Tracie Hotchner Blog

I got this letter from Marianna, which, while it saddened me terribly to learn her cats had died, was equally distressing that her own misinformation and the ignorance of the vets she consulted would have her thinking that the switch to wet food could have done this harm.

I’m writing to let you know that I used to never miss your show. I followed your advice on cat food, etc. I understand that we proceed at our own risk when we take the advice of someone who may not actually be a formally educated nutritional consultant or nutritionist. I understand that one doesn’t need to be a paper tiger and hold a certification if they have proper experience. I switched my cats off of dry food and on to all canned with which I thought was wonderful results at first. I was feeding Wellness turkey, sometimes chicken. My Cat Frosty started to loose weight rather quickly so I had a full panel drawn, he was in renal failure. Unfortunately he didn’t last long. Then without warning my cat Princess presented jaundice. Her liver was failing. After her traditional vet gave up I took her to a wonderful homeopathic vet who helped clear her up for a little while longer, but after a couple of weeks I lost her. I know that you are wondering what my point is so I will tell you. At first for a split second the doctors and I thought that it could have been a coincidence but then I asked my homeopathic vet if their body chemistry was shocked from the diet change. He said it was VERY possible. After that I called a friend at Cornell University who thought the same thing. Please tell your listeners to check kidney and liver functions BEFORE making any extreme or diet changes in ANY cat especially ones who may have been used to eating the same old dry food for even a couple of years. An animal’s physiology gets set in one path and too sudden of a change or even a gradual change can tax it. What their organs were used to dealing with can’t keep up with the extra waste if the canned food is higher in protein, or if it is a grain-free dry which are over the top in protein levels. Yes cats are carnivores, BUT in domestication we have messed around a lot with things. Now if you have a litter of kittens that you wean on to canned food, and or even raw food that is different. From experience I know. I have since gone back to school to become a canine/feline nutritional consultant, and I’m still continuing my education. After deeply studying the chemistry, physiology, and learning how every animal is different in the way their body utilizes proteins, carbs, lipids, and other nutrients I understand. Once protein is used where it is needed for skin, muscle, hair, nails, etc and there is excess the body can recognize it as an antigen. That can cause inflammation and itching. The excess urea and ammonia can cause kidney and liver damage. I NEVER advise or agree with clients that want to jump on a band wagon, or feed something that is “in.” I never demand that they switch from the garbage to the wonderful foods. What is good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander. I know it can go a lot deeper than this, but I wanted to let you know.

Sincerely,
Marianna

Dear Marianna – I am so very sorry to hear of your loss – accept my condolences. However, it is disturbing that you have been misled and misinformed about what could have ended their lives. I shared your letter with Dr.Elizabeth Hodgkins, the Official vet of Cat Chat® and one of the most knowledgeable feline-only vets in the country about proper nutrition for cats and switching them off of harmful dry food and onto canned or raw food. I have been researching the topic of feline nutrition for going on five years now and thousands of listeners to both my radio shows have abruptly and with great success gotten their cats off of “kitty crack” and immediately onto wet food –- from kittens to middle-aged cats. Your tragic circumstance is not related to change from bad food to good. I will share Dr. Hodgkins’ letter and add my own comments afterward.

From Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM, Esq.:

I, and others I know, have switched hundreds, actually more in the thousands of cats from dry to canned commercial foods and done it “cold turkey.” Thousands of cats that did nothing but improve. This lady’s cats did not die because of their switch. Now, could the blood tests have shown her cats’ problems? Yes, and that fact remains whether she had switched their diets or not. Her cats died so quickly after the switch, from complete organ failure it sounds like, and THAT does not happen quickly from nutritional causes (except poisoned food), EVER.

I see this all the time. Lay people (and make no mistake, this is a lay person) always use a small sample size to make sweeping generalizations. Usually it’s their own cats or friend’s cats, and I understand that fact amplifies the significance of such cases. However, not even a pet food manufacturer would agree with this person’s assessment that the switch from dry to canned caused her two cats to die so quickly. There’s irony for you! You and I and the pet food industry being on the same side of even one argument!! Imagine!

Coincidence is the answer, as unsatisfying as that would be to her. But the scientific method, upon which our entire society is based (believe it or not), is designed to separate out just that, the coincidences from the actually cause and effect of things. In the “olden days,” people took coincidental events as having cause and effect relationships. For example, if a person said they wished another person would die, and that “cursed” person did die, presto, the cursing person was obviously an agent of the devil because they could make people die just by saying that they wanted them to die. Obviously, the number of such erroneous conclusions, large and small, upon which people have based their deepest beliefs would fill many books. The scientific method was developed during the Renaissance because clearer minds realized that it took more than one or two cases of seemingly associated events to establish that the one event had caused the second one. They realized that when we allow our lives to be directed by beliefs that are really just superstitions, we make all kinds of bad decisions about how to live our lives and get along with other people and the animals in our world (burring witches didn’t reduce the mortality rate in Salem or anywhere else. In fact, it increased it by the number of witches they burned).

This is exactly the same kind of superstitious thinking that science has tried for the last few hundred years to eradicate. And while we have managed to pretty much base most of our more important beliefs about the world around us on scientific methodology, there is no law against individual humans continue to be superstitious and to draw crazy, illogical conclusions about the causes of the things that happen to them. Imagine how many people STILL believe that going out in the cold weather is the CAUSE of the common cold! Until about 5 years ago, my own husband, a very smart man, believed this!!

I know I don’t need to convince you that this woman is retreating into her reptilian brain stem’s archaic system of “logic.” How can any of us believe that switching from dry food to canned causes renal failure and hepatic failure when thousands of such cats have experienced that sudden switch with nothing but excellent results? The numbers tell the real story, they always do. Several of her conclusion are based on faulty information, like, “Once protein is used where it is needed for skin, muscle, hair, nails, etc and there is excess the body can recognize it as an antigen. That can cause inflammation and itching. The excess urea and ammonia can cause kidney and liver damage.” These statements are just not true. She is very misinformed in her facts.

I could ask her a hundred questions about physiology and nutritional metabolism that she couldn’t answer. She hasn’t studied anything deeply. And what can she mean by referring to getting cats off dry food as a “bandwagon,” when we are lone voices in a sea of “experts” pushing bags of kibbled food? Dry food — commercial pet food –- IS the bandwagon. That is as obvious as the nose on one’s face. I think the cat’s million year diet as an obligate carnivore is the opposite of a bandwagon. Sigh. This just riles me up, and frustrates me, as you can tell…

I don’t know what to tell her, if anything. The fact that she jumped to the conclusion that she did without understanding the underlying facts and science tells us that she has made up her mind without being open-minded.

So Marianna – While the good doctor and I share consternation about the faulty thinking, consulting, studying and advising you are engaged in, that doesn’t diminish my sadness at the death of your cats. I am concerned that this “deep studying” you are doing has emboldened you to be “advising clients” about feline nutrition. Unfortunately you not only have a lot to learn, but you already have a lot to unlearn. And your comment is mistaken when you state that anyone who listens to me or reads what I write is proceeding at any risk in taking the very clear advice I give them. On the contrary, I am saving and improving the lives and health of their cats. I never fail to tell those who cats who are fat or obese that their cats are already at risk for fatty liver disease (hepatic lipidosis, which neither you nor those you consulted mentioned, although it is surely to blame for at least one of your cat’s demise).Your trust in what someone at Cornell said to you is not necessarily well-placed. Although I admire the vets and students at Cornell and other vet colleges, their mindless acceptance of the sales pitch by pet food manufacturers about the untrue benefits of dry food for cats does not enable them to think clearly, independently or rationally about feline nutrition. Doctor Hodgkins and many other conscientious cat vets and breeders have shown this over and over –- ironically, cat owners are much quicker to understand the dangers of “kitty crack” and get off the ship before it sinks, as it were. I DO tell people that when their cat is making the switch to wet food they need to make sure she is eating ample wet food because going without any food for 24 hours or more can be dangerous if not fatal, given the fatty deposits packed around the liver and other internal organs after feeding highly processed carbohydrates for years, which are at the root of that obesity.

Tracie