considering a cat

I make raw cat food for our two rotten old guys, possibly because I feel guilty about wanting them to just die already. I use this powder, mixed with ground chicken thighs and usually make up a giant batch at a time and freeze it in 1-day's-worth containers. It's not too bad to make up and our cats are definitely healthier on it than they have ever been.

If you have any questions about emigrating your cats, my daughter moved hers down to Monterrey a year or so ago and moved them back two months ago - I'd be happy to ask her.

There was something about having to have proof of vaccination (rabies maybe?) with some kind of time restriction, so she had to have it done right before she crossed in Texas.

Coming back was apparently absolute hell, because the US border guards made her unpack every single box in her truck - she's a teacher, it was full of books in addition to 2 unhappy cats.

Also, she used to make shopping runs to the US for cat litter. Mexico does not have a very pet-centric culture at all - all the neglected animals everywhere really got to her after awhile.

These containers have worked the best btw. The Glad and Ziploc ones have cracked on me and the lids didn't seal well enough for freezing.

Good info, Jaq, thanks! We are going to be taking a couple of weeks to get from DC to the southern Baja penninsula, so we will need to do a vet visit within ten days of crossing the border. So the cats will go to the vet in Houston, I think!

What grinder do you use? I just got a high-rated (but not uber-expensive) one off of Amazon. Thanks for the tip on the freezer containers, I'll get some of those.

One other question: about how much of this raw food diet do you cats eat? Right now my cats (each ~9-10 lbs and at an appropriate weight, don't need to gain/lose) get a can each of Wellness per day, split between morning and evening. No idea how much of the raw stuff will be the caloric equivalent. . .

Aw shit litter is going to be a problem; we will be like 1000 miles from the border, so we can't just run across. On the other hand, we will be living on the beach--maybe I could just use sand???

is it feasible to get amazon to ship you cat food?

Our guys weigh around 12 lbs each and each gets 6 oz of food a day, 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night. They both have chronic health issues, so have a bit higher calorie needs because of that, but some days neither eats all the chow.

We shifted to draining litterboxes awhile ago (the Smart Catbox at first and now the Breeze) because one of our guys is diabetic and we had to monitor his outflow. Whole sunflower seeds worked well as litter in the Smart box (I think maybe Je55e and I posted back and forth about it somewhere), but I'll bet you can find standard clay litter down there. My daughter's cats might have been particular and demanding for a certain type.

Apparently we will be beyond the reach of Amazon, which is so sad because it would be really really handy even if shipping were quite expensive!

So Jaq, sounds like I should get the 16 oz containers so I can fit in ~12 oz of cat food for daily feeding? Hopefully you can wash and re-use them?

Totally washable, top rack of dishwasher even if you have one - these seem to last about a year. I got the 8 oz ones, but will be getting the 16 oz ones once these wear out.

Oh, and I have a grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid, that's all I've used.

Oh wait those containers come in 12 oz; I will try those to conserve freezer space.

Thank you all for your cat feeding conderations here. Still scratching my head a little bit about litter. We'll be in town once a week or so for shopping, and there is a Costco and Walmart there, and surely (Mexican cat attitudes notwithstanding) they will have some sort of basic litter, right? If not: plenty of free sand.

OK one more cat question: anyone here have thier cat(s) in a collar? I am really nervous about accidental escapage; they are microchipped but I don't think that is likely to do a hell of a lot of good in the middle of nowhere, Mexico.

my cat was having some peeing problems (going into the box every 5 minutes and straining, crying, tiny litter box clumps) so i took her to the vet thinking she had an infection. they gave her a pricey antibiotic shot and took a urine sample. the vet called today and said she does not have an infection, but her urine has crystals in it and she needs to be on a prescription diet for life. 1. why did they give her an antibiotic not knowing she had an infection, and 2. you never asked me what she's even eating now! i think i should just switch her to all wet food if diet is the problem, right?

No! My cat had this problem, too. You have to use the prescription diet food or those little crystals will form into one big rock and she'll need surgery, which is assuming you notice that there's a problem (as cats are notorious for not acting sick until they are really super sick) before it's too late. You can get the rx food in a wet food version if you would prefer that, however.

Like, all regular cat food has some mineral in it that can exacerbate the formation of bladder stones. The only kind that doesn't is the prescription kind. We used to get ours from the vet, but we changed vets so we could get a prescription card for PetSmart, which is a lot more convenient than trying to make it up to the far north side of Chicago during our old vet's very limited office hours. So definitely ask if they can call in the prescription to PetSmart or some other similar place, which will lessen the hassle of having to buy your cat prescription cat food.

Also, those crystal can result in bladder infections, so the antibiotic was a reasonable prophylactic measure. We figured out something was wrong with Sample after she already had a major bladder infection, then she had to have surgery. :(

sounds like a cat food conspiracy!

Poor cat with a shaved belly post-surgery:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3080/2828800823_47a8e7eaec.jpg

Oh - one other downside is that the prescription food doesn't come in fat cat formula, so now that reasonably slender cat is a little tub of guts. But I'd rather her be fat than have a raging bladder infection and need another major surgery, particularly at her advanced age (there was some concern that the surgery she did have would kill her, and that was four years ago).

according to this wet food evangelist http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth#Prescription_Diets it's phosphorus. i'm suspicious of how few questions she asked me in relation to how fast she said prescription diet.

My understanding and experience with this is that it's really straightforward. In some cats, minerals in cat food (magnesium, phosphorus, protein and calcium, per the sources I just checked) cause a buildup of crystals in the urine which can lead to serious health issues (bladder stones, blocked urethra). The only way to address it is by feeding the cat food with adjusted levels of those things to prevent the crystals from forming and causing a problem. I mean, your cat was actually having trouble in the litter box, so it's not like you brought a healthy cat to the vet and she suggested prescription food. She thought it might be an infection, gave an antibiotic, saw that it was crystals (which, even if they are sometimes benign per your link, they weren't benign in your cat), and recommended the course of action that resolves that problem.

I'm not trying to be cap'n save a vet, but I don't think this is some conspiracy here.

1. why did they give her an antibiotic not knowing she had an infection

you should see what we do with people!

don't know much about cat medicine but what the vets did sounds reasonable to me, they suspected an infection, took a urine sample, have her a shot of probably cat-triaxone and then when the urinalysis came back realized what the main problem was. i'm also guessing its phosphorus they want your kitty to avoid, and you should ask the vet if there's any kind of diet you can design yourself that would be just as effective but cheaper, but as CA said i bet the issue is just that the normal cat diet is high in P and it's probably hard to get an appropriate diet without the Rx stuff. but definitely ask the vet i'm sure he/she will be upfront with you if you come prepared with questions, it sounds like he/she didn't explain very well the first time around

ha i basically just said what CA said

I appreciate the validation.

I'll admit a bias of being a little >.> re: the wet food evangelist. She sounds a little too much like CAM folks who attribute every human ailment to one specific cause (all disease is due to white sugar! all disease can be cured if we stop eating processed foods! nobody will ever die if we would only stop wearing modern shoes! all cats will live forever and never be ill if we feed them wet food!) which makes me view her recommendations with some suspicion. I've heard from a zillion sources that cats don't drink enough water, and it makes sense that wet food is better, but I'm not going to risk my beloved cat's life (or, more importantly at this point in her advanced age, her comfort and happiness) on the outside possibility that we're all being duped by Big Cat Food.

If Sample were younger, or she just had some urinary crystals instead of a 4 mm bladder stone, I'd probably be more open to going the wet food and pet fountain route. Although maybe not because holy shit, emergency vet care and surgery is super expensive all at once, whereas rx cat food costs are higher than Meow Mix, but at least they are spread out over time.

why is cat food high in P to begin with

i don't think it's benign i'm just skeptical. we also just had a long car trip and visit to my parents' house, which was too loud for her and she wasn't using the litter box a lot there. also not eating or drinking much. i told the vet that and she said yeah the bladder is the cat's stress organ. it was only upon returning that she started to use the box again and this problem popped up. i don't want her to get bladder stones and will continue to be vigilant re this problem. she already seems better today, no crying and hasn't gone into the litter box for 4 hours.

yeah i agree that catinfo sounds a bit crazy

I'm glad she's feeling better. If it happened after a period of stress and not eating/drinking, it sounds like it could be worth a wait and see approach. I am the first to admit that having to go pick up cat food from a secondary location is a real pain in the ass, even if it is PetSmart (which still requires a bus and walking and then walking and riding the bus with big bags of cat food, which for some reason is like having a blinking sign over your head that says "TALK TO ME ABOUT CATS AND CATFOOD, ALL YOU BUS STRANGERS).

hahaha

One of our cats (Drac, not Morrie) had the crystal problem and the prescription food took care of it for awhile. Then he got diabetic, so we switched to a different prescription food for that. Eventually though, it stopped helping, and both cats pretty much hated it anyway - so that's when I started making them raw food cat food. It's been nearly 4 years on raw food, and still no crystals or diabetes, so yay I guess. When they get picky about it or I get tired of making it up, we switch to Primal frozen raw stuff, but the vegetables in it mess with Morrie.

We took our youngest ("youngest" - she's 11) to the vet to have her teeth cleaned and one extracted today and I think she's high on pain meds. She's acting ridiculous, but it's pretty funny. Unfortunately, right after she woke up from anesthesia, she pooped all over the place so they washed her but not as well as one might like so I've got a slightly poopy cat acting like a crazy monster and also like six things at work that people need right away and are really wondering why I have not taken care of them already (picking up my poopy cat from the vet, duh). FUN TIMES.

Fun, poopy times.

FYI I just held this cat down and washed her butt. The poopy terror has ended.

i am getting lyle back

(!)

Yay!!

Whoa! Congrats!

wow!
maybe somehow you always knew... and that is why you never got another cat...

Yay mookie!

Oh happy day!!! Lyle!!!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a28fe60a6362a925d6f68dad5634948a/tumblr_mfvfy3qSzG1qmax9co1_500.png

dude is theoretically 5yo today

happy birthday lyle<3

i think my cat turned 5 in march. happy birthday!

I have four cats now

introducing two cats to two cats was p hilarious and horrible but it's alright now that I'm about a month in. They still get into fights on top of my sleeping body sometimes tho

cats are good ppl

was this a brady bunch scenario?

ya

aw

also there is a gigantic asian wildcat of some sort that's been domesticated as an exotic pet or w/e (it's beautiful), and it's been coming into our yard and fucking my cats up

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JLMPO-awY50/Tgcd0gx7gMI/AAAAAAAAE4E/f2U1g-PbAzA/s640/cat-birthday04.jpg

happy birthday, lyle