Connie was a stray who adopted
us around 1990. We found out in October, 2002 (age approximately 15 years) that
she was hypothyroid, an
unusual condition for cats, which accounted in part for
her obesity. We thought it was just from her overeating when we had to leave dry
food down all the time for an elderly, sick cat who died in July, 2002. We started
giving Connie BioNutrition's BioSuperfood (micro algae
superfood) in the fall of 2002 and by January 2003, her thyroid values were
normal. We also switched her from
dry kibble to canned and
then
raw food, starting
in fall 2002. This also helped Connie slim down from a high of 16 lbs to 11 lbs,
though she has gained some
of that weight back due to inactivity
(caused by severe arthritis). Even our holistic vet was amazed that we could get
such a senior cat to
reduce in weight.
We continued Connie on BioSuperfood to
help prevent kidney disease and
cancer. Our previous 2 cats died of kidney disease at age
17 and
it has become quite common in domestic cats—even middle-aged cats are
getting it now. We have learned that the main causes of kidney
disease in cats are feeding a cooked diet lacking
enzymes, particularly
dry kibble, which is too
high in carbohydrates for cats, and routine
vaccinations. The feline distemper
vaccine is now suspected of causing kidney disease because it contains feline
kidney cells and could be
setting up an autoimmune reaction with the cat's own
kidneys. Vaccinations in general can be bad for the cat's overall health,
particularly
when given yearly, so on our holistic vet's advice, we no longer vaccinate
our animals yearly. Connie was only vaccinated once by us, for
rabies, and
nothing since then. So, we attribute her long life, in part, to her not being
over vaccinated. Click here for more information on vaccines.
Cats can be hard to
switch to raw
food and it took about a year with Connie. She also
had digestive upsets with raw food that have now finally
resolved after
treatment by veterinary intuitive
Donna Starita and medical intuitive Madhu O'Toole. Connie will now eat 100%
raw food, but we
still give her
canned food as well, to hide her supplements in.
We feed her Artemis, which contains only
meat, organs and fish--no vegetables
or grains (which cats don't need anyway), Evanger's, ZiwiPeak, Weruva and Tiki Cat canned cat foods.
At one point, Connie tested hyperthyroid,
a common condition for elderly cats,
however, with a combination of supplements (BioPreparation and Standard Process Thytrophin PMG)
and homeopaths, we normalized her
thyroid and it tested normal again. We avoided the radioactive iodine treatment
and Tapazole drug our
vet recommended. Note that we used BioSuperfood and
BioPreparation to normalize her hypothyroid and hyperthyroid conditions.
That's one
of the benefits of using a truly holistic product, in addition to
having no side effects. There is not one pill to correct a low thyroid and
another
pill to correct a high thyroid condition as in allopathic medicine.
BioPreparation excels at normalizing any glandular or
hormonal imbalance
whether too high or too low.
Connie had severe
arthritis, which x-rays show is mainly in her
left knee. This is unusual for a cat so the vet thinks she must have ruptured
her
knee ligament at some point due to her
obesity (so don't let your animals
become obese!). She was too old for surgery on her knee so we tried
various
treatments, both holistic and conventional to alleviate her pain. (Click
here for a
detailed list of arthritis
options we tried.)
Unfortunately,
one of our attempts (using the NSAID drug
Metacam) resulted in acute kidney
failure (a known side effect in 30% of cats). Connie
spent 4 days on IVs in the
hospital recovering from that (in May 2006) and was administered subcutaneous
fluids every few days due to the kidney
damage. Prior to the
Metacam, her
bloodwork showed perfect kidney values at age 19. Other than her arthritic pain, she did
very well for her
age. The only remedies, holistic or conventional, that we have
found effective for her arthritis is
BioPreparation and
acupuncture. She slimmed
down to a respectable 11-12 pounds, had a soft, silky, glossy coat,
and she still ate well and enjoyed petting. In spite of Chronic Renal Failure
(which she didn't have until the age of 19 after we tried Metacam), she had not
lost any muscle mass or tone. All her holistic vets were amazed
that our 20+ year
old cat with CRF (kidney disease) is in better shape and has a better coat (from
the complete suite of Omega 3, 6, 9 and GLAs
oils in
BioPreparation/BioSuperfood) than their other client's cats much younger but on
a dry kibble diet.
(07/28/07)
Final update: At 20+ years, Connie finally
decided it was time to cross the Rainbow Bridge. She became very picky about
what she would eat 48-hours prior. Then 24-hours
prior she ate or drank very
little. At 1:00 AM she was started gasping for air and by 3:00 AM she took
her
final breath with her head cradled in one of my hands while the other was
stroking her and
administering Reiki
energy. Every animal guardian whose pet has been on
BioPreparation and
passed away has told us the same story. They thought their pet was in less
pain, had minimal
suffering and when it was time for the
end of their life
it seems the animal's body just shut
down naturally system by system. It all
happened very quickly within 24-48 hours. The animal
stops eating, then
stops drinking, then soaks up all the TLC you give it as it looks lovingly back
at you to thank you for all you've done and then prepares itself for its
afterlife. Some animals
even pass over to the Rainbow Bridge in their sleep like
the natural death some elderly wild
animals experience. Even if BioPreparation doesn't "cure"
them, this gift we give them at the
end of their life is equal to the
unconditional love they gave us during their lifetime. This could be one of the
wonderful unadvertised
"side-effects" of
BioPreparation.
(07/28/07)