About two or three weeks ago, I read a post at the celiac forum from someone who needed advice on wheat/gluten free dog food. The family pet was always licking her celiac son and she was concerned that he might get an accidental gluten reaction.

It had never occured to me to think about pet food. I actually thought it a bit of an over reaction when I read it, but I also felt compelled to look into it with our own family. We have one indoor pet, Peaches. You may remember her from previous posts. She is the cat we brought in because she had spay surgery then let her stay out of pity because she is arthritic. The more I thought about it the more I thought that getting gluten free cat food was a good idea. Afterall, after ever meal, she immediately heads toward her sleeping spot and spends at least 15 minutes preening herself for a nap. All that preening right after eating could potentially coat her fur with gluten only to have it picked up on hands when she is petted and carried to the mouth. Mmmm. How much gluten could cat food have in it? Afterall, cats are completely carniverous animals, unlike dogs. Surely, cat food is primarily meat and meat by-products. I was shocked when I began looking through the labels. Gluten itself was the 3rd and 4th ingredient on many of the canned catfood labels - as well as wheat listed on down the way. Dry cat food was not much better. Wow! That was an eye opener. Well, as dutiful protector of my husband's and daughter's health, we switched the kittys' food.

It wasn't too hard to find varieties that did not contain gluten or wheat, so we put all the cats on a GF diet. It has been two or three weeks now, and I have realized something that I didn't expect. Peaches arthritis is completely gone! She was so gimped up before the GF switch that she never walked anywhere without limping. Getting up and laying down was a slow motion ordeal that had all of us wincing just watching her. Now she is like a kitten. She plays all the time. I mean fast movement kind of playing, chasing string, little balls, ruuning after us when we walk to pat our ankles. It has been amazing! There is no sign of limp at all.

She has actually started being a bit of a nuisance. LOL. She now hops up on the tall chair that Tim is using with my art desk for his computer and our bed for nap time. She is hopping up on counters. Last night, she woke John and I up with her hopping up on the dresser. Before, she would try to get on our bed or the couch every now and again, but it was by standing up to get her front claws in to the top and literally pulling herself up, with great struggle, by her front legs only. Her back legs were almost useless. Now she is found napping on the off-limits furniture regularly.

Could it be true? Could we have a celiac cat? LOL. The change is so dramatic that it cannot be just our imagination. Maybe it is just coincidence and there is some other cause at work, but the coincidence is rather striking. Are there others of you out there with arthritic pets? Would you be willing to also give it a try and tell me if you see any changes?