Dave and I decided to get a second opinion. We took Pandorah to a natural vet named Sharon, who lives out in the middle of nowhere and runs her vet clinic out of her house. The whole experience was so surreal and had to be met with an open mind as it was VERY different from anything I had ever done before. She did not examine Pandorah the way a regular vet would. She asked us to tell our story and so we told her everything we were doing and going through. She just sat there and nodded a lot, didn't really offer up much of her opinion until the very end when she bluntly said "Take her off all the medications you are giving her and she will be fine". I was all WTF??!! She explained that when an animal (or person for that matter) has liver disease it is harder for the liver to process anything. So therefore by giving her all those pills, we were making her liver work harder and not giving it an opportunity to heal. So we went home that night and took her advice. It was a very hard decision to make, even though we are not a couple who rely on pills for anything. But, the very next day, she started eating. And drinking. Without me having to force any of it down her throat.
Cost at the regular vet for a lot of runaround and poorly made decisions? $3000.
Cost at Sharon's for our cats life to be saved? $40.
That's right. Sharon also suggested that to prevent liver disease from happening again, we should put Pandorah on a home cooked diet. One of the reasons liver disease even happens is a life of feeding your animals dry food. So this is what I feed ALL my cats now, and they love it like woah.
Super Delicious Chicken and Veggies for The Furs
1 Package of lean ground chicken or turkey (you can also substitute with a skinless boneless chicken breast or turkey breast, but these will cost you a little more money).
1 large sweet potato or 2 smaller ones
2 carrots
1 tbsp of unflavoured fish oil (you can find this at any whole foods or natural store)
1 pinch of bone meal (also can be found at most whole foods stores or natural pet foods store)
In a non-stick skillet, fry up the ground chicken. Make sure there is a bit of water on the bottom of the pan to prevent burning of the chicken. Do not worry about mashing up the chicken into little pieces, that will come later.
While that is cooking, peel carrots and sweet potato skin and discard. Chop both into small pieces and place into a steamer. Steam until very soft. If you do not own a steamer, boiling the veggies is another option but remember that boiling removes many of the nutrients of the vegetable.
Once all are ready, throw both the chicken and veggies into a large bowl. Add the fish oil and bone meal. Use a potato masher to mash everything together. Make sure that the pieces are small enough so that they cannot get stuck in a cats throat. The potato masher should do the trick nicely.
Refrigerate up to 4-5 days, but it wont last that long!
I usually make a bigger batch than that (double) and this lasts my three cats up to four days. They don't need too much as it has no filler and wont leave them super hungry throughout the day.
I hope that this has helped anyone who was thinking of making the switch to a home cooked meal for their animals but didn't know how to start, or even why they should.
Anyone else have horror stories at the vet?
Cost at Sharon's for our cats life to be saved? $40.
That's right. Sharon also suggested that to prevent liver disease from happening again, we should put Pandorah on a home cooked diet. One of the reasons liver disease even happens is a life of feeding your animals dry food. So this is what I feed ALL my cats now, and they love it like woah.
Super Delicious Chicken and Veggies for The Furs
1 Package of lean ground chicken or turkey (you can also substitute with a skinless boneless chicken breast or turkey breast, but these will cost you a little more money).
1 large sweet potato or 2 smaller ones
2 carrots
1 tbsp of unflavoured fish oil (you can find this at any whole foods or natural store)
1 pinch of bone meal (also can be found at most whole foods stores or natural pet foods store)
In a non-stick skillet, fry up the ground chicken. Make sure there is a bit of water on the bottom of the pan to prevent burning of the chicken. Do not worry about mashing up the chicken into little pieces, that will come later.
While that is cooking, peel carrots and sweet potato skin and discard. Chop both into small pieces and place into a steamer. Steam until very soft. If you do not own a steamer, boiling the veggies is another option but remember that boiling removes many of the nutrients of the vegetable.
Once all are ready, throw both the chicken and veggies into a large bowl. Add the fish oil and bone meal. Use a potato masher to mash everything together. Make sure that the pieces are small enough so that they cannot get stuck in a cats throat. The potato masher should do the trick nicely.
Refrigerate up to 4-5 days, but it wont last that long!
I usually make a bigger batch than that (double) and this lasts my three cats up to four days. They don't need too much as it has no filler and wont leave them super hungry throughout the day.
I hope that this has helped anyone who was thinking of making the switch to a home cooked meal for their animals but didn't know how to start, or even why they should.
Anyone else have horror stories at the vet?