Mad at the vet. :(

Originally Posted by Yosemite

...Then there are also some cats that will not eat raw....

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That's hardly unique to a natural diet. There's not a single food, diet, or treat in existence that ALL cats will take to.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

And knowing what additives you need to mix in with the raw meat.

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Actually, with the correct balance of organs/bones/meats, no "additives" are needed.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I'm not against raw, I'm against folks who think that they can throw down a hunk of raw meat and it's good enough.

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Here, I totally agree with Yosemite. If your cats won't eat whole prey and you're not willing to take the time to weigh them, calculate how much meat/bone/liver/organs they need for a wholly natural diet, practice common sanitary measures, ensure they're eating what's offered, or peek at the litter box to check on poop consistency... then, by all means, stay away from a raw diet.

fattykitty, your vet sounds like a real uninformed moron and i would tell him to take a hike and get a new one. i have 3 cats and 2 dogs and the vet we have thank the gods is fortunately the type that likes to see animals healthy
never mind what diet they're on
mind you they're also a wildlife vet that cares for the local wildlife around here
which helps to open their minds to such. perhaps if you can find a well respected wildlife vet for your animals then theyd be better off?
and i would bring the national veterinarians association in on this guys head too. purina is also a catalyst for such diseases like pancreatic cancer and such.and i NEVER feed my animals purina if i can help it ( sadly in my youth i lost a dear cat to pancreatic cancer and he ate nothing but meow mix from purina)
nice thing about that is they're all allergic to purina anyway XD
iams isn't bad for a store bought food. (better than purina) but clearly your vet needs to be investigated for malpractice. if i told my vets office about what your vet had to say they would scream bloody murder and immediately try to start an investigation if it were here where i am
we have standards here for our pets that seem to be higher.(or maybe its just my vet ) but they don't bother with unnecessary expenses like billions of dollars worth of tests and such either
my vet knows i'm on a disability pension and is quite helpful with allowing me a bit of leeway
that plus he answers my questions too. lol i shook him up at first with my knowledge ive picked up over the years .. as one of my cats is a monorchid
poor guy has fus ..but its under control now thanks to my vet and my fast action
he'd told me when i brought Chainsaw in ( yes good reason for that name )
that if i had waited about 1 -2 more hours he would have been a goner and costed more to try and save him
i spotted the signs of trouble early one morning .. and acted on it almost instantaneously
9:00 am i noticed his trouble
by 10:30 we were out the door and gone. i had no carrier to take him in..but had a kitty harness for supervised outings adn used that to control him
if you first notice the signs and are paying close attention (use the prental instinct here) then you're more likely to save your pets life
that quack does NOT sound like he should even be practicing
and my favorite author and vet Jim Wight (also known as James Herriot) would be rolling in his grave over that. not to mention the rest of the vets who are about 85 % with the "newfangled" approach that is common these days. vaccinations and the like area good way to prevent such things like feline leukemia, distemper, rabies, among millions of other problems that animals face and risk themselves daily against
a vet who listens is a very golden find and worthy of having as a permanent "family" doctor for your furry friends .
sorry to be long winded but i hope this helps clear things up.
and for the sake of an ibd suffering kitten we also have i love the idea of frankenprey XD thanks for that info guys
*pads off to go look for frankenprey recipies*

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

How can they say that dry is best for kidneys, imagine just how healthy we would be if we only ate food with 8% moisture?



however, this just cracked me up lol!!! The vet here is just implying that cats SHOULD eat raw food. Heck, we took away their natural diet and replaced it with dry dehydrating junk. Raw is just replacing it back to the natural diet!

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Actually, if you look at history, feeding hard dry heavily processed cracker type pellets is completely taking away a cat's natural diet. Only in the last 50 years of so in the loooooong lifespan of a feline have pet owners started feeding hard dry heavily processed cracker type pellets as a total diet.
If anything, these fake diets are more against a cat's nature and history than anything else. Cats are developed to eat meat, rip it with their teeth, and process it with their digestive system. I say this and I feed kibble, but I do soak it because my common sense tells me felines need moisture in their diet, furthermore, I want to see real ingredients in the kibble I feed, not Cat Chow type of ingredients.

This really bugs me like when a species of reptile I have is suppose to eat fresh veggies and live bugs and a company came out with a dry HIGHLY processed pellet diet to feed them instead full of fillers and things that reptile would never touch, it just isn't right for a "total" diet to replace real living foods. The bugs are high in protein, moisture, vitamins when gut loaded, etc. etc. Try as they might, a lab cannot make hard dry pellets as good or even equal to real fresh living foods!

Vets are not taught much nutrition in school, just as most general doctor's are not nutritionists either.

Originally Posted by cococat

Actually, if you look at history, feeding hard dry heavily processed cracker type pellets is completely taking away a cat's natural diet. Only in the last 50 years of so in the loooooong lifespan of a feline have pet owners started feeding hard dry heavily processed cracker type pellets as a total diet.
If anything, these fake diets are more against a cat's nature and history than anything else. Cats are developed to eat meat, rip it with their teeth, and process it with their digestive system. I say this and I feed kibble, but I do soak it because my common sense tells me felines need moisture in their diet, furthermore, I want to see real ingredients in the kibble I feed, not Cat Chow type of ingredients.

This really bugs me like when a species of reptile I have is suppose to eat fresh veggies and live bugs and a company came out with a dry HIGHLY processed pellet diet to feed them instead full of fillers and things that reptile would never touch, it just isn't right for a "total" diet to replace real living foods. The bugs are high in protein, moisture, vitamins when gut loaded, etc. etc. Try as they might, a lab cannot make hard dry pellets as good or even equal to real fresh living foods!

Vets are not taught much nutrition in school, just as most general doctor's are not nutritionists either.

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I've starting crunching it into small pieces and soaking it as well...I can only do it in small portions because my cats like to nibble and moistened dry food is more prone to bacteria than wet food.

Honestly, that is very rude. My vet, whom I have been seeing since I was seven years old, has on many occasions made it quite clear that he does not really approve of a raw diet. That being said, he never harasses me about it, nor feels he has to insult other vets to get his point across. He is an advocate for Science Diet (which, though I don't like it at all, is better than Cat Chow!), but respects the fact that I am neither feeding it nor will I ever feed it to any of my pets. For your vet to say that raw diets are a "fad," when I have known many cat owners and breeders who have fed this diet long before I was even born, is very assumptive, in my opinion. If I were you, I would politely but firmly tell him/her that while I am always happy for advice, I do not pay to be insulted.

Namu

I am sorry your vet let you down. You are doing what you believe(and myself)what's best for our cat. I am not into politics or anything but if a name like Science Diet tells you they are the best and can "prove" it......some people would believe it too.

I would love to raw feed my cats but is not possible right now.I do the best I can. And the day I see a feral or wild cat chewing on a piece of corn I might change my mind.

But I really don't think so

I had a similar argument - not with a vet - but with the director of the rescue I volunteered for for 5 years. She said dry and water for cats is best! And chastised me for "spoiling" my fosters by giving them wet food along with their dry.

I tried talking to her about it and sending her internet articles, but she has this "I've been rescuing animals for 20 plus years and I know everything" attitude.

I mean - a cat would have to drink 10 oz (cup and a quarter) of water every day to stay properly hydrated on a totally dry food diet. I don't know too many cats that drink that much ....

I'm not with the rescue anymore and I still feed my fosters both.

If I had my own cats, I would consider feeding raw, but with 7 hungry Foster mouths, I have to depend on the pet food companies, as well as research, and intelligent observation about what works in my situation.

We've raised our two youngest cats Flynn and dEUS (4 years old now) on all raw and this summer we fostered our first litter of kittens, they did very well on raw too. They even managed to impress the shelter vet; they came in with terrible worm infections and severe diarrea, and left at 13 weeks weighing 2200 grams
The foster kittens definitely did not get the message "their natural diet went away". They would always choose the premade raw mix over the premium kitten dry food and high quality kitten wet foods I also always provided. And they loved whole prey even better. At just five weeks they escaped the kitten room, stole a whole quail from the adult cats and proceeded to eat some of it before I managed to bring them back to their room. That did not go over without growling and holding on tight to their "prey" with little teeth and tiny claws of course

I would be very uncomfortable with a vet who told me this kind of nonsense. Some people have cited valid reasons why a vet might not want to promote a raw diet, but that was not what this particular vet actually said.
If he meant those other reasons, he should've said so, IMO.

When I decided last September to start my cats on a raw diet I did a lot of research. I even found one conventional and one holistic vet (one close to home and one on the other side of the city) that advocate raw feeding. I am so happy I found them. They have been very supportive and helpful on my journey with raw feeding. They both have said in the 11 years they have been advocating raw feeding they have not seen one pet come in with salmonella poisioning from raw feeding.

My 12 year old male cat had really bad diarrhea / loose stools, dry flakey skin and fur on vet prescribed food for YEARS (atleast 6-7 years). But now on a raw food diet his stools are always perfect. His coat is shiny and sleek. Maybe ask this vet you emailed why such a positive change in my cat on a raw diet. And why he always had a sensitive stomach and awful fur on this vet prescribed CRAP....I now know the answer to this. Just wish I wasn't so naive by listening to my long time vet for so many years. Research is the key on learning the right nutrition for our feline companions.

I have been avoiding telling my vet I am feeding raw but at a recent visit I was forced to admit it. She was actually very good about it. She didn't say a word didn't make a face or use any other body language to signal her disapproval. We had been having a pretty nice conversation so I risked asking her "You aren't going to lecture me about raw feeding?". She replied "Would it do any good?" to which I replied "No." and that was the end of it.

But, later in the conversation I remembered to ask her something I have been meaning to ask for some time and keep forgetting to. I asked her if she performs elective declaws. She replied that she used to not but does now for "some" clients. She then started to give me the "If I don't do it someone will" excuse which I abhor hearing. I cut her off and told her I hate that excuse and that she should set an example. I went on to say that she better not try lecturing me on raw feeding then. It was a good and non argumentative discussion with us both accepting that we weren't going to change the mind of the other.

So if your vet gives you a hard time about raw feeding just ask them if they do elective declaws. If the answer if yes and it probably will be in the US, just tell them they are being a bit hypocritical given that they take money to mutilate cats.

While the vet that my cats go to sometimes does not like raw feeding (as in I would get yelled at by the entire staff if I mentioned it). They really promote Science Diet.

They however refuse to do any declawings even though that means that the people are just going to go down to the other vet a few miles away and get it done there. They try educate people about declawing and what it really is.

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

While the vet that my cats go to sometimes does not like raw feeding (as in I would get yelled at by the entire staff if I mentioned it). They really promote Science Diet.

They however refuse to do any declawings even though that means that the people are just going to go down to the other vet a few miles away and get it done there. They try educate people about declawing and what it really is.

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Very few people in this world are truly all bad or all good; everyone falls somewhere in between.

As has been discussed, the only nutritional training most vets receive is from the pet food companies themselves. I think it's likely that the vets who set themselves against raw feeding have been either seduced into immobility by the kickbacks they receive, or frozen into it by the guilt they would feel were they to confirm the harmful effects of the foods they recommend, not necessarily evil-minded individuals out to make money off sick cats.

Open-minded vets often begin researching on their own and so are not resistant to the raw-food concept.

Personally, I prefer the latter.