He screamed "Science Diet is the best cat food"

[BigDaveyL]

Originally Posted by Kobster

In some parts of my state, (Texas) They will euthanize and test if you don't have proof of vaccine if your pet bites a human. I live in a high rabies county, its usually case by case, but I have seen family pets put to sleep by the county after a bite so their heads can be sent to Austin for testing. It is also fairly common for an older pet whose owners didn't they needed vaccines anymore because they were old, to bite someone during the euthanasia process and then we have to do the "unthinkable" and remove the pets head to submit for testing. Required by law in Texas. So in my mind, its better to vaccinate than risk those consequences. That and, the risk of contracting rabies still exists. We had a cat test positive after submission just two weeks ago. A family pet that "never left the back yard" but was also never vaccinated. Know your local laws before you decide not to vaccinate your cat.

This is good advice. Better safe than sorry if local laws require this!

[builder]

I just wish someone would tell me what to feed the cats and be done with it. I don’t want to do all the research. Not only do I not have the time, but there are so many opinions that it gives me a headache.
Last week I had to go out to buy cat food and I thought I want to buy healthy, but after looking at all the different choices. I decided to just get the same stuff as I always have.
My sister called to say her cat just got out of surgery for the same urinary problems that we had and asked what we feed ours. I told her what the vet prescribed us, but now that I’ve been reading these threads in catforum, I just don’t know what to do. Her cat has tubes hanging out that she has to administer antibiotics and she has to massage his bladder. She is like me and just overwhelmed by all this.

[Arkona]

Originally Posted by builder

I just wish someone would tell me what to feed the cats and be done with it. I don’t want to do all the research. Not only do I not have the time, but there are so many opinions that it gives me a headache.

It's overwhelming, I know. But like so many things in life, you can't just trust someone else to tell you what to do and be done with it. It doesn't matter if it's a teacher, a doctor, a politician, or a vet. You need to research for yourself and come up with your own conclusions using logic.

Of course most information out there has some sort of bias built in, but try to follow the logic behind each claim to rule out what's most unreasonable.

Yes, we're not scientists, we're not vets, we're not cat nutritionists, we can't come up with first-hand scientific research and truly find this stuff out on our own, but we CAN check multiple sources and use our heads to draw conclusions that make sense to us.

[lovetimesfour]

Originally Posted by builder

I just wish someone would tell me what to feed the cats and be done with it. I don’t want to do all the research. Not only do I not have the time, but there are so many opinions that it gives me a headache.
Last week I had to go out to buy cat food and I thought I want to buy healthy, but after looking at all the different choices. I decided to just get the same stuff as I always have.
My sister called to say her cat just got out of surgery for the same urinary problems that we had and asked what we feed ours. I told her what the vet prescribed us, but now that I’ve been reading these threads in catforum, I just don’t know what to do. Her cat has tubes hanging out that she has to administer antibiotics and she has to massage his bladder. She is like me and just overwhelmed by all this.

The most basic advice is this: Schedule feed wet (canned) food, no fish. The number one most important thing for cats is moisture in their food. That means canned food.

That is the jumping off point. Then you get into grain free, fruit and veggie free, carrageenan free, no menadione sodium bisulfate, low carbs.....that's where you need to form your own choices based on what your cats will eat, what you can afford, what is available to you.

But the most bottom of bottom lines, especially for a cat with urinary tract disorders is, canned food, no fish.

Here's a good site to start with, written by a veterinarian who has made it her business to know what cats need most.

www.catinfo.org

[Penny135]

Originally Posted by scottd

My vet sells Science Diet but they have not ever recommended it to me. Am I the only one?

Mine sell it too but have never recommended it to me either.

[MowMow]

Originally Posted by scottd

My vet sells Science Diet but they have not ever recommended it to me. Am I the only one?

My vet doesn't even sell it. They have a variety of cat food but it is all grain free canned. The push the raw but don't carry it, they do have a list of local stores that do. It has all the web pages for the major brands of raw.

[hoofmaiden]

It is very unlikely that the pet will be euthanized--generally that is for unowned pets who bite someone. I.e., that is on the books that they CAN do that everywhere in case they "need" to (unowned stray bites someone), but it is very unlikely that if an owned and clearly cared for animal bites someone that they will do this. Possible? Sure--anything is possible. But highly unlikely.

It's a risk-benefit analysis. For me, with indoor cats who never have the opportunity to bite someone (let alone the desire), to me the risk of over-vaccination is greater than either the risk of their contracting disease or the risk of their biting someone and that bite being reported. It's a decision everyone has to make for themselves. But the notion that animal control is running around checking homes for cats w/out vaccinations is, obviously, silly.

Where I live, it's silly re: dogs as well. Doodlebug lives in New England, where there are practically no homeless dogs (the sad fact is that most of the dogs adopted in NE come from the South--there is an entire transport business that does nothing but shuttle dogs up from here to there to new homes b/c they don't have enough dogs and we have way too many). So there is no WAY that AC here is gonna spend time checking tags LOL. The very few officers that each county has are busy dealing w/ cruelty cases, etc. But I can see that in some areas it might happen. And I do believe that it's in everyone's best interest to keep dogs up to date--my dogs get their rabies shots every 3 years (although I do not booster the other vax after 1 year). Dogs are out in the world much more than cats and are more likely to be in a situation where they might bite. Risk-benefit analysis works the other way for dogs IMO.

[Arianwen]

Going way back in the thread but I am not sure that "wild" cats do necessarily avoid all the health problems. I have known farm cats who live primarily on a diet of "whole prey" and who still develop the problems mentioned.

I have often said that my cats (and my dog) get a diet high in raw and home prepared food but they get other things as well (for reasons I have explained elsewhere). On average, they live very long lives but nothing is quite that simple.

[MowMow]

Originally Posted by Arianwen

Going way back in the thread

HOw refreshing! At least diet is on topic....

[Catmamma]

Ok. What do you feed a cat who doesn't like canned food? It doesn't matter what kind. She takes two bites and turns up her nose. She will eat dry and does drink water. No vomitting or litter box problems. I would try that dehydrated raw if I knew where to find it.