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- Dec 13, 2019
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Hi all,
I've seen other posts where other cat parents post their food trial journey with their Kitties and I would like to do the same. If you've read previous post New Cat Parent with questions then you can skip to the bottom.
Some background, I adopted Mo from a family friend who adopted a dog that was supposed to be cat friendly but once out of the shelter environment proved to not be the case, I was more than willing to adopt Mo into my family. Since I've adopted her in March some gastrointestinal and ear issues became apparent fairly quickly. She was somewhat constipated on her original dry food Earthborn Holistic Primitive feline where she was passing stool but it was hard and almost pellet like she was also regurgitating the food at least once a week. I switched her to Hill's Science Diet sensitive stomach and skin chicken recipe, this seemed to help with the regurgitation issues but her constipation appeared to get worse which warranted a vet visit. Mo was given an enema and a RX for Royal Canin Gastrointestinal fiber response food which appeared to resolve the constipation issues, however the regurgitation issues worsened and was mentioned to the Vet which she wasn't overly concerned about as she wasn't bringing up bile.
For a while I noticed that she had been scratching at her ears and shaking her head quite a bit so I made a vet appointment for her where cytology showed a yeast infection in her ears, she was given tresaderm which cleared up the yeast infection.
About a month later, for a still undetermined reason she had an episode where she vomited 6x times within the span of a few hours, first bringing up all her food then vomiting bile. She was brought to the vet that day and was given cerenia and pepcid injections which stopped the vomiting and she went back to normal.
She then had her yearly vet visit in October and was given the combo vaccination, she had an adverse reaction to the combination shot where she was extremely lethargic and not feeling well. In the future I will be requesting the non combo vaccination due to the reaction.
In November I noticed she was really starting to scratch at her ears again and shake her head quite a bit and this prompted another vet visit where a bacterial ear infection was confirmed through cytology, Mo was then given another round of tresaderm to clear up the infection. The vet at this point began to suspect some type of allergy or sensitivity since this was the 2nd ear infection in less than 6 months.
After the tresderm treatment was completed she was fine for about a week and the ear scratching and head shaking started up again, hoping to reduce stress on Mo I called a mobile vet out, they took a look at her ears and ran another cytology test and showed there was a bacterial ear infection. The mobile vet gave Mo a Convienia injection(Never doing this again, risks and what the injection was were not explained to me).
Mo seemed pretty normal until about a week and a half ago where she had another major round of vomiting including dry heaving, as this was on a Saturday I took her to the emergency vet where they ran blood work and took X-rays as well as administering an enema to get a better x-ray image, all test results were normal. They did keep her overnight to make sure she was fully stable and gave her IV fluids to make sure she was hydrated.
When I brought her home on Sunday she didn't want to eat her food, nor was she drinking. She was going to the litter box normally though other than no bowl movements from lack of eating and being cleared out from the enema. I then followed up with her normal vet on Monday who gave her sub-dermal fluids and mirtazapine to boost her appetite which did get her eating again somewhat reluctantly, we also scheduled an ultrasound for Tuesday to make sure we weren't missing anything.
On Tuesday morning she regurgitated her RX dry food again and refused to even get near it anymore, I then bring her in for her ultrasound which is normal I also ask for a different brand of the RX food to see if that helps get her eating. When I bring her home she somewhat nibbles throughout the day other RX food but isn't too thrilled about it. She is more than willing to eat the RX treats and other treats I have around the house. So a food aversion is suspected, the vet on Monday had mentioned this possibility as well.
On Wednesday she is refusing to eat any of the RX foods now, but when offered a treat or even a bit of canned food that she normally doesn't really touch she was willing to eat or try them. I call the vet and leave a message for a vet tech to call me back, which I never receive a call back on. The emergency vet called me back in the evening though to follow up and directed me to do whatever was needed to get her eating again. I head over to petco and grab four different brands of dry food for her to try.
I start out with the Acana meadowlands formulation and she ate a good bit of it Wednesday, but on Thursday she decided she didn't like it, she had managed to get into the pantry and probably smelled one of the other foods and like the smell better. So I then open the Purina Pro Plan Sensative skin and stomach lamb formulation and she happily eats that and continues to do so.
Fast forward to Today 12/17 she is now having normal bowel movements after having diarrhea from the sudden food switch and is now acting more like herself and is willing to play and chase stuff again, we move on to the next steps to hopefully much better health.
I determined that she needs to eat wet food, as trying to chase down a food sensitivity using dry food is near impossible just from reading most ingredient lists, not to mention the lack of water in the food is a big issue as well.
So the current plan is to stop free feeding and move to meals, in-between meals she will be offered wet food if she is hovering around where her food normally would be in the hopes that she will be hungry enough to eat it.
Here is where we are today so far.
8am breakfast is offered, Mo eats a bit of it like she normally would free feeding. Dish is emptied and removed from the floor after 20 minutes
Around 8:45 am she is hovering around her food dish, a small amount of wet food is offered roughly 1/8 of a 3oz weurva stew packet. She licks it a bit and walks away, a small sprinkle of Parmesan cheese is then added. She eats pretty much the entire amount, will re-offer when she is hungry to see if she will eat it without any cheese.
9:30am she is back by the food dish area again, Wellness pate chicken recipe is offered, about 1/8 of a 3oz can warmed to mouse body temperature. She gives it a good couple of sniffs but walks away. Another small sprinkling of Parmesan cheese is added, too small for my 1g accuracy scale to measure. She then decides to eat about half the food.
Wet food will be continued to be offered in-between the meals, given her weakness for cheese I might look for some wet foods that have a cheese flavor in them, right now the point is to get her eating wet food. The type/brand isn't too important until after that step has been reached.
If it takes months to get on board so be it. Hopefully it doesn't take that long.
I've seen other posts where other cat parents post their food trial journey with their Kitties and I would like to do the same. If you've read previous post New Cat Parent with questions then you can skip to the bottom.
Some background, I adopted Mo from a family friend who adopted a dog that was supposed to be cat friendly but once out of the shelter environment proved to not be the case, I was more than willing to adopt Mo into my family. Since I've adopted her in March some gastrointestinal and ear issues became apparent fairly quickly. She was somewhat constipated on her original dry food Earthborn Holistic Primitive feline where she was passing stool but it was hard and almost pellet like she was also regurgitating the food at least once a week. I switched her to Hill's Science Diet sensitive stomach and skin chicken recipe, this seemed to help with the regurgitation issues but her constipation appeared to get worse which warranted a vet visit. Mo was given an enema and a RX for Royal Canin Gastrointestinal fiber response food which appeared to resolve the constipation issues, however the regurgitation issues worsened and was mentioned to the Vet which she wasn't overly concerned about as she wasn't bringing up bile.
For a while I noticed that she had been scratching at her ears and shaking her head quite a bit so I made a vet appointment for her where cytology showed a yeast infection in her ears, she was given tresaderm which cleared up the yeast infection.
About a month later, for a still undetermined reason she had an episode where she vomited 6x times within the span of a few hours, first bringing up all her food then vomiting bile. She was brought to the vet that day and was given cerenia and pepcid injections which stopped the vomiting and she went back to normal.
She then had her yearly vet visit in October and was given the combo vaccination, she had an adverse reaction to the combination shot where she was extremely lethargic and not feeling well. In the future I will be requesting the non combo vaccination due to the reaction.
In November I noticed she was really starting to scratch at her ears again and shake her head quite a bit and this prompted another vet visit where a bacterial ear infection was confirmed through cytology, Mo was then given another round of tresaderm to clear up the infection. The vet at this point began to suspect some type of allergy or sensitivity since this was the 2nd ear infection in less than 6 months.
After the tresderm treatment was completed she was fine for about a week and the ear scratching and head shaking started up again, hoping to reduce stress on Mo I called a mobile vet out, they took a look at her ears and ran another cytology test and showed there was a bacterial ear infection. The mobile vet gave Mo a Convienia injection(Never doing this again, risks and what the injection was were not explained to me).
Mo seemed pretty normal until about a week and a half ago where she had another major round of vomiting including dry heaving, as this was on a Saturday I took her to the emergency vet where they ran blood work and took X-rays as well as administering an enema to get a better x-ray image, all test results were normal. They did keep her overnight to make sure she was fully stable and gave her IV fluids to make sure she was hydrated.
When I brought her home on Sunday she didn't want to eat her food, nor was she drinking. She was going to the litter box normally though other than no bowl movements from lack of eating and being cleared out from the enema. I then followed up with her normal vet on Monday who gave her sub-dermal fluids and mirtazapine to boost her appetite which did get her eating again somewhat reluctantly, we also scheduled an ultrasound for Tuesday to make sure we weren't missing anything.
On Tuesday morning she regurgitated her RX dry food again and refused to even get near it anymore, I then bring her in for her ultrasound which is normal I also ask for a different brand of the RX food to see if that helps get her eating. When I bring her home she somewhat nibbles throughout the day other RX food but isn't too thrilled about it. She is more than willing to eat the RX treats and other treats I have around the house. So a food aversion is suspected, the vet on Monday had mentioned this possibility as well.
On Wednesday she is refusing to eat any of the RX foods now, but when offered a treat or even a bit of canned food that she normally doesn't really touch she was willing to eat or try them. I call the vet and leave a message for a vet tech to call me back, which I never receive a call back on. The emergency vet called me back in the evening though to follow up and directed me to do whatever was needed to get her eating again. I head over to petco and grab four different brands of dry food for her to try.
I start out with the Acana meadowlands formulation and she ate a good bit of it Wednesday, but on Thursday she decided she didn't like it, she had managed to get into the pantry and probably smelled one of the other foods and like the smell better. So I then open the Purina Pro Plan Sensative skin and stomach lamb formulation and she happily eats that and continues to do so.
Fast forward to Today 12/17 she is now having normal bowel movements after having diarrhea from the sudden food switch and is now acting more like herself and is willing to play and chase stuff again, we move on to the next steps to hopefully much better health.
I determined that she needs to eat wet food, as trying to chase down a food sensitivity using dry food is near impossible just from reading most ingredient lists, not to mention the lack of water in the food is a big issue as well.
So the current plan is to stop free feeding and move to meals, in-between meals she will be offered wet food if she is hovering around where her food normally would be in the hopes that she will be hungry enough to eat it.
Here is where we are today so far.
8am breakfast is offered, Mo eats a bit of it like she normally would free feeding. Dish is emptied and removed from the floor after 20 minutes
Around 8:45 am she is hovering around her food dish, a small amount of wet food is offered roughly 1/8 of a 3oz weurva stew packet. She licks it a bit and walks away, a small sprinkle of Parmesan cheese is then added. She eats pretty much the entire amount, will re-offer when she is hungry to see if she will eat it without any cheese.
9:30am she is back by the food dish area again, Wellness pate chicken recipe is offered, about 1/8 of a 3oz can warmed to mouse body temperature. She gives it a good couple of sniffs but walks away. Another small sprinkling of Parmesan cheese is added, too small for my 1g accuracy scale to measure. She then decides to eat about half the food.
Wet food will be continued to be offered in-between the meals, given her weakness for cheese I might look for some wet foods that have a cheese flavor in them, right now the point is to get her eating wet food. The type/brand isn't too important until after that step has been reached.
If it takes months to get on board so be it. Hopefully it doesn't take that long.