A few years ago, my cat Jasmine was eating Canidae dry food and wet foods. She was 14 at the time.
She started to lose weight, throwing up near daily, and licking all her fur off from her stomach. Bloodwork came back fine, no causes for concern there including thyroid. The vet prescribed Prednisolone which had no effect. He suggested food allergy, so we removed chicken from the diet and switched to all chicken free and grain free wet food to help the vomit.
The vomiting seemed to improve a little, but she was still licking, and not gaining weight. Her poops started to stink.
Over the next 3 years, her licking would seemingly improve and then overnight she'd be bald again with no apparent cause. We tried raw food. We tried freeze dried. We tried limited ingredient. We removed anything with hooves (beef, venison). We removed turkey, peas, fish. We even went to just straight canned quail and rabbit with no additivies and added in necessary vitamins manually. Her poops would clear out the whole house they were so bad. She would only eat a little at each meal so I tried adding KMR to her food which gave her diarrhea. Tried Nutrical, adding bone broth, gelatin... anything I could think of to increase her calorie intake. Before all this, she was overweight from over eating. Now she was wasting away, sleeping all the time. I did 4 small (1.5oz) meals a day to try and encourage her to eat. Usually she only only showed up to 2 meals, and only ate half of them.
I ran out of money to feed my cats. I have two and feeding costs were sometimes $200 a month, more than I spent on human food . My credit cards are maxed.
I finally had the thought, "if she's going to lick her fur off regardless of what food I give her, why am I doing this?"
I had a week worth of cat food left and was panicking about what I was going to do. I went and bought 2 cans of Friskies in desperation to try with her. I was TERRIFIED that I was going to make it all worse.
I opened that can, took a quarter of it out for each cat, and put it on their raised feeding platform. They gobbled it up like I've been starving them. Jasmine ate the whole bowl and went back to bed. A few hours later, I gave them their old food "favorites" again... snubbed their noses and walked away. I left it for a half hour and they barely ate, but I didn't want to do to much at once with the "bad" food.
The only meal they ate all of that day was the Friskies.
Next day, I offered the rest of the can, and all was eaten again.
No vomiting. No extra licking. Eating.
I bought a few more cans of Friskies and after a few days of just one Friskies meal a day, I went to 2 a day. Eventually 3. And now for the past few weeks, we're at all Friskies for all meals. Still no extra licking. No vomiting. Her poops are odorless compared to what they were! And the best part? She's gaining weight for the first time in 3 years. She's got more energy (for a 17 year old cat!)
I don't know why she licks still. Current speculation is psychogenic alopecia. It's the only thing that currently fits.
What I do know is that for the first time in 3 years I'm not mentally preparing myself for waking up one morning and seeing she's passed away.
What I do know is, after all of the Nature's Variety, ZiwiPeak, Koha, Redbarn, Evangers, Wysong, and raw food...
I think Friskies saved her.
She started to lose weight, throwing up near daily, and licking all her fur off from her stomach. Bloodwork came back fine, no causes for concern there including thyroid. The vet prescribed Prednisolone which had no effect. He suggested food allergy, so we removed chicken from the diet and switched to all chicken free and grain free wet food to help the vomit.
The vomiting seemed to improve a little, but she was still licking, and not gaining weight. Her poops started to stink.
Over the next 3 years, her licking would seemingly improve and then overnight she'd be bald again with no apparent cause. We tried raw food. We tried freeze dried. We tried limited ingredient. We removed anything with hooves (beef, venison). We removed turkey, peas, fish. We even went to just straight canned quail and rabbit with no additivies and added in necessary vitamins manually. Her poops would clear out the whole house they were so bad. She would only eat a little at each meal so I tried adding KMR to her food which gave her diarrhea. Tried Nutrical, adding bone broth, gelatin... anything I could think of to increase her calorie intake. Before all this, she was overweight from over eating. Now she was wasting away, sleeping all the time. I did 4 small (1.5oz) meals a day to try and encourage her to eat. Usually she only only showed up to 2 meals, and only ate half of them.
I ran out of money to feed my cats. I have two and feeding costs were sometimes $200 a month, more than I spent on human food . My credit cards are maxed.
I finally had the thought, "if she's going to lick her fur off regardless of what food I give her, why am I doing this?"
I had a week worth of cat food left and was panicking about what I was going to do. I went and bought 2 cans of Friskies in desperation to try with her. I was TERRIFIED that I was going to make it all worse.
I opened that can, took a quarter of it out for each cat, and put it on their raised feeding platform. They gobbled it up like I've been starving them. Jasmine ate the whole bowl and went back to bed. A few hours later, I gave them their old food "favorites" again... snubbed their noses and walked away. I left it for a half hour and they barely ate, but I didn't want to do to much at once with the "bad" food.
The only meal they ate all of that day was the Friskies.
Next day, I offered the rest of the can, and all was eaten again.
No vomiting. No extra licking. Eating.
I bought a few more cans of Friskies and after a few days of just one Friskies meal a day, I went to 2 a day. Eventually 3. And now for the past few weeks, we're at all Friskies for all meals. Still no extra licking. No vomiting. Her poops are odorless compared to what they were! And the best part? She's gaining weight for the first time in 3 years. She's got more energy (for a 17 year old cat!)
I don't know why she licks still. Current speculation is psychogenic alopecia. It's the only thing that currently fits.
What I do know is that for the first time in 3 years I'm not mentally preparing myself for waking up one morning and seeing she's passed away.
What I do know is, after all of the Nature's Variety, ZiwiPeak, Koha, Redbarn, Evangers, Wysong, and raw food...
I think Friskies saved her.