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Is this a bad habit that needs to be broken? Otherwise she won't eat.
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this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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According to my vet cats that eat wet food need to be seen more often for teeth cleaning. And, it's proportional to the amount of wet food they consume. Apparently the dry kibbles help to clean their teeth.
So if your cat prefers dry food, be thankful that it'll cost you less to upkeep your pet's dental health.
I was advised recently by my vet that male cats should be fed wet food once a day if possible. They are more prone to urinary obstruction which is common if they don’t get enough liquid in their diet. Bladder surgery for a cat is not fun for anyone involved.
Thanks for the tip on dental issues, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it.
I was also told by my vet that wet food (even in small amounts) is huge in helping prevent kidney disease in cats as they stay better hydrated. I think a good mix is healthy, and of course, we should be paying attention to the ingredients of any food we give them.
Regular dental checks are really important for cats, I"ve learned. They can stop eating completely due to deteriorating teeth and once the problem has reached that stage it's quite difficult to reverse.
You should ask your vet to show your how to check your cat's hydration level. It's pretty easy to do, and give your a good idea on your cat's overall health. You essentially just pull up on all the loose skin on your cat's back and ensure it returns to normal relatively quickly. If it slows down they are dehydrated.
My cat ended up needing the surgery and had to stay for a week with a catheter. One of the concerns was that he wouldn’t regain control of his bladder and we would have to assist for him to urinate. Luckily, he made a full recovery. We were fortunate that our primary vet was equipped to handle it because they charged us around $750 USD for the whole ordeal and I have no doubt the animal hospital would have been thousands.
We switched to a prescription dry food afterwards with the occasional wet food. 3 years later and he had stones forming again and intestinal lymphoma. That’s when he started on daily steroids and a primarily wet food diet based on the vets advice. We had to say goodbye a few months ago when it progressed too far. All that to say, do anything and everything to spoil them and keep them healthy.
Yeah, all my old cats developed kidney issues. We fed them all dry food. Now they have expensive kidney care prescription canned food.
With my new cats, I feed them dry food for breakfast, and a can of wet for dinner.