WARNING. I read posted to a friends Timeline that he is adding supplements to his raw meat. I believe it warrants a warning so no one else will have to experience the absolute horror of what I went through years ago. The cause of the heartbreak was after I followed a raw meat recipe from a veterinary Web site. She recommended adding: • Fish Oil • Vitamin E • Vitamin B-complex • Taurine I purchased these products from a people health food store, and added them in the recommended dosage. Four of my girls were eating it during gestation and while nursing their kittens. All four litters were born with kittens that did not know right side up from down, no sense of balance, they continually curled into fetal positions towards their tails, and two litters were so affected they could not even nurse on their own. I supplemented them for 7 days as well as holding them onto their mothers nipples so they could nurse, but when their symptoms did not improve I took them to the vet and two entire beautiful litters were euthanized. The third litter out of the four had kittens affected at various degrees. At about 2 weeks of age, one kitten in particular was so affected he could not crawl, he would lie almost fully paralyzed on his side screaming. My vet had not been able to come up with a reason why this was happening. It is similar to what happens if one vaccinates a pregnant queen for Panleukopenia; the kittens are born with severe balance issues. But my girls were not vaccinated during gestation. Then I had one of those aha moments...I suddenly realized it had to be the supplements. I had just had the two litters euthanized and was within hours of taking this paralyzed kitten in. Immediately I switched mom to raw without supplements and within 24 hours the paralyzed kitten was right side up, crawling, and nursing. He and his 4 siblings fully recovered. Our fourth and oldest litter of 9 week old kittens had a brown boy that was literally walk on his front pasterns (could not straight out his front legs) while his sister the snow girl was walking with her head severely twisted to one side (like the exorcist.) Not only had they nursed from a mother on the supplements but at this age they were eating the meat themselves. After removing the supplements they too began to improve, but more slowly. A wonderful lady adopted them both in spite of their issues, and they did come close to a full recovery although balance and vertical jumping issues remained. For many years now I dont add anything to raw meat except egg yolk (weekly) and probiotics. Have never again had a litter with cerebellar hypoplasia> Our litters are extremely healthy. No diarrhea issues either - but thats another topic. I did want to investigate to learn which supplement(s) caused the brain damage, but my vet said it would cost a minimum of $6,000.00 to even have a lab start the tests and there was no guarantee wed ever learn which it was. The vet Web site with the raw meat recipe where I took the advice on the supplements does have other excellent information about feeding raw: catinfo.org/
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 20:00:41 +0000
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