VIRB

We almost lost our cat last week. She had been sick for a couple of weeks. It started with excessive drinking water, and of course flooding the litter box. Then she started throwing up. That only lasted a day or two but then she had no desire to eat or drink at all. She stopped eating completely, stopped using the litter box, she just layed around and slept. She had her moments when she seemed like she was improving only to go back downhill.

Finally we took her to the vet because we were worried she was going to starve herself. We had no clue what was wrong: a virus, something she ate, a hairball, an alergic reaction. The vet kept her for tests and to get her hydrated. They put her on an IV of fluids and vitamins. Our little kitty was in bad shape. We thought we were going to loose her.

This isn't the first time. When she was only a few months old, barely weaned, she was in the yard and a stray cat attacked and almost killed her. We had to rush her to the vet who stitched her back together. She was ripped into pieces, the cat almost took one of her legs off, she had stitches everywhere. We nursed her back to health but she still hates all other cats, and the vet.

Then we had her spayed. We were told female cats are heathier that way, and you don't have to worry about the monthly Pon'far. She was insane the first time she went into heat. After that she really hated the vet. We took her recently to get her shots and she about ripped the vet apart. They put a muzzle on her but she ripped it off and bit the vet. Vicious kitty.

This time the vet had to mildly sedate her so they could treat her. Even in her weakened condition she came alive, all teeth and claws, when the vet tried to look at her: and this is a different vet. The vet called us back and said we could come get our baby befor they closed for the night or we could pick her up in the morning. We rushed right there. We wanted our baby home.

When we got there the vet told us what was wrong with kitty... Diabetes. Our two year old cat has diabetes!! I didn't even know cats got diabetes. I knew old overweight dogs could develop it, but young healthy cats? I came straight home and started researching. One of the best resources I found was http://felinediabetes.com/ There is loads of information there and links to much more.

From what I am learning we create our "Sugar Kitties" by the way we feed them. I grew up with outdoor cats who ate a little of what we feed them and hunted mice, rats, birds, etc. We lived in the country and had many cats around. They never got sick. My kitty now is a house cat, new concept for me. We live in a neighborhood, and after the incident with the vicious cat when she was a baby we keep her inside.

We feed her the dry cat food the vet recommended. Those dry foods are full of junk that cats would never eat, if the pet food companies didn't flavor them so well. They are low in protein, high in carbs, mostly empty fluff calories. Basically junk food for cats. The main ingredients in most dry food is corn and soy. Cats are carnivores, where is the meat? Not on the dry cat food on the market.

I will give some credit to Purina. They have done some research and have a dry food that is the best out there. Very high in protein, low in carbs. It still has some of the veggie fillers but not as much and has some actuall meat protein. Not their normal brands however, this is a special brand only available from the vet at $40 for 12lbs. The normal Purina brands are as bad as all the rest. Why? Profits. Meat = expensive but soy-protein and corn fillers = profits.

The best food by far is canned, unless i want to move back to the country and let Sugar Kitty learn to hunt live food. The Purina DM brand dry may be the best dry but it isn't close to canned or fresh food. Even some of the canned food is full of fillers, you have to read every can. Even within the same brand there are good and bad varieties. One flavor may be zero carbs and high protein another from the same maker high carb and low protein.

We are feeding our pets junk food. It is like feeding your kids three meals a day and McD's and wondering why they are fat and develop heart disease. Oh, wait, some people do. But with pet food we are in the dark. If we feed them what is healthy for us they would die. Your dog can't live on salads and tofu. At least dogs are close to us in the eating habits. They eat any and everything. You could feed them heathy food like chicken, patatoes, a few veggies for vitamins, and they would be fine. Cats are not.

Cats are carnivores. They eat meat, only meat. They don't dig for roots, chew on bones, or wolf down a biscuit. They need protein and lots of it. They do not need carbs. They are natural Atkins Diet eaters. Feeding them a bunch of ground corn is like feeding the baby candy. Yes they like it, they even get hooked on it, and turn their nose up at heathy food. Feeding them high carb food causes them to develop Diabetes.

We have the 12lb bag of kibble the vet sold us for 40 bucks when she told us the cat was diabetic. That is what we are feeding her now. We threw away the old food we had. She needs to eat and get her strength back right now, she lost 20% of her body weight, so it is not a good time for drastic food changes. She is already being finicky about the new food.

We are going to slowly transition her to moist and canned food and even supplement some pure meat into her diet. I'm not buying live mice for kitty but we are going to try to feed her a more natural diet. We were lucky and right now she doesn't need to go on insulin. I was not looking forward to giving her two shots a day plus pricking her to test her blood sugar several times a day. I'm sure kitty is happy about that too.

What she eats will make the difference. The better we can regulate her diabetes with diet the better chance she can stay off of insulin. There are even many cases where cats taken off of dry food stop having to be on insulin even some who have been on insulin for years. The evidence is so strong that dry food is causing cats to need insulin but many vets, and the pet food companies, refuse to acknowledge it. If you have a cat look into this. Even non-diabetic cats are healthier on high protein low carb diets. No pet should have to live on junk food their whole life.