I began feeding my two 100% raw January 1st. All had been going very well until about a week ago. I had noticed one of my two cats slowly needing more and more toppers to eat any of her raw, unless it was plain meat only (no calcium supp). Well, Thursday night I got home and realized she had thrown up that day, which has happened from time to time and I wasn't surprised since the morning meal had been ground goat + supplements, not her favorite. She continued to eat her two PM meals okay. Friday morning, she wouldn't get out of bed. When she finally did, she started vomiting. She wouldn't touch anything I offered her to eat and was clearly in pain. Before I could get her to the vet, she had vomited a second time.
The vet felt it was an acute GI problem, no blockage on the x-ray, and gave her fluids, B12 and a Cerenia shot. I started feeding her only cooked chicken breast and she ate a little at each meal, but by last night stopped eating again. She also had some diarrhea last night. This morning she vomited again, but has since seemed to finally turn a corner. She doesn't really want any plain chicken anymore, but has eaten three small meals today of S&C freeze-dried raw.
Before all of this happened, I was really starting to doubt myself with raw. I've definitely seen some great improvements, but I also still see lots of digestive discomfort after eating (and yes, I use probiotics and at times, digestive enzymes), plus having to add more and more toppers instead of less and less. I think as I've been trying to transition to boneless frankenprey, keeping one ground meal in the AM, and started adding calcium supplements (MCHA or eggshell), their lack of wanting to eat any raw has increased. And now with Emmy getting so sick I just don't even know where to go from here. I'm still unsure why she got so sick, since Allie has eaten all of the same foods and has been okay, but also don't know what else would have caused it.
By the way, I had them on S&C freeze dried raw for a full month before switching them to real raw, and the main reason I started to switch them is because they started refusing the S&C. Seems they need more variety or that food just isn't completely suitable for them on a full-time basis. Ugh, I wish my girls would just eat whole prey and make everything so much easier, but they won't touch anything with bones no matter how hard I try. And now they seem to hate the calcium supplements as well.
Anyways, I guess I just needed to vent and get some advice/opinions on how I should proceed, if anyone has any. Sorry to be such a downer, it's been a really rough weekend for me and Emmy still isn't completely out of the woods yet.
Thanks!
The vet felt it was an acute GI problem, no blockage on the x-ray, and gave her fluids, B12 and a Cerenia shot. I started feeding her only cooked chicken breast and she ate a little at each meal, but by last night stopped eating again. She also had some diarrhea last night. This morning she vomited again, but has since seemed to finally turn a corner. She doesn't really want any plain chicken anymore, but has eaten three small meals today of S&C freeze-dried raw.
Before all of this happened, I was really starting to doubt myself with raw. I've definitely seen some great improvements, but I also still see lots of digestive discomfort after eating (and yes, I use probiotics and at times, digestive enzymes), plus having to add more and more toppers instead of less and less. I think as I've been trying to transition to boneless frankenprey, keeping one ground meal in the AM, and started adding calcium supplements (MCHA or eggshell), their lack of wanting to eat any raw has increased. And now with Emmy getting so sick I just don't even know where to go from here. I'm still unsure why she got so sick, since Allie has eaten all of the same foods and has been okay, but also don't know what else would have caused it.
By the way, I had them on S&C freeze dried raw for a full month before switching them to real raw, and the main reason I started to switch them is because they started refusing the S&C. Seems they need more variety or that food just isn't completely suitable for them on a full-time basis. Ugh, I wish my girls would just eat whole prey and make everything so much easier, but they won't touch anything with bones no matter how hard I try. And now they seem to hate the calcium supplements as well.
Anyways, I guess I just needed to vent and get some advice/opinions on how I should proceed, if anyone has any. Sorry to be such a downer, it's been a really rough weekend for me and Emmy still isn't completely out of the woods yet.
Thanks!