holistic cat / keeping your elderly cat healthy

1st. let me explain why i am starting this, i have had a feline pal for most of my 65yrs. of course i've 

lived many wonderful years with my buddies we'v caught mice together run from dogs? watched and chated at noisey birds. explored the wood and stream,even the neighbors yard?

but the hardest part is always at the end of the path. the heartbreak that ends

our journey? i alway fight, and go down with tears when we lose.i know someday it will be my turn.

As much as i understand ,and from a cat point of view, health is natural thing? its not in a shot or a pill

it is from life. a life spent being loved. watching, learning.eating tasy foods casing my tail sometimes.

I suspose i could rail against many vetenarians,and i feel rightly so? basicly when you'v got an elderly cat it's you and the cat. You can forget the world and most of those modern medicines. half of it is

for humans,and dogs anyway. a cat is unique, it's not a dog, or a horse? you can't use half the vetenarian tricks you use on any other animal. as a human companion i have had more health

sharing my time with the oldest of animals? they are wise in ways i am not.to me,if i was a cat.

i think i would see a vist to the 'vet" a little like a trip to concentration camp. its big scary place

one thats filled with howling, and crying ,heck most cats i've ever seen have to be carted inside?

dogs dragged in. much noise,nasty smells? you following me so far... and no wonder these terrible

places have bad outcomes. it is not healty. it is mass production.

there i have had my say...  let discuss better ways to care for our friends?

When it comes to elderly kitties with health issues, yes I believe there is a point where enough with trips to the vet.  Every person needs to make that decision for their kitty.  Some kitties hang on and struggle past the point of having any quality of life and the humane thing to do is to help them cross the bridge.  We have a mobile vet in our area who's entire practice is home euthanasia and I think that is preferable to a trip to the scary place that we call the vet clinic.

Before it gets to that  point I take everything within reason that conventional veterinary medicine has to offer.  I have a kitty that started with severe IBD flares that have atypical symptoms when he was only 18 months old.  I did the vet hopping, diet changes and holistic remedies for 6 years to no avail.  He would be so sick that he had to be hospitalized on an IV.  I finally found a vet that got him diagnosed but at that point he was in fatty liver which met general anesthetic and a feeding tube.  He has been well for almost 5 years now thanks to taking a steroid.  Would I rather have found an answer that didn't involve daily steroids, of course, but the important thing is he is happy and healthy.

Both of my kitties have had dentals and extractions, one for FORLs the other because of gum disease.  Yes it involves general anesthetic which is always a risk and staying the day  at the scary place but I think it is preferable to the pain from bad teeth.

I get it. My 16-year-old Lucky, who I lost two weeks ago today, did not see a vet from the time we brought him home after being neutered/vaccinated in July of 1999, until July of this year when he developed a bad cold.

Now some folks would think I'm a horrible parent for not taking him in. And others are like me and only take them in when something is wrong. Cats typically hide things but Lucky was unique in that he never hid a dang thing from me. I know there are many (good) reasons to take them in for annual check-ups, but I just never did. And for sixteen years, to the month (if not the day), he lived happily without a trip to the vet.

Sadly, in the month and a half between his 2nd and 3rd vet trips, something happened that caused his kidneys to suddenly and profoundly fail. I don't know for sure what it is and never will, but the vet's best guess is it was likely a tumor in the left kidney. No amount of vet visits would have predicted that happened in this case, because of its acute nature. Just 16 days later, he was gone. Unfortunately, he had more vet trips in those last 16 days than he did in 16 years. And yes, he hated it. He hated being taken out at all.

I will likely make regular visits a habit for my kittens. Get them used to it so it's not such a traumatic event for them when they have to go for a non-regular checkup. 

since i see that alot of people believe in vets, i will relate my tale. mrs.rude was a 2yr old when i found her, she was at the transfer station/shelter in saugerties ny. she was slated to be put to sleep. the transfer station was also the dump for the town which had a incenerator. this was her fate,at 2 to be

killed. she was a bit deformed with a pushed in face, not cute and unadopted. i got her for zero dollars

and she was glad to be out of there?  when she got home. this was a cabin just across from woodstock she imeaditely escaped? whent straight up a big ol' pine and refushed to come down. i had to be at work within the hour. since i could not wait i i drove to town and returned later that day expecting her gone. she was at the front door, she'd waited for me to return,and was happy to see me? i knew then

i had made a friend for life. she lived with me in the cabin for 5yrs. and we moved north. to the adirondacks. another 6yrs later she began to get real thin, i chose a local vet to checkout what seemed

like a old cat who was in need of help. this "vet" insisted she had hyperthroidism we did blood test

her t4 was 7.7 not extremly high but needing to be lowered. i succeded in getting this down to 1.6

then the vet explained she should be vaccinated. she was given rabies and a steroid shot and another

shot a anitbiotic. in ny you see they use the excuse that rabies is so deadly every cat even those indoors

must be vacinated. i was a fool, in less than 2days she died. this "vet" still claims it was something

her blood work missed? (she lied big time.) she claimed it was a hidden problem and after all she

had been a vet for 16yrs. she pocketed my $1,000 and i never herd from her again. no call to express

her sympathy. nada. if you want to take chances with your cat, well thats your business. i will never

repeat that again, ever.

A T4 of 7.7 actually is quite a bit above what is considered normal. The high end of the range is 4.7, and ideally it would be closer to a 1.0-2.0.

Please don't lump all vets into a "bad" category after one bad experience. Not all vets are created equal. Even within a practice, there are some vets you may like and others not so much. I didn't care for the first doctor's personality or how he was with my cat, but another doctor at his practice (who is my vet now) is wonderful with them. He listens to my concerns, lets me ask all questions I have and takes the time to answer. 

I'm curious though, why the antibiotic? That indicates to me that there was an infection, in which case I am shocked they would vaccinate at the same time. One of the two kittens I adopted had a herpes infection in his eye, and the vet decided to wait to vaccinate both of them until three weeks later, just to be sure the infection was cleared up. And why the steroid? It sounds like there was more involved than just hyper-t. Did the vet mention anything else besides the hyper-t?

We all know that not all vets are created equal, any more than lawyers, doctors, builders or any other professionals we have to rely on sometimes. That does not mean that we should all fight our own law cases or build our own houses. It is important to find a vet you trust, if possible by word of mouth. I have changed vets several times because I disagreed with something or thought maybe they did not understand the particular species of animal I was concerned about. And it is usually possible to get a second opinion. But I feel for you in your tragedy - I have just lost my beloved horse and I am still waiting for the autopsy results as we do not know yet what was the cause. It was not the vet's fault. though.

It only takes one bad experience with a vet to really burn you, so I totally understand where you are coming from @acwolff.  I don't believe they are all bad though, although by and large they rely only on meds and surgery to fix problems. If surgery and meds don't fix the problem, you are basically on your own.  I'd like to see more vets skilled in disease prevention and treatment through nutrition, if there are such people.  

So far, I like the vet I just used last month to get Nat's phenobarb level drawn.  It's kind of like a necessary evil to have a vet on hand, one you can sort of trust.  You have to have someone you can call.  I feel like this vet is someone I can ask any question and not feel like I'm wasting his time.  And he was very kind and gentle with Nat.  But I don't think he knows anything about nutrition.