Beware the internets...
I remember back in school my professors were laughing about how we would be entering the profession at a time where our clients could easily go online and find all sorts of crazy ideas to try. They seemed to think it would make our jobs a bit more difficult.
In so many ways, they were right. Just last week, to be nice, I read thru a website that an owner was raving about saying that she had found the cure for her cat's ailment. Wouldn't you know, it involved having the cat drink raspberry wine vinegar.
I have a potato salad recipe that uses raspberry wine vinegar. That tastes pretty good. But having my cat drink the stuff straight up?!? Maybe we should chase it with jagermeister?
There are some really good sites out there however. If you have a cat with asthma, I recommend www.fritzthebrave.com. It has some good video on how to use an inhaler, and even helps you get the right equipement. If they could only find a way to make flovent not cost so much...
While doing some online study today, I found that a respected colleague has a website with a lot of great cat nutrition information. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I suggest you visit www.catinfo.org. If you and I have talked nutrition before, a lot of it will sound familiar, but sometimes it helps to hear things in a different voice.
posted by CatVetDeux @ 1:48 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Thanks for the link—it's a great resource! It can be hard for owners to scrounge up credible pet-health information online. Just something about the pet industry, I guess. It's much easier for me to find credible human-health info online (what with PubMed, MayoClinic.com, the online Merck manuals, etc.) Here's a question:
I just switched my cats from conventional dry food (Purina ONE) to a grain-free dry food (Instinct). I was surprised and pleased when I found out such a thing even existed. For various reasons, the dry food is more convenient than canned for me. Its main ingredients are animal protein from quality sources, along with a few "botanicals" thrown in. (The "botanicals" don't make up a significant percentage of the ingredients.) The cats, by the way, LOOOOVE it.
It's much lower in carbohydrate than conventional dry food, and of course contains no grains at all, but the 3rd concern from the site you linked to remains: it's bone-dry. Should I moisten the food when I feed it? (I feed a measured amount twice a day, since I don't want my indoor kitties to get fat.)
You may need a pet sitter to help you out with feeding your cats if you are gone more than 14 hours.
Note: ""Grain-free" does not necessarily mean "low-carb". Many companies add in large amounts of potatoes or peas which are high in carbohydrates but are not "grains".
I often get asked for my opinion on dry foods that are relatively low in carbohydrates - e.g. - Innova EVO. The people who ask me this question have not read this website - including the Urinary Tract Health page - and have not taken a good long look at Opie's pictures on that page. Otherwise, they would know just how strongly opposed I am to the feeding of dry food to cats.
I wonder how many people would continue to condone the feeding of a water-depleted diet to cats if they had to experience the excruciating pain that occurs when a urethra becomes obstructed. After experiencing the tremendous suffering that commonly occurs when cats are fed dry foods I would bet that the love affair with dry food would end very quickly."
Dr. Pierson, on http://catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods
If you think her website and Dr. Zoran's article there are credible, then the answer is you don't feed any kibble or high carb food. Your cat's urinary tract and kidneys will be healthier. You can add extra water to your cat's dish of canned or raw food to increase their water consumption.
If you have ever left some kibble in the sink strainer you know that it gets stinky pretty fast. That's because it is LOADED with bacteria, even in the bag! Adding water to dry food allows the bacteria and possible pathogens like salmonella to multiply. People have died from contaminated pet food, and all dry food needs to be handled as if it was raw meat. See the CDC website, http://www.cdc.gov/features/SalmonellaDryPetFood/
Canned food is sterile.
How much kibble should you feed a cat? I would ask, how much diesel fuel should you put in a vehicle that is supposed to run on gas? If you feed species inappropriate, water-depleted food in cats you can expect there to be damage somewhere down the road. The goal is optimum health; thriving not just surviving.
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