One year old cat drinking and urinating excessively - Page 2

[Minky]

Well, I'll look around to see who carries what. Our closest major pet store is Petland and I really don't like them because they carry puppies and kittens from mills. There's a Petsmart, but it's a longer drive. Now that the problem seems to be gone, I think I will finish off the bag of Friskies--we're not made of money--and then switch.

The ice cream was a gift from MIL, and it did contain artificial sweeteners. The yoghurts were the organic type. I still wouldn't feed them to a cat if I could help it.

I think there were more foods involved than the ice cream and yougurt, though, because as soon as DD confessed, the excessive drinking and urinating stopped. I think a lot of what MIL brought the kids--processed cheese snacks, the ice cream, slim Jims, candy, was offered to the poor cat. I didn't want to take away the kids' gifts, but we don't buy this sort of food and they wouldn't have had this otherwise.

I'm still going to do the blood/urine panel for Ember, and of course, get more eye meds, but I'm reasonably sure the case is closed on this one. It was the people food.

[Ola_]

I suspect it's mainly the artificial sweeteners that were the problem - they are very bad for animals (well us too, but you know ). A small amount of yogurt as a treat may be okay as long as the animal is not sensitive to dairy. Some people use it as a dry food topper (I don't).

Other than the large pet stores, I would try a small "mom and pop" type or a feed supply store if you have any in your area. The small stores you can usually find with those "store locator" things on manufacturer websites (that's how I found one once that was only a couple of blocks away from my home and I didn't even know it was there!). I don't shop at ones that sell animals either. The feed stores often have surprisingly good foods.

[sunnysandiegan]

Just wanted to throw this out there....

DH and Ember may prefer the raw food diet. Raw meat/bones don't really smell at all. Also, the solid waste from kitty is much smaller and very little odor. Plus, kitty gets all the moisture she needs from the food itself.

We've only fed our kitten high quality canned food (brands listed above, except I've never seen Taste of the Wild) under certain circumstances. Otherwise, it has been a raw food diet for her. The raw food diet is cheaper than those high quality wet foods and her coat and eyes look SO HEALTHY.

She was in miserable condition when she came to us and even the high quality canned food made a big difference. The raw food diet made an even bigger difference and we see it every time we have to switch to the canned food for short periods (weaning, flood, spay - 1-2 weeks at a time max). Everyone comments on just how soft and gorgeous she is and she is just a run-of-the-mill breed.

Just saying...

[earthmama369]

If you're near a Stop & Shop, they often carry Harmony Farms, which doesn't contain any byproducts and got the thumbs up from a friend of mine who manages a pet store and is very picky about what she feeds her pets. She tends to go raw and/or as close to a natural diet as possible...Harmony Farms isn't what she feeds her cats, but she said for a dry food, it was way better than Purina or Science Diet and she liked the balance of meat to veggies and grains.

I like to start at my local grocery store first when looking for cat food, because it's such a waste of gas and time to drive 30-45 minutes just to pick up pet food from a big box pet store. Stop & Shop in particular has been pretty good about carrying one or two brands of good quality cat food along with the usual run of stuff that's full of dyes and fillers.

[GranoLLLy-girl]

Originally Posted by Dar

Actually, though, she won't eat ice cream if I just give give it to her... I have to get myself a bowl of ice cream, eat most, and then pretend to lose interest. Then she'll come along and lick up the rest.

LOL--I love this post. "Pretend to lose interest"... Just goes to show how much our pets control us! LOL!
I just love it!