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Old April 23rd, 2013, 01:55 PM
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RUSTYcat RUSTYcat is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Le rocher
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Hi Daveacksh and welcome to the forum!

'Just a couple of quick points for you.......
Quote:
I'm not so interested in hearing about how dry foods are bad etc... it's the only food she will eat.
Would you be interested in knowing that, in periodic surveys among members of the most populated online specialized group of guardians of cats with kidney disease, the #1 recommendation for the prevention of CKD is.........NO DRY FOOD? This is the group I'm referring to http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/tanyas-crf-support/ That group is owned by the woman who authors Tanya's CKD site. After 7 years and with 4000 members, those people know a thing-or-two about kidney disease.

When you say that dry food is the only food Lily will eat, most of us here really do understand that....it's extremely common among the cats we have adopted and know of.

Kittens learn about food from their mothers...and, when it's weaning time and there's no wet food on 'the table' and mother is eating dry kibble....well....

Our cats evolved as desert animals who derived their hydration from their prey...this is the 'design' in which they come to us today - unchanged over all that time (which also explains why their urine specific gravity IS IMPORTANT to them - but, not so much to humans...but, more about that later).

Given that evolutionary history, it is utterly counter-intuitive to feed dry food to an animal which is designed to take hydration from that food.

I said that all of us are familiar with dry food addiction. There's a very reputable Veterinarian who owns a website focusing on feline nutrition who has written on this subject. Many people have benefited from some of her suggestions (borne from her own experiences) for re-training cats toward wet food. If you're interested, that part's here: http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_ BEFORE you go there, do understand her main message: "The transition process often involves much more than just plunking down a new food item. Time, patience and tricks are often required." Those of us here who have had to re-train a cat (me included) will undoubtedly endorse those statements.

I'd encourage you to sniff around and then read through that entire site. The piece I referenced is one small part of one article and, that article (really a 'Feline Nutrition 101') is just one small part of the entire site - really a wealth of informative, sound and reliable "catinfo".

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Quote:
In mid February she vomited for 24hr...I took her to the vet, who suspected pancreatitis... X-rays and blood work were all negative...and the blood work showed no sign of infection and no elevated levels of anything that would indicate a problem with her pancreas...
"Blood work" is too general a term. There are specific tests for pancreatitis. Perhaps you might want to first read about them and then ask your Vet exactly which blood work tests were done in February. Here you go: http://www.felinecrf.org/pancreatitis.htm#bloodwork If only 'standard' blood chemistry was done, pancreatitis cannot be ruled out.

Quote:
I'm more interested in hearing about similar situations and any advice people may have.
What I can say is that, after years of hearing about cats vomiting (reading other peoples experiences posted here and elsewhere - TheCatSite/CatForum/Itchmoforums) - the single most common relief has been had when people changed from dry to wet foods - specifically, no-grain, low carbohydrate, high meat protein, moderate fat levels.
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