Do you remember the feral black kitten I took in over the winter?? It took us 2 weeks before we could touch her. She hissed and growled a lot. We were told that she probably had FIP because she was bloated. I blogged a bit about her and we weren't sure if we would have to put her to sleep or not. I did not update about her earlier sincen we were in a holding pattern and I didn't have anything factual to offer. The constant "will we euthanize or not" was getting a bit depressing to write about so I stopped updating.
I am super happy to let you know that we did not euthanize her. We kept her around, did blood work like crazy but could not find any other evidence of FIP. The vet told us she would probably die in a few weeks and she never did. We waited and waited but each time we did the FIP blood work, it came back negative.
After a few months having her quarantined and having blood work come back "all clean" we decided that there must be a mis-diagnosis going on. We took her in for vaccinations and then in for spay (ovario-hysterectomy). They still could not find anything wrong with her.
So, rather than adopting her out (since she's not really "healthy"), we kept her. We integrated her with our perma-cat and they get along well together. She has been living outside of the bathroom for a month or more now and things seem to be going ok. It will take a few months before she is totally settled in - she's still skittish and frightened of a lot (people, sounds, dogs that aren't ours).
She is also still super heavy and bloated. I have discussed this with the vet and they suggest that perhaps she does not do well on kibble - that it might be causing the bloat. Who knows, perhaps she will be the first cat we have on RAW! Anyone have any experience feeding cats RAW?
I will have some updated pictures of her soon. We named her Princess Jasmine (she came with the name Jazz but she's a snob so we thought we would add a bit to the name! It suits her more this way).
5 comments:
Oh, that's good news!
I'm feeding most of my cats a RAW based diet - I had one of mine who would get sick no matter what brand of kibble we tried. I started them off with fish (no bones) and worked their way up from there. They go crazy for chicken especially! The only thing is now whenever I open the fridge, they all come running. :)
I do see a huge difference in their fur, as well as the litter box smells being a lot better.
I don't feed raw, mainly because when I tried, the cats looked at me like I'd gone out of my mind, but a lot of cat bloggers around the internet do, and for the most part, it has worked well for them. One cat family did have a couple of their clan come down with some sort of food poisoning once, though. I think there's a lot of information out there on the internet, and with any common sense, you should be able to discern the good info from the bad.
I'm so glad the kitty is still around, and doing well! I had been wondering about her.
Hi! So glad the FIP scare is over and congrats on your adoption :-) As a vet tech in a feline-only practice I have to caution against RAW diets...most people who try this are doing it wrong as it is incredibly difficult to provide all the nutrients a cat need in a raw diet.
I would start to think in terms of your cat likely having food sensitivities or allergies. It's the most common problem. I would try a high quality wet food, and try one protein at a time. Start with bland...like turkey, avoid salmon & fish flavors. If you want to try dry again... don't get grocery brands instead try a premium brand like Science Diet (get the original) or Royal Canin. If traditional foods don't work... try lamb or duck cat food. Hope this helps!
I feed my pups raw, but not my cats, although they do get some occasional bits and pieces. There's a ton of info on the web and in some books, so look around and make a well informed choice is my advice. I can tell you I will never change my pups back to kibble. The only thing I remember about raw and cats is to make sure they get enough taurine-which, if memory serves, can be found in heart meats (beef, chicken, etc). But don't take what I say as gospel, I haven't done the research for cats, only dogs!
I feed my cat back then with premium cat food, and fruits she would touch like cantaloupe and apples.
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