Thanks, everyone, for your concern about my cat, Gatsby. He seems to be recovering nicely so far. He is still on meds for pain and an antibiotic, and we've switched to a different prescription food. He's getting his energy back, seeming more like his old self. We're not out of the woods yet, as it is common for them to re-block within two weeks after treatment. But we're hopeful that this episode is nearly over.
I've been doing some research on the condition, and it has helped me understand the paperwork from the vet. I'll post a link below rather than go into *the gory details*. Suffice it to say that saving him was an invasive and intense process. And expensive? Man. Yeah. It's enough to make me reconsider my opposition to the HAPPY bill.
What I don't get is why this happened. They're saying it is diet related. This cat was raised on all the age-appropriate formulations of IAMS foods, which is supposed to be a solid company. He first started having trouble last summer, which was eventually diagnosed as idiopathic cystitis, and the vet put him on a Prescription diet. He blocked anyway. Now he is on a different Prescription formula. We have never fed him table scraps or switched in and out of food brands. So what is it about the commercial cat food that isn't good for cats? And why, after all these years in business, haven't the companies fixed it?
When I picked up the special food at the vet's, I joked that it would be cheaper to feed him steaks. Then it dawned on me that his natural food actually is raw meat. So why don't we just feed cats meat? I'll be asking the vet on our followup visit. There had better be a good reason.
* As promised, here are the gory details: The Blocked Cat, at Marvistavet.com.
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3 comments:
Oh no..I hope he gets better! We have 5 cats..and had some problems over the years and had gone on special diets at times but they were minor issues and with diet worked out. So many brands do not have enough meat in their formula or I think its called crude meat? I often wondered the same question but the vet I don't think would agree with that..probably for more than one reason. Hope to hear how it goes. Best wishes.
I'm glad to hear Gatsby is feeling better, and I hope he continues to improve.
If you think about it, processed foods aren't particularly good for us, either, so maybe they're not always the best choice for our animals.
Says the woman who feeds three cats TWO different prescription diet foods. One cat should be on the other food for her kidneys, but that food messes up her intestines, so she's on the weight loss/maintenance diet that the fat and not losing anything cat is on. And the cat who IS on the kidney food, sometimes wants dry and sometimes wants canned, and is horrifically unpredictable about when she wants which, so I have to make sure I always have both and did I mention that she now gets 1cc of unflavored Pedialyte 2-3 times a day AND 1/4 of a 10mg Pepcid tablet before bedtime daily so maybe I'm really not the person to be answering these questions.
Kyungme, I'm glad your cats' problems resolved. It can be very serious when it doesn't. Thanks for your concern!
Sally, thanks. I certainly hope Gatsby doesn't get to the point where he needs daily meds on an ongoing basis. I'm not sure we'd be friends for long.
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