Worried sick for my young cats..

[nihilism]

Background story, I adopted an 8 year old cat 3 years ago, who suddenly out of nowhere died after 2 years in my care, this was devastating enough, and due to the vet bills, I wasn't able to perform a necropsy, but the doctor assured me that it was congenital heart failure.. No other information was given, but I did use to free-feed him dry food, as well as wet food 1-2 times a day.. The only similar thing I fed all my cats was Temptations..

Fast forward a year later..

I've adopted 2 kittens, they were 4 months old at the time, now around 8 months old.. I'm in no way an alarmist or someone who is easily shook, but I've fed them a handful of Temptations over the past month, maybe 10 treats each, every day.. I had never looked at the ingredients until I started realizing one of my kittens threw up and there were a few Temptations in her puke, after reading the ingredients, I've felt sick to my stomach that I've fed my kittens this literal poison for quite some time now..

I feed my kittens dry food and wet food once a day, they have 6 spots to drink water from, and from my observation, they drink water regularly enough it seems healthy. I feed them freeze fried chicken breasts, hearts, Stella & Chewie treats, and Temptations. There was some time where they stopped eating wet food, so I started giving them handfuls of Temptations..

I'm worried sick that for the month or so that I fed them Temptations, that I've somehow damaged them. The ingredients are actually incredibly toxic to cats, and after doing some research, I'm pretty sure this is literal poison.

My cats have been fine, the one cat that threw up hasn't thrown up since I stopped feeding them these treats, the other one is pretty healthy looking and quite active, doesn't really care for the treats. I've not seen any changes in their behavior or any other symptoms, no puking, no bloody stools (ever), and most importantly they seem to be active and as "happy" as one would imagine, then again, my old cat seemed happy and healthy until he died overnight.

My question is:
- Should I be worried?
- Am I feeding my cats right?
- Should I take them for a vet visit just incase?

I need some reassurance, my cats are my literal life, no joke, I'm not sure I could take it if anything happened to them, especially if it was negligence on my part.

 

[Amk]

I think you've done the right thing by stopping the temptations. They're young and seem healthy so I'd observe them and take them for a check up if you think they're not well. I'd take out a pet plan if I were you to save on expensive surprise vet bills in the future and make sure they've had their shots and worm n flea treatments etc. Take care

 

[nihilism]

I think you've done the right thing by stopping the temptations. They're young and seem healthy so I'd observe them and take them for a check up if you think they're not well. I'd take out a pet plan if I were you to save on expensive surprise vet bills in the future and make sure they've had their shots and worm n flea treatments etc. Take care

Thanks, and I had pet insurance, but since we hadn't had a checkup for a while, they claimed that due to "pre-existing conditions", our insurance wouldn't pay, and I had to pay the full price for the final vet visit.. which was $800 for 4 injections, 2 of which were adrenaline/steroids from what I understood, and one sedative.. This was a whole separate ordeal, I've actually asked the California Veterinary Medical Board to review this entire situation with my old cat.

 

[fionasmom]

Pet insurance plans are also covered/responsible to the state insurance commission and you can report them to that organization if you feel that you are not being properly treated.

I would skip the Temptations if for no other reason than you need some peace of mind about not feeding them.

I do use them from time to time on the recommendation of my vet to get cats to eat small pills. What I find odd is that I currently have some chicken Temptations and come chicken Party Mix in the house and it is the Party Mix which contains BHA, BHT, various dyes, and lists phosphoric acid as an ingredient. Temptations does not have any of those ingredients. Feeding treats excessively is never a good idea and I am transitioning my cats to Nulo dry cod recipe as a treat substitute/additional food.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I will tell you that I have fed Feeby (16+ yo) Temptations Hairball Control Treats for the 14 years she has been with me. She gets about 7 a day - for what that is worth.