As we start to incorporate anti-aging measures, such as organic foods, exercise, and nutritional supplements into our own lives, we can also take a closer look at them and adapt them to be safe and appropriate for our companion cats.
After all as we are living longer don’t we want our furry family members to live longer too?
I speak from experience. These principals and protocols have been the backbone of my 11-generation Championship Tonkinese Cat breeding program, which spanned over 16 years. I personally have seen this anti-aging holistic and natural approach to rearing cats produce generation after generation of healthy, strong, and long-lived companions.
Unfortunately I have also personally witnessed the devastating effects that commercial pet foods, the overuse of drugs, and abuse of booster vaccines can have on cats because, sadly, I unknowingly raised my first litters that way.
I was so concerned by what I experienced with those first few litters, that I began my own research and challenging what many veterinarians and mentors were telling me. I broke away from those tired methods and launched my own holistic breeding program.
I consulted with experts, including my friend, Jean Hofve, DVM, who joined me as my Holistic Cat Care co-author.
Extend the life of your furry friend with a PROPER diet
Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the single most important anti-aging modality for cats is feeding them a properly balanced, naturally raised, raw meat and raw bone based, species-specific diet. This is the foundation upon which all of our holistic regimes rest. (You can find the recipes for these homemade foods on my website.)
The goal of anti-aging is to ensure that one’s later years are enjoyed in optimum health and wellbeing. In human medicine, we talk about ways to lengthen telomeres, we fix and even replace body parts that have degenerated. However, these techniques aren’t readily available for our cats.
Kidney transplantation is available, but impractical and unaffordable for all but a very few cats. Perhaps one day, we will see bio-identical hormone replacement for altered cats, biomedical technologies, such as autologous stem cell therapy (harvested from your cats own body), nanotechnology drug delivery, and even development of bio-identical replacement organs.
Modalities in veterinary medicine must often first be firmly entrenched in human medicine before they trickle down to our pets. One day, we may even see these techniques as commonplace in veterinary clinics. But what can we do in the meantime?
Nourish and nurture your senor cat’s body and spirit
As our cats mature and become senior citizens, it becomes important to support not only their physical well being (flexibility, eyesight, hearing, energy levels and general body systems) but their emotional equilibrium; nourishing and nurturing their bodies and spirits as they mature.
The use of supplementation has become extremely popular in feline preventative medicine, as have herbal remedies and homeopathic remedies. Since cats are such unique and sensitive beings, we must be very careful with the so-called super supplements and herbal remedies which may work perfectly well for most people and dogs, but can be deadly for cats.
Make no mistake that the success of all supplements and remedies works hand in hand with the species-specific raw meat and raw bone diet of the cat and are mostly derived from animal sources. Our cat’s natural diet of fresh raw prey in their wild environment serves as the recycling plant for the cat.
Stop feeding your cat JUNK food!
We look to these animal sources to round out the diet when we make it from scratch in our own kitchens. Simply giving supplements with commercial pet food from bags and cans is, frankly, no different from eating Big Macs and swallowing vitamins with a Diet Coke!
So, what causes our cats to age?
In a word, inflammation. Current research points to chronic inflammation as the major cause of many degenerative diseases and other features of aging, such as
- liver disease,
- diabetes,
- arthritis,
- and even cancer.
However, inflammation is also the body’s primary defensive and healing mechanism.
Trauma, toxins, allergens, and infectious organisms all trigger inflammation. On one hand, that’s a good thing. If inflammation didn’t happen, wounds would never heal, and viruses and bacteria would rampage unchecked.
Inflammation is a normal part of living. The key is to moderate it—not too little, not too much, and for the appropriate amount of time.
Some supplements ARE appropriate for cats
The addition of a cold extracted, organic, greenlip-mussel-oil extract and an antioxidant supplement can go a long way towards relieving the symptoms of inflammation and in fighting aging. My personal preference is the Moxxor brand since it meets all of my criteria perfectly and is a great anti-aging supplement for cats, dogs, and even people.
Most cod liver, krill, and salmon oils that are used for the purpose of including more essential fatty acids and omega 3’s into the diet are molecularly distilled or estherified to rid them of heavy metals such as mercury. This process makes they less than desirable and they do not track with the way felines have hunted and eaten their fresh raw prey for thousands of years.
Let’s face it, there are no toaster ovens in the wild so therefore all ingredients should be raw, or as close as possible, in order to duplicate their wild diet!
Besides the benefits of living indoors and being loved and treated as a member of a family, you can take steps to help your cat live to her full life expectancy. We can help guard against turning on potentially dangerous genes that might have been passed down the line to our cats, through our species specific diet, state of the art supplementation, herbs and homeopathy, and even some new age modalities such as, veterinary energy medicine and high tech bio-resonance machines, and much more.
We can now create an anti-aging lifestyle for ourselves and our companion cats.
Celeste Yarnall, PhD is a holistic practitioner and nutritionist, specializing in supplementation and the species specific, raw carnivore diet.
She is an EFT consultant and member of the prestigious Tapping Solution’s, Insider’s Club. She also consults on Non-Verbal communication, visualization techniques, grief counseling and anti-aging for both people and pets. She is a Reiki Master, medical intuitive and author of four books on holistic health care for dogs and cats.
Dr. Yarnell’s latest book, The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care, with Jean Hofve, DVM, chronicles her 11 generations of Tonkinese Cats reared on the principles in her books and is the recipient of the 2010 CWA Muse Medallion Award. It is the first anti-aging book ever written for pets.
Celeste and her husband, Nazim Artist have formed the Art of Wellness Collection and live and work in Westlake Village, CA.
She can be reached through her website, www.Celestialpets.com.
Latest posts by Celeste Yarnall (see all)
- Can we Create an Anti-aging Lifestyle for Cats? - June 20, 2011
This is a really interesting article. However, while I do agree that commercial foods are junk, I’m not sure that domestic animals should be on a totally raw diet. They’ve evolved to be housepets, not scavanging in the wild. This is also the opinion of the vet we have who is an expert in chinese medicine. Regardless, I’m really concerned about this: “Perhaps one day, we will see bio-identical hormone replacement for altered cats, biomedical technologies, such as autologous stem cell therapy (harvested from your cats own body), nanotechnology drug delivery, and even development of bio-identical replacement organs.” Oh please, let’s feed our animal companions real food, use supplements as necessary, give them the attention and love they deserve, and they will live long, healthy lives.
They already have 9 lives. Which one(s) will we extend? Do we not have more pressing things to worry about?