My Maine Coon cat has mysterious symptoms..?
My cat, Boss, is a Maine Coon mix. I’m very worried about him and was hoping someone could give me some advice before our appointment on Tuesday.
He’s going on 6 years old, and until about the last 6 months has been completely healthy, and up to date with all his shots.
We got a puppy one year ago.. I don’t know if that has anything to do with anything, but a year ago the home environment DID change, but he and my dog get a long fine. In the last 6 months he’s lost a lot of weight. His demeanor has not changed, he’s still extremely friendly and affectionate. He eats all the time, but he also throws up all the time. It use to be just a hassle that he threw up, but now that it’s becoming more frequent (3+ times a week) i’m starting to get very concerned. He used to be the "fat kitty", and now he’s pretty scranny. Not emaciated, just scrawny.
What concerns be the most, is that he’s started developing little "scabs", that are not inflicted by another animal, seeing as though he’s an inside cat. One is under his chin, and one is under his lip. They’re small, but you can see them. They’re not open sores, just circular scabs. Does this sound like kitty skin cancer? :*( I also noticed this morning, that on his chest he has a new 2×2 bald spot. No tenderness or irratation.. just a new bald spot.
I’m worried sick. My brother bought him and his brother, Champ, for me as a gift at a very difficult time in my life and i’m not sure what i’d do right now if I lost one. Champ shows NO symptoms, however I worry because he’s had surgery three years ago because he continuously developed kidney stones, and i’ve recently switched the cats from "uninary track" cat food, to "sensitive digestive track" food, for Boss. It temporary slowed down the vomitting, but now it’s back. Should I switch the food back to benefit Champ?
Any help would be SO appreciated… thank you so much.
Thank you.. I should’ve known. I had a Siberian Husky who had skin ailments due to dry food.. the vet just told us that it was because we used cheap cat food. I’ve purchased expensive dry cat and dog food from the vet from that point on. I should’ve known. Thank you very much!!
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2 comments
Ken S on February 28, 2010 at 9:30 pm
It sounds very common actually. First you dfo need to get a blood test done by your vet to rule out serious stiff like crf ibd diabetes ect
Most likely your cat is eating your dogs food which isn’t good
You are also feeding him kitty crack which caused the stones in the first place. Please learn about feline nutrtion. That is what i believe is causing the scabs but not the weight loss
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrediant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/InterpretingLabels.htm
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms
The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in
Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPOODUCTS NO MEAL
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php
Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall
Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Vets.htm
TM on February 28, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I don’t know too much about the fur loss, except that I suspect it’s due to the lack of nutrition cause by his vomiting. If he has lost that much weight it’s likely that his nutrients levels are off and their coat is a huge indicator of this. Ken gave you some very good information on a proper cat diet, definitely look over the sites he gave you.
Like you I have a Mainecoon with kidney problems (this is a common problem with the breed). It got to the point where he was in a lot of pain and refused to use the litter box (according to the vet they associate the pain from the crystals with the litter box and so will begin to pee elsewhere). We were feeding him Solid Gold which I thought was decent food but he was having all kinds of problems still. Since we switched him to Wellness wet food he has not had any issues! While this particular food may not be the perfect fix for your guys a good quality food will go a long way toward helping fix their issues.
Good luck!