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Home | Recipes | Before & After Photos | ResourcesA Story of 3 CatsMy fiance and I have 3 cats - Tristan, Lister and Emma. Tristan is a male cat born in 1994. In 2002 he began to develop IBD which was initially noticeable as diarrhea and very smelly stool. He gradually started to lose weight. We tried many different foods (he was eating dry food at the time) and spend a lot of money at the vet on tests for every possible parasite, x-rays, and bloodwork. He continued to lose weight over the years and eventually started having occasional bright red blood in his stools and a lot of mucous. His stools smelled like something dead and rotten. We eventually switched to a grain-free canned food which lessened his symptoms - he had less frequent diarrhea and blood - for about a year, but he continued to lose weight and have very smelly stool. His appetite slowly diminished and we couldn't tempt him to eat more than a few tablespoons of food at one time. We had thought about trying a raw diet in the past but was too worried we would do something wrong. We did try a couple of commercial raw products which our cats would not touch, and gave up too quickly. Finally, I found the website catnutrition.org and decided I would just do it - make the switch to raw. I started out by ordering some pre-made raw food suggested on that website, while I waited for my meat grinder and other ingredients to arrive. Much to my surprise, the food was an immediate hit with Lister and Emma, but Tristan reacted as if I had tried to poison him - leaping back dramatically from the bowl and refusing to even eat canned food near the other 2 cats. But I began carefully mixing in tiny tiny amounts of raw meat into his canned food. I also found adding some dried liver powder helped to tempt him into eating. His appetite was still very poor. In the meantime, Lister and Emma had begun eating exclusively the raw diet. Both of them had become overweight on the premium grain-free dry food despite careful rationing of their portions. As a biochemist with a lot of knowledge about mammalian physiology, I should have known better - the 4th ingredient in this food is potato, a very starchy vegetable completely inappropriate for our obligate carnivore felines. Starch is not well digested by cats, they lack the requisite digestive enzymes - and carbohydrates are essentially converted directly into fat by cats. Unfortunately I'd been seduced by the "grain free" claims - the food is grain free but certainly not carbohydrate free! Lister and Emma were both complete dry food addicts and would not eat canned food, but I was pleasantly surprised that they accepted the raw food so enthusiastically. Lister was a frequent vomiter, he'd throw up undigested food about once a week or sometimes more often. We'd just come to accept this as "normal" for him as he'd always thrown up frequently since he was young. He never lost weight and his bloodwork was always healthy, so we just assumed he had a sensitive stomach and there was nothing we could do about it. After starting the raw diet, Lister has not vomited once. Not once. Lister also used to have a black waxy discharge from his ears at all times, we cleaned his ears 1-2 times a week and had him checked for yeast or bacterial infections, which he was negative for. After about 2 weeks on the raw diet that black discharge started to diminish, and is now gone. Evidently, Lister had some allergies and/or digestive difficulties that we'd been overlooking while worrying so much about Tristan! Back to Tristan - he was still objecting to raw chicken being mixed into his canned food and had a few vomiting episodes. It took some trial and error for us to figure out that he could not eat raw chicken or chicken eggs. We tried turkey meat without the egg yolks, and that worked better for him - he ate it with a sprinkle of liver powder. Finally, I tried some whole ground rabbit. I made up a batch of raw food using a modified version of the catnutrition.org recipe (leaving out the egg yolks and adjusting the amounts for a whole carcass already including the liver and heart). Finally, Tristan ate the raw food with no mixing! In fact he devoured it, and asked for a second and third dinner that night! Over the next few days, it was clear Tristan was on the road to recovery. His stools were immediately firmer and no more smell. He was eating much more frequently than he was previously - which is good because he needed to gain about 2-3 lbs - although he couldn't eat a lot in one sitting after years of having such a poor appetite. At that time I joined the felineIBD newsgroup, and found information about vitamin B12 deficiency and gastrointestinal disorders in cats and dogs. I suspected that Tristan might be B12 deficient, since he'd been in a state of malabsorption and weight loss for several years, and his appetite was so poor. I made an appointment with the vet and took Tristan in to have his B12 levels tested and a B12 injectable prescribed. However the vet shrugged off my requests and references to the research and wanted to prescribe Tristan prednisolone to enhance his appetite, refusing to even test him for B12 levels let alone prescribe the vitamin injection. Vitamin B12 is a water soluble vitamin and there is no danger of toxicity reported. Knowing that steroids can cause diabetes in cats, and that the raw diet was already giving me hope, I threw the prescription in the garbage and took Tristan home. I had read some research papers that said in humans, sublingual oral tablets in sufficient doses had shown the same results in B12 deficiency as injections had, so I went to Whole Foods and bought some No Shot B12 tablets. They contain lactose and 1000mcg B12, no colors, flavors or other vitamins. I began to give Tristan one tablet per day, by popping it in his mouth (while distracting him by brushing him with my hairbrush, which he loves) and holding his mouth shut for about 30 seconds while the tablet dissolved. I am certain that I noticed an immediate increase in his appetite. I continued to give the pills daily for a month, then 2 times per week and then once per week. It took about 1 month to fully transition Tristan to the raw diet, but perhaps if we'd tried the whole rabbit to begin with he would have been happy to eat it from the start. It took about 3-4 weeks before I noticed a little bit of weight gain. First it was only noticeable as a bit more padding over his previously-protruding spine, before there was even a difference registering on the scale. It used to be that when I petted him I could feel all his vertebrae and ribs, but by 3 weeks I could feel them less distinctly. After the following weeks, I could finally see the results when I weighed him weekly - for the first time in years he was gaining weight! The progress was very slow at first, as his body was healing inside and learning how to digest food properly again. But 5 months after the day he started an exclusively raw diet, Tristan had gained back a much-needed 2 lbs, and he looked and felt great! Now when we pet him we can feel muscles rather than bones. And, not one since the change has he had anything other than a perfectly formed small firm stench-free stool. No blood or mucous, and no vomiting. Tristan, Lister and Emma all have undergone a transformation due to their raw diet transition. Before I saw the changes in my own cats, I thought all the testimonies I read online were exaggeration or wishful thinking. But this diet has not only cured Tristan and Lister of their digestive problems, all three cats are absolutely flourishing, as you can see in the before and after photos!
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