h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Our cat has had strange and swollen wounds in her ears (now healed)and face (healing) for a good while. I've had her on antibiotics for ten days, and the swelling is gone, and it looks like the fur is coming back. The crusts are falling off too, and it looks like it's healing.

The vet said that it might be eczema from cat food allergy, and suggested that if the antibiotics don't help, I should buy diet cat food, and try that for 8 weeks to see if it helps.

The problem is that such food can cost £10 per pound...

Can anyone recommend a balanced diet based on cheap things I can get at the supermarket? I think a variation of raw herring, liver, inexpensive meat would be ok, but then what vitamins and fiber and stuff would be missing? Potatoes, carrots? Vitamin pills?

Sardines in oil should be good for the skin and coat.

Hi Milla,
Both our cats are fed on a diet of raw meat and are extremely healthy! You need to be aware that it can be a little time consuming, and more expensive than regular cat food (though probably less expensive than the 'diet' cat food, which seems a very strange concept!)

There is a very good yahoo group called 'raw paws' (of which my girlfriend - lbclaire (U872168) is a moderator)

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawpaws

They can provide you with full details of a suitable diet. Essentially, Claire makes a large batch of food every 4-5 weeks for our two cats, in which raw meat is mixed with the necessary supplements etc. that wild cats would get from the stomachs of the animals they eat!

As you're a scientist, I should warn you that the Raw Paws crowd does have *an element* that is heavily into alternative remedies and can be a bit anti-science at times (anti-vaccination, anti-pharmaceuticals etc), but there are also many voices of reason on there! The most important thing is that they do genuinely care for their animals and, as I say, our two cats thrive on their raw diet!

I hope that's useful - if you'd like more details, feel free to email me directly at drb1004 at yahoo dot com and I can put you in touch with Claire (she's more-or-less abandoned h2g2 for now!)

Wow, I knew this would be the right place to start finding information! It seems I should join up to see the discussions? I'll do that from home...

Thanks a lot, I will look into this!

i know this will sound like the bleedin' obvious, but i assume your vet did a scraping to check for mites?

She did comb the fur, and put some stuff on a object glass for microscopy. And came up "clean" for whatever they checked for.
Just after, I kept getting (insect?)bites though, so I applied anti-flea drops, and that's stopped much of the itching for me and the cat...

if the wounds are clearing up and the cat's diet hasn't changed...doesn't that rule out allergy?

not to be cyncical, but if a vet suggests you use an insecticide and therefore knows the cat will recover anyway, planting the suggestion that a conversion to high profit alternative foods bought from his/her practice is going to be a temptation.

i'd follow up on the insecticide, use a gentle antiseptic on the wounds and see how it looked in a week or two.

and while i remember, they do a skin scraping to test for mites. combing the fur wouldn't have been that.

Thanks, I wasn't sure about the mites test.
I will wait a few weeks before changing diet, to see if the wound heals. It goes very slowly though... Not so swollen, but still crusty and not healed completely. It's still quite bare, so I hope the fur comes back a little more before I make up my mind.

The vet didn't suggest the insecticide, I chose that on my own, since I got so many bites myself.

With dogs they start the dogs on a diet of chicken and rice to start to try to work out what is causing the problem. When all symptoms have gone, one extra ingredient is added.

It's not enough of a balanced diet to feed full time, but it's a good start. Maybe there is an equivalent for cats? As far as I know, cats are true carnivores and don't need veggies, but I'm not a cat person, I'm a dog person so check that one out.

As for the raw food diets, do some independent research before you switch your cat over to a diet like that.

Milla, I'm not trying to be funny when I ask this, but was this the same cat that somebody smeared all over with faeces not long ago?

Because I would imagine that could lead to quite a few unpleasant infections and associated problems if it made contact with the eyes or with broken skin for example.

Mina's absolutely right about doing some research about raw diets, but be prepared to come across two completely entrenched and intractable viewpoints if you do:

1. All people who feed their cats a raw diet are lunatic, tree-hugging hippies who haven't a clue what they're doing and are probably endangering their animals' lives... (Sadly, a large proportion of vets maintain this viewpoint)

2. All people who *don't* feed a raw diet are in the pay of and/or brainwashed by pet food manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies and are clearly evil and endangering their animals' lives... (Sadly, a lot of what you'll read on the net is along these lines - choosing a raw diet can often be a 'political' choice rather than a clinical necessity)

The truth is, of course, somewhere between the two

Feeding a cat a raw diet is not simply a case of chucking some chicken at them twice a day, and you are almost certainly better off giving them a good quality commercial diet than a badly done raw diet.

Yes, this is the same cat... She has had a bit of a rough time...

I will wait a little longer to see if the wound heals before trying anything food wise. It's just such a slow process. I keep wanting to see improvements every day, but it's so hard to tell. Maybe the crusts are receding. There are a few tiny places where crusts have fallen off that seem a little raw/slight bleeding, still, but at least she doesn't seem sore, I can stroke and gently remove skin flakes that are coming loose without problems. And she scratches a little less. But cats scratch anyway, don't they?

For me, it doesn't have to be raw, just made from ordinary supermarket ingredients. I think I would like to boil it, so that I kill off any bacteria, and a portion could sit in the fridge for a few days without turning bad.

Our dog was allergic when I grew up, and she got boiled beef (cheapest cut) and rice. In hindsight she must have been quite malnourished, I don't remember giving her supplements, maybe the odd calcium/bone meal tablet, but vitamins I don't think she got.

I'll see how it goes with the wound, then I'll make up my mind. It's good to see some options anyway.