The Family

I kid you not, this is what the vet called it.  I told him about what the nutritionist had recommended, and the vet said, Ah yes; that is pretty standard; in vet school we all called it the Catkins diet.

Ha ha.  Funny sleep deprived vet students.

Aside – I talked with Mom about the new diet soon after talking to the nutritionist.  I probably told her some stuff that I have by now forgotten.  So, Mom, if you want to clarify any of these points, go right ahead.

Grailing is on all moist food.  The key reason for this is that it reduces his carbohydrate intake.   To make dry food dry, flour (essentially) is added – all dry food will have high carbs, all moist food will have low(er) carbs.   The reason this is so crucial for Grailing is that tumors can metabolise carbs, but not other energy sources.   Grailing, on the other hand, being a carnivore, can metabolise protein and fats.   So, by switching him to a high protein diet, I feed the cat and starve the cancer.

That’s the basic idea.

The vet also said – this is after the latest urinalysis sucess – that moist food also is prescribed for urinary tract issues, because it increases the cat’s water intake.  Cats generally don’t drink enough water, so putting them on moist food kind of forces the issue.  The vet said it is standard practice for male cats with urinary tract infections; some vets, he said, simply advise that all male cats eat moist food.

Also said the teeth thing isn’t really an issue. That was my big question.  Both vet and nutritionist assured me it wasn’t an issue at all.

So, that’s the scoop on moist food versus dry food, at least in this context.  Good for kidneys, bad for cancer.

Actually, for Grailing, I’m supposed to be feeding him pureed calf liver.  At the beginning, the store was just out of calf liver and I had to use chicken; Grail seemed pretty ok with that.  Then, they had calf liver and I used that, and Grail started throwing up all the time.  Forget that, I said, and went to canned food, which the nutritionist said was an adequate backup.    But now that it’s been a while, I’m planning on going back to the liver.  I’m going to try the calf liver again, but this time I’m going to cook it just a little.  That’s not optimal, but the nutritionist said it was ok to do it a little; to brown the outsides but not all the way through.   Then I puree it.  I don’t know….

So for Grail, it really isn’t supposed to be canned, it’s supposed to be pure protein.   I’m also adding extra water, and a host of supplements.   I have a recipie I’m supposed to put together, but what I’ve been doing is putting in one thing at one meal, varying it all the time – wanted to see if he was sensitive to any of the supplements, or if he liked or didn’t like any of them individually.  But, he eats them all just fine singularly or in any combination, so I’m ready to tackle this recipie.

The additives are: water, carrot juice, parsley juice (can’t find the juice so I’m just adding parsley), aloe vera juice, Vitamen E, Fish Oil, Kelp, Brewers Yeast.    Since I have it, I’m also adding Barley grass, which I got to begin with because of Annwynn’s fascination with grass; the barley grass supposedly is very very good for cats and has all of the green whatevers that the are trying to get from grass.

I had looked online, and saw some people recommended Flaxseed Oil.  However, I’m not using that.   There’s Omega 3 and Omega 6, and I really don’t know what those are.  But Omega 3 is supposedly the most Awesomely Wonderful Good Stuff Ever, particularly for cancer therapy.   Flaxseed Oil contains a balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6.  The nutritionist told me, though, that some studies show that Omega 6 can actually encourage cancer growth or something, so you want to make sure that your proportion is high on the Omega 3 and low on the Omega 6, or you want to avoid Omega 6 altogether.   Fish Oil (at least, the extraordinarily expensive fish oil) is all Omega 3.  And, as a bonus, cats are pretty excited about eating Fish Oil.  Flaxseed oil, not so much.

I did find this with Grailing.   I did online research right off the bat and went out and got some flaxseed oil pretty much the next day.  Grail was not entirely impressed (I tried some myself, it’s nasty).    Fish oil, though, is a good thing.   Mmmm, fish oil, mmmmm.    Expensive stuff, though, since it has to come from some small arctic fish that has large oil glands, and it has to be super tested for mercury and PCPs, etc., etc., etc.

Anyway .. that’s the scoop on Grail’s diet.  I don’t do much human cooking these days, since the cat cooking takes up most of my enthusiasm.   And I’m still a little hazy on all the ‘why’s for most of these supplements.   As long as they help, though, I’m all for all of them.

And, if you couldn’t predict this, Mileva and Annwynn both want to be eating what Grailing is eating.   They’re both still on dry, since I had quite a stock in the cabinet and since it is much less expensive.   But I am considering moving the two of them over to moist as well.    They really want it.