|
I think it's kind of ridiculous for a pet store to not stock a food ever again just because it was recalled. If every food that ever had a recall was never allowed back on shelves... well, there wouldn't be many pet foods left.
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2013 18:20
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:46 |
|
|
Because chicken breast alone is not even remotely close to a balanced diet for a cat and would be missing many important nutrients. If you want to give your cat chicken breast, then make it a treat, which means it shouldn't be over 10% of your cat's regular daily caloric intake.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2013 05:55
|
|
|
That still looks like a lot of food. 2 cups of food for 4 cats... my cats never ate 1/2 cup per day, plus those cats are getting wet food too. For reference, both my cats are at their ideal weight at 8lbs. each, and one eats one 5.8oz can a day, and one eats 2/3 of a can a day to maintain their weights. They're on Urinary SO and Hill's d/d venison too, so it's not even a brand that's super calorie dense. I think that's like 140-160kcal/day for them.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2013 16:18
|
|
|
Calculations are guidelines and starting points. Every animal is different. If you had no idea how much to feed, then it would be good to use that and see how he does. If he's eating his food and he's maintaining his weight and you don't think he's too skinny or too fat, then what you're feeding is a good amount.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2013 19:31
|
|
|
Yes! The average 6-inch bully stick has about 88 calories.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2013 05:09
|
|
|
Yeah, Horizon is local to this province, and I really like them. They're doing nutrition research with my vet school too, and research with pet food companies is always a plus.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2013 01:52
|
|
|
Whoa whoa whoa, I'd trust your vet over some random opinion on the internet. A gazillion different things can cause diarrhea - if he has it after only eating wet food regardless of what type of wet food it is, I doubt it's an allergy. Have you ever tried mixing a tiny bit of wet food with his normal dry food? Does he still get diarrhea then? What wet foods have you tried? Royal Canin Satiety is a valid diet food, but I do personally prefer to go high protein and low carb for cats. That doesn't mean your vet is a bad vet for recommending it, as I'm sure it's worked for lots of cats even if it doesn't seem to be working for yours. Foods that meet requirements for cats and kittens generally have a higher caloric content than foods that are made just for cats, but not necessarily higher fat. Kittens don't have a higher requirement for fat than adult cats. Eating a variety of proteins isn't automatically bad for their digestive system. The only irritating thing is that it crosses off a lot of proteins that you could potentially use as a novel protein in case he did develop a food allergy, but that food has chicken, turkey, and some fish, which are all pretty common animal proteins in cat food anyway so it really shouldn't be a problem at all. Switching to a food with only turkey will not help him in this case because he is already on a food with turkey in it. Light-coloured poop is not a symptom of a food allergy. I would shrug that off too. Only look for a strict duck food if you are really sure you want to pursue a food allergy, which I do believe is pretty unlikely at this point. If you do want to try it, he has to ONLY have that one food for at least 8 weeks. And I mean only that food. He cannot have a single bite of anything else. Again, if his only symptom is that he gets diarrhea when you give him wet food, I really would not pursue food allergies at this point in time. Re: blood test, I would agree with your vet. He is a 2-year-old cat who is becoming quite fat - 99% of the time, this is because he's getting too many calories. If he was eating a lot and was losing weight, then absolutely he should get some blood work. A disease causing weight gain in a cat despite normal intake would be quite uncommon. What else does the cat eat? Does he get any treats? Any table scraps? Is the cup you use to measure his food a normal measuring cup?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2014 05:36
|
|
|
I agree that the ingredients for most pet prescription foods are pretty crappy for cats (especially the dry foods), but that doesn't mean they don't generally work for their intended purpose and it doesn't mean they're a bad vet for recommending something they've had success with in the past even if I personally wouldn't recommend it myself. Yes, in dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, they don't digest their food properly and their stools get very fatty and light in colour. In cats, not only is EPI extremely rare, but some of sort of intestinal disorder that causes malabsorption would make the cat lose weight, not gain weight. A malabsorptive disorder is not the only cause of light poop. Sometimes, animals just have light-coloured poop and it's normal for them. I honestly think fecal samples have very limited diagnostic value and we don't do them here a lot - if you think he has parasites, just deworm him instead, although again, a high parasite load would cause weight loss if anything, not weight gain. jacido, your vet asked multiple times because people will literally say, "No, he doesn't get any other food, I swear! ... Except for the two strips of bacon we give him every morning." He should believe you though when you insisted that you don't give him anything else, and I'm sorry that he didn't. At this point I would recommend switching back to Orijen as I personally believe it's a better food for kitties. He'll need to be eating much less of it, as Crooked has already pointed out. I'd also recommend some scheduled playtime every day so he can burn off some of those calories. What does he like playing with? Would he play with those food puzzle balls?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2014 17:31
|
|
|
Look up SlimCat - there are a lot of similar food toys too. Basically it's a little plastic ball with holes in it and you put the kibble in and he has to roll the ball around to get the food to drop out. You can feed him his meals in it and that way he really has to work for his food. I have a feeling once he starts slimming down a bit he'll be more active at playtime too.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2014 20:52
|
|
|
diadem posted:Is "By Nature (95% meat)" for cats still on the top? One of my two cats started losing a lot of weight. According to an Amazon review, they changed their formula since the original post. Unless they changed their formula to halve the caloric content per can, I would take your cat to the vet to get that checked out.
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2014 16:37
|
|
|
Brush every day. If you don't do it at least 3-4x a week, it's a waste of time because it only takes about 2 days for tartar to harden to the point where you can't just brush it off. Aim for every day so if you miss a day it's ok. The veterinary dentist who taught me was never a fan of bones. They can break teeth, get stuck in the GI tract, etc. She goes by a knee test, so if you can't comfortably hit your knee with it, you shouldn't give it to your dog.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2014 04:58
|
|
|
We have gotten dogs who have spent their life chewing bones or they get like anesthetic-free dentals or something and while they look perfect on the outside, the dental rads reveal terrible periodontal disease underneath the gum line. Hell, sometimes it's just hard to tell. Our dentist's dog broke a tooth and while her other teeth looked absolutely perfect, when she went under for her dental and they took dental rads she actually needed 8 teeth extracted. Gross examination is far from perfect.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2014 05:45
|
|
|
nunsexmonkrock posted:Does royal Canine urinary s/o make their wet food in chuncks or shreds? My cat with urinary problems despises pattes and wont touch it. He eats the dry food though but I want to get him switched to mostly wet food. There's a form of it in chunks with gravy but it comes in tiny cans.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2015 21:18
|
|
|
attackmole posted:My vet said that "almost all cat food has enough protein" and that high protein stuff is a marketing gimmick. Then she said that my current high-protein dry food brand was too high calorie (Petcurean Go Fit+ Free) and recommended a different brand in the low quality section listed here....that has a grand total of 5 calories less a cup . I think you said it well yourself. I personally disagree with her nutrition philosophy. When it comes to cat food, I try to go for the highest protein I can. Yes, cat foods will have "enough" protein, but they're obligate carnivores, they do well on protein. And as you said yourself, the old food is only 5 calories less per cup. I think if your cat is doing well on the current food, there's no need to switch.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2015 05:59
|
|
|
Cats rarely ever get UTIs, especially male cats. I don't think there's been a study associating the two.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2015 04:39
|
|
|
Brushing is the #1 best thing you can do, but you have to do it every day. It only takes 48-72 hours for the plaque to harden to the point where brushing won't remove it, so at least if you aim for every day and forget and skip a day once in a while, it doesn't matter. It's really best to aim for every day.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2015 00:48
|
|
|
My cat has a history of urinary tract issues and I feed him a mix of dry food + non-prescription wet food with added water, for what it's worth. You should call and ask your vet since they've examined your animal, but I am my cat's vet and my opinion with him is that the moisture is the most important part.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2015 20:38
|
|
|
I think it's great your dog is doing so well on the new diet, but a diet of chicken quarters without other supplementation isn't balanced, so I hope you're giving other things too. Dogs can for the most part make a lot of things for themselves, but just a couple weeks ago I saw a dog die of heart disease secondary to taurine deficiency. Probably won't happen with you because you feed meat but it happens.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 4, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
feld posted:Dark meat on birds/fowl is full of taurine, yes. The question is why do people keep throwing around "balanced" without defining what that is? (hint: it's just hand waving) It's like how people throw around the word "toxins" when speaking of cleanses. "Balanced" isn't handwaving. To most people it'll mean that it's either formulated or has gone through a diet trial to meet AAFCO standards. I'm personally ok with meeting either AAFCO or NRC standards. feld posted:If dog kibble was balanced then why are there so many kinds? You can't claim to have a line of dog food that is "perfectly formulated for your pet's health!" and then have a dozen other variants claiming to help with certain ailments. If the first one is fully balanced you wouldn't need to make the others. This is a ridiculous argument. There's a lot of different kinds of kibble because of marketing and companies that want to make money selling dog food. Diets can also be balanced while catering to different markets (see: grocery store pet food vs. grain-free, prescription diets, etc.). There's different types and brands of raw food too; it doesn't really mean anything. Why make more than one type of any item ever? Also, it's not non-sensical to have foods for different ailments. A balanced diet doesn't mean that your animal will never develop kidney disease, or allergies, or arthritis, or heart disease. feld posted:Listen, your dog/cat probably isn't going to roll over and die because of what you're feeding it. But what does slowly kill your pet is periodontal disease which affects 60% by 2 years of age and 85% by 3 years of age. It affects their entire body. Never neglect their health of their mouth. I agree; dental health is very important. But just because teeth look good from the outside doesn't mean there's no periodontal disease. You need dental radiographs to prove that. Braki fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Dec 4, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Dec 4, 2015 23:47
|
|
|
SlicerDicer posted:Query posted to my vet in text. I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about anymore but as I said earlier, that's great that your dog is doing well on this diet. A diet that consists solely of knucklebones and chicken leg quarters though is unlikely to be balanced, so again, I hope you're adding something else in there. I'm going to address that quote by saying basically... I disagree. I didn't really understand the value of dental radiographs until I actually took a dental rotation during vet school with a veterinary dentist and learned firsthand that what you see on the surface doesn't reflect what occurs below the gumline. In fact, our veterinary dentist had to bring in her own dog for a dental due to a tooth fracture. The dog's teeth looked immaculate. After they took rads, they discovered the dog needed 7 extractions. I think you would be extremely hard pressed to find a vet who specializes in dentistry who will agree with your friend's statement. I don't think you're going to believe a single word I say though, you're pretty entrenched in your own stuff, so this is probably the last I'm going to say on this.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2015 06:07
|
|
|
I wouldn't say percentages are worthless; you just have to compare values on a dry matter basis, which means without water. For example, a dry food might list 30% protein and 7% moisture. The protein % on a dry matter basis is 30/0.93 = 32.3% protein. A wet food with 9% protein but is 80% moisture is then 9/0.20 = 45.0% protein. The wet food wins.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2016 03:11
|
|
|
So the FDA recently launched an investigation into grain-free diets causing heart disease in dogs. I wanted to post in here to spread awareness of this, because I know a lot of people here feed grain-free. The link to the FDA statement is here. The confusing thing is that we don't know what's causing it yet. These diets are formulated with enough taurine, but there is something about them that's either preventing absorption or metabolism of taurine. As a cardiology resident, I have been seeing more and more cases of dogs with taurine-deficient DCM that are being fed a grain-free diet. Just yesterday, we saw a 9-year-old Beauceron that was diagnosed with DCM 8 months ago. Three months later, at his recheck visit, his heart was significantly larger and he was in heart failure. Around this time, there was a lot of discussion among cardiologists discussing a trend they were seeing with grain-free diets and taurine-deficient DCM. This patient was receiving one of these diets, and yesterday, 5 months after changing his diet and receiving taurine supplementation, his heart has dramatically shrunk down and we were able to discontinue some of his heart failure medications. Guys, this is a Big Deal. Until there's more information about what's causing this, I would recommend switching off grain-free diets. If you have a dog that is predisposed to getting DCM (Dobermans, Irish wolfhounds, Newfoundlands, Golden retrievers, American cocker spaniels, great danes) and you have been feeding them a grain-free diet, I would recommend having them evaluated by a cardiologist. I have been seeing so many cases of this lately, it's crazy, and although it's ultimately good news to tell people that the heart disease can reverse with taurine supplementation, it's also sad because this is not something that should be happening.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2018 15:00
|
|
|
The meat-based grain-free diets typically use peas, lentils, legumes, etc. as the substitute for grain. I have definitely seen dogs develop heart disease from vegan diets, but this particular investigation is into meat-based grain-free diets, or diets with exotic ingredients like kangaroo, specifically because these diets should theoretically have enough taurine because they contain meat, but for some reason dogs are still developing a deficiency in taurine. Lisa Freeman is a veterinary nutritionist who works at the Tufts vet school and has written a pretty excellent and detailed article here that goes more in depth about it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2018 22:34
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:46 |
|
|
No, cats already went through the taurine-deficiency DCM thing in the '70s. Ever since that was figured out, all the cat foods have taurine added to the food, so it's not a problem for them. The thing that started conversations in the cardiology circles were cases of dogs that don't typically get DCM (pomeranians, mixed breed dogs, etc.), because if we see an atypical breed, taurine deficiency starts to jump up on our list of possibilities. After more discussion we found that almost all of these cases were eating grain-free or exotic ingredient diets. About 3 weeks ago, I diagnosed an Old English sheepdog with DCM, who was in heart failure and had an arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation) because his heart had gotten so big. Old English sheepdogs are not a breed that gets DCM, but he had been eating grain free all his life. I've started taurine supplementation in him, and his blood taurine levels were low, so I hope when I see him again that his heart disease has started to reverse. Certainly not every dog that eats grain-free is going to get heart disease, but right now it's extremely unpredictable which dogs develop heart disease, and we also don't know what percentage of dogs are affected, because unfortunately, DCM can be a very difficult disease to diagnose since they may not show any signs that they're sick until they go into heart failure. I would be especially cautious of any breed that's already genetically predisposed to DCM, but I'd be wary of DCM developing in any dog eating a grain-free diet until more information is found.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2018 04:04
|
|