Switching Off Of Prescription Food

PicoP

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Hi everyone,

My little kitty has chronic constipation issues, but not megacolon. She's only 3 years old but fractured her pelvis when she was a kitten and the vets think that this small fracture might be the cause of it. I've heard from one she can't pass the normal diameter of poop and that's why she gets blocked up. One told me that the fracture damaged a nerve that helps move her poop. Anyways, she can't pass poop normally.

Her vet put her on the Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Fiber Response prescription diet and I don't agree with a lot of the ingredients on that list. She was eating Orijen beforehand with wet food once at night. However, the prescription diet is doing what it needs to do: helping her poop. She also take lactulose twice a day.

My issue is, when I try to switch her off the diet onto something new, she gets constipated and I have to take her in to get unblocked. However, I don't want to keep feeding her Royal Canin. I'm wondering if it's worth her suffering through incidents to find "the" perfect food for her that doesn't have corn and rice and by-products.

Does anyone have success with any other foods for kitties with constipation issues? And is it worth getting her off of this food only for her to suffer more, or should I just give in and keep her on it?

Thanks for everyone who took the time to read.
 

kittyluv387

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Constipation is a frustrating problem. I don’t blame you for wanting to take her off that junk. The ingredients are horrible for the dry. For the wet version it’s literally just mostly water. Are you feeding your cat the dry or wet version?
 
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PicoP

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Constipation is a frustrating problem. I don’t blame you for wanting to take her off that junk. The ingredients are horrible for the dry. For the wet version it’s literally just mostly water. Are you feeding your cat the dry or wet version?
She is on the dry. I feed her tiki cat wet food and she does great on that.
 

kittyluv387

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She is on the dry. I feed her tiki cat wet food and she does great on that.
So does she get constipated on 100% wet? If you can afford it I recommend feeding her all wet. I have a boy who also gets constipated and he did well with 1/8 tsp of miralax mixed into wet food twice a day.
 
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PicoP

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I tried an all wet, organ based diet for her. I even slowly transitioned her by mixing her kibble with her wet and feeding scheduled diets of 3-4 times a day. I did not try the miralax with it, but she was on lactulose (a stool softner) twice a day. Did not poop for 3 days before I took her in for an enema.
 

kittyluv387

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I tried an all wet, organ based diet for her. I even slowly transitioned her by mixing her kibble with her wet and feeding scheduled diets of 3-4 times a day. I did not try the miralax with it, but she was on lactulose (a stool softner) twice a day. Did not poop for 3 days before I took her in for an enema.
Yeah I used to use lactulose but I replaced it with miralax. For us, miralax worked just fine and lactulose wasn't super effective or anything. The only GI related ingredient in the royal canin dry food that I can identify is psyllium husk. It helps constipation. You could do some research on that and find out how much psyllium husk you should add to a canned food. I also recommend adding extra water to the canned every time. And also you could add some miralax to the food in addition to the lactulose you're giving her to help with the transition.
 

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I'm wondering if it's worth her suffering through incidents to find "the" perfect food for her that doesn't have corn and rice and by-products.
You already know that "perfect" food that doesn't have corn and rice and other questionable ingredients. You're already feeding it with the Tiki Cat. You're not going to find the perfect dry because it doesn't exist. Dry food will always be problematic. Some less so but your best dry food doesn't beat your average wet food for moisture and digestibility, the two things lacking in constipation. The third thing to consider with constipation is bulk. Is she constipated because she's not eating enough to form a large enough stool to pass? In this case, it would sit in her colon drying out making it painful to pass. On the other end, she could be having bulk (minimally digestible dry food) without enough moisture (because it's dry and cats don't drink enough at the fountain to make up for that.)

Switching to all wet will give her the best place to start from. If she needs bulk to pass her poops or she can tolerate a little extra bulk, then Tiki Cat makes pumpkin flavors. The pumpkin will add bulk and moisture. If bulk is not her problem, use Miralax which will bring moisture along with it for the ride without adding bulk. And if you need some emergency assistance, a teaspoon of raw egg yolk or a pat of butter can help things along.

You may look into egg yolk powder as an addition to her meals. Egg yolk contains choline which helps stimulate the contractions needed to move food and poop along its path. It also contains lecithin which will help break up any hairballs that may also be contributing to constipation (bulk without moisture because fat binds the hair and fat repels moisture.)
 
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PicoP

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Yeah I used to use lactulose but I replaced it with miralax. For us, miralax worked just fine and lactulose wasn't super effective or anything. The only GI related ingredient in the royal canin dry food that I can identify is psyllium husk. It helps constipation. You could do some research on that and find out how much psyllium husk you should add to a canned food. I also recommend adding extra water to the canned every time. And also you could add some miralax to the food in addition to the lactulose you're giving her to help with the transition.
I did add extra water but I did not try the psyllium husk and the miralax. However, she is an extremely picky cat so I am not sure if she will eat the psyllium. Its definitely worth a try though. Thank you for the suggestions!
 
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PicoP

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You already know that "perfect" food that doesn't have corn and rice and other questionable ingredients. You're already feeding it with the Tiki Cat. You're not going to find the perfect dry because it doesn't exist. Dry food will always be problematic. Some less so but your best dry food doesn't beat your average wet food for moisture and digestibility, the two things lacking in constipation. The third thing to consider with constipation is bulk. Is she constipated because she's not eating enough to form a large enough stool to pass? In this case, it would sit in her colon drying out making it painful to pass. On the other end, she could be having bulk (minimally digestible dry food) without enough moisture (because it's dry and cats don't drink enough at the fountain to make up for that.)

Switching to all wet will give her the best place to start from. If she needs bulk to pass her poops or she can tolerate a little extra bulk, then Tiki Cat makes pumpkin flavors. The pumpkin will add bulk and moisture. If bulk is not her problem, use Miralax which will bring moisture along with it for the ride without adding bulk. And if you need some emergency assistance, a teaspoon of raw egg yolk or a pat of butter can help things along.

You may look into egg yolk powder as an addition to her meals. Egg yolk contains choline which helps stimulate the contractions needed to move food and poop along its path. It also contains lecithin which will help break up any hairballs that may also be contributing to constipation (bulk without moisture because fat binds the hair and fat repels moisture.)
I agree completely on there's no perfect dry food. I believe she is constipated because of her nerves not being able to move the poop along if she can't feel it, so the bulk. However, she eats quite a bit so maybe adding fiber into her wet food can help with that.
Either way, thank you for the advice with the egg and butter and everything else. I really appreciate it and hopefully I can get her off of this prescription food without too much complication.
 

kittyluv387

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I did add extra water but I did not try the psyllium husk and the miralax. However, she is an extremely picky cat so I am not sure if she will eat the psyllium. Its definitely worth a try though. Thank you for the suggestions!
The royal canin dry that you're feeding her already has psyllium husk. I'm thinking that is what is helping her poo regularly so I think you might want to add that into her food. You won't need to add a lot, she probably wont even notice.
 
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PicoP

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I've read that psyllium can lose effect over time. So can pumpkin.

This article has a focus on raw feeding but it also has a lot of great information on cats and constipation as well as some ideas on how to treat or prevent it. Like ground sunflower seeds to add stool bulk.

https://feline-nutrition.org/health/constipation-real-help-for-your-cat
Haha! I actually just read that article after kittyluv mentioned psyllium and she loves sunflower seeds! So I might just try that. I would love if she would switch to a raw diet, but I have tried just about everything and have come to the conclusion she likes her meat cooked or freeze-dried, but never freeze dried as a meal only a treat.
 
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PicoP

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The royal canin dry that you're feeding her already has psyllium husk. I'm thinking that is what is helping her poo regularly so I think you might want to add that into her food. You won't need to add a lot, she probably wont even notice.
Like I said, I will definitely give it a try, but she has been known to pick apart her wet food if I add anything different in.
 
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