Cat not a good eater?

[rabernet]

Sammy has no waist line at all. I haven't weighed him recently, but he's a solid chunk of cat, and when he's due for his first year booster next month, I'll have a better idea.

He's probably quite healthy right now, but seeing what a dry food junkie he is, I want to nip it in the bud now, and not be fighting severe obesity later on when he's older.

[Bettacreek]

I'm glad that some vets are intelligent enough to look into nutrition. My tomcat was run in for a UTI problem (no blockage luckily, but he was inflammed), and the vet "prescribed" dry UTI Purina food. Unfortunately, vets aren't always taught about nutrition and overall health of the pets they treat, and they only look at it from the medical side (you'd think nutrition would be a big part). Anyways, I was fortunate enough to be a nutrition junky, and refused to feed purina, so, I did a few hours of research. This tomcat is no longer with us (he lives with my husband's grandmother), however, our female is with us, and she is still on the same diet of canned food with dry Castor and Pollux Adult Ultramix (top four ingredients are meat, no by-products, etc), and she's in great health.
Unfortunately, some people follow the vets' word blindly. I have a friend with 7 rescued feral cats. Darwin (one of the ferals) has diabetes. I checked into it, and, yes, you can wean cats off medical care simply with proper nutrition. However, my friend refused to even look into it and feeds Science Diet and gives insulin. :/


Back to the rabies vaccinations, my cat is not vaccinated at all. She's an indoor cat, and we (unfortunately) live in a city, where the risk of rabies is unheard of. My mother has three cats. They were all vaccinated to the law's requirements, but one cat started having seisures about once a month (a few times a month right after vaccination). They have since stopped rabies vaccinations and the cat is now fine. I think vaccinations are a personal opinion, and really shouldn't be forced upon someone. People criticize me because my son is not vaccinated for the flu virus, but, I do not want my son vaccinated for it for various reasons, and that is my (and my husband's) choice.

[wolfy-hound]

I vaccinate ALL my dogs and cats. Anyone remember when entire kennels of hundreds of dogs used to be wiped out by distemper? Anyone ever had to have their dog put down after a bout of parvo?

Everyone can do what they think best with their animals. I personally think the law requiring rabies vaccine is a good one. I don't get a flu shot myself, because there's just too many strains of flu virus out there. I rarely catch it to begin with, and when I do catch a flu or cold bug, I almsot never go on antibiotics, unless it progresses to pnuemonia.
Just my opnion.

[Bettacreek]

I vaccinate ALL my dogs and cats. Anyone remember when entire kennels of hundreds of dogs used to be wiped out by distemper? Anyone ever had to have their dog put down after a bout of parvo?

Everyone can do what they think best with their animals. I personally think the law requiring rabies vaccine is a good one. I don't get a flu shot myself, because there's just too many strains of flu virus out there. I rarely catch it to begin with, and when I do catch a flu or cold bug, I almsot never go on antibiotics, unless it progresses to pnuemonia.
Just my opnion.

Rabies laws are ok, however, some states need to update their information. If I remember correctly, there were under 10 states in the US that kept the annual vaccination law. If evidence rises that a vaccine is still effective in lesser amounts and actually less harmful to the pets, then the state governments need to step up and change the laws to suit current research.
For the flu, I've personally never had the flu (knock on wood), though I did catch bronchitis (sp?) that lasted for two weeks before I decided it was time to hit the doctor up for some antibiotics (took two different courses of antibiotics to work, yay). I grew up in a family where if you weren't bleeding to death or dying in some other way, it simply wasn't necessary to rush to the doctor. Part of this was because when I was younger, I had problems that the doctors all claimed were being faked to get attention, so, when I had a problem, it was usually ignored thanks to the doctors. I still have some problems that are undiagnosed (mainly joint problems, which were originally diagnosed as "growing pains" when I was around 7 years old, then later "diagnosed" as attention seeking behavior, then even later diagnosed by yet another doctor as a problem due to my weight, though I had been underweight most of my life, yet living with the same problems). Anyways... Lol. I just think that people and animals should be vaccinated and medicated for the least amount possible, as the vaccines and medications do have side-effects and if there's .001% chance of developing/catching something, why vaccinate for it?

[python.princess]

Thank you all for your input! Everybody's advice is being considered and researched!