Worried Sick That I May Be Killing My Cats

M maggiedemi - Unfortunately, I am feeding the prescription Royal Canin Calm at the moment for dry food as we are working with a newly adopted timid little girl. This food was recommended by my vet to get her stress and anxiety levels under control as we also deal with other health concerns. Since putting her on this food, she has blossomed but I'm hoping to change the dry food soon. We believed that a food that she would eat would be better than subjecting her to medications and supplements on top of the medications for her health issues. She also would not eat wet food or take treats of any kind. She basically only ate when she felt safe and was alone, so forcing extra medications orally would have only exacerbated her fears. I believe she has gained enough trust in us now that the calming food will no longer be necessary. What will we change it to? I'm not sure yet. But I'm not in too much of a hurry as thankfully we do not have any issues with sensitivity or digestive concerns.
As for wet foods, I feed Fancy Feast pates - which do not contain any plant or grain and I also feed Whiskas pate, they also do not contain any plant or grain.

It is just about impossible, it seems, to find a food that does not contain grains but also no potatoes, peas, lentils, etc. I found a Blue Buffalo for sensitive stomachs that I could try for my IBD kitty that has no potatoes, but the third ingredient is brown rice. I have heard that rice is not good for cats either, but is it the lesser of two evils?

Can you switch to wet food only? It's a lot easier to find a canned food with no plant products.

tabbysia said:

It is just about impossible, it seems, to find a food that does not contain grains but also no potatoes, peas, lentils, etc. I found a Blue Buffalo for sensitive stomachs that I could try for my IBD kitty that has no potatoes, but the third ingredient is brown rice. I have heard that rice is not good for cats either, but is it the lesser of two evils?

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Take some time to look through this. It's incredibly well done.

I feed Theodore grain-free along with kitten grind Blue Ridge Beef. He polishes the beef off right away. He likes the grain free pate made by Purffect Bistro. The last to go is the Taste of the Wild chiunky. He also eats a little kibble by Taste of the Wild. His fav by far is the raw beef. I hope this does not become problem foods! Theo is the first cat I have fed grain-free.

As @vyger said, Roundup is out there. It is used as a drying agent for oats, so if you like oatmeal start googling so that you find a brand that is Roundup free. It is used on organic oats as well, depending on the manufacturer, just as chlorine is what keeps your bagged organic salad fresh for days while the non bagged stuff wilts. as 1 bruce 1 mentioned, it is all in the food chain and we are all eating it. I think that a great deal of constructive advice was given here and unfortunately I have nothing to add that will help to resolve this....

Willowy said:

Can you switch to wet food only? It's a lot easier to find a canned food with no plant products.

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I do feed them some wet food, but one of them still much prefers the dry, and wet food (especially decent quality) can get VERY expensive. I have been through MANY wet foods, and the only one that they both seem to agree on is Blue Freedom. It unfortunately has peas, just like the dry food, and carrageenan though. I split a can between them in the morning, but they eat dry food the rest of the day.

What does everyone think of this food?



It does still have peas and potatoes, but they are further down the list, and the first four ingredients are turkey and chicken products. My cats are used to duck, but I have heard that so-called "exotic" meats, like duck, kangaroo, etc., could have been another factor in the dog/heart disease issues. Also, I am not sure about the herring meal. I know my IBD kitty can handle duck (in her dry food) and chicken (in her wet food), but it has been years since she has tried turkey or fish. Also, is 45% protein too high? I have heard that too high of a protein content can cause kidney disease in cats. I am trying to do the right thing and keep my cats from getting heart disease (or other health problems), but no food seems to be perfect.

I'm staying away from Grain-Free dry food until they figure this thing out. And I thank you all for telling me about this issue. I love my babies and I couldn't bear to lose them.

maggiedemi said:

I'm staying away from Grain-Free dry food until they figure this thing out. And I thank you all for telling me about this issue. I love my babies and I couldn't bear to lose them.

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I want to stay away from them and am trying to find an alternative, but it seems that grains are bad for them too. It seems impossible to win.

To maybe help relieve some confusion, here's the FDA report and their FAQ page about the heart problem that may be associated with "grain-free" diets in dogs.

Some things to note:

• It seems that the FDA is most suspicious about non-grain fillers that are added into "grain-free" foods, such as peas and lentils.
• They found that some of the foods that were implicated were non-GF foods that contained peas, lentils, etc.
• They have not determined what might cause pets eating these foods to develop the health problem.

I wouldn't worry too much about it until we have more evidence. Very little is known at this point. And even if it does come out that these foods are also bad for cats... Don't blame yourself. There needs to be more coordinated research on what foods are good or bad for pets, before they are released on the market. And not just by the manufacturers making the products..

Dogs can make their own taurine. This is why dog foods haven't been supplemented with it. Apparently there's something in the food that's making dogs not be able to produce their own. I wouldn't worry about it in cats, since the food is already supplemented.

OR! It might just be that before now, nobody has paid an awful lot of attention to dogs with DCM, assuming it to be a genetic disorder or "just one of those things". And, not to generalize too much, but those who feed their dogs cheap foods are less likely to investigate too much when one of their dogs gets DCM. So at this point I'm not fully convinced this is a Thing, although I have been rotating my dogs' food to try to prevent any deficiencies. But I've always done that.

Willowy said:

I wouldn't worry about it in cats, since the food is already supplemented.

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Some members have already said that their cats died from heart problems while on a grain-free diet though. I'm not playing Russian roulette with my cats' health. I won't touch those foods with a ten foot pole now.

maggiedemi said:

Some members have already said that their cats died from heart problems while on a grain-free diet though. I'm not playing Russian roulette with my cats' health. I won't touch those foods with a ten foot pole now.

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And some people's cats have died from heart problems while eating any food, including whatever you're feeding your cats now. That's how things go. Until they figure out what's causing it, we just don't know.

It doesn't hurt to change foods, though, if it makes you feel better. Although I'm afraid that manufacturers are just going to add some grains back into their foods without changing anything else and pretend that makes a difference.

Willowy said:

It doesn't hurt to change foods, though, if it makes you feel better.

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Yeah, I'll never feed grain-free dry foods again. Canned food I will, since that doesn't have legumes.

maggiedemi said:

Yeah, I'll never feed grain-free dry foods again. Canned food I will, since that doesn't have legumes.

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I don't want to scare you further, but some grain-free canned foods do have the ingredients that the FDA mentioned in their report. Some non-grain-free canned foods have those ingredients, as well. Just check the label before you buy.

I'm hoping that we get an update from the FDA on this soon, so that we can make more informed decisions about our pets' diets. It sucks that so little research is done on what's good or bad for pets, until something like this happens.

I'm very glad the FDA is investigating this. That shows how far we've come.

But let's keep it in perspective: since the reporting period started on Jan 1 2014, there have been 560 cases reported. About 1/4 of those dogs died. There are 90 million dogs in the US. Even if you assume only 1% of cases got reported, that's not even a blip on the statistical screen.
Q&A: Possible Link Between Diet & Canine Heart Disease

W Willowy Very true. And only a handful of cases in cats have been reported. I'm personally waiting for more info before changing anything in my pets' diet. I understand if other pet owners want to make a change, though.

Willowy said:

that's not even a blip on the statistical screen.

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Yeah, but if your/my cat is one of the few it happens to, it matters.

maggiedemi said:

Some members have already said that their cats died from heart problems while on a grain-free diet though. I'm not playing Russian roulette with my cats' health. I won't touch those foods with a ten foot pole now.

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Yes, my cat was one of those.