Thursday, February 28, 2008

IMMUGEN FOR CATS & DOGS; FELINE CRF, ETC.


Our cat is around 15 years old, which is old for a cat. As she's aged, she's developed arthritis and skin problems. Apparently she's allergic to flea bites and she gets dermatitis. We used Advantage for years, then apparently the fleas developed some kind of immunity to this medicine and we had to change the cat's anti-flea medicine to Frontline.

Well, a few months ago, the cat had severe dermatitis, and she was quite miserable scratching away. She had scabs on her body, especially in her backside. I used some medicated shampoo to ease her itching, and it would work for a day, but then she would start scratching all over again.

The cat lost weight and I thought she'd die. Then after doing some research (internet) I discovered Immugen, which strengthens the immune system to fight against cancer, allergies, respiratory and immune related diseases in dogs and cats.

I'm going to sound like an ad, but truly the stuff works! The cat recovered; she got rid of her dermatitis, and is more robust than she had been. Her arthritis is bad though, and I'm giving her Hip Action, which has Glucosamine and Chondroitin.

Here's information about Immugen:

"Immugen's unique formula combines vitamins, minerals, amino acids, botanicals and other nutrients for optimal immune system functioning. It contains natural ingredients to protect animals from bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, cancer, allergies, dermatitis and immune disorders."

Imagine - all this fuss for a cat.

~~~~~

Our Vet never mentioned Immugen to us. In fact, this Vet has been so quick to suggesting all kinds of tests and drastic surgeries on our cat. For eg. the cat had a tooth abscess and the Vet wanted to run blood tests and wanted to put the cat out to pull out most of her teeth. We decided against this. When I could, I swabbed the abscessed area with cotton balls soaked with salt water. I gave her Vitamins. And in no time, the bad tooth fell out on its own, and her gums healed.

Many years ago, another cat of ours had mites in her ears and the Vet suggested performing surgery in her ears to remove the mites. I went to our local pet store and bought some oily medication that I dropped into her ears. The mites disappeared.

The Vet of this other cat with mites, also sold us Advantage and special food for older cats developing kidney problems. This Vet never informed us that we could buy Advantage and this special food in regular pet stores. This was many years ago, when Advantage was new.

There are many sites in the internet that can educate you about health problems of cats. It's more information than you'll get from your Vet. I have found them very helpful. In fact there's a site by a woman whose cats died of kidney failure, and the site lists the various brands of cat food and the Phosphorus content; and the site has recipes for home cooked cat food. Check out Tanya's Feline Chronic Renal Failure Information Centre.

(Photo shows Kiki and her master. Note that Kiki is holding the TV clicker.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cecilia - Thanks so much for the website link! My cat Boo has CRF and so I always appreciate information that can help me enhance her quality of life. :)