Richard  says:
2 years ago

Mother came into town this weekend and was concerned about the cats who got sick on the 9 Lives Cat Food. I gave her a list of which ones not to buy, but the manager assured her that the IAMS Dry Cat Food - Digestive Care with Lamb and Rice was safe. First ingredient isn't corn, but it is the second and third (Corn Grits and Corn Meal) First is Chicken By Product Meal (ground up chicken parts of unknown sources I'm sure) Animal Fat is fourth (treated to remove that rancid smell and taste I'm sure too) Then Brewer's yeast and LAmb and then Dried Beef Pulp (same thing as ground up cow parts of unknown source?) then dried egg product (egg shells?) natural chicken flavor and the list goes on...

I'll call IAMS Tuesday (Monday's a holiday, neh) and check with them before feeding the cats this stuff.

They have recovered slightly and are mobile, and seek me out more. Jake lost nearly 10 lbs before he started eating again. I fed him plain yogurt and then let him lap up some tuna water and then hand fed him tidbits from a can of wet cat food on your safe list. I had to get him to lick it off his lips and mouth at first and didn't feed him more than a teaspoon at a time to get some calories into him so he'd have some reserves to survive this disaster.

I know sugar's bad for the cats but I did get them to lick it off my finger before they went to drink and pee.

Good news is that Jake and Nathan - though still losing weight aren't peeing as much and stopped throwing up after I did the yogurt trick and hand fed them. I stopped the sugar boosting and Jake actually went back to his bowl and ate some dry cat food and then tackled the kitten and subjected it to a tongue bath that it wasn't happy with.

Jake just showing he might be old and might have been sick, but he's still the boss.

Nathan sleeps with me when he can now and has stopped losing his fat pooch (Jake's is gone totally). He was less happy about the hand feeding but when I open cans for my own cooking he's right there to see if it's his special treat (stuff I hand fed him).

Trying to write this with a 8 kilo bag of cat food in my lap, a 18(used to be 24-25) lb cat, a kitten climbing my leg and another watching me from above the TV.

Their eyes are clearing up and they are still taking in the yogurt before I let them at the solid food. The older cats ignore the softened hard food, but the kitten tries to sneak into it. She has her own feeding station up and away from where the other two eat (separetly too) but being small and bottomless pit of hunger tries to eat anything she can.

Love this site and the help it's given me and the help it has let me find via links.

Dick Evans