Allie & Gen
Member Since 2025
@Sienne and Gabby (GA) , @Marje and Gracie , @tiffmaxee , @Christie & Maverick , @Tyleete -
I am bringing this conversation to its own thread, because it seems very unfair to @Holly and Sunny Bear that it continue in her thread about her own cat's needs.
I can only speak for myself, but: I'm not advocating for going on instinct, and in fact, evidence-based treatment is exactly what I look for and respect. I'm currently working on gradually transitioning my own cat's diet to be able to follow TR as instructed in the post. My initial response to Holly's thread/dosing question was to provide her with a quick summary of the protocol guidelines around dosing decisions (with a link to the post), as I know the board gets busy and I wanted to make sure she got a prompt reply. I'm new and not able to extrapolate on them much, but I can at least share the existing information I've been around long enough to know how to reference.
I think we got here, conversationally speaking, because Tyleete then asked me a question and I responded with cautious curiosity, while citing the fact that the protocols were put together with careful reasoning that I have not yet fully understood. In engaging with the question, I was careful to include a disclaimer that I don't feel equipped to have a definitive opinion, much less recommendation, on how one might adapt the existing protocol (or if one should). I only had a purely theoretical sense that it might be possible. It could have been phrased better, I'll gladly admit, and I'm sorry for that. (Not to mention that we had started going badly off-topic, having that discussion in that thread!) I was still surprised that the responses I got were simply "no, you can't do that" without any reference to why or pointing us to relevant information.
This has not quite been my experience, to be honest. I don't mean this as an accusation! I think it's understandable that some responses may be short/repetitive/lacking in much background - you're all doing quite a lot of work and have dedicated a lot of time here, and I genuinely appreciate that. (Also, it's not as though new people are always phrasing questions in a cogent or even partially informed way, and goodness knows the questions get repetitive - I've already noticed that, with the constant flow of new people, many of whom don't read any introductory guidelines before they start posting.)
At the same time, as this is an inevitably very distressing experience for most people dealing with a newly-diagnosed cat, it can be hard to feel like you're being asked to tow a line you don't understand. (And I really can't see that it's unreasonable for someone to struggle with fitting in reading through a library of background information going back years when they're balancing a demanding medical situation with everything else in their life. This isn't me being anti-science or anti-facts, when I am anything but; I'm just thinking about the importance of triage when you're trying to absorb so much in the midst of distressing experiences.)
I think this might be part of the issue we're running into right now? What I saw as discussion, some of you perhaps read as coaching, and that's understandably concerning when you're someone with experience and knowledge and concern about people without those things leading others astray. I am sorry for my part in causing any such concern! I would never presume to do anything like that. I have gleaned enough about the long history of this community and the careful work that has been done, with scholarly research and materials as a basis in addition to peer-reviewed community aggregation of experiential data, to have considerable respect for the expertise (and effort) here.
And I thank you for taking the time to write out the full response, Sienne, that you shared in the other thread, about the amount of work, research and care that went into creating the protocol guidelines as we have them now. I don't mean to undermine any of the credentials, care, or expertise of anyone involved in putting them together.
I'm a professional science writer/communicator. What I'm seeing here, overall, is some bumps in communication, which is why I suggested that I might be interested in trying to put a helpful digest together for people who would like to understand the science behind the protocol, but have some constraints on their capacity to read through a library of information while trying to also manage everything going on in their lives and their cat's new medical needs. (That said, I'm currently in that position myself! So it's an aspirational idea.)
Sorry, this has gotten far too long - I want to be very clear, but it's challenging to be concise in trying to untangle what feels like a lot of miscommunication from well-meaning people. I want to apologize for any of my own missteps that have helped to get us to this apparent point of contention. My goals here are a) to help my cat (always first and foremost in my mind), b) to understand as much as possible (that's kind of my whole deal), and c) to give back as I can to this community that has already given me so much, whether it be by emotional support, by helping link people to resources they haven't found yet, or by maybe helping in some small way to continue improving some of those resources if I can do so, with respect.
If you took the time to read my absurd wall of text, thank you, and I'm sorry, I will try not to do it (quite so much) again!
I am bringing this conversation to its own thread, because it seems very unfair to @Holly and Sunny Bear that it continue in her thread about her own cat's needs.
I apologize if I came off that way, but I don't believe I did this - I haven't dismissed anything. Rather, I've pointed out that occasionally newer members will question the advice or guidelines we've been given (which isn't dismissal, it's attempting to engage and understand better), and the responses we get are akin to being shut down (rather than being corrected in a way that helps the confused person to understand). This is where some frustration can come in:
I can only speak for myself, but: I'm not advocating for going on instinct, and in fact, evidence-based treatment is exactly what I look for and respect. I'm currently working on gradually transitioning my own cat's diet to be able to follow TR as instructed in the post. My initial response to Holly's thread/dosing question was to provide her with a quick summary of the protocol guidelines around dosing decisions (with a link to the post), as I know the board gets busy and I wanted to make sure she got a prompt reply. I'm new and not able to extrapolate on them much, but I can at least share the existing information I've been around long enough to know how to reference.
I think we got here, conversationally speaking, because Tyleete then asked me a question and I responded with cautious curiosity, while citing the fact that the protocols were put together with careful reasoning that I have not yet fully understood. In engaging with the question, I was careful to include a disclaimer that I don't feel equipped to have a definitive opinion, much less recommendation, on how one might adapt the existing protocol (or if one should). I only had a purely theoretical sense that it might be possible. It could have been phrased better, I'll gladly admit, and I'm sorry for that. (Not to mention that we had started going badly off-topic, having that discussion in that thread!) I was still surprised that the responses I got were simply "no, you can't do that" without any reference to why or pointing us to relevant information.
This has not quite been my experience, to be honest. I don't mean this as an accusation! I think it's understandable that some responses may be short/repetitive/lacking in much background - you're all doing quite a lot of work and have dedicated a lot of time here, and I genuinely appreciate that. (Also, it's not as though new people are always phrasing questions in a cogent or even partially informed way, and goodness knows the questions get repetitive - I've already noticed that, with the constant flow of new people, many of whom don't read any introductory guidelines before they start posting.)
At the same time, as this is an inevitably very distressing experience for most people dealing with a newly-diagnosed cat, it can be hard to feel like you're being asked to tow a line you don't understand. (And I really can't see that it's unreasonable for someone to struggle with fitting in reading through a library of background information going back years when they're balancing a demanding medical situation with everything else in their life. This isn't me being anti-science or anti-facts, when I am anything but; I'm just thinking about the importance of triage when you're trying to absorb so much in the midst of distressing experiences.)
I think this might be part of the issue we're running into right now? What I saw as discussion, some of you perhaps read as coaching, and that's understandably concerning when you're someone with experience and knowledge and concern about people without those things leading others astray. I am sorry for my part in causing any such concern! I would never presume to do anything like that. I have gleaned enough about the long history of this community and the careful work that has been done, with scholarly research and materials as a basis in addition to peer-reviewed community aggregation of experiential data, to have considerable respect for the expertise (and effort) here.
And I thank you for taking the time to write out the full response, Sienne, that you shared in the other thread, about the amount of work, research and care that went into creating the protocol guidelines as we have them now. I don't mean to undermine any of the credentials, care, or expertise of anyone involved in putting them together.
I'm a professional science writer/communicator. What I'm seeing here, overall, is some bumps in communication, which is why I suggested that I might be interested in trying to put a helpful digest together for people who would like to understand the science behind the protocol, but have some constraints on their capacity to read through a library of information while trying to also manage everything going on in their lives and their cat's new medical needs. (That said, I'm currently in that position myself! So it's an aspirational idea.)
Sorry, this has gotten far too long - I want to be very clear, but it's challenging to be concise in trying to untangle what feels like a lot of miscommunication from well-meaning people. I want to apologize for any of my own missteps that have helped to get us to this apparent point of contention. My goals here are a) to help my cat (always first and foremost in my mind), b) to understand as much as possible (that's kind of my whole deal), and c) to give back as I can to this community that has already given me so much, whether it be by emotional support, by helping link people to resources they haven't found yet, or by maybe helping in some small way to continue improving some of those resources if I can do so, with respect.
If you took the time to read my absurd wall of text, thank you, and I'm sorry, I will try not to do it (quite so much) again!
