Caring For a Sick Cat

Having a sick cat is as upsetting as having any other beloved part of the family sick. You worry that she is not herself. You don’t like to see anyone down. You worry she may not make it.

And that’s not all. It may also be time consuming. If you’re out at work all day, how do you cope with the caring? You may be worried that she may want to go out or come in, or may be too hot or too cold. Or that she wants some fresh food. And you’re not there to nurse her.

Worse still is the expense. Veterinarians bills don’t come cheap, neither does the medication they provide.

You may not even be able to afford the treatment, with other bills looming.

But you feel too guilty not to at least try.

If you just stop and think for a minute, you may discover things that happen to you are always for a reason. Your cat becoming sick may just be the incentive that you need to go searching for something that may well change your whole life.

So not having the time or the money that you need for her care, may be a blessing in disguise.

If you are feeding your cat a commercial cat food, this could be the cause of your cat becoming ill in the first place.

Depending on the brand, the country and the period, most commercial cat food ingredients go something like this:

• low grade meat by-products normally from a rendering plant
• a filler that may be anything that is cheap on the world market such as wood chips, paper, sugar, nut shells, spoiled grain, melamine
• indigestible isolated and synthetic nutrients
• toxic preservatives that are not allowed in human food

You may want to research each of these individually, but the overall food doesn’t look too healthy, does it? Just one ingredient doesn’t look healthy, but all four together…

If it is the food which is causing the illness, why don’t you change it and see what happens? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Consider the top priority in caring for a sick cat is to change the diet to one which closely resembles that of their wild cousins.

Once the diet is changed to a healthy one, you cat’s immune system has a chance to improve. Which means that she is better able to deal with whatever the illness is.

When a sick cat is left at the veterinarian’s clinic, she is more likely to stress. However good the clinic or vet is, it’s no place for healing to occur. The noise, the other, usually frightened animals, the sense of abandonment, the strange people often doing painful procedures, the confinement, but overall the energy is not conducive to restore health.

Caring for anyone who is sick is best done at home. Home is normal. Just make sure there is little disturbance (from noisy or boisterous children or other animals, or less concerned partners).

And make sure she can go where she wants to. Freedom is important to cats.

Make sure the ambient temperature is to her liking. Make sure she has close access to clean water, preferably not tap water.

And don’t force her to eat. This is an often made mistake, when you’re worried. But digestion takes a lot of energy. If that energy is needed to help cure the problem, by making your cat eat, you are hindering her progress. A well fed cat can easily go many days without eating.

But by offering her some real food, she may well say a resounding ‘yes’ and gobble it up, showing you very clearly that real food is the way to go.

To recap some important points when caring for a sick cat:

• change her diet to real, healthy, natural, quality food immediately (never found in a packet or can)
• keep her at home
• don’t try to force feed her
• try to imagine what you would like in her position – quiet, warmth, caring person to nurse you?

Caring for a sick cat is much easier than caring for a sick human. For one, they don’t make so many demands! But don’t force things on her either. Listen to her and try to work out what she seems to want.

And remember, the food may be the cause. Most holistic veterinarians are finding this is the case.

And if the worst happens and she doesn’t make it, what better place to go than from the arms of her beloved person?

For more information on what real cat food is, check out Naturally Healthy Cats.