closer to the top than I'd like, but #1-4 are all very good so, again, it doesn't bother me too much. As mentioned, the fat does add flavor and our cats love this stuff. It's also much cheaper than Science Diet; a 7lb bag of Science Diet costs $25, whereas an 18lb bag of Chicken Soup costs $27 (prices from petfooddirect.com.) Lastly, the Chicken Soup food has helped all of our cats maintain gorgeous coats. They used to eat Science Diet, years ago before I did some research and realized how bad it is. Ever since we switched, their coats are thick, soft, and glossy. Our vets always, without fail, comment on how nice they are and ask how often we brush/groom/bathe them to maintain their coats. The answer: Almost never. The cats take care of their own grooming needs (we do occasionally brush them, maybe once every two weeks or so) and I think the Chicken Soup has greatly helped them maintain their fur.

[MaggieTheCat]

Wanted to add, also, that some cats are very open to new foods, and some...are not. When we switched ours over from Science Diet to Chicken Soup, one of them took to the new food with no problems, and the other absolutely refused at first. We gave him a bowl of the Chicken Soup and he didn't eat for days. Eventually we gave him a bowl of SD with 3 pieces of Chicken Soup on top. He ate around the kibbles of Chicken Soup -- all 3 were left in the bottom of the bowl when he was done eating. But we continued doing so every day until he finally ate those 3 pieces. Then we gradually started adding more Chicken Soup to his bowl, very slowly. First 3 kibbles, then a small handful, then half his normal food portion, then almost his full food portion with a thin layer of SD kibble on top. I think it took us a month or more to get him "weaned" onto the Chicken Soup. It was a slow process but it is doable.

[Andara Bledin]

Cats are carnivores. They need protein, preferably good quality protein. Learn how to read the labels of pet foods to determine if they are worth your money or not.

This. It's amazing how awful some of the fancy pet foods really are. I've gotten to the point that if the first two ingredients didn't all start out as animal bits, I won't even consider getting it.

The dry food we normally get them (supplemental to their normal, wet diet) has the first ingredient as Chicken, and the second is Chicken meal.

I'd work up a raw food diet for them, but I don't even prepare food for myself. >_>

^-.-^

[auntiem]

First of all - awww - what a pretty cat! What big teeth! What big eyes!

I should have explained my "chicken therapy" better - sorry. If I have a cat that isn't eating well / doesn't seem to have an appitite. I'll give them a torn off piece of chicken breast (a finger full or so) and sure enough, 9 times out of 10 it will stimulate their appitite enough that they will eat a fair amount of their dry food. For whatever reason - hot chicken that comes into the house fully cooked does the trick way better than a chicken breast I cook at home - maybe the cats think I have gone out and "caught" a fresh hot chicken for them or something.

This is also why I can never bring home KFC for dinner if I'm eating alone - 'cause I get sharked. It takes at least two people to eat fried chicken at our house -(one to eat and one to pluck cats off the table / remove claws from legs and so on) and the bones have to be promptly bagged and taken out to the garbage. For whatever reason I don't think they should eat fried chicken - but what do cats know from cooking technique?

ETA - on the dry food - are they still adding ash to cheap cat food? I learned the hard way the expensive vet bills and painful conditions that can create.

[Der Cute]

Oh, I'd love love love to feed her that stuff. Or maybe have live mices running around her to keep her sharp. (I SWEAR she's been a mouser in her previous lives). And she's such a chicken girl, she has to inspect my chicken pieces that I've cooked up.
Right now at this minute there's no way I can afford anything besides plain generic kitty food. In my previous kitties I fed them Friskies etc generic cat food and they liked it. I know it's not as healthy as the gourmet kitty food. I flat can't afford it.

Shit. She needs bloodwork to find out if she's got thyroid or kidney issues - that might be why she's underweight. I can't afford the $130 for the blood work! I used someone's links provided for animal assistance, been denied once so far. Gotta keep hitting it. For now it's feed her and hope she gains weight in the next few months.

Oh. I brushed her last night. She was not enthused. I got a couple of snags out of her hair, and she was still grumpy.

Who liked the RAWR pic? Kind of a photobomb, it's precious.

[auntiem]

I just thought of this - any chance there is a vet-tech training program / technical school nearby? 'Cause they could probably do the bloodwork for cheap or free for training purposes.* You could probably also get some help with the grooming for free too somewhere.

*That's what I used to do when I lived close to a college that had a vet program.

[PepperElf]

heh our dog pretty much expects treats in her food now. our own fault.

been trying to limit it to healthier bits tho, and less kibble.


oh and when it comes to vet stuff... do not forget the heartworm meds. it's easier to prevent than it is to cure... iirc the cure is one of those that's as bad as the disease and may kill them. the prevention however is just a little chew that... apparently tastes good. Ours loves it.

[wolfie]

ETA - on the dry food - are they still adding ash to cheap cat food? I learned the hard way the expensive vet bills and painful conditions that can create.

Ash isn't an additive - it's the residue left behind after all the nutrients are removed/burned off. The name is a pretty good analogy - make BBQ briquettes out of Carbon Black (fine powder that's virtually pure carbon) and they'll burn with almost no ash left behind (and cost more than people would be willing to pay). Make BBQ briquettes out of charcoal made from whatever wood scraps someone is trying to dispose of, and they'll be cheap, but leave behind a lot of ash when they're burned.

[Draper Mel]

I looked at the Cosequin and that looks to be like a good idea. Do you mix the Dasuquin and the Cosequin? I DON'T plan on shoving a pill down her throat; don't you know that it's kittie's job to barf it when you won't find it? I have some people Triple Omega pills for me, could I use that, you think? Or just straight fish oil pills?

I just use the Dasuquin. You could use the Cosequin by itself, it's cheaper than Dasuquin. I don't know about giving her fish oil meant for humans. You can get fish oil in a pump bottle that's made for cats and dogs. I think the prices on that vary a bit, but get whatever you can afford.

[EricKei]

This. It's amazing how awful some of the fancy pet foods really are. I've gotten to the point that if the first two ingredients didn't all start out as animal bits, I won't even consider getting it.

Same here. I'm on something of a limited budget myself, but I try to avoid the foods that are basically corn in disguise. To clarify what Maggie said, cats are *obligate* carnivores. They have little to no capacity to digest non-meat food sources whatsoever, IIRC (please correct me if I'm wrong), whereas dogs are carnivorous, but they can handle certain veggies/fruits.

It's also my understanding that most cats are lactose intolerant, thus making cow milk a bad thing to give them -- can anyone clarify?

The upside to the "real meat" foods, in my experience, is that the pets will often get full on less of the food (I've done it with both cats and dogs), so it could easily end up costing close to the same amount in the long run -- my best guess would be either that they feel "sated" more quickly, or that they don't have to go back and eat more an hour later due to having the undigestibles simply pass though their systems.

[Andara Bledin]

Most adult mammals are lactose intolerant. Cow's milk is for building cows and really shouldn't really be drunk by anything that doesn't want to grow to be as large as one.

Another thing to note with meat-based food for cats is that because they digest more and utilize the nutrients, they also crap less.

^-.-^

[EricKei]

Another thing to note with meat-based food for cats is that because they digest more and utilize the nutrients, they also crap less.

Yup. Same for doggies, and the lawn biscuits don't smell quite as bad, either. Drier/more solid. too.

[Draper Mel]

.It's also my understanding that most cats are lactose intolerant, thus making cow milk a bad thing to give them -- can anyone clarify?

One of my parents' cats vomits if she drinks milk or eats dairy products. My Julie, on the other hand, has no problem with them. She loves cheese, ice cream, yogurt, milk. I try not to give more than a little to lick off my finger, though. I tell her "That's enough for kitties" and she turns around without so much as a thank you.

Such cattitude, I tell ya.