- Joined
- Dec 13, 2013
- Messages
- 1,437
- Purraise
- 179
Yes, and maybe some people need to learn to read. I said a 'runny nose' is NOT classified as a disease, but a symptom. It was your suggestion to use runny nose as an example of a disease, to which I replied that it is not.
I guess everything has to be spelled out around here.... Directly from Merriam-Webster:
Full Definition of SYMPTOM
1
a : subjective evidence of disease or physical disturbance;broadly : something that indicates the presence of bodily disorder
And I think you are making a lot of assumptions with those statements, which suggests to me a level of cynicism that I do not share. I think people are becoming a lot more educated about pets and their needs than ever before. Chances are good that if someone is shopping at Petco, PetSmart or other 'pet store', that they are shopping for something better than is found in a grocery store, which means that people are evolving. Unfortunately there will be some exceptions of people that don't make any effort to do right their pets. These same people probably don't spay or neuter their pets either.
I think you presume a level of sophistication in new cat owners that by and large does not exist. Sadly, for most people, if they get any information at all, it will be coming in the form of advertising directly from a manufacturer or else advice from a kid working in Petco. Either way, the future outcome for having a healthy-thriving pet is bleak.
There is no guarantee that a cat is getting sufficient water in my opinion, even when fed wet canned, raw or otherwise? That said, I don't know what any of what you have said here, has got to do with determining how much water a cat needs, which was your earlier question to me? Scruff tests can indicate whether a cat is dehydrated, I did not say that it guarantees whether a cat is getting sufficient water. I just threw that in there as additional information. In response, it seems to me that you are going off on these tangents just for arguments sake in an effort to control the conversation, which is becoming rather tiresome and offensive at times.
I don`t know what to say. The word flabbergasted keeps flashing across my frontal lobes. First, problems from moisture insufficiency (for example concentrated urine) are going to develop well before the outward signs of acute dehydration appear - so even if someone knows about the scruff test and other checks - they are useless in preventing damage from chronic moisture deprivation that dry food has the potential to instigate.
Having bowls of water out, fountains, even leaving the lid on the toilet open for the cats who prefer that as a water source guarantees nothing. The fact of the matter is cats have a low thirst drive and were designed to get moisture from the food they eat. There were no sources of water for the ancestral desert cat other than from the prey it caught - unless they lucked into an oasis or got caught in one of the very few rainy seasons - not very reliable sources of moisture for them.
Based on a lot of your comments, it is apparent that you have read a few things at Lisa Pierson's catinfo.org site, which is good. So have I, some time ago. And while the work she has done on the subject of nutrition and cat health is great, I personally chose to take some of this information, and leave some in lieu of making up my own mind about some things. It is your choice to believe what you wish on the subject of dry food, but other people also have the right to their opinion.
Last edited: