Changed dry food now 2 cats with diarrhea

countrygirl576

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My vet had me change their dry food to Hill's science 11+. Said it would be better for them. Two of my cats are fine with eating it. The other 2 have had diarrhea now for a week. I have medicine for them from the vets but they are wanting to do a poop test to make sure it isn't something else then the food. They are indoor only cats and I have paid for that test in the past just to be told all is good. I just want to put them back on the dry store-bought food like they were eating. Anyone else have a problem with Hill's Science dry food and is it really better then store bought? I just don't have money to throw away anymore. Between the vet/hospital bills and their medicine and the Hill's dry food is so expensive.
 

FeebysOwner

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Did you do a gradual transition from one food to the other? Some cats need that in order to let their systems to adapt to the new food. If not, go back and start over with their old food, and just add a bit of the Hill's while you reduce their old food. Then, continue to decrease their old food as you add more Hill's.

Comparing the ingredients of the Hill's to what you were feeding might help to understand the differences between the two.

All said, if they are doing well overall, and were not having issues with the 'old' food, I personally would go back to what was working for all of them.
 

louisstools

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Did you do a gradual transition from one food to the other? Some cats need that in order to let their systems to adapt to the new food. If not, go back and start over with their old food, and just add a bit of the Hill's while you reduce their old food. Then, continue to decrease their old food as you add more Hill's.
Just wanted to plus one this.

My girl eats a Purina rx kibble and it got reformulated in July. Same food but was different enough Purina recommend a five day gradual transition. It went well but she had a higher amount of pukes for the next two weeks. The key seems to be go slow. We even had to open a new bag of the old ($50) for the final day of the transition...literally took 1 ounce.
 
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countrygirl576

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They get canned food in the morning and evening because of their insulin shot. (The two that are having the diarrhea are diabetic) The rest of the day dry food and they had Whiskies. Everything was good except my one cat (who has no problem with the Hill's dry food) had something lower on her blood work. Can't remember what it was but nothing major, so they said to switch it. They said better for them being senior cats. Didn't say to slowly switch it and stupid me didn't think of it but all was good for a week on the new food and then suddenly diarrhea. I'm putting them back on Whiskies. Should never have switched anything when all was going good.
 
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countrygirl576

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They still have diarrhea. Did the poop test and it came back normal. They didn't tell me anything more than that. I bought more poop medicine for them at vet's office today, but I ordered a different poop medicine from Chewy. I used it all the time in the past at my old vets place and it worked great. The new vet place uses some other kind of stuff which I do not like at all. Have to give it 2-3 times a day. Stuff from Chewy is once and done. It's called Van Bek Natural Sciences Diagel. Supposed to come tomorrow. I don't really know if switching the food caused this all or not but hopefully it will stop soon. They are eating, drinking and acting normal. They do seem happier with their old food back. Fancy Feast dry
 
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