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Old 07-05-2012, 04:07 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmycat View Post
I'll ask him about that on the 14th when I bring her back for her follow-up...I know one of the brands he has in-stock is "Standard Process", which can only be obtained through certain vets/doctors, but I'm not sure what else might be mixed in there.

The "too thin" part frustrates me greatly...I feel like a terrible mamma when I see her so thin, even though I feed her 6x a day (small portions more frequently is easier to digest).

What kind of raw food are you adding? Is is one already mixed/ground you buy, or are you doing it yourself? I tried the raw thing once, and all my cats got sick, so it scared me off .
I've added one meal of Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw, re-hydrated. She eats the same amount she ate before , PLUS the Stella&Chewy's. She has gained two full ounces since I started her on one meal (8 nuggets) plus her usual canned diet. She also has a better appetite since I started the S&C.

My Little Cat cannot tolerate foods with carrageenan, which Before Grain contains.

No Kudzu, I would not go back to the Before Grain for Oscar. One of the bad things about carrageenan is that it messes with the intestinal health and the ablility to absorb nutrients. It doesn't seem to bother all cats, but I have two who cannot eat foods that contain carrageenan.
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Old 07-05-2012, 04:10 PM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
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Update: She vomited twice, once last night and again this morning .
It may have had something to do with falling/jostling herself, though...she does this thing where she leaps from one counter across the kitchen to the other counter, making an impressive arc as she flies across (show off !) but yesterday she missed her mark and almost gave me a heart attack in the process. It's not a super far jump, but she aims to get lots of height when she does it...I keep telling her she's not a bird, but she thinks she's a kitty/shamaness/shapeshifter, apparently .
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Old 07-05-2012, 04:29 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmycat View Post
Update: She vomited twice, once last night and again this morning .
It may have had something to do with falling/jostling herself, though...she does this thing where she leaps from one counter across the kitchen to the other counter, making an impressive arc as she flies across (show off !) but yesterday she missed her mark and almost gave me a heart attack in the process. It's not a super far jump, but she aims to get lots of height when she does it...I keep telling her she's not a bird, but she thinks she's a kitty/shamaness/shapeshifter, apparently .
Like this you mean? This picture was taken of my girlie at 17 years old. She was crippled with arthritis, had CKD, high blood pressure, hyperthyroid disease, megacolon and one stroke (so far), and yet she still loved to leap across expanses. She couldn't leap up (she had a very elaborate way of getting up to the counter I discovered) or down, but she loved those lateral jumps. I hope Harley wasn't hurt. When I saw my girl miss hear leap once I moved the washing machine a little closer to the counter so it wouldn't happen again.
Attached Thumbnails
Digestion and Elderly Cats-leap.jpg  
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Old 07-05-2012, 05:58 PM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
Like this you mean? This picture was taken of my girlie at 17 years old. She was crippled with arthritis, had CKD, high blood pressure, hyperthyroid disease, megacolon and one stroke (so far), and yet she still loved to leap across expanses. She couldn't leap up (she had a very elaborate way of getting up to the counter I discovered) or down, but she loved those lateral jumps. I hope Harley wasn't hurt. When I saw my girl miss hear leap once I moved the washing machine a little closer to the counter so it wouldn't happen again.
LOL !

Yes, exactly like this...she soars like a little black and white bird, and last night is actually the first time I ever saw her miss. I don't think she's hurt, I checked her over and she didn't react to my hands when I did so, and now is as perky as ever...thank goodness!

I had no idea about the carageenan...yikes, that stuff is in almost every cat food I buy! (I just checked them all), if it doesn't allow nutrients to be absorbed, that's not something I want either of my cats to have . Time to hit Petsmart...I was planning to go to Las Cruces today to the pet store that has a really great variety of quality foods, but it's about an hour's drive each way, and after I found the vomit I decided to stay home with her and make sure she's okay...luckily she's more in love with my BF than I am (LOL ), so he can sit with her while I run to Petsmart, which is close.

I could probably feed a small country with all the money I've spent on cat food these past couple of years !
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Old 07-05-2012, 06:19 PM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
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Catsmom, I am so grateful...I was able to call and get them to squeeze in a bag of the Stella and Chewy's to my order at doggiefood.com because it hasn't been shipped yet...score! If it helps her gain weight and agrees with her, I'm in !
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Old 07-05-2012, 08:25 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmycat View Post
LOL !

Yes, exactly like this...she soars like a little black and white bird, and last night is actually the first time I ever saw her miss. I don't think she's hurt, I checked her over and she didn't react to my hands when I did so, and now is as perky as ever...thank goodness!

I had no idea about the carageenan...yikes, that stuff is in almost every cat food I buy! (I just checked them all), if it doesn't allow nutrients to be absorbed, that's not something I want either of my cats to have . Time to hit Petsmart...I was planning to go to Las Cruces today to the pet store that has a really great variety of quality foods, but it's about an hour's drive each way, and after I found the vomit I decided to stay home with her and make sure she's okay...luckily she's more in love with my BF than I am (LOL ), so he can sit with her while I run to Petsmart, which is close.

I could probably feed a small country with all the money I've spent on cat food these past couple of years !
I know what you mean. It is hard to find "higher end" foods that do not contain carrageenan but I've found a few. And of course they have to be foods the cat will eat. Fortunately I have one cat who does not have any food restriction issues, so food doesn't go to waste. She can and will eat anything I put in front of her. Her only problem was constipation, and that has been solved with 1 tablespoon of pumpkin a day.

But the other two cannot eat foods that contain carrageenan.


Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmycat View Post
Catsmom, I am so grateful...I was able to call and get them to squeeze in a bag of the Stella and Chewy's to my order at doggiefood.com because it hasn't been shipped yet...score! If it helps her gain weight and agrees with her, I'm in !
I'm glad. I have a few tips about the freeze dried nuggets. Start by offering only three or four, gradually work up to a meal of 7 or 8. Figuring out how much water to use takes a few tries but after a while you just now. I feed in small ceramic saucers. I add a little warm water, then place the nuggets in the dish.

I let them sit for a few minutes while preparing other cat meals. When they are about half hydrated I start stirring them around to absorb more water, then mashing them down until they look like this:

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Old 07-05-2012, 10:52 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
I know what you mean. It is hard to find "higher end" foods that do not contain carrageenan but I've found a few. And of course they have to be foods the cat will eat.
Would you please post the names of the cat foods you've found that don't contain carrageenan.

I'm too tired right now to remember the FEW I've found ... that Meeko won't usually eat anyway.

I prefer not to feed carrageenan to any of my cats, especially Meeko, who has IBS/IBD, but he will sometimes just stop eating unless I serve him Fancy Feast Turkey Classic to get him interested in food again.

Carrageenan is used in medical experiments, to induce stomach irritation in test animals, and is possibly linked to Crohns disease in humans.

I came across that information while browsing abstracts on the PubMed website last year.
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Old 07-06-2012, 12:41 AM
 
Location: El Paso, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
I know what you mean. It is hard to find "higher end" foods that do not contain carrageenan but I've found a few. And of course they have to be foods the cat will eat. Fortunately I have one cat who does not have any food restriction issues, so food doesn't go to waste. She can and will eat anything I put in front of her. Her only problem was constipation, and that has been solved with 1 tablespoon of pumpkin a day.

But the other two cannot eat foods that contain carrageenan.
It's crazy, isn't it? Out of the eight varieties of cat food in my cabinet when I checked, only TWO didn't contain carageenan...Weruva and Simply Nourish.

Quote:
Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
I have a few tips about the freeze dried nuggets. Start by offering only three or four, gradually work up to a meal of 7 or 8. Figuring out how much water to use takes a few tries but after a while you just now. I feed in small ceramic saucers. I add a little warm water, then place the nuggets in the dish.

I let them sit for a few minutes while preparing other cat meals. When they are about half hydrated I start stirring them around to absorb more water, then mashing them down until they look like this:
Thank you so much! I'll do it this way too, and the picture is very helpful !
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Old 07-06-2012, 06:13 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh area
9,912 posts, read 24,543,247 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by leanansidhex View Post
Would you please post the names of the cat foods you've found that don't contain carrageenan.
From what I have in the house:

The varieties of Tiki Cat that I've been feeding do not have carrageenan. One other Tiki Cat variety that I still have cans of though lists "vegetable gums" in generic, which may or may not be suspect. Probably this is guar and/or xanthan gum but the Evanger's can lists as "carrageenan gum".

Nature's Logic can that I have up there, no carrageenan.

Weruva cans, no carrageenan.

Cans of Evanger's, Fussie Cat and Addiction have carrageenan listed, at least the varieties I have here.
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Old 07-06-2012, 05:48 PM
 
2,087 posts, read 4,262,818 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvmycat View Post
It's crazy, isn't it? Out of the eight varieties of cat food in my cabinet when I checked, only TWO didn't contain carageenan...Weruva and Simply Nourish.

Quote:
Originally Posted by greg42 View Post
From what I have in the house:

The varieties of Tiki Cat that I've been feeding do not have carrageenan. One other Tiki Cat variety that I still have cans of though lists "vegetable gums" in generic, which may or may not be suspect. Probably this is guar and/or xanthan gum but the Evanger's can lists as "carrageenan gum".

Nature's Logic can that I have up there, no carrageenan.

Weruva cans, no carrageenan.

Cans of Evanger's, Fussie Cat and Addiction have carrageenan listed, at least the varieties I have here.
Thanks for the replies, There's an Evangers Organics line that has starch, but no carrageenan, (have you ever Googled Evangers? it's pretty interesting.

I wish there were more choices that don't include (any) poultry since it is not good for IBD?IBS cats. Plus, since it's ubiquitous in cat food, I wonder about them possibly developing/having a sensitivity or reaction to it.

I'm staying off fish, as per catsmom21, plus Meekos FHS symptoms are worse if he eats fish.

Weruva made all 3 throw up within an hour.

I love the idea of Natures Logic, bit Meeko and Alfredo wouldn't eat it.

Olivia will eat Anything, but she needs to lose weight and I wondered about, and need to figure out, the fat % in the Natures Logic canned food, the rabbit especially.

I really feel the next "big" issue on the boards will be "did the high fat content of the food I've been feeding my cat cause pancreatitis? In my, opinion, the high fat content of Wellness, was (at least) a factor in Sabers stomach problems that developed in less than a year and resulted in pancreatitis. To put it ... diplomatically.

After watching Saber Suffer with pancreatitis, I won't even risk it. I'm going to stay within the nutritional guidelines of mice.

//www.city-data.com/forum/cats/...l#post22393730

luvmycat, Thanks for the info I'll pick up some Simply Nourish.

Also, even though your "covered" since you get your digestive enzymes from your vet, I learned that digestive enzymes for cats need to include animal sourced enzymes for meat digestion.
A popular brand that is in many pet speciality stores only contains enzymes for/from plants.

Greg42, at the end of July, I plan to have a cat behaviorist/animal communicator speak with my cats.

The main reason is to try and stop Meeko from attacking Alfredo, but since this AC also teaches owners about raw food diets and how to feed them, I'm going to ask her to help in getting my cats to eat better, and of course, find out what the connection between Alfredo and Saber is.

Is Alfredo actually Saber, or (just) some aspect of him, since I can still hear Saber.

I know there is a connection ... the first song on Sabers playlist was playing (at Petco) when I walked past the adoption area ... I was not planning on stopping but I heard Alfredo furiously pawing/banging on the door to his cage ... and as soon as the top door was opened, he jumped into my arms, stood up, put his paws around my neck and purred into my ear.

The employees at Petco said that Alfredo had been hiding under his blanket all day, his first day there, and no one had even seen his face.

When I returned the next day (it was too late to be able to adopt him that night) a women from the shelter was there, she said Alfredos person had become unable to care for him due to an illness, and that Alfredo had been at their shelter for 3 months, but whenever it was open for adoptions, Alfredo would hide under his blanket and no one was able to see what he looked like.

//www.city-data.com/forum/cats/...l#post24823462
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