Leo December 2008 - Leo April 2009
Today is Leo's 5 month adoption anniversary! Five months is a short time in the grand scheme of things, but it seems as if he's always been here. More and more, as the days go by, I wish he had been here forever.
Please wish Leo a Happy Annifursary!
Recently I saw a post on Feline Diabetes requesting proof that a high protein diet was proper for a diabetic cat. I think it should be the other way around. The onus should be on the pet food industry to prove to US that they are doing all they can for animal nutrition, for both sick and healthy cats and dogs. Of course that won't happen, because they are the Goliath, and we are just stupid people. Hence my challenge.
I challenge every veterinarian who thinks Hills and Purina, Science Diet and Royal Canin are the go-to foods for sick cats to look into these diets. What are the first five ingredients? We all know that ingredients are listed in order of quantity, so the top 5 really count towards the health of the recipient. Look into the claims these companies make about their foods. While you're looking into it, don't forget that these companies are the same companies who have sickened and killed our pets, over and over again, by using sub-par ingredients, insufficient supplementation, and most recently, rat poison. If our government has no agency in charge of making sure these claims are accurate, who should hold them accountable? Veterinarians should hold them accountable. You're the people who sell it to us, the people who trust you.
From Hills:
While there is no cure for diabetes mellitus, veterinarians recognize it can be controlled with insulin, exercise and proper nutrition. Fiber is key in managing the disease because moderate to high-levels of fiber lower insulin requirements and blood glucose levels. Fiber also makes the body more responsive to insulin.
Really? How so? What does fiber do to make a cat's body more responsive to insulin? Before everyone gets excited, let's remember that cats are not omnivores, so the rules of human and canine diabetic management do not apply.
From Purina about their DM product:
This very high-protein and low-carbohydrate diet fits a cat's unique metabolism.
Thank goodness, they know what kind of diet we should feed. Let's check out Purina DM's ingredient list.
Dry food:
Poultry by-product meal (JUNK), soy protein isolate (CARB), corn gluten meal (CARB), soy flakes (CARB), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E) (srsly?) corn starch (CARB)
Ok that was revolting. 4 of the top 6 ingredients are carbs.. and the 5th one is preservative-filled animal fat? How can you say this is low carb?
Maybe their wet food is better:
Liver (organ), water, beef, corn gluten meal (CARB), trout, fish meal (JUNK), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), wheat flour (CARB), soy protein isolate (CARB), powdered cellulose (TREE)
Liver should never be the primary ingredient in any cat food. Water is the 2nd ingredient? Even the cheapest grocery store brand doesn't do that. Guess what cellulose is? SAWDUST. I don't even want to get into how they came up with adding that.
Hills reports their carbohydrate values as being 18% for the dry food, and 2% for the canned food. How can this be with so many carbohydrate ingredients in their food? Well it can be that way because the government has no agency to force them to tell the truth. If all those ingredients were in YOUR food, you would not eat it, so why are people being instructed to feed this to their obligate carnivores?
Let's take a peek at the ingredient list for Fancy Feast Gourmet Chicken Feast, a low carb, high protein food sold at every supermarket in the United States.
Chicken, Chicken broth, Liver, Meat By-products, Fish, Poultry By-products, Natural and artificial flavors, guar gum, potassium chloride, iron oxide, tricalcium phosphate, salt, vitamin supplements (E, A, D3, B12), sodium nitrate (for color retention), thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate.
Hmm.. why does a 50-cent can of food contain better quality ingredients than one manufactured by the very same company and sold to veterinarians to sell to people who shop in grocery stores? You see, Fancy Feast is owned by Ralston-Purina.
So... if I'm not a graduate of vet school, why is my uppity self challenging you? I don't want to have to explain to any more vets why I am feeding my diabetic cats Fancy Feast, Wellness and Nature's Variety. The food recall was the red flag. "Veterinarian brands" were recalled. My own bag of Hills WD was recalled. A $25 bag of cat food was recalled due to sub-par ingredients containing rat poison. Isn't that enough to tell you that these companies do not care about our animals?
Some interesting links:
Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM
Dr. Jean Hofve, DVM
Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM, Esq.
Dr. Debra Zoran, DVM, PhD, DACVIM
I have always prided myself on being able to talk to the animals. I saw Dr. Doolittle when I was a kid and though I have zero recollection of the movie itself, I have practiced talking to all my animals. Growing up on a working dairy farm gave me many animals to talk to, and talk to them I did. I even talked to the chickens, which I thoroughly detested. Life was rough for me, but the animals gave me a gift. They responded to my incessant chatter with lowing moo's, offended bok-bok's and excited squeals.
All this confidence in my ability to talk to the animals was blown to smithereens by one cat. Sammie was an odd kitty, seemingly she was personality-free for a good couple of years after I adopted her. Then one day, my then-husband went to sea, and Sammie emerged from herself. She wanted to cuddle, and play ball, and watch TV upside down on the couch with Jesica and me. I was stupefied. All this talking to Sammie, and apparently I wasn't understanding what she was saying. She didn't like the man I married! Sammie lived a good life after that, because shortly thereafter, I disposed of the man in question. A few years later I met Ronnie, and Sammie fell in love too. A man she liked, well he must be perfect for me.
The revelation that Sammie didn't like my ex sent me back to Square One with my animal communication. I was never blessed with the ability to communicate in other-worldly fashions, so I was forced to hire this talent out. One of them said my cats heard me talking to them, and that they laughed at me. I was not surprised to hear this at all. They ACT like they are laughing at me.
Enter Braille Kitty. Roxanne speaks in Clawsanteeth, an ancient language devised by devious children of Bast to communicate with their idiot owners. I have tried to explain to Miss Roxanne that I do not need to be spoken to with such force, but it has fallen on a laughing kitty's deaf ears. Everything she needs to get across to me is spoken using tiny sharp teeth and four sets of double-pawed claws.
I have marks from head to foot from these chats I've had with Roxie. I bear embarrassingly long ugly red welts which require turtlenecks to conceal. Scratches which itch and burn, puncture wounds in various stages of healing in perfect kitty paw patterns and gashes which seep blood and range from my neck to my knees. She's a tricky one, this kitty. She wants all the attention, chatters away non-stop looking for it, and lures me in with that cute "pet me" look. (I fall for this every time.)
When it's time to eat, I am notified by the biting of the toes, or the nose, if I am asleep. When it's time for me to let her through a closed door, a sharp slash to the hand occurs. Time to play? Any of my flesh is fair game, especially the tender top of the foot flesh. I am not allowed to watch TV without paying attention to her, nor spend too many minutes staring at the computer screen. Explaining to my friends why my hands look like I was assaulted by The Slasher, which they were, is an exercise in lying. There was the Horrible Dishwasher Incident where I was attacked by the silverware caddy. Another day, I fell straight into a vicious rose bush!
One time I tried to make coffee before feeding her. She reminded me that I was remiss by jumping from the floor and implanting every single claw she had deep into my derriere and both thighs, where she hung on for dear life until I detached her. This was no easy feat, she has many claws and I did not wish to enhance the agony by allowing her to reposition herself. I am this cat's slave, and whatever she wants, I do it. Willingly, but in fear.
Roxanne is now about 3 and a half years old or so, and like Sammie, coming into herself a little on the late side. She has been with us a bit over a year now, and she has established her tiny self firmly as the alpha kitty, boss of Niko, Leo and Me. Ronnie is a whole 'nother story. She loves her person, none other than Ronnie, lover of dogs, ignorer of cats. The more he ignored, the more she loved. She has trained him now, and he talks to her as she talks to him. He reaches down to pet her without a thought, and lets her in and out of doors as she follows him around the house. Ronnie has never been the recipient of even a single tooth dent in his flesh.
*sigh* Lost another one.
It's been awhile, hasn't it? Leo has now been with me almost 5 months. After his diagnosis of acromegaly, we had a flurry of vet appointments, a dental, a change of insulin, and a whole lot of mental strain.
The strain is from the fear I think, I know Leo is going to die of his condition, and I don't know from which disease first. Will his heart fail? Will his kidneys fail? Will he get cancer? It's tremendously scary, and even though I consider myself to be optimistic bordering on the ridiculous, I am also a realist.
Realists don't have a lot of fun treating diseases like this, in my experience. Many times, we realists are trying so hard to be optimistic that we fail to see the writing on the wall until one day when it slaps you upside the head, holding a cold and slimy trout. I remember all the hours agonizing over Oscar's numbers, and the day reality set in. Heart failure is not an illness, it's a death sentence with a very firm deadline.
Back to The Present, Leo is a very healthy cat who happens to have acromegaly. He's got all kinds of classic acro signs, like a big pot belly, which serves to make him look cute and too-well-fed. He needs about 30 times the insulin of a "normal" diabetic cat. He's got a giant head that he likes to push against my arm, headbutting his way into my heart. Startlingly beautiful and wise eyes seem to stare almost into your soul, but it seems his vision is faltering. His big snowshoe feet carry his giant body as he lumbers from comfortable sleep spot to comfortable sleep spot. He likes to go outside at night, because bright light bothers him, and he hides under the bed if the Oceana jets are flying too much and it hurts his ears. He eats like a starving horse, drinks like a thirsty horse and sleeps like a drunken man. What a racket he makes with that snoring!
With all the symptoms around me on a daily basis, forcing me to mind my reality, it was really hard to come to terms with the simplest truth. One day, with the big furry boy laying next to me as I tapped away on my laptop, I heard it: Sleep-purring. It occurred to me that Leo always purrs in his sleep when he lays next to me.
Loud and steady, clear and true. My baby is happy. Does anything else matter?
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