When a kitten was dumped and then abandoned in the neighbourhood, and finally over the heartbreak enough to become ours, he was loaded with parasites and had a severe flea allergy. We got his other medical issues taken care of, but he still was lethargic and itchy, his hair was brittle and dry, and he had a lot of hair loss on his tail and around his hindquarters especially. We tried expensive veterinarian recommended foods, as well as many expensive store brands, trying to get him healthy. Perhaps even a year or more passed, and he still wasn't healthy. In desperation we tried Purina One Beyond Chicken and Oat cat food. Within a few days he was no longer lethargic and extremely itchy, and within a week he was bouncing around like a young cat should be! His coat became soft and glossy for the first time since we'd met him, and he became strong enough to become the Alpha cat when our other cats passed away and we rescued some more cats.
Fast forward a few years, and a few rescues in between. I inadvertently got into cat rescue on my own and a high kill animal shelter was kind enough to call me about a big black very young cat I'd spent some time volunteering with at the shelter. He was very sweet and just wanted love, and although he was huge he still had a tiny kitten voice and was very polite. Needless to say, he was quite memorable. They were going to put him to sleep (death) because he had bloody diarrhea, and because due to over crowding and budgetary concerns they could not afford to keep him lest he infect others or cost too much time or money to get healthy. There are just too many orphaned animals needing homes through no fault of their own. The people at the animal shelter thought the bloody stool might be stress related, as his owner had given him up a month prior, and he was craving human companionship. He was so bad off I had to take him to an emergency veterinarian's office to get rehydrated, and had a bunch of tests run on him for things like protozoan and other parasites. Then we made the long haul home to our veterinarian's office, where he got more work done and antibiotics prescribed. This was the first young cat we had rescued which I really thought would not survive, and even the very knowledgeable veterinarians were very, very guarded about his survival. The cat was essentially in hospice care as far as we knew.
After weeks of care and not much improvement, I noticed this cat's mouth was a bit inflamed after eating the same expensive brand cat food the shelter had been feeding him, so I switched him over to the Purina One Beyond Chicken and Oat cat food that the first rescue cat mentioned above was eating. The transformation from a dying to a very healthy, sleek, and happy cat was truly amazing over the course of just a few weeks! I attribute the cat's turn around from death and dying to having a young life ready to be lived to the change in cat food. He made such a transformation that I now feed all of our adult cats and rescues Purina One Beyond cat food. Why take chances when you know the animals have had hard lives, and you may not know what's going on with the cats internally?
My only complaint is that it is very hard to find any of the Purina One Beyond cat foods, especially in the larger sizes. I truly wish that these items were sold in the same 25 or even 50 pound sizes that the regular cat foods can be found in. We have some large ant proof (and cat and dog proof as a bonus!) containers so we have storage capacity for larger sizes of food. As many animals as we do feed, it would be a huge cost benefit to find the larger sizes at a discount store such as Wal-Mart, even if we had to order it on line and pick it up on the store. I really hope you will make this an option!
Thank you, Purina, for continuing to develop fine animal feeds. Over the years my horse, cats, and dogs, and other animals have all benefited from the research you do and the foods you make. If you have fish, lizard, or amphibian food I'd like to know more about it as well. Your Purina One Beyond cat food was definitely life saving for this family. Again, our heartfelt thanks!
