The Formerly Bald Bunny known as Rex
July 29, 2008 l Comments Off
This was Rex before he started balding in January, this was his fur loss at its worst, and this was generally what he looked like for several months afterward. You’ll need to see those photos to fully appreciate that this is what Rex looks like now:
Rex has been slowly but steadily improving over this past month. I credit the nutritional changes that were suggested by the helpful member of the Rabbits Online Forum, namely Pam Nock, who recommended a regular dose of Nutri-Cal. I also began feeding him a high-quality show feed alongside his regular pellets at a 50/50 ratio.
Without the Nutri-Cal and show feed, Rex loses weight and begins to lose coat condition, eventually leading to baldness. But even on such a high-calorie, high-fat regimin, Rex is *maintaining* a healthy weight and of course he has a much fuller, healthier coat. We still don’t know what, if any, underlying conditions are leading to his requiring such a change in nutrition. My gut is telling me that it’s probably just old age taking its toll. At any rate, I figured it would be good to give an update on the old man.
this site just makes me sad
January 6, 2008 l 1 Comment
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf559623.tip.html
It’s a discussion of ‘Cystitis in Cats’. Feline Cystitis (also called Feline Urological Syndrome or FUS, Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, or FLUTD) is an irritation of the bladder and/or urethra [from SpecialCat.com] It’s the same condition that Miko, Scully and Stephanie were all diagnosed with almost two years ago, a condition that has been completely resolved by switching the cats to a raw food diet.
But there’s no mention of raw feeding on the site. Not at all. On the contrary, there are quite a few recommendations for a prescription diet, the most common being Hill’s C/D. Like most prescription diets, this product works fairly well most of the time, but the goal of a prescription diet is to treat the problem and not the overall picture. Have you seen the C/D ingredients list? Brewers Rice. Corn Gluten Meal. Chicken By-Product Meal. Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid). Chicken Liver Flavor.
I’m sorry – I thought we were feeding carnivores.
There was, thankfully, one person who at least mentioned that canned food is much better than dry when treating urinary tract issues. But if you read these kinds of discussions long enough, you’ll find that even with a prescription diet, canned food, increased water intake, etc., many cats will experience regular relapses. They’ll do well for awhile and then have another flare-up. I know from experience just how maddening that cycle can be.
What’s even more disheartening than the dietary advice is reading about drastic options, like surgery. I just do not understand how veterinarians can denounce raw food as difficult and “dangerous”, and in the next breath recommend reconstructive surgery on a cat’s urethra. Am I missing something?
While I do think that a raw diet is ideal, I don’t believe it’s the right choice for every cat. I just wish that it would be more readily considered as a valid option. Until then, discussions like this will likely be frustrating. I don’t understand how people can be downright paranoid about the miniscule risk that my cats will contract salmonella from fresh chicken, but not think twice about feeding their cat chicken-flavored corn.
back to ground
June 9, 2007 l Comments Off
The cats have been eating whole prey for several months now, and for the most part I’ve been very happy with that style of feeding. I do think that whole foods are the ideal diet for any animal, be they carnivore or not. But just as Peanut can hardly tolerate a single fresh vegetable without terrible stomach upset, what is ideal for our pets may not be what is best for them. And so it goes…
Whole prey (versus ground foods) is rather contingent upon the cats actually eating whole meat, bones and organs. Many will. I have three that won’t. Miko, bless her stout soul, will eat whatever I put in front of her. But her mom and siblings have slowly been turning their noses up at their food, organ meat in particular. Organ meats like liver are a critical part of their diet and provide key nutrients not found elsewhere – they can’t live only on muscle meat and bone.
Over the past two weeks the food strike intensified, and I became genuinely concerned that their finickiness was going to hurt them. So tonight I got the meat grinder out of storage and mixed up a batch: thirteen pounds of chicken meat (breasts and leg quarters), a dozen egg yolks, and a pound of chicken liver. Not a perfect mixture, but for the next week or so it’s an improvement. For some reason I couldn’t find the Taurine capsules, and we’re out of salmon oil; they’ll have to be added later. The taurine is really only necessary because I didn’t happen to have any chicken hearts. Always good to have those handy, you know.
The cats have never transitioned well to new foods, and I was of course expecting some resistance. I portioned out four plates worth and set them down, spaced generously, around the kitchen. Miko, Stephanie and PJ immediately settled down and polished their plates within just a few minutes. Gone. All of it.
And you know, I actually felt bad to see them wolf it down that fast. I’m sure they liked gnawing on bones, and I loved that they had the opportunity to eat as God intended, but I think even they recognized that the ground mixture provides good, solid sustenance. Scully was the only one who remained skeptical. Not that she’d suffer for a few missed meals or anything.
what’s been happening this week
April 7, 2007 l 2 Comments
Last weekend, Peanut managed to inhale water from their water dish and has been congested and sneezy ever since. We had a vet appointment set for Thursday morning, but sometime after midnight the electricity, running water and phones were all knocked out by a big snowstorm. They were restored just this afternoon; as a result, we missed the appointment and will have to reschedule.
I had been planning on giving Dr. G, Peanut’s vet, a card telling him how well she was doing. Of course that will now have to be postponed, but I did get a photo of Peanut printed up for him. When my mom went to pick it up yesterday, the woman at the counter said, “I need to tell you a story about this photo…” My mom figured something was wrong with the printing, but the woman continued. “The girls in the back see photos all the time. Most of the time, they don’t even pay attention and just send them through to the printer. When your order came through we could here them all the way up front. ‘You have got to see this bunny!’ We had been having a rough day with the power outtage and all, but that just made our morning.” That’s my Peanut, making fans wherever she goes 
The animals fared pretty well despite the outtage. We had a generator running to keep the place heated, and for extra measure the mice were moved to a central part of the house. I don’t even know if the rabbits noticed the change. The cats had a harder time, because raw meat just does not to keep well without proper refrigeration. Their chicken lasted twenty-four hours before it really became a problem. Last night and this morning we were forced to give them some canned food (PetGuard) which three of the four only picked at. Stephanie, our littlest girl, gorged herself then promptly barfed it all up. Made me sad that they were hungrier than usual, but happy that they have obviously developed a taste for real food.
And were they ever overjoyed to see some fresh meat tonight (well, three of the four). Stephanie shot me an incredibly hurt look and sat down with her back to the chicken. Now that the proper feeding routine has been reestablished, she’ll have to once again be the last to eat. I think she rather enjoyed being head honcho at mealtimes.
trusting your gut
March 31, 2007 l Comments Off
Or in this case, theirs.
The cats have been on a raw food diet for over a year now, with fantastic results. Their FLUTD completely cleared up. Their coats have become much softer and shinier. Their teeth are white, their breath is odorless (as are their poops!) and they’ve became much more lean and active.
But this past week, there was something ‘off’ about their chicken. They wouldn’t touch it. This is free-range, organically-fed, antibiotic-and-hormone-free human grade meat. Not cheap stuff, either. But they wouldn’t eat it. I became concerned after their second meal was left alone, not so much as a nibble. And I did what any (somewhat sane) pet mommy would do. I ditched the chicken and bought some fresh meat. After 36 hours of eating only chunks of dehydrated chicken, their special treats, they gladly sank their teeth into it.
I don’t know what it was about that batch that bothered them, but I knew enough to respect their instincts. Four cats can’t be wrong (especially when one *cough* Scully *cough* is such a food fiend).
It reminded me of last year’s food recall when several dogs died of liver failure due to a corn fungus in their food. A few owners told of their dogs’ reluctance to eat the food, how they turned their noses up until hunger drove them to eat it, and it was only in hindsight that they realized what their pets knew all along. I cannot imagine the grief and guilt I would feel if that were my dog.
And now again pets are dying. You do your best to protect them and yet in some twisted irony, that which is intended to sustain them – kills them. The recalls are spreading. I pray comfort to those who have lost their precious companions.
Without intending to sound smug, it does make me glad that I have such a large measure of oversight as to what my cats are eating. I know where it comes from and what happens to it along the way. Even when things go somewhat awry, their senses, honed after generations of carnivores, alert them. A lot of people think raw feeding is inherently dangerous. At the moment, I can’t think of anything that would be safer.
testing my personal limitations
November 30, 2006 l Comments Off
I feed the cats a whole prey model raw diet, which means I try to provide a balanced diet of meats, bones, and organs in as whole a form as possible (i.e. whole chicken). But whole chicken isn’t really whole chicken, it’s been plucked and devoid of, among other things, it’s head and feet.
So I took the next logical step and ordered really-truly-authentic whole prey: mice.
No, not live mice, that’d be cruel (have you ever seen how cats treat their prey?). Rather, these are humanely euthanized mice from a company that mainly supplies snake and lizard owners.
Cats eat mice, of course, I know this. But carving up a not-so-whole chicken is a lot easier than thawing out a little mouse. Why? I know the mouse was treated a lot better than the chicken ever was. It met a much kinder end.
I did it
June 28, 2006 l Comments Off
I finally ordered our own meat grinder. A bit of an initial expense, but a money saver in the long run.
I didn’t need this today!
June 15, 2006 l 1 Comment
*argh*
I’ve been ordering whole ground chicken from Hare Today since February, no problems yet, and I always leave plenty of time for a delivery to make it here.
Well, I ordered 20 more pounds of ground chicken Thursday, June 1st, a full two weeks before I needed it. I got a shipping confirmation saying that the food would be sent out Monday, June 12th . Okay, that’s cutting it a little close, but no big deal (my fault anyway for ordering past the cut-off date). Shipping takes three days at most because it’s frozen meat and perishable. So it would still be here in time for me to make up some more food.
It was supposed to be delivered today. It’s not here!
Better yet, FedEx’s tracking site said they delivered it. Well…where is it?!
I called the customer support line and they said they’d “address the issue”. Gee, thanks. My cats aren’t going to starve, but they aren’t going to be happy with the plain chicken and hearts for dinner either.
Best part is, if that food doesn’t get here soon it’s going to be bad, and then we’re really in trouble.
*grrrrrrrrrr* This is so maddening.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Well, it definitely won’t be here tonight. Apparently they can’t get hold of the driver until tomorrow morning, so I’ll be getting a call between seven and eight a.m. that will hopefully tell me just how in the world they managed to lose twenty pounds of raw ground chicken. Oy…
Oh, and as soon as I get the fundage I’m ordering my own meat grinder. Buying pre-ground is great if you have no other option, but by grinding my own meat I can be sure to avoid these last minute quandaries that seem to be plaguing me lately.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The food arrived just after 8 am, Friday morning. No reason as to why it wasn’t delivered yesterday, just that we were at the “end of the route”. So I guess that means they can decide not to deliver the package and yet lie and say they did? Whatever.
At any rate, I mixed up a bunch of food and the cats are very happy that mommy finally got her act together.
A Raw Food Tutorial
May 2, 2006 l 2 Comments
This diet is based on the recipes at catinfo.org and catnutrition.org. There are other sites and several books written on the subject of raw food nutrition for cats. I would encourage anyone interested in a raw diet to seek out such resources. Research before raw.
Now that my public service announcement is out of the way, on to the food…I am a highly visual person, so there are a lot of pictures to illustrate the process. Quite obviously, there’s a lot of shots containing raw meat. If you’re squeamish, consider yourself warned.
We start with four pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs purchased at the local store or butcher of your choosing (in this case, Wild Oats). Using meat that is preservative/hormone/antibiotic-free is important when feeding a raw diet, though it’s not such a bad idea for humans either.
The chicken is diced into small, bite-sized chunks. This encourages chewing, which is not only good for the kitties’ teeth, but also stimulates the process of digestion.
Next, we take one pound of raw chicken hearts (shown below, whole) and cut them into similar bite-sized pieces. Heart muscle is packed with taurine, an essential nutrient for cats.
The bulk of the diet consists of ground whole chicken. The ground chicken and chicken hearts are purchased from Hare Today, small farm that raises, among other things, free range chickens without the use of hormones or antibiotics.
I buy the ground chicken in 5-pound ‘tubes’. Within three days of shipping, it arrives on our doorstep still frozen. For the time being this method is the most convenient, because we don’t have any way to grind our own meat.
All together the ground chicken, chicken hearts, and chunks are nearly ten pounds of meat. It sounds like a lot, but four fully grown cats can eat a combined pound of food a day. I’m starting to understand how real zookeepers feel.
*throughout this whole process, hands are washed and the counters are wiped down multiple times – raw chicken isn’t something to be fooled around with*
Next, we add 1½ cups of water. This is actually less water than the recipes call for, but that comes into play later on at meal times: adding warm water to the thawed food makes it much more palatable.
The water and various meats get mixed together.
And we move on to supplements…
from left to right: Vitamin B Complex (400 mg per 10 pounds of meat), Taurine (8000 mg), and Vitamine E (1600 IU).
The supplements are mixed together with one tablespoon cod liver oil and eight large egg yolks (no egg whites – they contain avidin, which can impede absorption of biotin in the small intestine) Separating the egg yolks is probably the most tedious part of the whole process. The eggs are from a local farm, so unlike commercially farmed eggs, they’re large with thick shells and similarly thick egg whites. It makes it very hard to separate, but the yolks are large and healthy (and a rather bright yellow color). By the way, these eggs also make a great egg salad sandwich. Cooked, that is.
The ‘supplement slurry’ is added to the meat…
…and mixed together. Now it’s ready to be stored. I find Mason jars to be the most convenient, but be sure to get the ones for canning and freezing.
One half-pound per jar, which divided among four cats is equal to one meal:
All told, there’s enough food for nine days. After setting aside the next few meals in the fridge, the rest of the food is packed away in the freezer, and each can is taken out and placed in the refrigerator to thaw 24 hours before it will be served.
Now all that’s left to do are the dishes:
in praise of raw
March 31, 2006 l 1 Comment
It’s been over a month since the three youngest cats have had any sign of urinary problems. Which may not seem like very long, until you realize that from the end of December until the end of February, every two weeks there would be at least one cat at the vet.
But a month ago, after it seemed like we would never get to the root of these issues, the vet thought it was time for a radical diet change. I agreed. Only I had a very different change in mind.
Raw food isn’t a universal solution. But has worked for us, and marvelously. The cats are sleeker, have softer, shinier coats, and absolutely no signs of ill health.
Our vet is somewhat anti-raw food (and by ‘somewhat’ I mean that he thinks it’s stupid and dangerous). So it gives me no small amount of pleasure to think about the next time the cats have their check-up (many, many months from now), when I will have the opportunity to educate the vet about what has been working for us.
