My veterinarian said home-cooked is OK, but cautioned that I need to make sure to add vitamins and taurine. On a sample recipe on your site, I didn’t see any mention of supplements to be added, especially taurine. Did I miss it, or do you not recommend it?
Thanks for your question. This is a common concern as we’ve all been trained since the 50s that taurine has to be added to cat food. Taurine comes from meat. In the 50s, cat food did not contain enough meat to provide cats with enough taurine for healthy hearts. Once...
What are the different kinds of vaccines? (And, why do I care?)
In the prepartion of killed vaccines, the manufacturer “kills” the virus, usually by heat, so injection into a patient does not cause disease. This is especially important in rabies prevention as the last thing we want to do is give rabies to patients. The...
What is an adjuvant and why does it matter what vaccine I get for my cat?
An adjuvant is a fancy word for something that assists. In my military career, the adjuvant helped the wing commander out. In my veterinary career, the adjuvant helps the body’s immune system respond to a vaccine. Adjuvants are used with killed vaccine. (Hmm, another...
What’s the big deal about GMO in our pets’ food?
It’s an interesting debate. After all, where do all the awesome apple varieties come from? They are genetically engineered. (When I lived in Turkey, I asked my friend what kind of apple it was. She looked at my funny and said “red.” Not every country is blessed with...
A friend told me her veterinarian has seen a correlation between blindness in pets and eating/feeding them lamb. What do you know about that?
The correlation I see is that many pets with food allergies are put on a lamb and rice diet –once upon a time, lamb was a novel protein so it really helped allergy dogs. Now, lamb is a very common ingredient in pet foods so it doesn’t work as well for allergies. Dogs...
Are hot sidewalks dangerous for your pet or is that just a myth?
Do you remember being a kid and running around barefoot all summer? Remember how hot the tar was compared to the concrete? Same for our cats and dogs. I have a friend who used an infrared thermometer to measure the sidewalk temperature last year – 145F!!! That is skin...
I use cotton swabs to clean my cats ear – only around the outside, never the inside. Is this ok?
Long before I learned all this stuff about food, I learned crazy things about ears. The first thing that was world changing for me was the idea that I can use a cotton swab on my ear all day every day. But, for cats and dogs, cotton is abrasive. Second thing – how to...
My 3.4# Chihuahua fell off the couch and now he’s limping on his back leg. Help!
Poor little one!! Here are the first things I check: can I touch and move every bone – checking for a fracture. How much rotation to the inside is there of the lower leg on the upper leg – quick test for torn cruciate ligaments (ACL – football player injury). Are all...
My dog just spent a week at the kennel, now he’s sick. What’s up with that? What could it be?
A week away from home can be quite stressful. Then, more stress on you when you pick up your loved one, who was reportedly fine at the kennel, and your baby is now sick. How many times have we been too busy to get sick, but when it’s time to relax – wham!! – come down...
My dog eats raw food, why does he still shed?
Great food treats 80% of the body’s inflammation, but shedding means there is still something more. Could be he still has some “leaky gut” issues. 60-70% of the body’s immune system is in the intestines – it’s called the GALT – gut-associated lymphoid tissue. If the...