It’s About Putting Optimal Fuel Into Our Cats.
RECIPES
Other mere mortals safely prepare and feed cat food – so can you.
FAQ
You’ve got a few questions, and I’ve got a few answers.
INSIGHTS
I learn along the way and pass it along.
TESTIMONIALS
People say the nicest and most helpful things.
Mother Nature knows what a cat should eat.
You should too.
(I’ve got nothing to sell you here.)
I am not a vet. I don’t presume to know more about feline biochemistry than someone who has graduated from veterinary school. I don’t treat scores of animals every day or perform all manner of delicate surgeries and lifesaving procedures. My only credential is that I used diet alone to liberate a sick cat from a very miserable disease that plagued him for six difficult years.
Duke Got Sick. Duke Got Well. This Site Was Born.
In 1994, when my beautiful young cat, Duke, was just a wee kitten fresh from the animal shelter, he started showing signs of serious digestive illness. Runny stools. Later, diarrhea. Over the next several years, his condition worsened. A lot. Until he was suffering from full-blown all-diarrhea-all-the-time. Lots of tests, a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease and then on to the usual gamut of scores of special prescription diets and various other approaches. None of which made a whiff of difference for him.He was weary of suffering and I was heartbroken over what he was going through.
To make the story short, Duke got well, quite literally overnight, when I finally came to understand that if I paid close attention to what I fed him, many seemingly intractable and allegedly “incurable” problems could disappear. It was a hard lesson to learn, although I’m happy to report that Duke not only survived it all, but went on to thrive.
The impact that a proper diet can have on a cat is probably most conspicuous and immediate for a cat suffering from digestive problems, but I’ve learned along the way that all kinds of serious health disorders can be reversed or dramatically improved if we feed these magnificent creatures properly. What is involved, quite simply, is sticking as close to Mother Nature as you can manage. Good common sense.
My experience with Duke opened my eyes in a big way to how many well-meaning, overworked, and overwhelmed vets are often overlooking the most obvious answer when it comes to dealing with feline illness, especially – but certainly not exclusively – digestive problems.
By design or default, many busy vets are permitting the pet food industry to act as their proxy when it comes to nutritional decision-making for their clients.The results, sadly, are disastrous for cats. Buoyed by Duke’s miraculous turnaround, in early 2003, with the assistance and endorsement of Lisa Pierson, DVM, I assembled an open letter to veterinary professionals that laid out what I had learned and snail-mailed it out all US veterinary schools. I included a list of recommended reading and resources. Throwing all humility overboard, I even put together a sample client handout that vets might consider using. Finally, I included more detailed discussion of my personal experience helping Duke to help distraught caregivers whose cats suffered from the same problem but could be easily helped using a home-prepared diet.
This site is my way of getting the word out to a broader audience. I’m hopeful that some of my lay insights into treating one terrible malady and the many lessons I’ve learned along the way about feline nutrition might be instructive to the veterinary community and to lay people like me who were desperate for answers.
If you’re a vet, I respectfully ask that you take a few minutes to read my open letter and consider it. If you’re a lay person, please feel free to pass this letter along to your own vet.
I hope you find something here that’s helpful to a cat in your life.
Check out what this site has to offer, and see if there’s something you find useful. This is not the only website out there with guidance on how to successfully feed a cat for optimum health. It is the one, however, that I’ve managed to come up with. I highly recommend, too, Dr. Lisa Pierson’s own website on cats.