ANY SAFE FOOD OUT THERE?

[mel_t]

your CRF cat should be on wet food only.  I will come back and post some links tonite as I'm at work right now.

for now, you can read Dr. Lisa Pierson's comments on it here:
http://www.catinfo.org/#Common_Feline_Health_Problems_and_Their_Ties_to_Diet_
just scroll to Kidney Failure.

[Lisa M]

mel_t - my crf cat is primarily on wet, but I also like to leave dry out all the time for them to pick at, as I'm at work for a large portion of the day.  She is fed wet at least three times a day.  I have my mom stop by my house, almost daily to feed them a can for lunch.  She is hyper-thyroid also, so I want her to have access to as much food as she wants.  I give her daily Sub Q  fluids as well, so she is always fully hydrated, so much that I rarely see her drink water!  Thanks for the info.

[mel_t]

Well, that's good to hear.  I think the ideal would still be no dry food at all though.

 Do you have her on tapazole for the HyperT?  I just had one of my cats treated with I131 therapy in February.  luckily, we caught it fairly early, before he developed heart or kidney disease.

I'll still post the links later tonite, for your information

[Lisa M]

mel-t - yes, she has been on Methamazole, which I beleive is the same as Tapazole, for the past 3 years.  She was diagnosed with CRF first.  The Hyperthyroidism came about 1 year later.  She was doing well on a small dose of Methimazole, but back in 10/06, her T4 levels sky rocketted despite high doses of the med.  Her ionized calcium and parathyroid levels were also high.  I took her to the University of Pennsylvania Animal Hospital, where they detected a fairly large tumor in her neck.  At first, they said it was a parathyroid tumor(not a big deal), but when I scheduled surgery to have it removed, the surgeon felt it was a malignant thyroid tumor, but couldn't be sure unless they did surgey and removed the tumor.  He said that if it was malignant, she would only have a few weeks w/o surgery and maybe a few months to a year with surgery and chemo.  Since my cat was and is doing well(displaying no symptoms), happy, looks healthy and good quality of life, I opted not to do the surgery out of fear it would make things worse for her.  Well, 7 months later, she is still here and doing well.  Thyroid issue calmed down a little.  I did have her at 2 pills twice a day(extremely high dose), but now I have her down to 1 1/4 pills twice a day.  Blood work done about 2 months ago, her Creatine was a little high, BUN normal & Phos normal and her T4 was actually low, which is when I decreased her meds.  I wasn't too concerned about the Creatine b/c whenever her T4 is low Creatine is high and when T4 is high Creatine is low.  Penn will not consider her a candidate for Radioactive Iodine treatment until they are sure her tumor is not malignant, but again they will have to do surgery to confirm and I do not want to do that-I'm also fearful of putting her under anesthsia(sp?), as I've read that can be harmful to the kidneys and she is alreading only functioning on one impaired kidney.  I plan to take her to Cornell University this summer to get a second opinion.  I can tell you that the best thing I ever did for this cat was get her off the vet prescribed "k/d" food.  Once I stopped that food, she took an amazing turn for the better, yet my vet still reprimands me for not feeding her a low protein diet.  Any info you can pass along would be great.  Thanks again.   

[himimom1254]

I've been feeding California Natural chicken/rice dry and Wellness Chicken canned food.  I had labs done on my cat mid-April and everything was normal.   

I will probably continue with the Wellness canned because I'm throwing out more than he'll eat.  He's extremely fussy and will only eat the Wellness Chicken.  I like the idea of it being grain-free after having two cats with IBD.  I wish he would eat raw, but he won't touch it.

[mel_t]

I wish he would eat raw, but he won't touch it.

have you tried gradually introducing raw?  With my IBD cat, I had to literally start with mixing in a teaspoon of raw into his canned food.   I gradually increased the ratio of raw to canned until he was eating mostly raw, and then finally all raw.  It took about 6 weeks, but it can be done.  Sometimes I would increase the raw and he wouldn't eat it, so I'd just back off to the previous amount for a couple of days and try again. 

[himimom1254]

I've tried that approach many times with this guy and he just won't go for it. He does not have IBD, but my previous two kitties did; one would eat raw and one would not.  I used the recipes from catnutrition.org.  Anne is my mentor and helped me get started.  I used to grind rabbits and the cat just loved it.  It's amazing how no grains stopped the IBD symptoms overnight.  Just proves that cats as carnivores are not meant to eat grains.

[Mary K]

mel_t,

  I will try those tricks at that website you listed to get her off of the dry food, now. It was just too much in the beginning getting the other 2 cats to eat the home cooked, which they now do. I can use it as another project for me while procrastinating on the raw...  I am pretty sure all 3 will go for the raw; their vegetarian Mommy is the one with the problem!!   

[lesliek]

HIMIMOM1254-Some of the Wellness cans are made at Menu. Check the codes after the date. If it starts w/C or S 1 thru 4 its made at Menu. They told me over the phone 2 wks ago when I threatened to stop using it. I'm making homemade instead. Just make sure you add bonemeal & salmon oil & a good Usa made vitamin.

[JJ]

I'm feeding Canidae dry and Evanger's canned - and neither of them have hit the recall list  !
Canidae - http://www.canidae.com/
Evanger's - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/

For those of you that favor raw, Evanger's offers 100% meat canned product - the only additive is water for processing.  Evanger's is a small manufacturing plant in Ill. and they do manufacture for other labels (I don't know who).

Currently I'm feeding their 100% meat product in fear of 'additives' showing up on the recall list.  My dogs love the Evanger's food, and any additives (minerals, vitamines, etc.) are coming from the Canidae dry food along with Missing Link.

If you can find Evanger's and you are use to buying premiun dog food (like I was), you will be put off by their label.  I have to admit I was.  I passed it by several times 'cause it has a funky label that makes it look like some cheap knock-off.  Thank goodness my feed store set me straight!  It's a premium canned food with a 1950's label and a reasonable price 

I was still stand-offish, check them out on-line and wrote emails to the company - I'm a believer now.  I switched from Canidea, Natural Balance and Wellness canned food just months before the recall - and thank goodness I did now that both Wellness and Natural Balance have hit the list.  If you can find Evanger's try it - my cost per can switch went from $1.70(US)/per can to $.89(US)/per can with the peace of mind that nothing but 100% meat is in the can - and now I have control of what additives are added to my 'kids' food.

Glad you found Evangers. I have had my dog on this and Karma organic dry. Evangers also has pheasant, buffalo, venison and the whole hunk of beef too. My dog loves all of the Evangers. Reasonably priced also. I live in IL so don't know if that makes price lower since it doesn't need to be shipped very far but you can order from their site too. Wish you the best in the health of you and yours.

[himimom1254]

lesliek,

I just checked my cans and all the codes start with 7W  eg. 7WCCC1   I hope those are okay.

[Ginnys]

 I'm sorry, my error that I included Wellness on my original post - no I have no info about Wellness being added to any recall list....and I appologize to everyone for taking so long to respond to those that voiced a concern about my post. To everyone that I upset - please accept my appology.

With that said I'm still a BIG 'new' fan of Evangers - my pups love it!  I've tried their Turkey chuck, lamb and rice, 100% beef, beef and bacon. beef-chicken and liver - and the bowls are lick clean with every feeding!  I still thank my feed store manager for turning me on to it!  He did so before the recall, and has save not only my pets health but major $$ compared to Canidae and Natural Balance canned prices.

The only bad news in all of this is I discovered I still had a case of Natural Balance venison & rice is my food cash - which I will 'pitch' in the garbage this weekend.  Other than that one problem, I'm feeding Canidae dry, Evanger canned, and supplemented with Missing Link - and the 'kids' are doing GREAT!

I still want to 'push' Missing Link to folks that are looking for a fantastic alternative supplement.  Yes, it's mainly herbs for the nay-sayers - and yes it is $$$.  But I had a dog whose hind-quarters were paralyzed, and was walking in again in 6 weeks - which I owe to Missing Link.  Yes, it is unbelivable.  The dog was 12 years old, and injured in an accident.  She spent 6 weeks with the Vet - was released after surgery to correct for bed-sores and an ulcerated eye (that occured in their care).  Yes, the Vet (in my belief) was incompetant, but I was new to the area and took the Emergency Room's Vet recommendation.  After an eye specialist (which I didn't know existed for dogs), in-home hydro-therapy, massages and Missing Link (recommended by a local rescue league) - she was walking and the eye was saved.  She was blind in the eye, but the eye didn't have to be removed.  She lived for another 4 full years, and died of old age.  I now have all of my big dogs (100 lbs+) on Missing Link.  To my 'new' (and good) Vet's amazement none of them have require teeth cleanings, they have no hip problems or arthritis, and their coats are amazing!  Their age range is from 3yrs to 11 years, and they are Danes and Lab mixes - breeds prone to hip problems and arthritis.

So excuse me for the fo-pah on Wellness, but check-out Missing Link.  With all the 'new' medicines of today, maybe the ol' herbal ways have merits.  In my personal experience, I'm now a believer.  Here's a link to the Missing Link web site - http://www.designinghealth.com/products/canine_products_main.html
Heck, it performed a miracle for me and I believe it is working for my 'kids' now

..and I truely appologize to everyone for my Wellness reference - especially in these 'dark' times.

[Ginnys]

I love Evangers cannned food, but have been warned off their dry food 'cause of Menadione Sodium Bisulfate (synthetic-K).   The best Evanger's  dry (per other sites) is  phesant & brown rice dry.  The worry is they have synthetic K (Menadione Sodium Bisulfate) added.  I've contacted Evanager's, and they state that they have no plans of removing it from their receipe. 

Other sites have warned away from feeding Menadione, some medical sites have linked Menadione to health problems (that I've found).  Then the dogfoog site warns away from feeding it - http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=menadione

Is it OK to feed synthetic-K?  Is Evanger's dry OK to feed?

[Cindy Nevarez]

Are you sure about that?

They have removed it form the wet since last August.

[willyagogo]

I'm still preparing my dog's food at home.....It has made e world of difference!

I started this new diet on April 11th...( I document everything!.. ..)...and then started introducing raw meat about 2 weeks after that.

I have a butcher accross the street who I've trusted for 11 yrs. so I'm OK with the raw meat they get...which is an assortment of veal or beef shank, chicken backs and beef liver, chicken hearts and giblets. They also get some raw veggies for snacks (carrots) or apple slices.

They get a LITTLE bit of grain (either brown rice or cous-cous) mixed with ground up eggshells, cooked egg and olive oil. Some days I'll add either canned salmon or sardines to the mix (which I have allready made and stored in freezer baggies which I'll pull out the night before)....

The change in energy is undeniable!!!.....And their teeth!!!!..Omg! It's amazing! At the beginning, their gums would bleed when chewing on the bigger bones...last night, I was watching them enjoying their shank bones (which have lots of marrow in them too!)....and after awhile of chewing....still no bleeding!! So, not only are their teeth cleaner...but their gums are also much healthier!!

Anyone out there reading this.....let me know what you think of this diet I'm feeding my dogs as this truly is a learning process for me. I've done PILES of research, and some things I've seen contradict each other....for example regarding eggs......some research indicates to give your dog raw egg....while another says to cook the egg.

Anyways....I look forward to advice or input from anyone!....Thanks!...