Hello! Welcome to Thriving Cat. This site is designed to provide real, personally tested solutions to common cat behavior and health issues. Does your cat pee outside the box? Does your cat have gum disease and need expensive tooth cleaning at the vet and even tooth extraction? Does your cat throw up on the carpet? There are easy solutions to these problems! I have been through all this and more and want to share the easy solutions so more people can have healthy, happy cats in a healthy, happy home.
My personal mission is to make cat ownership easier for the pet parent and better for the cat! There are so many cats that need good homes. So many sitting in the pound right now. If people could care for their cats in an easier and even cheaper manner, maybe more cats will get adopted. Maybe those adopted cats will be healthier and happier and maybe some owners who may be at their wits end due to problems like those I list above will be able to keep their cat instead of giving it up.
So, that is why I started this site. I want to help you help your cat and your sanity! Please feel free to comment, send me an email or pass on additional advice and suggestions. The more involvement we can generate, the more cats and their humans can be helped with this information. Post your cat pictures, cat stories and cat anecdotes. All positive and helpful comments and questions are welcome.
Much of the information here applies to dogs too! The same solutions to anxiety and upset stomachs leading to vomiting for example can be used for dogs and cats. The same nutritional supplements I recommend here can be used for dogs as well. I grew up with a dog team of Alaska huskies, I love dogs too!
I hope to have a regularly updated blog with new posts each week.
Stay tuned for all the help and happiness to come!
Jessica
Hi Jessica !
What do you think of a very old cat with his teeth slowly working thier way out ? Vet wants to pull them all ($1000), but he is comfortable eats well and not suffering at all. Now and then one will come out on it’s own, but I see no sense in pulling the ones he’s still using.
Regards !
Mike
Hello Mike,
I have not experienced that specific scenario with my cats. Strange you ask about cat teeth as the post I am working on right now is about a great supplement I use for my cat’s teeth! I will give you a preview here. I can’t recommend whether it is better to have the teeth pulled or not. If you decide to leave his teeth in I think I would give this supplement a try.
My cat is an orange, short hair tabby. I have been told by vets that these cats (specifically the orange ones!) are prone to tooth and gum disease. The poor baby started having teeth pulled when he was still quite young. I felt horrible that the vets couldn’t recommend anything other than pulling his teeth every year! I found this supplement called Gumz-n-Teeth by PetAlive. I order it online.
I mix it into the cat’s wet food which they eat twice a day. I break upon the capsules and just mix the powder in. I use one capsule with 3 of the really small cans of food which is several meals (they also have a high quality dry food). I would maybe increase that a bit if your cat doesn’t mind the taste. At first my cats didn’t really like it though they did not hate it. Now they don’t seem to mind at all.
This brand also makes other supplements I mix into their food every day but this is the one they NEED. It makes their breath much better and their teeth and gums are healthier. I will be applying for the Amazon affiliate program soon and hopefully have a link for this supplement up soon.
Good luck. I am glad your boy doesn’t seem to be in pain.
Jessica
Thanks for this great site, Jessica!
A question:
What sort of food do you recommend when a cat repeatedly has bladder infections?
Thanks so much!
Greetings
Therese
Hello Therese,
I have been very lucky. None of my cats has had bladder infections. I suffered through watching my dear cat decline with kidney failure however. That was horrible.
From what I have read there are several things you can try.
First, the most common recommendation is to make sure your cat eats only wet food. Many cats aren’t inclined to drink enough water as their natural diet would be high in water. My cats are good at drinking water and have not had bladder infections so I have not switched to all wet food. My cats eat both wet and dry. Getting enough water into your cat is vital to keeping their bladder healthy for a variety of reasons, so switching to wet food is an easy way to do that.
The second recommendation is to feed a grain-free and high protein food to prevent kidney stones. There are some recommendations that say foods high in magnesium and other minerals are the culprit for causing kidney stones. This is not a good analysis however, since grain in the food is the root cause. If you feed a grain-free, high protein food the crystals should not form. There are many foods that claim they are for urinary health. I don’t know if your cat has bacterial infections only or also kidney stones so I am not sure which issue you need to focus on.
If kidney stones are an issue, then I would switch to a wet food or if your cat drinks lots of water already then maybe feed a grain-free, high protein food. See my post here “What is The Best Dry Cat Food for Weight Loss and Maintenance” read about the best food we have found. Many of the foods by this brand called Solid Gold are grain free. We feed the food formulated for weight loss (“Fit as a Fiddle”) but they have many other grain-free foods including “High Protein with Chicken” and “High Protein with Cold Water Salmon”.
I have not found a grain-free wet food that I can use as their sole food. At the moment we feed them Purina Pro Plan which they all love. It isn’t a high enough quality food that I would feed it to them exclusively. It is a good compromise however and a good carrier for all the supplements I give them. The Solid Gold brand makes wet food that is grain-free but I have not tried it yet and it is a bit more expensive.
I have not had personal experience with bladder infections however. I suppose the safest bet would be to feed a wet food that is also grain-free thereby covering all the bases at once!
Thank you for your question,
Jessica