Cats, Vets, Treatments

Coco arrived at my house in the forest two and a half years ago. I heard a bit of plaintive miaowing and going to investigate I found a skinny, bedraggled Burmese kitten looking scared and sorry for himself. He had chocolate-tipped nose, ears, tail and paws and crystal-clear pale blue eyes.

I raced into the kitchen and opened a can of tuna. Not the best food to give a cat - full of salt and preservatives - but he looked like an emergency.

Handing him the saucer I was pleased to see him wolf the lot down, looking up hopefully after he'd finished. Back to the kitchen - milk in a saucer. He liked that too.

It began to rain and I left him hunched on the terrace looking small and vulnerable. But my partner of 19 years had walked out not long before and although I loved cats I felt it was a bad time to let one move in. I needed to be free to come and go, visit friends and family - if I had a cat, living alone in a forest as I do, I'd be tied to feeding him every day.

Still he sat there as the rain rained harder and harder for two whole days. Each time I looked out at him he was on the terrace or just nearby. He'd glance up sweetly, hunched against the bad weather, fixing me with those beatiful eyes. This cat wasn't going away. At the end of the second day I cracked and opened the door for him. He sloped in without a thought. Looked round the house, slipped up the stairs, curled up on my bed.

Giving it no thought whatsoever, the name Coco came into my head. And that was that. He lived at my place; his name was Coco.

Since then, he's been the easiest cat in the world to love. Totally clean from day one, never a single flea. No nasty habits. Never raises a paw in anger. Just a sweet-natured cuddly cat with those chocolate tips and beautiful super-blue eyes.

Less than a month after he arrived he was attacked by an older tom cat and nearly lost one of those lovely eyes. A local vet operated on him, an emergency op, and saved his sight. He had a huge metal staple through his eye - can't quite explain it - and had to wear one of those bucket-style collars to stop him touching it. Nevertheless, he bore it with great patience and seemed to understand it must be for his own good.

Recently he's had recurrent cystitis and it was clear he was suffering discomfort. The vet - a different vet this time - said he had a huge bladder stone and cut him open. To my dismay, she found there was no stone - she'd misread the X-ray, mistaking his bladder for a big stone...

He'd been on Hill's cat biscuits to dissolve and then prevent kidney or bladder stones forming but apparently there are 4 different kinds of kidney and bladder stones that cats can develop and the biscuits prevent just one kind. So I had believed her when she said she'd seen a stone.

Now he's been home for ten days and seems to be doing OK, even though he has a wound from his chest to his pelvis.

The thing that's bothering me is that this week I met an ex-vet and she told me that vets routinely propose commercial cat foods and treatments that are just money-spinners and, far from helping pets, many of the products and treatments provoke more ailments that need 'treating'. She told me her considered opinion, after working in the profession for several years, was that cats in particular do better if they're kept away from vets. Yes, have them neutered or spayed but after that give them simple food - muscle meat more than organ meat - avoid the commercial cat foods - they're generally laden with salts and other ingredients bad for cats - and mix water in with their food so they have to take water in. Other than that, try to keep vets out of the picture unless there's an emergency.

I feel I'm going to try to follow her advice because the vet, having totally screwed up her interpretation of the X-ray and having basically butchered Coco as a result, proceeded to tell me she thinks he has feline leukaemia or feline diabetes. His spleen is enlarged, she says, and an enlarged spleen is a sign of chronic infection. Before even asking me, she gave him a dose of cortisone and I've read that cortisone can harm a cat's health and cause infection in itself.

So I'm inclined now to leave him in peace, feed him well and keep him warm and secure and see how he goes.

I don't trust the vet any more, sadly, and I don't think commercial cat foods are natural or healthy. I read that apple cider vinegar is good for a cat's immune system and I've given him that a few times without him protesting! Apparently it makes their systems more alkaline and staves off illness. I'm feeding him chicken and liver and other meats that have nothing added - no salt, no preservatives. He's only 3 years old and I figure he must have some power in his immune system.

For the moment I'm trying to boost his natural defences. If he develops any acute problem I'll take him to a vet, but my instinct for now is that he's probably better off without cortisone or antibiotic injections and X-rays, chemically treated biscuits, anaesthesia, drips and totally unnecessary surgery.

Any experience you can share on cats, cat illnesses, cat nutrition, or vets? Any comments or advice?