Dogs vs. Cats

[Lil Missy]

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Cats don't have owners, they have staff!

Post your own favorite silly pet pic.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. This is my Felix!

I found him as a tiny kitten in a grocery store parking lot and he's grown into a beautiful cat, IMO!

[pansypoo53219]

2. I had a similar black kitten that looked like yoda at 2 months & became a gorgeous norwegian forest

or black maine coon, tho unlikely a breed. cosmo was awesome.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. I've had four cats in my life and three have been black. They seem to find me...

I had no idea what this little guy looked like the night I spotted him in the parking lot. All I could see were his eyes in the dark - and he wasn't easy to catch. But I certainly couldn't leave him there, they were doing construction there at the time, all kinds of big vehicles moving in and out. He was determined not to be caught, talked to the construction workers and one had tried and been bitten. I'll always be grateful to a young guy who worked at the store and his wife who came to pick him up, they were determined to help me catch him and seemed to know what they were doing...

He's not entirely black, has a patch of white on his chest and on one foot. But he has grown up into quite a beautiful cat, IMO, and though it took him awhile, he finally seems to know I'm his person.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Felix *totally* takes msgs...

...still waiting for a call back or two.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. He's got to get to know you, sure took a long time with me.

But I don't hold it against him, after his very rough start.

[Azor]

6. Amazing results using just food for kitten with seizures

Hello - just found this place because there were old posts about seizures in kittens. If anyone knows a more appropriate place to post this info please let me know.

We also just found a black kitten three evenings ago, but in a wood pile on our property. She's probably around 4-weeks old and in great shape. I'm more of a dog person because I have too many lizards, birds, rabbits, and chickens around to trust a cat and I certainly don't want wild cats running around our property. Well, it took about 10 minutes to calm the wildness away and then my 7-year old daughter fell in love with her.

I happen to have had kitten formula because of a recent issue with a baby bunny so I tried to give her some formula that evening. Didn't have much luck and she slept peacefully next to my daughter. The next day we tried a grain free wet food mixed with formula and she took some and that evening gave her more plus about an ounce of formula. She had what looked like a mild seizure a short time after and my daughter started tearing up when she saw the concern in my eyes. That night was awful as the kitten had at least 4 serious seizures lasting about 45 sec to a little over a minute (she meowed/screamed loudly each time at the start) and her box was a mess in the morning.

I'm a biologist so I did some research. Lots of info for seizure with everyone giving drugs as the cure. I am NOT going to give phenobarbital to this cat for the rest of its life. I suspected something in the food or lack of nutrient was the cause because of the peaceful first evening we had. With a little more digging found wonderful case where woman changed diet and added fats/oils (e.g., coconut oil/bacon grease) to help support brain function (also found supporting data on the importance of fats for those with underlying seizure disorders).

The second day we used a grain free hard food (higher protein and fat content than wet food) soaked to mush with just water. I went to work, when I came back family reported just one mild seizure. That evening we added a generous amount of coconut oil to the water/food mush (NOTE: NO kitten formula at all for over 16 hrs now). This morning we are happy to report that it looks like NO seizures occurred. I heard nothing, there was no mess everywhere, my daughter slept next to her and wasn't woken up, and the kitten is calm and alert.

Could it be so simple? I am not going to test my hypothesis that it was the food or formula combo because I don't have the heart to put the kitten back on it. And maybe this is a spurious correlation and tonight will be hell again. The problem is there are no studies out there testing diet against the different types of seizure issues in pets (and why when the drug companies do not want to support the studies). However, surely there are families out there that have litters of kittens with seizure issues (many are genetic and would be easy to get litters for study purposes) and some cat group that would stand behind such a study or someone with the funding to do so? I certainly can assist with proper scientific methodology as that is one of my strengths. Wouldn't it be something if we could discover that one of the main culprits is associated with food and a properly designed diet could get rid of the issue with NO DRUGS? Please pass on this info to whomever can help and to whomever needs the info for their own pet with seizure problems. I'm not saying its a cure but surely it is worth a try. Thanks!

[irisblue]

9. welcome to DU. can you also post this in our Pet Group?

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Sounds very promising!

I have adopted dogs who had seizures - I adopt older pets and that was the reason my little cocker spaniel was given up at age 8. And I completely agree with you, was referred to a vet who uses both Eastern and traditional Western medicine and diet was the very first treatment he recommended, much better than drugs which can have harsh side effects. Please keep us updated and welcome to DU!

And here is the link to the Pets Group here, as was suggested:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1161

[Azor]

13. Another seizure free day!

Thanks! I will try copying the post to the Pets Group. I'm not very familiar with this whole form of communication.

The first food we tried was grain free as well. My educated guess was that since it was a wet cat food (not a kitten formulation), the protein and fat content were lower than what a kitten should be eating. However, I thought the kitten formula would compensate. Also, there could have been some allergic reaction to the kitten formula (why on earth would you put "artificial flavor" in a kitten formula?!).

So grain was definitely not an issue in this case (as it may have been in the post below). I saw it's sibling in the wood pile and the one we have is definitely the runt of the two. She is acting very calm and sweet but her balance is pretty off and concerning me. I'm hoping it's only because she's young and still learning to walk and not due to a brain injury from its seizure disorder.

Now that I've had more time to research, I am finding more info on the importance of fat/oils. We'll be adding fish oil and bone marrow to her diet as well. No bacon grease - too much preservatives and salt.

That's really sweet that you adopt older pets. Did the cocker spaniel do better under the recommended diet and without drugs?

[Rhiannon12866]

15. That is excellent news!

Kittens are so small, this has to be heartbreaking! I also have a cat, found him as a tiny kitten in a grocery store parking lot - two years ago next month. He also obviously got off to a rough start so I made it a point to feed him the best food I could find for kittens - (which my vet says is the most important thing you can do for a pet, obviously!) and he has - though I may be prejudiced, LOL, grown into a beautiful cat!

As for my cocker spaniel, diet really did make a big difference. I adopted her at age eight - she had suddenly become homeless when her owner died. And after I had agreed to take her, I found out she also had a history of seizures, the poor thing had one the night I brought her home.

I was looking for an alternative to an anti convulsant medication since I had previously adopted another eight-year-old cocker - who was apparently surrendered to rescue because she also had seizures - and she eventually died from liver failure as a side effect of being on that medication for over four years. I had tried her on prescription food, as well, but her seizures had become so frequent and severe that I really had no choice but to go with the medication.

I was new to the internet back then, but I looked up and read as much as I could on seizure disorders. It sounds like you're doing the right thing for your kitten. Please let us know how it's going!


My cat, Felix, just turned two:

[Azor]

14. Don't have enough posts to start a discussion on diet and seizures in the Pets Group

Perhaps one of you could post it there?

[Rhiannon12866]

16. And I started a new thread for your post in the Pets Group

You can add to it as you like... Welcome to DU!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/116128400

[Laffy Kat]

12. Welcome.

Nixing the grain could very well have worked. My anecdotal experience: I had a dog (born deaf) who also experienced one or two witnessed seizures a month. If any of us were home, she would run over to us right before the seizure, so she obviously had some sort of prodrome or aura. We finally switched her food to a grain-free when she was about five years old. After that, no one in the family WITNESSED her having a seizure and she lived to a ripe old age of 16. I'm not saying the grain-free diet worked, and I was dubious even trying it, but in her particular case it SEEMED to work. Good luck. It sounds like the kitty is in distress.

[MADem]

17. Looks like a cat I had that lived for 21 years--great cat but never got much bigger than a kitten!

Freakishly small, but cool!

Do you sing the Felix the Cat song to him? I couldn't resist!

[Rhiannon12866]

18. Wow! That is impressive! And I happen to think black cats are the best

Of the four cats in my life who have found me, three just happened to be black. And Felix was pretty small, the vet thought 7 weeks, 2.6 lbs. But I feed him the best food he could ask for and he's grown into a pretty big cat. He just turned two last month.

And of course I remember the original Felix the Cat, LOL! And I know that song by heart, my brother and I watched him as kids. I had a tough time choosing a name, haven't done it very often since I've adopted older animals, but the words of that song sold me! I want him to know he's "a wonderful, wonderful cat!"

Thank you for posting that. I search for it periodically...

One of Felix's first photos (when I could catch him holding still):

[brer cat]

7. Prince pretending he is not too fat for a tower of boxes.

This was made Christmas Eve when he was refusing to abdicate his throne so I that I could wrap my granddaughter's boots in the top box.

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[brer cat]

8. Flopsy drying herself off after a bath.

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[sakabatou]

11. My former cat used to come when called

Not be name, but still.

[bigwillq]

19. Dogs > Cats

I love dogs.

Cats? Not so much, plus I am allergic to cats