raw & grain-free

[catsite]

Hi all, came upon this community via rawdogs and rawfedcatsI adopted this guy (see avatar) just over a month ago and in that time switched him from low-quality kibble/canned grain food (what he was eating at the shelter) to high-quality canned and kibble grain & grain-free food, then just high-quality canned grain-free & grain, and now he's on a 100% raw, grain-

Comments

[adina_atl]

The comm's not dead exactly, but I was surprised to see your post. It hasn't been active in a while, as you've seen.

My Katie had a congenital heart murmur, though hers was pretty mild. She died in her sleep when she was eleven, from what the vet said was congestive heart failure, so not the longest of lives but a very happy one. That's what counts, really. Love and scritches and good food!

The grain-free food certainly can't hurt your baby's heart condition, and it may help. All of my cats lost weight and put on better muscle tone on the good food, which can't help but be better for the heart.

If you're not feeding bones, consider adding them, because keeping his teeth healthy will prevent gum disease, and gum disease leads to bacteria in the blood stream, which can build up around the non-functioning parts of the heart valve, which is...bad. You still need to get his teeth professionally cleaned, however, and you should definitely ask about a round of antibiotics before the cleaning, at least based on the recommendations for humans with heart murmurs. (Sorry for the lecture, by the way, it's just that my father has a murmur and I learned way too much about dental health and heart murmurs.)

[catsite]

I thought congestive heart failure and congenital heart mumurs were two different things. I thoguht congestive heart failure was brought on (not born-with) and congenital heart mumurs are just heart malformations that you were born with? Or can a congenital heart mumur lead to congestive heart failure?

And yes, my father was born with a congenital heart mumur which was fixed through open-heart surgery. So I get the lecture, too. ;)

[adina_atl]

The vet seemed to think that the congestive heart failure was caused by or related to the heart murmur in some way, or maybe she just assumed since the murmur was known and the other heart disease wasn't. I had a necropsy done because her death was so unexpected. But yes, the two heart diseases are different things.

Oh, good, you've already got the dental health thing. *grin*

[catsite]

And I am feeding bones, but he doesn't eat them. So they just sit there and don't do any good.

I crush bones up fine so he gets calcium, etc.

I leave meat chunks and he chews those and hopefully that does some good for the teeth...

[adina_atl]

Meat chunks are probably just as good. My younger cat gets pieces of chicken neck, but she tends to treat them as toys as much as food. *chew, chew, throw in the air, bat across the floor, get yelled at, chew, chew*