As some know, we rescue animals as well as people, and here we have two dogs and two cats. The cats are siblings and a more loving and lovely pair could not be found anywhere. Black with white and fluffy and huge.
Last winter, the girl started demanding to use a tray rather than going outside, and it was alarming then to see pink on the paper we use. But it passed and she stopped needing a tray at all.
A while ago, once more the demand for a tray and once more pink on the paper. As it did not stop even with cranberry joice, we needed to get antibiotics for her. The vets here are of course an unknown quantity.. And there was no way we could afford a consultation fee.
The first vet we tried ... she emerged in green scrubs and gave a hectic lecture re these not being available OTC etc etc etc.. so we politely thanked her and went on our way.
And just on a chance dropped in at another vet clinic we pass frequently..... No problem; the girl called the young man vet; I told him what the problem was and he sold me antibiotics for cystitis at a fair price. As they say, no name, no pack drill.
( Guess which vet we shall be using!)
Easy to crush them and mix with tuna.. treat, treat, treat!
Yet as soon as they stopped, back came the pink and red. No sign of real pain and this is a very vocal cat who would yell.
By this time we were reading online... Our cats eat mostly raw chicken but some kibble.
Back to the vet; who explained that the anti-biotics would deal with infection but not with inflammation, so he sold me a bag of very expensive prescription urinary diet food. VERY expensive indeed.. could have bought 28 kilos of raw chicken for a couple of weeks supply.... ouch!
By then we had read some long and well researched articles, and the message coming across was, feed wet/raw food.
So out went the usual kibble and back to the raw chicken and tuna etc, to the disgust of the cat who loves her kibble. Oh such wails of "hunger"!
But no more red or pink in the tray.
So, as we are conditioned to believe the vets, we tried just a little of his costly kibble, and there appeared a large red spot in the tray. Tried that twice with the same result. Back to raw and she is clear since then.
The message is clear and simple. Whatever good ingredients kibble contains, it also has grain products which are alien to cats. And it also has no water.
So now cat gets treats of tuna "diluted" with water, so that she is well-hydrated, and raw chicken and kibble is OFF the menu permanently in this house.
It teaches that we need to read labels and watch and make our own decisions. We did not and do not want our cats permanently on medication as many are for this condition if there is another way. With this cat it seems to be the grain that was irritating and causing this, along with not enough fluids.
When we checked that online, there was trustworthy evidence.
The one article to read is this one..
http://www.catinfo.org/
Vets are skilled folk; but often they know less about nutrition etc than a careful owner. What makes sense "scientifically" may not work for every cat.
And it makes sense that the first line of approach should be dietary; what we put in our bodies matters.
And that diet may be at fault rather than thinking first of medication.
So now all our animals are almost totally on raw or home cooked food. It works out cheaper by the way too.
A local "chicken factory" sells packs of necks ; E3 per 9 kilos, and legs. E6 for 9 kilos. That feeds all of us a good while.
The slow cooker makes an excellent chicken stew/soup with pulses and carrots that the dogs share, with brown bread mixed in.
Yes we know; these are not free range birds. But this needs balance. Intensive farming will not stop until legislation forbids it. If the prices were not so outrageously beyond our slender means? The suffering of hens cannot be compared with the suffering of our babies, of the people of Japan.. if we insisted on buying only organic etc then we would have so much less to send to feed others who have nothing. And we would eat less safely ourselves.
A mother with a family to feed cannot choose six eggs rather than 18 at the same price.
Now we have a cat who thinks she is getting so many treats and who adores us even more than she did before.
So we learn as we live. Listening, thinking, reading.
For this care of our cats is a part of our life as we strive to raise funds and support our Sisters in Japan. Whose lives were saved by an utter miracle of grace.
Nothing is outside that grace, that love, that provision..
An odd anomaly then. Talking to someone at a car boot sale... she is deep into "food reading"; asking if there was sugar in our jams.."Sugar is poison..." she declares. Not so , say we; it is a question of balance always.. And chocolate is good, we said. Oh yes, chocolate, she agreed, is fine. Hmmm.. of course we said nothing about the sugar content of chocolate..She feeds her dog kibble.
Ah well.. as an old Yorkshire lady used to say, "Nowt so queer as folks..."
