Echo and the funny men, looking after an elderly cat

29/11/2021

Back to the thyroid.... Today I adopted my 6th cat from my Vets at Passey Place, she is now called Argon & is the skinniest cat I have ever seen. She is very small & so thin, her head looks too big for her body! Please bear in mind, she has put on 1lb since she had her thyroidectomy. At this stage I want to say a huge thankyou for Gaye at Passey Place Vets & all her wonderful staff. This little girl was taken in as a 'tiny kitten' in June. They guesstimate she is 16+ She was so ill, hyperthyroid and with damage to her heart from being ill for so long. She was obviously somebody's pet as way to friendly to have been a stray for that length of time. She was approx 1 week away from death. It was a toss up as to whether she would make it through the surgery. I am so bloody angry that people could be that selfish and stupid not to even take her to a Vet. Her owners never showed up, but, the heart problem will require meds all her life. Her hormones are now in the normal range 2 months post surgery and she has settled in with my other 5 old fogies as if she has always lived here. The bottom line is, if your cat is diagnosed as hyperthyroid - deal with it straight away. DO NOT just rely on tablets - or, God forbid the food. It is your responsibility to treat your cat when they are ill. They have given their life for your pleasure, don't abandon them when they need your help. Is is downright cruel & there is NO EXCUSE.
When your cat gets to double figures, weigh them every month. Spot problems early & treat them properly. AND if you cannot afford to pay for an elderly cat with all the problems they may have DO NOT BUY A BLOODY KITTEN. They will get to be old - if you are lucky.

19/11/2021

Lets look at diseases of an elderly cat & treatments etc. First off something I have an enormous amount of experience of - hyperthyroidism.
This is an endocrine (hormone) disease. It is caused by a tumour which grows on the thyroid gland, or glands. It causes the thyroid gland to go into meltdown & overproduce a hormone called Thyroxine. This makes your cats body & metabolism go haywire speeding up digestion (which is why they eat like horses & lose weight, and usually get the runs) It damages the heart, kidneys & liver. It makes them feel too hot, grumpy, they don't sleep properly & their fur gets spiky and look greasy. Whilst it is never mentioned as a symptom, the thyroid howl all of mine have developed this. Once heard, never forgotten. My last 2 cats have been taken to the Vets for bloods before developing any other symptoms apart from the scream and been diagnosed incredibly early. You can sometimes feel the thyroid when it becomes enlarged in the base of their throat & it is this growth that presses on the vocal cords and causes the voice change. Keep a close eye out for these changes. It is an awful disease that, is so easily curable & if spotted early enough, can prevent damage to the other organs.
My first cat diagnosed, a tabby lad Trio was 13. My oldest girl who I diagnosed very early was 17. When Trio was diagnosed approx 25 years ago, I was told it was quite uncommon. Now it seems to be the most common disease for elderly cats.
There are many different treatments, pills, liquids, ear gels, foods etc NONE OF THESE will cure your cat. What happens is this. The pills & liquids etc reduce the amount of thyroid hormone being produced (it is more Scientific than that, but, in effect). What it doesn't do is, prevent the tumour from growing. Over the course of time, you will have to increase the dose of the medication, sometimes, you may also find your cat cannot take the medication - my last 3 have had real problems with Vidalta & not been able to take it (as a temporary solution) I have heard every excuse under the sun from people who don't want to actually tackle the problem at root, from it is too expensive, all the way to my Vet says the op doesn't work.
At this stage, I want to tell you the story of my boy Data. He became hyperthyroid at age 13. He had his tablets until he put on some weight, then, had a thyroidectomy. His weight went back up to normal & he was fine for 2 1/2 years. At 15 1/2 he started losing weight - with all the other symptoms, so, I took him to the Vets. At this stage, he had another thyroidectomy. When I rang to see if I could pick him up, my Vet asked if she could send some tissue off as it didn't look right. I had one of the 5% of cats that develop thyroid carcinoma. Without the op, I would never have known. I couldn't bear to lose him, so researched like mad & came across radioactive iodine therapy. He wasn't insured, but, there was no way money was going to stop him having the treatment. He was the first of my guys who went off to the Royal Veterinary College for treatment. He had a massive dose which worked beautifully and 2 1/2 weeks in he was completely cured and just waiting to come home. Sadly, he stopped eating & a dental abscess was diagnosed. The infection went straight to his kidneys & he died in the unit. I was absolutely devastated. Had a bill for £3,500 & no boy to bring home. I did, however, at that stage insure all my cats - that was never going to happen again. More tomorrow

18/11/2021

I think she was just scrounging :) Echo seems absolutely fine. As she is epileptic - this was linked to an absolutely humungous Toxoplasmosis infection discovered when I first adopted her almost 3 years ago. WORM YOUR CATS!!!! She has always twitched, more, or less, all the time. I had put it down to her deafness - which we never got to the bottom of, but, it has nothing to do with that. The day after she came home from the Royal Veterinary College after having her radioactive iodine therapy treatment for hyperthyroidism, she had hr first Grand Mal fit. luckily, I had managed to pick her up and was about to put her on the floor, so, she w**d radioactive urine over me, not the soft furnishings :) Of course, it had to be Good Friday, so, couldn't get hold of anybody for advice. I have had an epileptic cat previously, so, knew what to do and my dearly departed Maine C**n decided he was a nurse cat & would follow her around & curl up round her to sleep if she got on the sofa, or, bed near the radiator, so, she didn't fall off. He even woke me up in the night biting my hand to tell me she was about to fit - no idea how he knew. Anyway, approx 1 month after the first seizure, she had another, so a few days later - she was no longer radioactive at this point, we tripped off to our wonderful Vet at Passey Place ( which is where I adopted her from. She had been there 7 months as a stray because nobody wanted a 17 year old cat) A battery of blood tests were taken & the toxoplasmosis infection was discovered. She had 1 month of particularly nasty tablets, but, although the infection is clear, the damage to her brain is irreversible WORM YOUR CATS!!!!She now has a tablet morning & night and she hasn't had a seizuresince February when her dose was upped a little. Sadly she has to have 6 monthly bloods beause of the meds to check her liver - that is the law I would not put her through it to be truthful and neither would my Vet - she is 20 after all. So far though, all is fine & she neither looks, nor has bloods like such a senior cat. She does have very bad arthritis, for which she has metacam daily & overall, is, in incredibly good health considering. Her kidneys are fine and, she is enjoying her best life every day Ido wish she wouldn't think 20% of her calories have to come from Thrive shrimp treats though :)

08/11/2021

Over the last few days I have noticed Echo going in & out of the litter tray endlessly, she doesn't have a UTI, because after 15 mins or so, she will eventually settle down & have a normal sized wee, or, p**p. I think she may be getting a little confused. She is also constantly coming to sit on my feet & staring at me. I assumed she was scrounging for treats - something she is absolutely world class at. She does quite often sit & stare at a wall - but, she is a cat & all the other 4 do that too:) I am doing some research & will be starting her on some supplements to see if this helps. She is still eating well & maintaining her weight at 4.5 kilos. She has bloods every 6 months due to the epilepsy meds she takes. Her last ones in September were excellent, so, will keep a weather eye out & update.

05/11/2021

Today I want to talk about Vet approved diets & why you should not use them. Yes you are reading correctly. This is a post I made earlier this year.
For years, I have been telling people about poor nutrition in cats & how it actually causes problems - especially the so called Veterinary diets. On Weds Lithium went to the Vets. Whilst under sedation - which took forever, as, she was fighting so hard, she had a full set of bloods. There is no way to get them unless she is knocked out. The Vet told me her creatinine, Phosphorous, BUN etc, were all fine, but, her SDMA was elevated. So, Scientist hat on, I decided to do some research to find out what could have caused it. Now the IDEXX SDMA test was touted as the first & only way to spot renal disease, before there were clinical signs The test has only been available in the UK since 2016. Lith would have been one of the first cats to receive it, when she was diagnosed at the Royal Veterinary college with CKD. She was having tests that were nothing to do with her kidneys at the time. Imagine my complete shock - NOT!! When I discovered that the SDMA test was sponsored by & paid for & massively advertised by - HILLS the same company who sell the renal foods. It has been marketed so well that every Vet surgery now uses this - in just 5 years, it has become the go to test to see if your cat has renal disease & YES you've guessed it, most Vets will tell you to put your cat on a renal diet - sold by..... This is because all the Vet schools are sponsored by..... If you go to your local Vet they sell ...... Now I was quite concerned, her levels were up, she was 5 years post diagnosis, was this the start of the end for her? I decided to read through endless Scientific studies & research to see if I could help. I discovered that the SDMA test is highly inaccurate. There are 10, yes 10 reasons why the results can be elevated from Low blood pressure, to sickness & the runs. Originally an SDMA test was invented in Germany, but, was seen to be so inaccurate that it was dropped, until IDEXX & Hills came along.... Now I do not profess to be a Vet & all my research from Scientific studies is widely out there on the interweb. I can only tell you my interpretation & it is thus. Hills (and all the other Vet approved diets) are really poor nutrition. They do not contain enough meat, are full of grains which cats cannot digest & should NEVER be made as dry. If you feed a cat a renal diet, it is low protein. This causes muscle wastage including skeletal & internal. From my point of view. Lithium was diagnosed 5 years ago. She has never eaten a renal diet of any sort, by any brand. She eats a lowish Phosphorous diet with a Phosphorous binder on every meal. She has NEVER shown any signs, or symptoms of kidney disease. If you ignore the SDMA test which, actually went down in the first 4 years, all her other results are slap bang in the middle of normal, so, I ask you, IF the original SDMA test was ignored - not done etc, I would not have a cat that has CKD, just a bog standard 14 year old Burm. IF I had decided to feed her a renal diet, how much money would they have made for the past 5 years? How ill would Lithium now be with muscle wastage & possibly heart disease? The answer is, we will never know. I do, however know, I have never fed a Veterinary approved diet - apart from a weight loss diet to one cat for a year & she lost absolutely nothing, she was constantly sick & had the runs though.... I have never had a cat die on me - apart from 2 to cancer, at, younger than 16, my oldest being 23. I have 5 old fogies at the moment, all in good health. My 20 year old has muscle wastage, but, in the 3 years I have had her, has put on half a kilo. She is 4.5 kilos, which, is just the weight she would / should have been at 10. If this just makes one person stop to think for a minute, it will have been worth writing. Before you feed your cat PLEASE look at the actual ingredients. The first 5 listed on a tin, or, bag cover 90% of what is in it. If this is not meat, buy something else. In 2020, nephrologists of the National Institutes of Health, the Mayo Clinic and the National Kidney Foundation do not suggested the SDMA test as a valuable method of evaluating the seriousness of kidney disease in humans. They feel that blood creatinine level and protein leakage into the urine are the most reliable ways to evaluate kidney health. Whether those kidney diets might slow the progress of kidney loss in your cat remains unknown and probably will remain so. That is because the types of studies required to judge the long term value of these diets are no longer permitted due to animal welfare considerations. They would also be quite difficult to fund.
AND ANOTHER REGARDING MY FAT CAT Fermium - who is now actually losing a little weight on normal cat food....
Three years ago I adopted an overweight cat from Passey Place. Despite going down the Veterinary diet wet food crap for 12 months, she actually put on weight. She was eating 20% less calories than she should & still stable at 5.4 kilos. Her first lot of geriatric bloods show she is borderline renal problems with low Phosphorous & High cholesterol. I was searching for a low fat diet for her - a low fat feline diet is less than 10% and there should be very little carbs. Imagine my absolute horror when I find the Veterinary approved diet food I had been feeding is 14% fat & 30% carbs. I will name & shame Hills metabolic so called weight loss diet is a fu***ng disgrace. I also find that every other 'normal' cat food I feed & there are at least 28 different types are less than 7% fat & 10% carbs. I have been paying an arm & a leg for specialised food that is actually causing the problem. This isn't the first post I have made regarding these so called Vet approved diets. I have come to the conclusion that I am an absolute idiot. NEVER AGAIN. I have completely ignored the boderline renal problems as I have absolutely no faith whatsoever in the tests. This is the test results Lithium had last year - 4 years post diagnosis. I have one more recent, but, it is so faint it won't show up EVEN THE IDEXX SDMA test shows 10, normal is between 0+14 This is a cat that supposedly has had renal problems for 4 years. She has never been fed a Vet diet, she eats a lowish Phosphorous food with a phosphorous binder and nothing else. She shows absolutely no signs of kidney issues. These tests results are better than when the original ones were taken at the Royal Veterinary college in November 2016, where she was having a battery of tests to find out why she had lost her voice & was losing weight. She had £4,000 of tests & was kept in overnight where she refused to eat the Vet diet they tried to feed her. She was dehydrated. These are my facts, about my cats, not opinion based. I am not a Vet, I do however have a degree in pure & applied Biology, so, not a complete twit. Do your own research....

04/11/2021

Ok it seems to me I have told you what not to feed your cats, maybe now is a good time to say what is good food :) If you absolutely, utterly 100% must feed dry, then Purizon, orijen & thrive are all very high quality, high meat content foods all made with human grade meat, and, are grain free. DO NOT under any circumstances go near anything you can buy in a Supermarket - or even Pets at home - remember all the dead cats & the dry food recall earlier this year!
Wet food. Mine all love & eat
Catessy sauce, or, jelly
Smilla - tetra packs & huge 800g tins jelly / sauce in tetra packs & loaf in tin
Animonda carny loaf type
Feringa loaf & in jelly
Thrive expensive flakes like sheba, but, much better, it actually tastes OK for humans too - always get a bit on my thumb when opening the tin :)
Leonardos pricey pate
Bozita jelly, or sauce in tetra packs
Grau loaf
Miamor in sauce / jelly
Catz finefood - very expensive all types
Lily's Kitchen pate
Rosie's Farm pate
Mac's loaf
All are grain free, several are a similar price to Felix, but much, much better quality.
Catessy is £2.91 per kilo ( 10 sachets) which is way cheaper than anything in a supermarket, no sugar & grain free available in many varieties
Smilla ranges from £1.87 a kilo if you buy the 800g tins of loaf food to £2.81 per kilo in the tetra packs if you buy 24 x 380g
Bozita is £2.55 per kilo if you buy 36 x 380g tetra packs I ALWAYS RECCOMMEND THIS ONE because it is low in Phosphorous, only 0.3% - this is as low as some renal (kidney) diets, but is much better quality. They also sell this in more flavours than you can shake a stick at - including sensitive tummies, sensitive skin, kitten, large breeds and indoor cats - ALL 93% MEAT
This is the food I feed the 2 who are not on raw. Lithium eats the sensitive tummy one because she has ibd AND renal disease, she has never eaten a 'renal' diet, but, more on that later. These foods are top quality made with human grade meat & cheaper than the crap you buy at a supermarket. I buy from Zooplus, if you spend over £35 delivery is free. They have a saving points scheme so you can get free stuff for your pets, and, you get money back on Top cashback for each purchase. They sell everything for most pets and no, I don't work for them. Oh, I should mention, if you need an exclusion diet with novel proteins, Bozita comes in wild boar, elk, reindeer crayfish and at least a dozen other varieties. Elderly cats need special care & it doesn't need to cost the earth if you know what to buy & where to buy it from. I hope this helps.
I tried to get a photo of Echo this morning scrounging for her prawn thrive treat, but, wasn't quick enough before she grabbed it & swallowed :)

SBozita

01/11/2021

Moving on from wet & dry foods to raw. This is probably the most polarising of all. I have heard more rubbish spoken about raw cat food than anything else, including one person actually telling me it is dangerous! Go back to the war era, cats were kept to keep vermin down. They were not fed 'cat food' as we know it now- there wasn't enough meat for humans. Did they die? Were they ill? Now think of a gorgeous leopard in Africa, who pulls her antelope into a tree, then comes back to polish it off over the course of the next WEEK, in 40 degree heat, no refrigeration, maggots & all, do you see her getting food poisoning? No, of course you don't, because cats bodies are designed to do exactly that. Anatomically speaking, they have short guts, because they don't eat carbohydrates & sugars in the wild. Very low pH stomach acid which digests meat & fat quickly leaving small, not very smelly p**ps, which is an advantage to a wild cat. We, on the other hand, feed our cats with crap food that they cannot digest, which gives them very smelly bulky p**ps & solve it by having hooded litter trays & scented cat litter. Makes absolutely no bloody sense at all. Three of mine eat raw. Whilst I am perfectly capable of making my own, I don't because I am lazy. They eat a pre made mince made with human grade meat & conveniently frozen into blocks. Every hyperthyroid cat I have had - and there have been 8 now, has had the chronic runs. The only thing that stopped it was raw food. It is complete, needs no additives - because the meat is high quality & 100% content in the correct ratios. I know it isn't for everyone, but, I will just say this. The food that killed all those cats earlier this year was ALL DRY made from poor quality meats - Huge brands, supposedly healthy brands like Applaws, yet, it killed our cats.
Anyhow for those of you who like the idea of trying species appropriate raw food Google BARF (Biologically appropriate raw food) I use Purrform, there is a lot of info on that site. They make raw cat food & nothing else

31/10/2021

On to dry food now. I will leave the 'Vet approved' foods to a later post!
Cats are descended from desert animals. They have a very low thirst drive. This is a fact. The vast majority of cats into double figures will have a degree of kidney loss of function, this is also a fact. Now, whether, or, not your cat at some stage in his, or, her life has renal (Kidney) disease is due to very many factors. There are arguments as to whether being constantly dehydrated because of feeding solely dry food has a part to play in this. I personally believe that is so. Kidneys, like anything need to be used fully to work properly. A cat that eats dry food (10%) water, will never drink enough to stay properly hydrated like a cat eating mainly wet food (70-90%) water. These are facts.
My own Burmese Lithium was fed solely dry food from when I first got her to age 7. I was told by the breeder that she would thrive & it was the best food for a Burm. Like a compete idiot, I believed her. She was always a puky cat. She would vomit several times every week & I just assumed it is normal - IT IS NOT! It has nothing to do with a cat eating too fast, it is the crap in the dry food! In 2014, when she was just 7 years old, she started vomiting after almost every meal. I took her to the Vets, she had tests, but, nothing was found. My Vet suggested changing her diet to an exclusion one, as, she thought she was becoming sensitive to the protein in the kibble. IT WAS THEN, that I actually started to do some research into cat nutrition. I went back to the Vets where she had a scan & biopsy, these showed pre cancerous cells in her gut due to the damage done from endless vomiting. They also found a Kidney stone To say it frightened the bejesus out of me was an understatement. I vowed never to feed her dry food again. This, of course, was easier said than done. She did not recognise wet food as food. She had never seen human food as fit for cats either! I was determined to get rid of the dry so, mixed a little wet in - she refused to eat. Put a tiny amount of wet on the plate next to the kibble - she refused to eat Eventually, I found I could put half a teaspoon of wet on a saucer about 30cm from her bowl & she would eat - kibble only! It took weeks before I got that saucer next to her bowl, then a few more weeks before I got a pea sized amount on her plate next to her food & she would still eat. At about 5 months, the first real breakthrough - she actually licked the wet food, but, wouldn't eat it. The next day she ate 1/2 teaspoon full of wet food & I sobbed my heart out. From there onwards I did what normal people do, counted the kibble & removed 1 every meal & upped the wet - I kid you not. Eventually she had 3 kibble left & a bowl of wet & would not eat without her 3. To say she is the most stubborn cat on the planet is an understatement. The 3 kibble gradually got pushed into the wet food to get rehydrated somewhat & one day I just forgot to put them on & she ate Nowadays, if I had known, it would have taken next to no time! Purina make something called fortiflora It is basically the digest that is sprayed over the kibble to make it edible to cats. You can buy this in sachets & put it over wet food & a 'normal' cat will go from dry to wet in a matter of days. I know, as, my last 7 cats have all gone through the same process.
For those of you who say 'my cat won't eat anything else' I hope I have given you a way out. You will waste cat food, but, in the long run, your cats will thank you for it. Echo was one of my girls who loved her dry food. I couldn't tell you how long for, as, she was adopted at 17. I know she now really looks forward to feeding time - although she would live on Thrive dehydrated prawn treats if she could. She eats a raw diet & that will be the next post.

30/10/2021

Before I start talking about dry food, PLEASE read the following info & watch the short video
https://feline-nutrition.org/health/species-inappropriate-the-dangers-of-dry-food
WRITTEN BY VETS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYplmwWDFro

29/10/2021

Lets talk nutrition for elderly cats Now I know this will be controversial, more so than any other topic. We all had cats when we were kids that lived forever fed on smelly pink slop fed from a tin. In actuality, most only lived to about 12, as the nutrition wasn't brilliant. it was, however, supplemented by the odd bird, rat, mouse. Nowadays, we are told that our cats won't love us, unless we buy Sheba & that active cats must be fed Felix. NEVER FORGET pet food in general & cat food in particular is a multi billion pound industry, and, so is the advertising. As a nation we read the food labels on everything we eat, but, rely on petfood manufacturers to sell a quality food without even looking. Cats are obligate carnivores, they MUST eat meat in order to survive, interesting posts to read below. A cat cannot digest vegetable matter properly, they need animal based proteins. Because cats have evolved to eat solely meat, their bodies do not make certain enzymes to digest things such as grains. They also do not make certain amino acids, as, the animals they eat can make them, so, they do not need to. Amino acids are the building blocks of life. They make proteins in the body. If a cat is not fed enough animal protein, it can digest its own muscles. Now understanding all of that, read your cat food tin / sachet / bag.
Purina make Beyond
Dentalife
Felix
Go-Cat
Gourmet
PRO PLAN
PRO PLAN Veterinary Diets

Mars foods make
Pedigree.
royal canin
Whiskas.
Iams.
Nutro.
Dreamies.
Sheba.
More worryingly, they own Waltham Petcare Science institute, Banfield Pet Hospital & VCA.
If you read the nutrition on the box for all of these brands, they are complete & utter crap. There is no place in a cats diet for sugar, grains, veg of any sort. The reason taurine is added, is because there is so little meat in the food. We all know how important it is for cats & it is naturally occuring in meat. MOST of these pet foods are less than 10% meat. Why? Because meat is more expensive than grain. A sachet of Felix - or kitty crack as we know it, is the equivalent of Macdonalds for your cats. I am not saying never feed it, I am saying, there are far better choices AT A SIMILAR PRICE which are grain & sugar free & high in meat proteins. I know some of you are shouting 'my cat loves it', ' my cat won't eat anything else'. That is just not true. It may take a while to wean your cat off this type of food, but, you will have a healthier, happier cat with far less smelly p**p.
I will leave you with this to read & be back later for more
https://www.truecarnivores.com/obligate-carnivores-natures-true-carnivores/

Obligate Carnivores: Nature's True Carnivores. In in-depth look at what they are, how they evolved, and what is the best diet for your True Carnivore.

27/10/2021

I would like to introduce you to Echo. She is a 20 year old long haired torbie lady. She has lived with me for the past 3 years, and, is an absolute sweetheart. She has several health issues including Arthritis, Epilepsy & HypOthyroidism after radioactive iodine therapy. She is also totally deaf. I have been owned by many cats over the years, most live to an advanced age & this can need some special help & treatment. I have been reading some heartbreaking stories on Facebook recently of people just not understanding the special needs of an older cat & thought, as we were very experienced with older felines, we could give some advice and sensible help which need not cost a fortune, but, would make the world of difference for an older feline. I would love you to join me on this mad journey. I am owned by 5 older felines, no doubt you will meet some along the way. The youngest is 13, she is Fermium the perpetually overweight world's laziest white & black girl. She was overweight when I adopted her 3 years ago & has stubbornly held on to her weight despite all the diet food imagineable - more on that later.
Next in line is a newer adopt Boron, a really sweet Black & white lass who has sinus problems. She has been with me since May & is really adorable - no health issues, although she is deaf. Boron is also 13.
Next in age is Lithium. A tiny, beautiful, badly behaved Burmese with delusions of grandeur & the worlds largest voice. She is the boss. She has renal disease, which has not progressed in 4 years - without any renal food. She is 3 kilos & swears like a fishwife. Lithium will be 15 in February. Last but never least is Fleazanall. He is a handsome grey moggie. Recently diagnosed with heart problems. He will be 16 in February & my only hen pecked boy