Tired of playing "guess" and looking for help

crowen

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Hi friends,

Please bare with me.
I have a 15 year old kitty who has just had a two month long vet adventure. This is info heavy but ultimately my question is about food :)

She went to the vet in May for a UTI, where she was not eating, throwing up, vocalizing loudly at the litter box, and eventually peeing blood while looking for human help. She was treated for this and recovered well, but we did not know what caused it. The only change was in her litter, so I swapped it back to okocat wood. They noted she may have oral lesions but forgot to follow up on it.

This Tuesday she came back after a five day vet venture with four of the days being in the 24h emergency clinic.
The prior week she was intermittently throwing up, until she started refusing to eat. After the second day of having nothing to eat, I called the vet and she went in for blood work. She had to go back the next morning as she had nothing in her bladder. There was suspicion of pancreatitis, or the oral lesions, but also mild concern that something else may be being missed (cancer, growths, blockages). She had blood in her bladder. That afternoon she was taken to the 24h emergency clinic for dehydration and anorexia. She stayed over the weekend for supplementary care and to wait for the radiologist to come back to work that Monday for an ultrasound.

The diagnosis was pancreatitis, and there was no sign of cancers or blockages on the ultrasound or xrays. I briefly wondered if the antibiotics from the UTI may have helped set this in motion, but she is on more now; or just a lingering affect from the UTI in general. I'm considering buying some raw goats milk but I'm afraid of giving her an upset stomach.

She is eating better now, but still in a lot of discomfort. It's far from how she used to eat. She also still cries at the litter box. I'm also still no closer to figuring out how to prevent these things from happening to her in the future. Especially with her age. This venture cost $6500 in total, in part because the local vet forwarded the wrong blood work and the emergency vet had to run all the diagnostic tests a second time. I'm trying to figure out an action plan that doesn't involve just throwing money at everything and hoping it sticks. Because I'm not sure if she should keep eating the same food, or transition to something else. I've suspected her aversion to poultry might be an allergy and not just personal taste, as she frequently had a furless belly pouch. There is money to fund it, I just don't want to make her suffer for no reason (ie throwing up new foods).

On top of all this, she has had teeth removed twice due to oral lesions. We suspect she may have one or two affecting her currently. The original plan was to have her teeth done, but we were worried something else was going on besides her teeth bugging her.
She's a very anxious cat and I am not sure if it is worth putting her through more sorrow so soon after her ordeal by having her put under again for dental xrays, transfer to a dental specialist, and/or allergy testing. Especially since she's starting to eat again and still has antibiotics to finish.

Some background info:

Food -
Primary foods are freeze dried raw and kibble. She likes Orijen fit and trim, and was swapped to this from the Orijen Regional Red because she is over weight (currently 15lb, was 17lb--her whole litter and family line had trouble with weight management and died early from digestive or urinary issues).
She likes Stella and Chewy's Chicken and Salmon freeze dried, which was previously mixed into Honest Kitchens prowl to last longer - however she does not like prowl and prefers the first by itself. She was swapped to this after Feline Natural's freeze-dried began making her throw up.
For treats she likes Orijens freeze dried treats and Inaba Churu purees. She has had a lot of churus during this latest venture because it was the one thing she would try to eat. She currently willingly takes her antibiotics with the churus.

From 1-5 years old she ate with our family cats and constantly had diarrhea on their Nutro kibbles. After the family cats had kidney complications, I tried swapping her off kibbles onto various wet/raw foods that took a while to adhere to. She did very well on most of them. She loved Feline Natural freeze dried and raw elk, venison and other red meats. She did not like raw poultry of any kind. She stopped having diarrhea, but I discovered that she would either eat kibbles/commercial wet and get diarrhea, or eat raw and get constipation. The best in-between for stool consistency was on Orijen kibble, but did not solve hydration, and still occasionally would have litter trouble.

She's been tried on a large variety of other foods that were canned, raw or freeze-dried. In the past few years I've tried to keep her more consistent on foods that worked for her and she would eat.
Fruitables pumpkin digestive / urinary health treats / pumpkin patch ups were ordered once or twice a year due to constipation issues. During her UTI episode we were so desperate that we went to a 24h store to buy sweet potato baby food.

Below is a rough history of some order histories I have access to from one place I order from:

2022 -
She eventually ate the prescription kibble diet (Hills) at the emergency clinic, and would pick at the gastrointestinal EN (purina) wet but not eat it fully--gravy.
Prior to this we tried her on fancy feast out of desperation with the same result, eating gravy but no content.
She's currently eating her orijen/stellas, just very little of it and has to be prompted to.

May, after the UTI:
- KOHA Chicken Pate wet - wouldn't eat
- Tiki Velvet Mousse Chicken wet - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- Tiki Cat Succulent Chicken wet - wouldn't eat

April:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry, her main kibble/calorie intake (bag is still in use; wouldn't eat during this episode) - started throwing up after the uti
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried

January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- KOHA Duck Pate wet - ate it but not a fan
- KOHA Chicken pate wet - ate it but not a fan

2021 -
November, in response to some constipation:
- BFF Tuna & Beef Baby Cakes wet - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- BFF Tuna & Duck Devour Me - wouldn't eat, and threw up when she did
- The Honest Kitchen minced chicken in bone broth - wouldn't eat

September:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- Honest Kitchen's goats milk
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried - rehydrated with water/goats milk - likes this but I suspect too much of it caused the november constipation

June:
- Orijen Fit & Trim dry
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken freeze dried

April:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken

January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Honest Kitchen prowl (chicken) - she began hating this
- Boreal chicken, duck and salmon wet - she likes this but it is hard on her teeth and hard to find in stock

2020 -
October:
- Honest Kitchen prowl
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken

September:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Boreal chicken, duck and salmon wet

August:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

May:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

March:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

February:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- NZ Meow Lamb & Hoki freeze dried - she liked it but threw it up once, so swapped back to stella and chewy's
- Honest Kitchen goats milk

2019 -
December:
- NZ Meow Chicken & Salmon
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

October:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Boreal chicken, duck and atlantic wet
- Feline Natural chicken & venison wet - tried their canned after their freeze dried line began making her throw up, she was so-so with it
- Honest Kitchen prowl

August:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

June:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

April:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl

March:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen prowl
- Boreal chicken, lamb and beef wet
- Honest Kitchen turkey bone broth - hated it
- Orijen Fit & Trim

January:
- Stella & Chewy's salmon and chicken
- Honest Kitchen goats milk
- Boreal chicken, lamb, beef wet
- Orijen Fit & Trim

2018 -
October:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Boreal chicken, duck, salmon wet
- Boreal chicken, lamb, beef wet
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb freeze dried - she had previously been on this for years but began throwing it up and having worse constipation

July:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Primal venison freeze dried - she liked these but they were not as readily available, and she did not like them nearly as much as the frozen raw venison or elk available locally

June:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Feline Natural green tripe booster - hated this

February:
- Canada Fresh red meat canned - she liked this but it was hard on her teeth
- KOHA kangaroo wet - she liked this and it was very soft
- KOHA chicken and kangaroo wet - so-so
- KOHA duck stew wet - wouldn't eat
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb
- Primal chicken and salmon freeze dried
- Boreal chicken, lamb and beef

January:
- Orijen Fit & Trim
- Feline Natural chicken and venison freeze dried
- Feline Natural chicken and venison wet - ate this but so-so
- Feline Natural chicken and lamb wet - so-so
- Canada Fresh chicken wet - ate this but hard on her teeth

I have her blood work/diagnostics but I am not 100% sure on how to read some of it. Some out of reference range values:
June 18
LYM 0.97 (1.5 - 7)
MON 1.57 (0 - 1.5)
NEU 16.36 (2.5 - 14)
MPV 11.0 (12 - 17)
ALP 172 (10 - 90)
ALT 202 (20 - 100)
AMY 1116 (300 - 1100)
GLU 10 (3.9 - 8.3)
TP 82 (54 - 82)

June 20
LYM 0.75 (1.5 - 7)
NEU 16.81 (2.5 - 14)
ALP 165 (10 - 90)
ALT 237 (20 - 100)
GLU 10 (3.9 - 8.3)
AST(SGOT) 155 (10 - 100)
ALT(SGPT) 180 (10 -100)
Alkaline Phosphatase 168 (6 - 102)
PrecisionPSL 345 (8 - 26) <-- pancreatitis
WBC 17.5 (3.5 - 16)
Platelet Count 138 (200 - 500)
Neutrophils 80 (35 - 75)
Lymphs 8 (20 - 45)
Monocytes 6 (1 - 4)
Absolute Neutrophils 14 (2.5 - 8.5)
Absolute Monocyte 1.05 (0 - 0.6)
Absolute Eosinophil 1.05 (0 - 1)

Sorry for the long list / data dump. Think I needed to just type it out because I am frustrated.
Nobody said anything to me about IBD, so I am not sure if that is a concern: Her stomach gastric wall was 5mm thick. Intestines - duodenum 3mm, jejunum 3mm, ileum 3mm, colic 2mm. The report said this was normal.

In short, I am torn between returning her to just her orijen kibbles + stella and chewy's because I am concerned this back and forth between constipation and dehydration is causing ongoing issues. And between ordering a bunch of foods she's tried in the past, in fear of upsetting her digestion - or adding foods with too much bone content (red dog blue cat raw kangaroo and venison, boreal pork wet, beef bone broths, raw goat milk, raw elk).
Suppose I am looking for some insight and suggestions.

tldr;
1. cat had a uti, not sure from where. what's good for preventing future utis?
2. cat was having trouble seeing water in her stainless steel bowl so she was bought a catit fountain that she likes. how do i keep her drinking?
3. cat gets diarrhea and constipation. life long battle. should I keep trying to swap her food?
4. chicken allergy?? she likes red meat, do I just give her that? rabbit? continue the food she has had forever (chicken)?
5. has pancreatitis. from what? IBS, IBD? unlucky? no action points? do nothing? much confuse. what's good for preventing pancreatitis and other digestive upsets? recovery?
6. oral lesions. maybe? wait and see, go for vet? It would be a long wait and multiple visits (vet busy, not specialized in dental, still recovering)
 

Furballsmom

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or eat raw and get constipation.
#3 and #4 Going with your thought in your post, can you get a raw food with lower bone content?

I'm also combining #1 and #2, if you can, obtain another fountain and have both away from where her food is. Also, she might like drinking from a tall water glass or mason jar, clean daily with fresh daily filtered water. Some people like distilled but I don't recommend that.

What is the level of the litter you're using? Are the boxes cleaned daily?

There is a lot of information but if you scroll down the page you'll come to suggestions regarding B12, treatments including pain management et al;
Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Pancreatitis
 
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crowen

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Thank you. This is a very information dense site.
It suggests 50% of cats with pancreatitis have low calcium levels. Maybe the high bone content wouldn't be the worst thing? Aside from the constipation concern.

The diet section only suggests that cats must eat little and often--that was more or less my take away already, that the priority is just that she eats, no matter what. That's definitely true for the pancreatitis... I guess I am just concerned about making the constipation/diarrhea problem worse, and introducing a new UTI problem, or others.

The mason jar is a good idea.

Her litter box is a lower litter box meant for training puppies and for rabbits. I got this for her because she has arthritis and a bad leg from an injury when she was very young that bothers her now. But the level is at least 2-3 inches deep, and it has been cleaned much more diligently since her UTI. The front entrance is 3" deep to a total of 5" on the walls. We thought maybe she got used to sitting down in her little box, and did so when the litter was changed from wood litter to clay litter which is messier. Her vet didn't know what to think but did say swapping back to her original wood litter wouldn't hurt.

The b12 is interesting. I might give the emergency clinic a call and ask about that since the local vet is backlogged. They did send her home with antibiotics, anti-nausea, and painkillers that I have been giving to her.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Stella and Chewy is notoriously high in bone, which can definitely cause constipation. I feed it, various freeze dried flavors, and add additional plain freeze dried meat to it, and one of my guy still gets constipated. I also feed Nulo freeze dried, Feline Naturals freeze dried, and Fresh is Best freeze dried. I do rehydrate all of these. Do you feed these dry or rehydrated? If she will eat the food rehydrated, I would definitely feed it that way.

If she likes rabbit, I would try that. Same with beef, venison, lamb. Since poultry doesn't seem to work, I'd stay away from it. And I'd stay away from any canned food with gravy. Pate only if she'll eat it. Does she like homemade raw, or frozen raw?

From the issues you describe, I'd try to stick completely with raw (in one form or another) and see how she does. No kibble at all, no canned other than pate, and only pate if necessary.
 
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crowen

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Thank you. I didn't realize it was notoriously high in bone. That makes me feel better that it may not be a her-problem but a them-problem and gives me hope that I can find a food that will be a good balance between her constipation versus diarrhea. Do you know the best way to compare bone content between freeze-dried products?

All her freeze-dried raw is rehydrated. At times I will give it dry as a treat or a topper.

I've been hesitant on foods with lamb since it is high in fat. But it sounds like there might not be a connection between high in fat diets and pancreatitis with cats. Actually I had wanted to try the Stella & Chewy's rabbit as somewhere said it was good with cats with IBD (though she may not have this). It sounds like I should look at other brands. Heard good things about rawz rabbit.

She likes frozen raw. I have not tried homemade raw and don't trust myself to get it right or for it to get mixed up with the other peoples' food who live with us (hehe, yucky). She likes gravy and finds pate hurt her teeth, but hopefully I can find one she likes. Maybe the KOHA kangaroo. I'm afraid the frozen raw might bug her oral lesions as well but I think it's worth trying.

The raw I was looking at actually mentions pancreatitis: Kangaroo Complete | Red Dog Blue Kat
They also have venison. Maybe I will try this. She was so-so with the red dog blue kat when I bought it for her many years ago.

Another option I was looking at is rabbit: Fare Game - Rabbit with Pork - 2 lb | Big Country Raw
I have not tried this company at all so I don't know what she thinks of it.

For posterity, this is the elk: Elk
But it's a big package and harder to store individually.
 

iPappy

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Hare-today.com
They have boneless meat ground chubs you can add their organ blends to, and Alnutrin for calcium but it's essentially a simple way to make a balanced, boneless raw diet. I order from them several times a year and have always been happy!

Edit: It's times like this I am so upset RadCat went out. They had so many great recipes and blends for seniors and cats with health issues and so many people relied on them to keep their cats happy and eating :(
 
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crowen

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Edit: It's times like this I am so upset RadCat went out
I loved radcat! I always wondered if they could have established in Canada and avoided the drama. But it probably would've been mentally exhausting for them at that point. I'm not sure Hare Today mails to Canada but maybe somewhere carries it. Will have to look around.

I'm actually not sure if she'll even be willing to eat raw with her teeth bugging her. It's part of the reason she's not eating canned food and is preferring to swallow kibbles whole. She didn't eat much of the freeze dried she was offered. Guess I won't know until I try.
 

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There's a forum here on TCS to discuss raw diets more in detail :)

Here's one thread about Canadian raw suppliers:

 

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I loved radcat! I always wondered if they could have established in Canada and avoided the drama. But it probably would've been mentally exhausting for them at that point. I'm not sure Hare Today mails to Canada but maybe somewhere carries it. Will have to look around.

I'm actually not sure if she'll even be willing to eat raw with her teeth bugging her. It's part of the reason she's not eating canned food and is preferring to swallow kibbles whole. She didn't eat much of the freeze dried she was offered. Guess I won't know until I try.
Oh geez, I didn't even think that you're in Canada. D'oh!! :frustrated:
Sorry for the confusion (on my part!)
 

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C crowen , this is quite a post -- you keep very good records! What is your cat's name? I don't know enough about pancreatitis to know what foods might or might not work for your cat.

I have to be quick for now but want to say that one of our two cats also has problems with raw food that has too much bone. Since not many companies post bone percentages on their sites, I email them. The foods we've been using are Primal pork (freeze-dried, around 10% bone, I think?), Nulo turkey/duck freeze-dried (the company doesn't say but the phosphorus is relatively low so I think we're okay), Northwest Naturals chicken freeze-dried (probably higher than we want, but we feed only small amounts), Stella's Selects frozen chicken (no bone!), and three flavors of Tucker's frozen (relatively low bone, I forget the amount). We've also been feeding Meat Mates lamb (spongy shelf-stable stuff, no bone) and Tiki Cat lamb (frozen, no bone). I think the lamb will go to one cat, though, since I think the other is having big vomiting problems because of lamb.

A few of those foods have either pumpkin or psyllium husk in them, which may help avoid constipation. I'm also going to order some Boss Cat turkey, which has relatively low bone (apparently most of the calcium comes from egg shell), though they didn't give me a figure.

The cats like Stella's Selects chicken almost as much as they loved Rad Cat. We all miss Rad Cat!

I have no idea which of those foods is available in Canada.

Like you, I don't trust myself to make raw food but I do make food with cooked meat and the Alnutrin supplement. The cats like it.

As far as overall approaches, I agree with mrsgreenjeens mrsgreenjeens about basically sticking to raw food, particularly if you can put her on a stable diet with the simplest foods (in terms of ingredients) possible. If she's an anxious cat, the changes in diet could make her more anxious and barfy. Anxiety is a problem for our vomiting cat, too. She also has trouble with certain ingredients that are in lots of canned foods (potato, agar-agar, green-lipped mussels, plus maybe a gum or two) so raw and homemade are pretty much our only choices. We're lucky the cats like them! (If only most of the time!)
 
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crowen

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She also has trouble with certain ingredients that are in lots of canned foods (potato, agar-agar, green-lipped mussels, plus maybe a gum or two)
This is just like my cat :) Her name is Q. She often gets called Ms Q (miscue) and cue ball. It's funny how well she recognizes her single letter name - when we took her to the emergency vet, one of the ladies across the entire building said, softly, "Is Q here?" to one of her co-workers. Q instantly looked at her and watched her walk across the entire room and down the hall. I didn't expect her to be so attentive. She paid no attention to anyone else because she was busy being anxious and hiding.

I recognize some of the companies you mention. I'm not sure if their frozen options are available here but it gives me some good options to look up or keep my eye out for.

So a good indication of bone is in the calcium/phosphorus levels? The one rabbit I linked doesn't have bone information but it does list calcium at 0.19 and phos at 0.27 or a ratio of 0.7. I assume that's a bit low -- that the calcium should be higher than the phosphorus? I feel like I knew some of this in a past life, or just bad memory...
 

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C crowen , this is quite a post -- you keep very good records! What is your cat's name? I don't know enough about pancreatitis to know what foods might or might not work for your cat.

I have to be quick for now but want to say that one of our two cats also has problems with raw food that has too much bone. Since not many companies post bone percentages on their sites, I email them. The foods we've been using are Primal pork (freeze-dried, around 10% bone, I think?), Nulo turkey/duck freeze-dried (the company doesn't say but the phosphorus is relatively low so I think we're okay), Northwest Naturals chicken freeze-dried (probably higher than we want, but we feed only small amounts), Stella's Selects frozen chicken (no bone!), and three flavors of Tucker's frozen (relatively low bone, I forget the amount). We've also been feeding Meat Mates lamb (spongy shelf-stable stuff, no bone) and Tiki Cat lamb (frozen, no bone). I think the lamb will go to one cat, though, since I think the other is having big vomiting problems because of lamb.

A few of those foods have either pumpkin or psyllium husk in them, which may help avoid constipation. I'm also going to order some Boss Cat turkey, which has relatively low bone (apparently most of the calcium comes from egg shell), though they didn't give me a figure.

The cats like Stella's Selects chicken almost as much as they loved Rad Cat. We all miss Rad Cat!

I have no idea which of those foods is available in Canada.

Like you, I don't trust myself to make raw food but I do make food with cooked meat and the Alnutrin supplement. The cats like it.

As far as overall approaches, I agree with mrsgreenjeens mrsgreenjeens about basically sticking to raw food, particularly if you can put her on a stable diet with the simplest foods (in terms of ingredients) possible. If she's an anxious cat, the changes in diet could make her more anxious and barfy. Anxiety is a problem for our vomiting cat, too. She also has trouble with certain ingredients that are in lots of canned foods (potato, agar-agar, green-lipped mussels, plus maybe a gum or two) so raw and homemade are pretty much our only choices. We're lucky the cats like them! (If only most of the time!)
As far as bone content goes, as my cats age (ages 8-14, 7 of them), I've noticed their tolerance for bone is going way, way down. If I have something higher in bone, I usually add something like chicken or beef heart with a pinch of liver for that "extra" laxative effect, rather than just plain muscle meat. When they were younger, they could eat more bone in but anymore, the bone content MUST be lower. (They all are liking their eggs, though!)
I will agree that the OP keeps EXCELLENT records! I've been tracking an illness in my dog with daily records in a journal and I thought I was doing good. I really wish I had such dated notes from many years past, it would make this so much easier!!
 
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crowen

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I could try that for sure. The Honest Kitchen goats milk is ordered and gets shipped from another city, but the raw gets shipped from within the same city, is all.
Raw Goat Milk - 1L | Big Country Raw
But I know she will take the honest kitchen goats milk. Can't say the same for this one. Plus I'm sure I could find a store carrying it if I called around.
 

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She's a very anxious cat
By the way, are you trying any calming products for her? Cat Music? There's Relax My Cat, MusicForCats, and harp music on spotify and elsewhere - it can be surprisingly effective in helping cats to be more relaxed.

Speaking of calming products, have you considered asking the vet for something for vet trips regarding her dental issues in the future?
 

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I could try that for sure. The Honest Kitchen goats milk is ordered and gets shipped from another city, but the raw gets shipped from within the same city, is all.
Raw Goat Milk - 1L | Big Country Raw
But I know she will take the honest kitchen goats milk. Can't say the same for this one. Plus I'm sure I could find a store carrying it if I called around.
I get half gallons of raw goats milk for my cats and dogs and they absolutely LOVE it.
If she's having mouth issues, I wouldn't offer it cold out of the fridge. Warm it up a bit. Cold liquid hitting a sore mouth is like pouring salt in a wound. Tepid or slightly warmed liquid in a sore mouth is much, much better.
(Signed, from someone who has had tooth abscesses before!)
 

iPappy

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By the way, are you trying any calming products for her? Cat Music? There's Relax My Cat, MusicForCats, and harp music on spotify and elsewhere - it can be surprisingly effective in helping cats to be more relaxed.

Speaking of calming products, have you considered asking the vet for something for vet trips regarding her dental issues in the future?
I've been playing some harp type music for my pets when I go to work. I come in to check on them every 2 hours or so, and everyone is sprawled out in total relaxation. I think there is definitely something to it. :)
 

lisahe

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So a good indication of bone is in the calcium/phosphorus levels? The one rabbit I linked doesn't have bone information but it does list calcium at 0.19 and phos at 0.27 or a ratio of 0.7. I assume that's a bit low -- that the calcium should be higher than the phosphorus? I feel like I knew some of this in a past life, or just bad memory...
If a company will give out at least an approximate bone content percentage, that's my preference since I know that it seems that anything over about 10% is too much for Ireland. Since those numbers are hard to come by, I use a more flawed methodology and look at two things: the ingredients, to see if there's egg shell powder or calcium carbonate in the food) and then the dry matter phosphorus content (since high bone will generally give a high DM phos number, though that may be a flawed assumption in some cases). Some foods have a small amount of bone plus egg shell powder or calcium carbonate. That's probably ideal since there apparently other good things in bone. I confess that I have never been good with the calcium/phos ratios!

As far as bone content goes, as my cats age (ages 8-14, 7 of them), I've noticed their tolerance for bone is going way, way down. If I have something higher in bone, I usually add something like chicken or beef heart with a pinch of liver for that "extra" laxative effect, rather than just plain muscle meat. When they were younger, they could eat more bone in but anymore, the bone content MUST be lower. (They all are liking their eggs, though!)
Yes to what you say about tolerance for bone! Our vet started warning us years about about motility and aging... and she's very right. I add egg yolk to two of the cats' meals and it really seems to help. (I use hard-boiled.) I do find that lots of raw foods now include psyllium husks or pumpkin but I like egg yolk better for our cats since it apparently acts more directly to actually improve motility and has lecithin, which can help prevent hairballs from forming.

On that cheerful note, here's wishing everyone a calm and quiet day of cat feeding!

Thank you, too, for the suggestion of harp music. Maybe I can download something and put it on an infinite loop!
 

mrsgreenjeens

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As far as bone content goes, as my cats age (ages 8-14, 7 of them), I've noticed their tolerance for bone is going way, way down. If I have something higher in bone, I usually add something like chicken or beef heart with a pinch of liver for that "extra" laxative effect, rather than just plain muscle meat.
Why didn't I think about adding a pinch of liver to Darko's food to help him with the issues he has with the excess bone :frustrated:. He's 13 and most definitely has constipation issues worse than ever. Adding in extra muscle meat isn't working, so liver it will be from now on. Just a pinch :yummy:
 
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