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  #61  
Old August 20th, 2008, 06:27 PM
ryebread ryebread is offline
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Unhappy

Unfortunately, my cat has been showing the same symptoms for the last two weeks. He's only about 10 months old.

We have two indoor cats of the same age (came from the same litter). The cats have never been outside from birth. They have all their shots, etc. and are very well maintained.

One has always been a bit clumsy -- missing jumps, sometimes misstepping, etc.. Two weeks ago he started walking slowly. He'd go 2-3 steps and then stop. He wouldn't jump onto things.

The next day he was declined through the day. By the end of the day he could hardly walk. He fell when he walked. He walked with his rear elevated and his front legs trembled. He sat for extended periods of time in his litter.

We took him on an emergency trip to the vet the next day. The vet has actually been terrific and has done several examinations, rounds of testing, calling the local university vet school, etc..

The blood work came back with everything within normal range. The only thing near the edge of a normal range was his white blood cell count, which was on the high side of normal. The vet suspects this is a result of trauma.

Like the original poster said, the x-rays came back negative. There were no signs of breaks or anything abnormal.

There are no signs of FIP and no real chance that he could have been poisoned (plus he's never vomited the entire time we've had him). He's never been outside so it'd be hard to contract anything related to a flea or tick.

For the first few days, the cat was on a pain killer and we had him isolated. He actually improved drastically on his own and returned to about 85% of his ability to walk and run on a flat surface. He still couldn't really jump and was slow on the stairs, but he was much improved though his front legs still had tremors. We felt that he could have had a happy life if he just plateaued at this state.

Yesterday he took a turn for the worse. He was again walking slowly and started to look as if he was in pain. He spent most of the day in his bed. He didn't want his back touched. By the end of the evening, he was walking weirdly and was falling again.

We called the vet again first thing this morning. Our cat is still a medical mystery. We're being referred to the neurology department at the local university.

If anyone has had a similar experience and actually found a positive resolution, please let me know. It's tearing us up to watch him in this state.

Thanks in advance!
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  #62  
Old August 20th, 2008, 06:52 PM
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ryebread-

Welcome to the forum!

If you read through this entire thread, perhaps you noticed my post above...

I'll give you one caution - if the Veterinarian prescribes the drug Metacam politely refuse and request an alternative. Click on the drug name to find out why.

You mentioned you were given a drug for pain - unfortunately, Metacam is becoming a drug of choice for pain relief, it appears, and many cats are very muh the worse for it.

The nearby university...is that a Veterinary school? If so, you are very fortunate. Please keep us updated.
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  #63  
Old August 20th, 2008, 11:19 PM
ryebread ryebread is offline
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Rusty: Thanks for the head's up. Out vet has given us Buprenex for pain medication.

You're correct -- the university nearby has one of the USA's premier veterinary medicine programs. We're extremely fortunate. Now, if only we can afford it.
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  #64  
Old August 21st, 2008, 06:55 PM
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ryebread-
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  #65  
Old August 25th, 2008, 01:19 PM
ryebread ryebread is offline
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Cool

We're scheduled for September 10th, but they're trying to work our cat in earlier. He seems to improve slightly if we put him in isolated rest, but he's obviously not nearly as happy as when he has free reign on the house.

Does anyone else have familiarity with these types of cases?
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  #66  
Old August 26th, 2008, 10:31 AM
acky acky is offline
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I have to admit we have had cats that we spun on the floor before. As long as you are not overly rough, I don't think it causes harm in a healthy cat. Just a quick point I wanted to make though. If you ever wonder if your cat is anemic, the characteristic sign is that all of the areas that are normally pink, lose their pink color. Depending on the cat they may not have any pink areas but if they do - gums, tongue, the little vein in their claws, their ears, their belly, anyplace that is normally pink is less pink or completely white. that is from the loss of red blood cells. My cat is anemic and thank goodness, her gums are a light color and I can check them for pinkness to keep tabs on her. Her brother is solid grey everywhere so the only place to check on him is his tongue. He isn't anemic so thank goodness I don't have to do that because he doesn't care to have his mouth messed with.
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  #67  
Old October 21st, 2008, 09:54 AM
JennyD JennyD is offline
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Same problem

Hello,

I read this thread after searching on Google. Two nights ago, my cat "Radley" displayed the same trouble. She is 7 years old and has also always been an indoor cat, but she suddenly had trouble walking and the Vet and I are puzzled. I initially thought she had gotten hurt somehow, but the vet observed her all day yesterday and said she is displaying what he called "Shifting Lameness" which is unusual and her x-rays came out normal.

She did go to the Vet 2-3 months ago because she was having allergies, and the Vet gave her a steroid shot. The Vet said Diabetes was a possible side effect of that shot, and I am wondering if this may be a result of that as well. I am supposed to get the lab results on her blood and neurological tests today. I would appreciate if some of these posters with similar problems could keep posting with whatever they find, and I will do the same.

Thank you!
Jenny
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  #68  
Old October 21st, 2008, 11:28 AM
Duchess08 Duchess08 is offline
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Originally Posted by Breeee123 View Post
Hi,

I just noticed late last night that my cat was having a hard time pulling her hind quarters up into a standing position, and she seems to have a difficult time walking or jumping. She'll walk a couple feet and then sit down to rest, and she's extremely reluctant to get up again. I took her to the Emergency clinic last night and they checked her pulse in her hind legs to make sure it wasn't a blood clot, and she had a strong pulse in both hind legs. They took X-rays, which showed no damage that would explain the limping. They basically just gave her a shot for the pain and said to watch her for a few days and bring her back in if the symptoms persist. This morning she was the same.

She's an indoor cat, so I doubt if there was any serious trauma. She's 10 years old and has always been in fantastic shape - always energetic and running around the house. This is the first time I've ever had a medical problem with her.

She did have a dental appointment a week ago, and they gave her anasthesia. I called my normal vet and asked them if it could have been the anasthesia, and they said probably not because it's been a week. They also did a routine blood test right before the dental, and they said everything came back normal and her glucose levels were fine so it's not diabetes.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Thanks,

Briana
My sisters persian had that happen, he died of heart problems... hope that is not it.
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  #69  
Old October 22nd, 2008, 09:13 AM
JennyD JennyD is offline
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We received most of the lab results which were negative for any viruses. The only notable results were an elevated white blood cell count and I guess something that indicated muscle inflammation. We are still waiting for some of the labs to come back ( I believe they are related to neurological tests).

Radley seems to be progressing in spite of the fact that we have not really treated her. I am just trying to keep her active by playing with her and trying to get her to stand up and walk around. She is able to stand and walk for longer distances, but still needs some help. She is also jumping up and down from furniture again, even though she is a little awkward/ off-balance when she does. She has still not been drinking much and has not gone to the litterbox as much as she used to.

We may take her back to the Vet again tomorrow for further observation.
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  #70  
Old November 15th, 2008, 04:03 PM
JennyD JennyD is offline
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Smile Radley's recovery

Well, we have given it some time and it looks as though our kitty has fully recovered!

The Vet never found the cause to her trouble walking, but he did find low levels of Potassium and Vitamin B, and gave her a vitamin shot on her last visit. He also wondered if the low white blood counts could have been due to an infection of some kind. So he prescribed Marbofloxin to treat the possible infection and Mirtazapine to stimulate her appetite, since she had managed to lose some weight.

Radley is back to her old self, running around and jumping on things. We still are not sure what may have been the cause of her trouble, but we are thankful that she has recovered.

-JennyD
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  #71  
Old November 15th, 2008, 04:09 PM
CaptainOlimar CaptainOlimar is offline
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Wow, now that's good news! I'm glad for you and Radley.
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  #72  
Old November 15th, 2008, 04:20 PM
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Thanks for the update JennyD, glad to here she made a full recovery. Sure would love to see some pics of Radley
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  #73  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 11:04 AM
PeanutEmmaEli PeanutEmmaEli is offline
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Unhappy Peanut's right front leg is limp - same problems

My 3 1/2 year old indoor cat suddenly appeared with a limp leg last night. We took her to the emergency vet and nothing came up on the xray. The vet said it may be nerve damage. She is very lethargic today and I found her laying in her litter box this morning. She doesn't seem to be in pain, but she is just laying there, seemingly helpless. I hate seeing her this way. The only thing that has changed was her kitty litter. I normally use feline pine pellets. I ran out and had a box of the clumping feline pine leftover in the basement. I used it once, but it made a mess so I haven't used it since. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I am letting the vet know anyway. The emergency vet said if it doesn't get better we may have to consider amputating. There is no way we could afford that, and Peanut is having a hard time not being able to use her arm too.
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  #74  
Old December 18th, 2008, 10:18 AM
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Diet

Hey there guys, i've got the same problem with one of my cats. Mr Burns, or Burnsy, White Boy, Little Man or the Monster. He's one of three cats in our household but the only one with a problem.

He's a 10 month old, white domestic. Positive he's got some Balinese in him. He is usually very active, inquizative and extremely affectionate but over the last few weeks has become less and less like himself. At first he just seemed a little clumsy and arkward. We thought not much of it. He started urinating outside of his litter box which was right out of character. We were told that he was trying to mark his terratory. When he started falling short when jumping to tables and chairs we became a little concerned. His hinde legs were noticably weak. He was wobely. He looked uncomfortable whether sitting or walking. As we'd just started letting him outside we checked him over for any wounds or obvious injuries on his legs or belly. We couldn't see anything so hoped it was a passing sickness or he was simply growing into a clumsy cat.

Then, a few days ago he urinated while sleeping next to us in bed so we knew something was up. I mean, his "accidents" had become more frequent but it was only apparent now that he had no control over it. In the morning we took him straight to the vet. The vet found he had a minor urinary infection and gave him a shot of anti-biotics. He suggested the problem with his hinde legs maybe nerve related and caused by the inflamation caused by the infection. He told us the anti-boitics would kick-in in about 6 hours and to keep an eye on his walking. If he hadn't regained his agility within a couple of days then he should be brought back for x-rays.

The shot seemed to clear up the urinating problem but nothing else. That afternoon he seemed even more unsettled, uncomfortable and unsocial. He complained and would shy away when he was picked up. Later that night he was in too much pain to be handled so it was back to the vets this morning for the x-rays. 2 x-rays and countless tests later and they can find nothing wrong. They put him on a painkiller/anti-inflamatory (Metacam) and said if that didn't work then it may be a neurological problem. He came home as fragile as ever and still a little sedated from the x-rays. I know we've got a great vet but i knew they were a little stumped. Seeing my once vibrant and affectionate cat rapidly deteriorating with still no idea of what was wrong scared the hell out of me. I Googled every symptom i could think of and found out some pretty interesting things.

Unlike dogs, cats actually have quite a varied nutritional requirement. It's quite common for cats to have a calcium deficiency due to all-meat diets and to have Vitamin B1 (Thaimin) deficiency caused by cooking their food. Both these dificiencies have the exact symptoms mentioned all through this thread. I tried to supplement their dinner tonight with some watered down milk and some Vegemite on toast. It was the only Calcium/Thaimin rich foods i could to interest this usually ferocious eater. A dramatic improvement immediately. It may have just been the anti-inflamatories taking effect but he sprang back to life as soon as he finished cleaning a glob of Vegemite off his paw. He changed from a cripple back to a kitten. Sprawling over family members. Playing with the other cats.

The Metacam wears off in a few days so i'll be able to see if it's the drugs or the diet. It is probably a bit of everything we've done over the last few days but it's important to be aware of the need for a rich and varied diet. Kitty Milk is full of calcium and thaimin so it shouldn't be hard to supplement thier diet. We'd been feeding the cats nothing but tined tuna, mince meat and the ocassional pre-packaged cat food. Feeding cats the same food over and over magnifies the deficiencies in a diet and that's where we may have gone wrong with young Burnsy. Only time will tell and it's too early to tell yet. Atleast he seems content tonight. Even if there's more to his problem, i'm sure my new appretiation for his nutritional needs will benifit him so much in the years to come.

*i'm typing fast than i'm thinking. Hope that all made sense. It's late here and i can't be bothered with spell check
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  #75  
Old December 18th, 2008, 10:38 AM
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Blastasaurus - Welcome to the forum.

First off.........has this cat been fed Orijen dry cat food?
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  #76  
Old December 18th, 2008, 12:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Blastasaurus View Post
We'd been feeding the cats nothing but tined tuna, mince meat and the ocassional pre-packaged cat food.
Hi, and welcome to pets.ca! I'm hoping your kitty makes a full recovery, and good for you for looking more into his nutrition. I gotta say, that's a terribly unbalanced diet you're feeding. It's not that cats need a great variety in their food, but they do need properly balanced nutrients, particularly where the calcium/phosphorus ratio is concerned. A diet of canned tuna and ground meat is awfully lacking in calcium and should make up no more than 10% of your kitties meal portions. Please either feed a quality commercial canned food (dry isn't good for cats), or consider doing some more research into what it takes to make a homemade diet. I wouldn't feed tuna anymore either: http://catnutrition.wordpress.com/20...ding-for-cats/

Here is a good site for more info on feline nutrition: http://www.catinfo.org/

I'll let RUSTYcat deal with the Orijen issue.
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  #77  
Old December 18th, 2008, 10:48 PM
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Blastasaurus- It's midnight here on the Canadian east coast, so I may miss your reply to the Orijen question.

If it should be that the cat has had any amount of Orijen dry cat food, I know that you will need to go to the (Australian) CatWorld forum and get yourself up to speed on some serious health issues occurring there in cats who have used that food. The current discussion thread is here.
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  #78  
Old December 19th, 2008, 10:49 AM
ryebread ryebread is offline
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Talking

I wanted to provide a follow up on my previous post regarding my cat as there may be some hope and direction for other pet owners out there. Since my original post, we spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what was wrong with our cat.

Our pet would cycle up and down. He'd seem to be improving for about a week or two and then he'd crash hard and revert back to some of his bad symptoms. Specifically he was extremely weak, had tremors, stiff limbs, and weird body twitching, was defecating on the mat in front of the litter box, refused to roll onto his back either for play or attention (which had previously been his favorite), was very withdrawn and often could not climb the stairs without stopping to rest. His weirdest symptom was that he felt like he didn't really have muscle in his limbs, but instead just had floating bones. He could be maneuvered into weird body positions without any sort of natural resistance. He cycled up and down several times over the course of two months and we'd exhausted the resources of the vet we use for primary care.

After a particularly bad cycle, we decided to "call in the big guns" and take him to the local veterinary teaching hospital in the last week of October. We're lucky enough to live next to one of the top 2-3 in the US so we felt like we'd at least isolate something. We went in with the full expectation that they'd want to do a MRI to look into the neurological symptoms. Both our primary vet and another vet whom we're friends with both suggested a neurological issue that would probably require a MRI to isolate.

We brought him in and spent about 5 hours with their neurology department. I believe that every vet in the neurology department who was present that day looked at him. They spent the majority of the examination (that we saw) testing his physical abilities.

They decided that no MRI was needed due to his specific combination of symptoms (saving us serious $$$). They felt that he either had a disease of the nerves or a disease related to where the nerves interacted with the muscles. They could definitively state there was no spinal cord injury, brain injury, neck or back injury, breaks, etc.. They could isolate which one by doing a biopsy of his nerves and muscle tissue if we wanted to.

Isolating the exact one would have been great, but would have cost considerable money and would have required anesthesia. We instead opted to try the long term treatments which would have been prescribed for many of them. Should they not work, we were going to take him in for the biopsy, another bloodwork analysis, etc..

Our cat's bloodwork that our original vet took did not show low levels of potassium, but did show elevated white blood cell counts. All the symptoms that our pet had seemed to point to hypokalemic myopathy, except for the one blood test which should have correlated with a the low potassium level. Our cat is a young Burmese (currently 1 year old) and this is a disease that rarely shows in young Burmese.

To make a long story short, the vet prescribed Vitamin E supplements as a treatment any nerve issues and potassium supplements in case he had hypokalemic myopathy. We give him a small scoop of potassium (your vet will typically prescribe it for liver failure so most vets should have it) in the morning and evening paired with a tiny dab of baby food (make sure that it's one that does not contain a toxin to cats). We have small 100u gel caps (orderable through CVS) that we cut open and take the contents out of. We do that in the evening and mix it with the potassium supplement and baby food.

It's since been six weeks and I'm cautiously, optimistically, able to say that this seems to have cured him. His personality has returned to his kitten levels. He's getting stronger each day. Today he completed a jump up to a bar stool that he'd never even completed before his first incident. He no longer twitches, has no tremors or stiff legs, sprints up the stairs like a track star and no longer feels "weird" to the touch. He's in the process of re-estabilishing himself as the "Alpha" cat in our house.

We're happy to have our cat back and are tickled about the low cost options (vitamin E pills are around $3 US for a 2 month supply and the potassium is $16 us for a month's supply). This seems like a very manageable, low cost solution long term.

One last thing to note -- I'd be very cautious if you're feeding your cat Wellness Brand Seafood dried cat food. Before the first incident started, we'd switched from Science Diet Kitten to Wellness Brand Seafood. We'd picked up one bag of the seafood and one bag of the chicken and were feeding our cats the seafood. Naturally when the first incident happened, we'd felt that it was probably linked to the food change. We tried reverting back to the old food, but could never stabilize him with the diet alone. We've since switched to a mix of the Science Diet Light and the Wellness brand Chicken to go along with the supplements mentioned above. One day we tried mixing in the Seafood again and he had his worst day on his recovery. We noticed a slight stiffening of his back left leg (which was his initial symptom). We pulled all the seafood pellets back out of the mix and he's not shown this again.

I was going to wait until the end of January to post this as I did not want to lead other pet owners astray. At the same time, I saw recent activity on this thread and feel like this might help people out. I'll check back on this thread in late January and provide a 3 month update.
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  #79  
Old December 19th, 2008, 10:59 AM
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Thanks for the update. Have you contacted Wellness to let them know?
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Old December 19th, 2008, 11:19 AM
ryebread ryebread is offline
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Truthfully -- I've not contacted Wellness. I cannot say for sure that it's linked to their product. Our other Burmese cat eats the exact same diet and has never shown any issues. If both had tracked to similar symptoms, then I'd absolutely be screaming at Wellness over their food and posting at every forum I could find.

Maybe our cat just had a bad day on the one day of eating the seafood pellets mixed in? Maybe our cat has a seafood allergy? I'm not going to solely point fingers at their product.

I'm still using their chicken product as the cat enjoys eating it and it really gives him a soft, glossy coat. I will not be using the Seafood product again though.

My gut says that the cat probably has hypokalemic myopathy which shows up in young Burmese cats. When in a down cycle, he matches every single symptom.

Regardless of the ultimate root cause, if he can be treated with potassium and vitamin E supplements, then I'm more than happy to do it. His improvement is so drastic that one would not even believe that this is the same cat.

Hope this helps!
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  #81  
Old December 19th, 2008, 11:55 AM
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Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
One last thing to note -- I'd be very cautious if you're feeding your cat Wellness Brand Seafood dried cat food.
First, I would like to commend you on your perseverance in trying to help your kitty. That's great that he's doing better, and my fingers are crossed that he continues to do well.

As for the seafood cat food, even if it wasn't part of the problem, you were right in stopping it. Believe it or not, fish isn't a natural protein source for cats, since they actually evolved in the desert. It's a common allergen, and is likely to be higher in toxins than other foods. Check out my link above that lists reasons not to feed fish.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
We've since switched to a mix of the Science Diet Light and the Wellness brand Chicken to go along with the supplements mentioned above.
Now about that Science Diet Light. I can't stress strongly enough that this is one of the worst cat foods on the market. Please please please find something better, preferably a quality canned food. Cats should not be eating dry food, and that applies exponentially to male cats, who are at great risk for suffering a urinary tract blockage when eating kibble. What makes the SD Light so particularly horrible is how high in carbohydrates it is. Cats are not designed to handle so many grainy carbs and it eventually takes a toll on them, often in the form of diabetes, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, dental disease, etc. The best food for cats is one that resembles what they've evolved eating: meat-based, high protein, low carb, and WET. This link explains everything you've ever wanted to know about feline nutrition, and how to transition over to a wet food diet: www.catinfo.org
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Old December 19th, 2008, 12:41 PM
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Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
Truthfully -- I've not contacted Wellness. I cannot say for sure that it's linked to their product. Our other Burmese cat eats the exact same diet and has never shown any issues. If both had tracked to similar symptoms, then I'd absolutely be screaming at Wellness over their food and posting at every forum I could find.

Maybe our cat just had a bad day on the one day of eating the seafood pellets mixed in? Maybe our cat has a seafood allergy? I'm not going to solely point fingers at their product.

I'm still using their chicken product as the cat enjoys eating it and it really gives him a soft, glossy coat. I will not be using the Seafood product again though.

My gut says that the cat probably has hypokalemic myopathy which shows up in young Burmese cats. When in a down cycle, he matches every single symptom.

Regardless of the ultimate root cause, if he can be treated with potassium and vitamin E supplements, then I'm more than happy to do it. His improvement is so drastic that one would not even believe that this is the same cat.

Hope this helps!
I am so glad he has gotten back to his old self.

I do second sugarcatmom's advice in getting a better quality canned for your kitties.

Oh and pics of course, you need to post some pics
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Jasper RIP (2001-2018)
Sweet Pea RIP (2004?-2014)
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In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats.-English Proverb

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  #83  
Old December 19th, 2008, 11:45 PM
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Orijen, a balanced diet and the Monster

Thank-you Rusty and Sugar for welcoming me to your forum.

Rye, that's so good. I'd also love to see some photos.

No, Burnsy has definitely not been exposed to Orijen cat food (thank god). I appreciate you mentioning that. I had no idea about the recall and it's, again, opened my eyes to how ignorant i have been on feline nutritional issues. As the carer of 3 cats i should really be more aware. Especially seeing Burnsy's symptoms are identical to those poor affected cats.

I agree with you Sugar, i should have said "balanced diet" rather that varied or rich. It was what i was meaning to say but it was late and sometimes words escape me. Their diet has been terribly unbalanced. In a way it's good to hear you confirm how bad this is. It's making me think i may have pin pointed his ailment and can do something about it. It would be nice to think i have some control over the situation and could end his suffering. You souldn't think of us as irresponsible or unattentive owners. The cats haven't always eaten this way. I have only changed to an all meat diet a month or 2 ago, ignorantly thinking less processed meals fit for human consumption would be an improvement to their diet. Problem was i presumed what was best rather than educating myself.

Razzy Cat is 18 months while Jaffa and Burnsy and both 10 months. They've all enjoyed a healthy, balanced, commercial diet for most of their lives. They were all raised to 6 months on Whiskas Kitten Food, Whiskas Milk Plus and Whiskas Dry Food for Kittens. They were then gradually weaned to the adult equivalent and we stopped the milk. Whiskas is a well respected, commercial brand. The dry food clearly states it contains carefully balanced levels of Calcium and Phosphorus. Extra Thiamin is used in the wet food so some survives the cooking process and it's full of natural antioxidants to boost his immune system. The milk also containes Thiamine and Taurine. Mince meat and fresh fish was a rare treat in the early days and of course fresh water has always been available. Razzy stayed on the kitten food for the full 12 months (as recommended) but Jaffa and Burns graduated earlier as they kept stealing Razzy's adult food anyway and the adult range had more flavours. We only started feeding the cats tined tuna in springwater on a regular basis a month or two ago. I then started giving them mince more often to add some variety. They've always had their Whiskas dry food served and topped up through out the day. Water changed twice a day. They've always atleast had a couple of Whiskas wet food pouches every week.

I'm in two minds about how much his diet has contributed to his current condition. There's no doubt it's a factor. Burnsy's decline could be seen as mirroring the change in his diet. He's been a little delicate and clumsy for a fews weeks now. He's been fragile and in pain for the last few days. His urinary infection was the cause of half his problems but would he have had the infection if he hadn't come off the commercial diet with all it's antioxidants? He seemed to have regained bladder control after he had his shot of antibiotics but he is still frail. I know antibiotics knock people and pets around but his balance and timidness is still a concern. Is he still suposed to be in pain? I still can't help but feel there's more to this story yet. He is back on his commercial kitty diet and we're looking into supplements but with sedatives, pain killers and antibiotics still in his system its hard to tell what's working and how much of a difference it's making. Only time will tell.

Unless anyone has more suggestions all i can do is continue surfing the net for answers while keeping him comfortble and well nourished. I'm scared it might get to the stage of neurological testing and am looking for any, less traumatic, alternative. I'll keep you all informed on his progress and anything more i find out.
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  #84  
Old December 20th, 2008, 01:22 AM
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Well, no Orijen is a relief!

Now, before you go...a word of caution about the anti-inflammatory the Vet prescribed.....

I know that Metacam is licensed for use in cats in AU. One thing you need to know is about its potential effects and about dosage.

Metacam is a kidney-killer unless it is used at miniscule dosages.

There is a very recent study (done in AU, interestingly) that demonstrated its safety and efficacy at a dosage about 1/10 of the licensed dosage...that should tell you something about its "strength"/potency....so, my brief message to you is, the less, the better. (In North America, Metacam overdosing is an epidemic, and cats are showing up "everywhere" with kidney failure...see www.metacamkills.com)

Here is the Australian study re reduced dosages
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

If I were in your position, I'd speak with a trusted pharmacist, showing him/her the bottle and syringe and a copy of that abstract....s/he should be able to tell you how to reduce the dosage to the safer levels.
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Old January 28th, 2009, 04:52 PM
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I just wanted to provide another update for those who might still be following this thread. As of this weekend, we'll officially be 3 months into the daily Vitamin E and Potassium treatments. As a result, our cat has never been better. He's now stronger, better balanced and more rambunctious than he's ever been in our time with him. He's just like a small child -- he'll play until he's utterly exhausted and then just drop and sleep wherever that may be. His litter mate (who never had a problem but who was historically more active) now cannot keep up.

I will not speculate as to whether the root cause was food related or whether the cat has an inherited disease. Regardless, we could not stabilize the cat on cat food alone and the treatment seems to have worked miracles.

It is amazing that this is the same cat. Our vet will be floored when he goes in for his routine check up.

Some posters here expressed a concern with the food that we were feeding our cats. Give our lifestyle and the fact that our two cats have very different eating patterns and appetites, dried food with wet food as "treats" is really our only option. We are in the process of switching them over to Innova's Evo line of dried cat food (currently we're blending this with the rest of our older cat food). They love the taste (way better than their previous favorite of Wellness brand) and they seem to have no negative side effects.

I cannot comment as to whether they eat less total volume when on the Evo food versus other foods. Many sites on the web have rumored this. I'm doing some testing though (days to eat a set amount of food) and I'll report back when they're 100% on Evo.
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Old January 28th, 2009, 05:53 PM
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Yay, that's so fantastic that your cat has made such a complete turn-around. You must be thrilled!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
Some posters here expressed a concern with the food that we were feeding our cats. Give our lifestyle and the fact that our two cats have very different eating patterns and appetites, dried food with wet food as "treats" is really our only option.
Just so you know, it is possible to leave canned food out for free-feeding, if that's your concern. If you're still determined to feed dry, it would at least be a good idea to feed wet for more than just "treats". Doesn't have to be scheduled meals, but at least a daily serving of canned with some extra water mixed in will truly benefit your cats. I realize the convenience of kibble is extremely appealing, but the price for that convenience could be your cat's long-term health.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
We are in the process of switching them over to Innova's Evo line of dried cat food.
While Evo is one of the better dry foods on the market, just a heads up that it's extremely high in calories. You might want to feed measured portions rather than a bottomless bowl, or you could end up with some very tubby kitties.
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Old January 29th, 2009, 08:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarcatmom View Post
Yay, that's so fantastic that your cat has made such a complete turn-around. You must be thrilled!

I too am happy you have found something that has made your kitty healthy and happy again

Just so you know, it is possible to leave canned food out for free-feeding, if that's your concern. If you're still determined to feed dry, it would at least be a good idea to feed wet for more than just "treats". Doesn't have to be scheduled meals, but at least a daily serving of canned with some extra water mixed in will truly benefit your cats. I realize the convenience of kibble is extremely appealing, but the price for that convenience could be your cat's long-term health.

Sugarcatmom is so right. Convenience is nice, but I also can tell you that cats who are transitioned from a dry diet to a canned usually become more active and happy. That is an indication to me that cats feed a kibble diet are chronically dehydrated possibly leading to kidney problems later in life.

While Evo is one of the better dry foods on the market, just a heads up that it's extremely high in calories. You might want to feed measured portions rather than a bottomless bowl, or you could end up with some very tubby kitties.
I hope you will reconsider wet food for your kitties. I leave canned food out for my cats all day while I am at work with no problems. Really opening a can of food is not much more work than measuring out some kibble.
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Old January 29th, 2009, 02:08 PM
ryebread ryebread is offline
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I'm a guest on this forum who came to discuss a point problem in health that my pet faced. I am admittedly not a regular or a long time lurker.

I found this thread on Google after many hours of searching and research to try and get to the bottom of my pet's illness. I spent lots of hours and money on my pet and his overall health. I was extremely worried for months on end as we went through this cycle. Luckily we stumbled upon a very simple solution that I am hoping to share with others.

By comparison, many owners here and elsewhere have euthanized their pets as a result of very similar conditions. Hopefully this will be prevented and owners will try this before spending lots of money or turning to euthanization. Hopefully cats lives will be spared. That's my entire goal with sharing this information.

At the same time, while I appreciate the attempt to help and the genuine love for animals in general, I'm not sure that I'm thrilled with the constant badgering regarding the cat food on the thread. People don't know the dynamics of my home as a whole or the dynamics of my two cats. The one who has had the issues is a relative hog while the other is nearly completely indifferent to food. Our experiments with wet food result in him scarfing every single bit of food down. The ONLY way to serve wet cat food effectively to these two cats is to completely separate them, separate the portions, isolate them and then try to coerce the one to eat. Otherwise, the choice is to borderline starve them and then do the above. Neither are a viable solution.

Also, it is implied that I'm providing inappropriate level of care for my pets. I think that even the most avid cat lover would be quite surprised at the amount of grooming, cleaning, dedandering, playing, training, affection, toys, nail clipping, etc. that are provided for these pets.

I'm saying this because while I appreciate all the help and support, I'm admittedly not as happy about what seems to be the pushing of an agenda by some. While I have not searched other threads to see if the posters do this in other threads, I would hope that's not the case. It's a quick way to drive away posters and risk not having solutions such as this posted.
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Old January 29th, 2009, 02:27 PM
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Sorry you feel that way, it is just some people are not aware of the consequences of feeding kibble to their cats. I don't think anybody implied that you were giving borderline care. You can take the advice given to you or you can choose to ignore it. That is entirely up to you. I know the HUGE difference changing to a quality all canned diet did for my cats.

I also see the difference in my foster kittens that go from a raw/canned diet in my house to a kibble (Orijen, not the crap stuff) diet at the store where they are adopted from and that is in kittens, not even seniors. Sooooooooooo in saying that, you seem like a person that really loves your cats and thought you would like to know about kibble.

I do have a cat who eats everything and is pudgey along with two cats that are slow munchers. I know what it is like and the work that goes along with have this dynamics in a house so I can sympathize with you.
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Jasper RIP (2001-2018)
Sweet Pea RIP (2004?-2014)
Puddles RIP (1996-2014)
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In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats.-English Proverb

“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.” Stephen R. Covey
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  #90  
Old January 29th, 2009, 02:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
At the same time, while I appreciate the attempt to help and the genuine love for animals in general, I'm not sure that I'm thrilled with the constant badgering regarding the cat food on the thread.
Sorry that you feel so defensive. I have not been hostile with my recommendations, so if that's what you're feeling, I can't help you there. The thing is, way too many cat owners don't put much thought into what it is they're feeding, they just blindly put their trust in Big Pet Food. The fact that you were feeding Science Diet Light at one point tells me that you haven't done a whole lot of research on feline nutrition. It doesn't mean you're a bad owner, only that you didn't know how bad that food truly is. I'm only trying to steer you in the right direction so that your cats can be as healthy as possible and live long happy lives. Evo is definitely a step up. But just so you know, even the best dry food is not as good as the worst canned. I'm only suggesting that if you can't feed wet full-time, at least consider adding more wet into your cat's diet. What's so wrong with that?

So that you understand my motivation for being so persistent on this issue, I also fed SD Light to my cats, for most of their lives. One then developed diabetes at the age of 9, and the other died at 11 yrs, from severe IBD. Both of these conditions, (and several others that I've spent big bucks on over the years) can be directly linked to a kibble diet. I've done a considerable amount of research over the past 6 years and I'm only trying to save you the same heartache. Take it as you like.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ryebread View Post
It's a quick way to drive away posters and risk not having solutions such as this posted.
Pretty much everyone has been quite receptive to learning new things that can help their cats.
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Last edited by sugarcatmom; January 30th, 2009 at 10:32 AM. Reason: wording
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