Cat health supplements

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
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7cats
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Cat health supplements

Post by 7cats »

It's best to give you a full background of Ginger so you can know a little bit about him and help me work out what could be done to help him.

Ginger is a ginger male cat of unknown age, older than say 5-6, more like 10+ we think.
We don't know much about him, he's obviously been in a house at some point as he is neutered and he is litter trained.
We have tried to find out his history but no-one knows anything and he wasn't microchipped before (but he is now).

The road where we live has had naughty kids on it who used to chuck stones at Ginger, he's very scared of people.
It's took 3 yrs to get him to let us (mainly me) stroke him and that's only if he's put his head to one side to say "yes i will let you touch me now"

He had a serious dental problem stopping him eating so back in February, he was trapped, brought in and sorted out.
He ended up having all but 2 teeth out. He was in our spare room for 10 days in total and I was able to groom him a little, stroke him, lie down next to him. When his gums had healed, he had to go back outside for his sake, he's not an indoor cat, he's got such a huge mental block up, it's heartbreaking but I take hope and comfort in the little things

When Ginger was in, part of his problem is that he had cat flu and is a carrier. He had the ok to go back outside though as there's not much they could really do for him, he's not a fighter at all and outside is all he really knows and he absolutely adores and loves Hedge to pieces.
Outside is set up so they (him n Hedge) have access to a shed, boxes with straw, food, water, biscuits. He's shouted in for food 4 times a day, doesn't always come every single time but the offer is there.

So he's not the sort of cat you can grab easily to take to a vets, hates people and being touched and would rather be left alone, most of the time.

He's doing ok outside .. but here's the But .. I feel that he needs some supplement or something that can give him a bit of a boost and help him. He can't bend to groom himself so his coat is looking a bit scraggy and dirty (he's been flea-d already).
EDIT TO ADD - he lost weight before having his teeth done and although he's put on a little bit, he looks like an old man still
The weather here is so damp one minute then sunshine the next that its messing up his "system" and some days he's a bit wheezy and a bit snotty and other days he's fine. Sometimes he will stay out in the rain despite having the shed there for him.

My OH said to look online as there was bound to be someone who had already posted about trying to find ways to help a cat flu carrier have a health boost and I noticed a few links about Lysine but they seemed to be links from USA.
He (my OH) said adding a couple of drops of cod liver oil to his food could help him but I was wondering about something that might help his immune system like vitamins n minerals

Anyway I'm starting to waffle on now and Ginger's going to be wanting supper shortly.

T x
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bobbys girl
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Re: Cat health supplements

Post by bobbys girl »

Hi there, first of all thank you for all you have done for this boy. He is very lucky to have you.

I have never used vits with my lot. But one of my cats, Purdy, has always been a skinny little cat - no medical cause that we have found, she is just like that. Occasionally we give her a tin of Royal Canin Recovery or Hills Prescription, available at the vets. We call it baby food and she loves it. We feed it to her on a spoon, I think she likes the attention. :lol: But you can almost see her put on weight.
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Kay
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Re: Cat health supplements

Post by Kay »

Bisolven would help if he is bunged up a lot - you need a vet's prescription for it, but it is quite cheap, especially if you buy on line, and you just put a pinch in food - I have been giving it daily to one of mine for a couple of years, and it seems to be without smell or taste
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greenkitty
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Re: Cat health supplements

Post by greenkitty »

Which of the cat flu viruses does he have? L-lysine will work for the Herpes virus but probably not for Calici, there's not a great deal you can do other than manage any secondary infections and keep his life as stress free as possible.
7cats
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Re: Cat health supplements

Post by 7cats »

bobbys girl - Thanks for your kind words, he's an absolute sweetheart. I adore him to bits.

Kay - I don't know if Bisolven would help as we don't see him poo in our garden, he tends to head off round the front or to the neighbours, oops.

greenkitty - I think it's the Calici one he has. It rings a bell with when I asked what it was when he was in but I was told that the name didn't matter.

We got a different posh treaty food that the other cats don't really eat, they will at a push but Ginger absolutely devours it and then pushes Hedge n Simba off their plates for it. It's called Feline Cuisine and is only available from Tesco. It's got 50% meat in it and seems to have less additives in it, compared to Felix A.g.a.i.l's at 4% meat so I think that's going to be healthier for him. One tin a day (plus his felix and biscuits) is definitely do-able on our budget.

Here's a photo of my sweetheart. We sprayed some a cat nip solution on it (proper cat nip put in water, in a spray bottle) and he was proper loving it. Not a good photo as taken late at night but he was rubbing his chin on it
Need to buy another one though cos Simba loves it as well and pushes Ginger off.
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