I thought my cat would be healthy

[evenifigoalone]

I mean. I know what to do. I fed prey model raw to my dog for years. 80% meat, 10% bone (you can even crush egg shells for this if needed), 5% liver, 5% other secreting organ. Cats are a little more complicated mainly because of the taurine if I remember correctly. (Also because cats can be like crazy picky and may refuse some things no matter how much they actually need to eat them. I don't see that being a problem with my cat since it seems he'll eat literally anything, and I made darn sure to introduce him to raw foods as a kitten, but there is the possibility it could come up.) The way to calculate how much to feed is pretty simple, too....though I'm confusing myself a bit here. lol It's been a while.

The only problems are availability and price. Like most raw feeders, when I hung out with them online more, said it wasn't very costly for them. But the price of meat really did go up in our area after a while. Even with my 15 lb dog.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Oh, I will say this as a disclaimer: please please PLEASE do your research before feeding raw. I honestly think a meat-based commercial diet is better than being lazy with the diet or not really knowing what you're doing. Be smart.
Like...speaking from personal experience it's actually not that easy to screw up, but people can be really....lazy, so.....

 

[evenifigoalone]

And I just want to make sure to avoid the stuff he isn't supposed to eat. The vet didn't say anything about protein restriction, and he's in the early stages anyway, so I don't think that's something I need to worry about.
And I don't think sodium should be an issue so long as I avoid enhanced meat. (But enhanced meat isn't good to feed anyway.) Not sure about phosphorus, though....

I'm still needing to read more on kidney healthy diets, though I'm pretty sure based on what I've read so far that a diet made of fresh, unprocessed ingredients should have minimal at most concerns.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Went to the pet store, bought some feeder mice And some prepackaged raw chicken and bones (already ground).

I was looking at the raw patties they sell. Most of the stuff in the freezer there is listed as for dogs, and the patties themselves are ground and contain a lot of different meats. And vegetables....which is not something I'm really into for cat food.
I did ask about cat stuff at the register, how often they're in stock and all. It looks like if I were to buy these they would definitely be cheaper than the prescription diet. I just want to do a little more research and be sure that the included ingredients have low amounts of the stuff we're supposed to be avoiding.

Prepackaged raw was never something I was really into, but with my concerns about the ability to provide the needed ingredients and the price of meat, it would be easier and cheaper.

 

[evenifigoalone]

If nothing else, I think I can definitely affordably supplement the diet with feeder mice and the prepackaged ground stuff. My mom and I are talking about splitting the cost of the prescription diet between us, if we keep having to buy it.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Moar handsome kitty

 

[reba]

Live feeder mice ?
could be the mice in the kitchen .. if the renters are using poison . is encouraging your kitty to catch and eat a good idea

Our son had 14 well cared for cats one of the big California fires killed 3 ..

 

[evenifigoalone]

They're dead mice. I always specify frozen feeder mice to the employees.

And he catches things already anyway.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Reading up more on the disease itself right now.
Chronic renal failure is irreversible and terminal, all that can really be done is to slow the disease’s progression. ….so that’s fun.

I’m definitely going to get a second opinion, though. Come to find out my vet didn’t do all of the testing that’s actually needed. (What they did was a blood test and told me the values related to the kidneys were very high.) But I think that’s because I went in there with only a very limited amount of money, I wouldn’t have been able to afford the urine test anyway.
Normally people discover CRF when their cat begins showing symptoms, but it can also be discovered incidentally during a routine blood test in the early stages of the disease long before any symptoms become apparent. Which would be what happened in this case.

 

[evenifigoalone]

My pets have more medical needs than I have income, this suuuuucks

It's not like we weren't in a much better financial situation when we first got them. I mean, don't get a pet if you can't take care of it, right? But we weren't like this until we'd had them for a good while.

How an I going to take care of my cat when he gets to later stages of this disease, augh!

 

[reba]

how old is the cat?

 

[evenifigoalone]

He's turning three in a couple weeks.

 

[reba]

he is a kitten...a oreo kitten I had never heard that asa cat name before.. Sparky is 12

 

[evenifigoalone]

thinking how am I going to afford this when it gets to the later stages and he needs more things like supplements and other treatments and I AM GOING TO EXPLODE

 

[evenifigoalone]

So went to see another vet today, and I frkn love this vetbecause they were telling me about a website about cat diets and I didn't say anything but it basically follows the whole meat-based diet thing and yeeeeeee.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Just....I AM NOT USED TO VETS ACTUALLY BEING WELL INFORMED ON NUTRITION HOLY HECK