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- Dec 28, 2011
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Hello,
I'd like to introduce myself, and I hope you all can help reform me.
I've always been more of a dog person, but one day we happened to acquire a kitten from the pound. She is a siamese mix. I'd always thought cats pretty much take care of themselves. You just leave abundant food and water out and they will be alright. And you feed a top quality kibble like Science Diet. I'd been told that cats will not over eat, so here is what happened.
When the cat was about five months old, I kept looking at her and thinking she looked weird. Like her head was wayyy to little for her body. You would think the vet would have known what was up, but not until he cut her open for her spay did he find out she was grossly overweight. So in passing when I picked her up they just happened to mention she was fat. ONLY when I questioned them further, was I able to weasel out of them just how much and what I did wrong. They did not offer any advice on how to proceed. So no wonder I always had the cat will take care of themselves attitude.
So anyway I drastically reduced how much kibble she was getting and she did drop to a "normal" size. She was always getting into things like she was starving to death. Thank God she did not get the fatty liver disease. You would think the vet would have warned me about cutting her food drastically.
Fast forward to Isabelle being four years old. When she was three and they took out A LOT of teeth (the vet blamed on table scraps), I was starting to wonder what was going on. Was this cat defective some how? I never had these kinds of problems with my dog. I was suspecting the much touted by the vet science diet. When she was four, she was reduce to eight teeth. PATHETIC. She had ballooned back in weight and looked like a basketball with a head and four legs on 1/2 cup of kibble a DAY. The vet said her metabolism had probably just slowed and prescribed the Science Diet, diet version. (and again no warning on FLD) I said no thank you. The one variable I could think of that was putting her in such horrific shape was the FOOD. She is well cared for and strictly indoors.
So here we are, Isabelle and me, to become more enlightened on kitty care. I will not rely on the vet or science diet for the informaiton we need, because where has it gotten us --SICK Toothless KITTY.
So far we've made some pretty extroidinary improvements by learning from the internet. I switched her from kibble, to canned, and now she is on entirely home cooked. I'm not sure If I will go totally raw or not. She does have to have her food very small. She is fed twice a day and receives solid gold supplement, ascorbic acid (started today since she was trying to get into the oranges), salmon oil, taurine and bonemeal.
In the first week, she lost a lot of weight. You know bloated water weight. What a drammatic change. She is like an entirely different cat. We are about a month in to her transformation and today I bought a scale, so I can monitor and adjust for a slow safe weight loss.
She weighed in at 12 pounds 4 ounces. I would say she has a petite frame. So I'm guessing I should shoot for ten pounds and try to get that off in the next year, so that would be a weight loss of about three ounces a month. Does this sound reasonable?
Her bowell movements no longer stink at all. She does only go once a day it seems for both pee and poop. Is this normal? There is a small amount of poop and a rather impressive clumped puddle of urine.
What words of wisdom can you give me? Please don't yell at me because of my ignorance. I already feel enormously guilty.
I hope I can learn a lot here.
Signed,
one very guilt ridden cat mommy.
I'd like to introduce myself, and I hope you all can help reform me.
I've always been more of a dog person, but one day we happened to acquire a kitten from the pound. She is a siamese mix. I'd always thought cats pretty much take care of themselves. You just leave abundant food and water out and they will be alright. And you feed a top quality kibble like Science Diet. I'd been told that cats will not over eat, so here is what happened.
When the cat was about five months old, I kept looking at her and thinking she looked weird. Like her head was wayyy to little for her body. You would think the vet would have known what was up, but not until he cut her open for her spay did he find out she was grossly overweight. So in passing when I picked her up they just happened to mention she was fat. ONLY when I questioned them further, was I able to weasel out of them just how much and what I did wrong. They did not offer any advice on how to proceed. So no wonder I always had the cat will take care of themselves attitude.
So anyway I drastically reduced how much kibble she was getting and she did drop to a "normal" size. She was always getting into things like she was starving to death. Thank God she did not get the fatty liver disease. You would think the vet would have warned me about cutting her food drastically.
Fast forward to Isabelle being four years old. When she was three and they took out A LOT of teeth (the vet blamed on table scraps), I was starting to wonder what was going on. Was this cat defective some how? I never had these kinds of problems with my dog. I was suspecting the much touted by the vet science diet. When she was four, she was reduce to eight teeth. PATHETIC. She had ballooned back in weight and looked like a basketball with a head and four legs on 1/2 cup of kibble a DAY. The vet said her metabolism had probably just slowed and prescribed the Science Diet, diet version. (and again no warning on FLD) I said no thank you. The one variable I could think of that was putting her in such horrific shape was the FOOD. She is well cared for and strictly indoors.
So here we are, Isabelle and me, to become more enlightened on kitty care. I will not rely on the vet or science diet for the informaiton we need, because where has it gotten us --SICK Toothless KITTY.
So far we've made some pretty extroidinary improvements by learning from the internet. I switched her from kibble, to canned, and now she is on entirely home cooked. I'm not sure If I will go totally raw or not. She does have to have her food very small. She is fed twice a day and receives solid gold supplement, ascorbic acid (started today since she was trying to get into the oranges), salmon oil, taurine and bonemeal.
In the first week, she lost a lot of weight. You know bloated water weight. What a drammatic change. She is like an entirely different cat. We are about a month in to her transformation and today I bought a scale, so I can monitor and adjust for a slow safe weight loss.
She weighed in at 12 pounds 4 ounces. I would say she has a petite frame. So I'm guessing I should shoot for ten pounds and try to get that off in the next year, so that would be a weight loss of about three ounces a month. Does this sound reasonable?
Her bowell movements no longer stink at all. She does only go once a day it seems for both pee and poop. Is this normal? There is a small amount of poop and a rather impressive clumped puddle of urine.
What words of wisdom can you give me? Please don't yell at me because of my ignorance. I already feel enormously guilty.
I hope I can learn a lot here.
Signed,
one very guilt ridden cat mommy.
, but it is all genetics. 
