Raw Pet Food, The FDA and My Sick Cat

February 11, 2019

Author: Melissa Sitzman

My interest in raw pet food started when my cat, Princess, was diagnosed with feline diabetes, in 2008. At that time, her veterinarian wrote a prescription for insulin and showed my husband and I, how to give injections. She got them twice a day.

After a few years of insulin shots, and feeding an expensive food that her vet recommended, Princesses health hadn’t improved as much as hoped. In fact, the vet kept increasing the insulin doses plus, she had also developed IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). I was scared we were going to lose her! That’s when I began my own, intensive research on feline diabetes and feline nutrition. My findings left me in complete shock! For eight years, I had been feeding her a food that might have been responsible for her poor health!

Let me pause here to say, I am not affiliated with, nor am I receiving compensation from any of the companies, brands, websites, people, agencies and/or organizations that I’m about to mention. I’m simply recounting my personal experiences. I am not a veterinarian and you should always do your own research and work with your pet’s veterinarian to make decisions about your pets health and diet.

Now back to where I left off.

Thanks to the website catinfo.org, authored by Lisa A. Pierson D.V.M., I learned what a species appropriate diet for a cat, really is. I was forced to ask myself, “what would a cat eat in the wild?” The answer; not kibble! Cats would eat raw meat. For example; mice, birds, rabbits, squirrels and maybe some fish (if they were lucky). Cats are carnivores, yet, most commercial pet foods are packed with grains, vegetables, and all kinds of mysterious ingredients (some of which I can’t even pronounce).

Veterinary offices profit from selling “prescription diets” that manufacturers and distributors sell, exclusively, to them. This isn’t because of any law or regulation. It’s simply a marketing tactic used by pet food manufacturers. Most people think that the food must be good for their pets health, if a veterinarian is selling it, right? That’s not necessarily true.

In 2012, I took a leap of faith and decided, against our veterinarian’s wishes, to start feeding both of my cats, a raw pet food. Rad Cat was just about the only raw cat food on the market, at that time, that could be purchased locally. So, that’s what I switched my cats to. At first, my cats didn’t want to eat it. It wasn’t until I mixed it with canned food, that they devoured it! I started weaning them off of kibble and slowly replaced it with more raw and canned food.

Then, one day, Princess didn’t seem to be doing well, at all. I rushed her to a vet hospital, where I learned that her blood glucose levels were dangerously low! Because I had changed her food, and because her regular veterinarian had kept her on the same amount of insulin (despite me telling him about the diet change), she nearly died! Her blood glucose had dropped to dangerously low levels. After the vet stabilized her, I decided it was time to switch veterinarians. The new vet taught me how to test blood glucose levels at home, and how to know when, and if, Princess needed insulin. She hasn’t had an insulin injection, since!

Feeding raw food, not only seemed to send Princesses diabetes into remission, it seemed to cure her digestive issues, as well. I had never seen my cats so healthy and happy! I wish I could end this blog post here but, I can’t….

Princess will be turning 19 years old this coming April and due to unforeseen circumstances, I’m now afraid for her health, once again! A few months ago, I went to buy more Rad Cat and was told that it was no longer available. Apparently, the manufacturer had gone out of business. I couldn’t make sense of what I was being told! When I first started feeding it, it was very hard to find. Over the years, it became widely available and quite popular! My local pet food store had an entire freezer dedicated to Rad Cat but, now it sat empty. So many questions ran through my head, and a sinking feeling washed over me as I realized what this meant for Princess and her health! There are no other raw foods that have the same ingredients, that are widely available, that I can switch her to! I, literally, cried.

I was forced to feed only the canned food that I had been mixing with Rad Cat for years. I had no idea how to make raw pet food, myself. I was scared to even try! I feared I wouldn’t be able to create a balanced diet, with everything cats need. Desperate and determined to help her, I bought EZ Complete mix for cats and started making raw food, myself. Despite my efforts, Princess was recently rushed to the local emergency veterinary hospital. She had blood in her stool. Her IBD symptoms came back, after all these years. It became obvious that I’m not able produce the same quality or recipe that Rad Cat could. Why was all of this happening!? Why did Rad Cat go under?

Upon visiting Rad Cat’s official website, and reading a page titled “The Rad Cat FDA Experience,” (which I’ll link to below) I was horrified to read what happened to their company! The FDA, seemingly, targeted them, and continues to target other raw pet food manufacturers, for unknown reasons. Reasons that don’t even make sense. All of Rad Cat’s products ended up being recalled and it was financially devastating to their small company. I hadn’t even been aware of the recalls and not one time, did my cats exhibit illness, while eating their food. In fact, quite the opposite. Plus, no one living in our house ever got sick from a food borne illness, either!

The FDA recently started collecting samples, only from raw pet food companies, and testing them for things like Salmonella and E. Coli. Why not collect samples from all pet food manufacturers. Does this really seem fair? I don’t think so and neither do the manufacturers, themselves! Please visit the Rad Cat website and read their side of the story. Please also visit some of the other, related, links below.

My issue with all of this is; First, my cat has been sick since Rad Cat went out of business and I know I’m not the only one going through this. I belong to a multitude of cat health groups on Facebook, where many people have expressed concern for their cats health now that Rad Cat isn’t available. My second problem is with the reason the FDA has given for cracking down on raw pet food… because it doesn’t make sense! On the website titled; “Raw Pet Food and the AVMA’s Policy” (which I will link to below) they quote the FDA as saying,

“FDA does not believe raw meat foods for animals are consistent with the goal of protecting the public from significant health risks…”

Also, the FDA’s website states that raw pet foods are more likely to be contaminated with food borne pathogens. Which simply isn’t true!

If you go to the website Truthaboutpetfood.com and read the article titled; “Let’s Get the Facts Straight FDA,” the author breaks down, for comparison, how many pounds of dry kibble and how many pounds of raw food were recalled for salmonella, over a five year period. Dry kibble had far more pounds of food recalled than raw food did. I highly recommend reading the entire article (I will link to it below.)

Therefore, if the FDA is REALLY so concerned about public health, then why are they only testing raw pet foods? Why not test all pet foods, equally? Do they not care about the public health hazards that dry kibble obviously has? Why is dry food exempt from such scrutiny? Is there some sort of agenda to put the raw pet food manufacturers out of business? Could it be because raw food actually makes pets healthy and when pets are healthy, pharmaceutical companies lose business? The FDA’s actions seem to be at the very least, biased. At worst, completely corrupt!

So, who makes sure that the FDA is following laws and regulations? No one does and they apply them as they see fit. The law states that there has to be enough pathogen present in a food TO MAKE AN ANIMAL OR PERSON SICK, in order to force a recall. (This information is on the Rad Cat website.) Not any amount! The FDA clearly has too much power and that is power is being abused!

It also should be noted, that pets can be carriers of pathogens, themselves, without ever exhibiting any symptoms. Therefore, just because an animal or its feces test positive for a pathogen, DOESN’T MEAN IT CAME FROM THEIR FOOD! Pathogens are everywhere, wild animals shed them, humans shed them, etc.. Salmonella can live on hard surfaces and fabrics for hours. There is no possible way to conclusively determine where an animal was expose to a pathogen. Yet, the FDA wants companies to recall their foods based on such findings. Even when pathogens they find from food samples don’t match with pathogens taken from a pet or their feces! As is the case with another raw food manufacturer, Hare Today. (Again, I will leave a link below.)

So what are concerned pet parents to do? I’ll tell you what I’m going to do and I hope many of you will join me. I’m going to send a copy of this to the FDA, Congress, The White House, all local representatives, etc… and demand something be done about it!

Also, if you do feed your pets raw food; wash your hands, regularly sanitize all surfaces in your home including pets food and water dishes and handle feces with disposable gloves. If you practice safe food and waste handling procedures, like we have in our home, you will eliminate most of the risk.

If you don’t feed your pets raw food, I believe that you should know the percentage of carbohydrates and protein in the food that you are feeding. Because this isn’t required on pet food labels, a little math is required in order to figure this out. The website catsite.com has a really good examples of the required calculations in an article titled, “How To Compare Cat Foods & Calculate Carbs: Dry Matter Basis.” I highly recommend reading the information they share on that webpage. (I’ve included a link below.)

Just a little research, can go a long way when it comes to the health of your pets!

Website links in the order they were mentioned:

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

The Rad Cat FDA Experience

Raw Pet Foods and The AVMA’s Policy: FAQ

Let’s Get the Facts Straight FDA

Second Raw Pet Food Maker Refuses to Recall Product

How to Compare Cat Foods and Calculate Carbs: Dry Matter Basis

Other related websites that may be of interest:

FDA Recommendations Conflict with Their Own Data

Some Points on Two Recent Raw Dog Food Recalls

The Two Percent of Pet Food that is Hated by Regulatory

The Country’s Most Important Animal Raw Food Producer has Just Been Put Out of Business by the FDA