It was nearly 17 years ago when I brought home 3 adorable Himalayan kittens: Rocky, Kasey, and Chanda. Rocky and Kasey littermates and Chanda had the same father. For their entire lives I gave them the best care I knew of — following the advice of a respected, well-established veterinarian clinic, I gave them the highest quality food touted on the market like Iams and Hills Science Diet and lots of TLC!
This past summer I learned the other side of pet ownership. In August 2006, we learned Rocky had intestinal cancer and within 4 weeks he was gone. One week later, I took Kasey in for a senior screening and learned he was in the advanced stages of Chronic Renal Failure (CRF). [Sigh] Kasey did great, however, and for 4 months we enjoyed some of the best times of his life! He really was mostly “normal” clinically right up until the day before his death on Dec 25th. Amazing!
Among the wealth of information I gleaned from Little Big Cat (visit at www.LittleBigCat.com), two areas were paramount. The importance of canned or wet food over dry food and a specific algae blend called Bio-Algae Concentrates (BAC) for whole food supplementation (visit at www.OptimumChoices.com). I encourage you to read through the information on the above websites but here is the short version of these two important points:
1. The importance of canned or wet food (or even raw) over dry food: Cats are by nature arid (dry climate) animals and thus are designed by their Creator to obtain the majority of their moisture from the foods they eat (i.e. birds, mice, rats, etc.). Do the math; give your cats dry food and you are compounding the dehydration factor which can lead to numerous health issues including but not limited to CRF.
2. Bio-algae Concentrates: I don’t sell the stuff so you can put your guard down right away as this is not an attempt to sell you anything. From what I have learned, cats, being obligate carnivores, do not have the ability to break down the cell walls of plants thus it is probably a waste of time to give them fruits & veggies.
Chanda today: despite having been diagnosed nearly 6 months ago as being in the very early stages of CRF, her numbers/kidney values are stable, her blood pressure is normal, eyes are clear, and clinically she literally has as much energy and spirit as her earlier years, once again playing with her toys and running through the house. She has such a soft and shiny coat that everyone who meets her, whether a veterinarian, vet tech, stranger or friend remarks about her soft coat! They simply cannot believe she is nearly 17 yrs old!
Please realize I am not suggesting that switching to canned food or adding BAC are “miracle” cures and I am not a veterinarian. I am simply letting you know what my experience has been, in the hopes you will get the same or similar results with your pet! I know Chanda will not be with me forever; I may have weeks, months, a year or at most several years given the average life of a cat is 15-16 years but I want however much time she has to be as enjoyable and healthy as possible. Whether the above is adding years to her life, I do not know but I do know it is adding life to her years!
Kent and Chanda