changing cat food after ER visit help!

[Nina1234]

hello! so a few days ago I heard my cat crying while using the litter box I panicked thinking it could be a blockage and took him to the ER lots of money later found out he was very constipated. he was given an enema and the nurse told me to give him some wet food. currently I feed him 1/4 cup of dry food twice a day and bought Sheba gravy food to include that in. I still would like to give some dry food because it is financially easier but want to incorporate wet food. my one cat weighs 12 lbs and the other is pretty chunky and I'm not fully sure of his weight. any tips on how to feed dry and wet food should I do one in the am one in pm? and how much? after the ER scare im trying to figure it out and am lost. Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Nina1234]

*** also the nurse told me to add miralax to his food but didn't say how long.

 

[Azazel]

When you weigh the cost of the vet visit and the pain your cat has to experience, it’s actually quite worth it to feed all wet food. That would be my advice to you. Do as many wet food feedings a day that you can. Look at the number of calories on a can of wet and feed around 20kcal per pound of weight a day.

 

[Nina1234]

When you weigh the cost of the vet visit and the pain your cat has to experience, it’s actually quite worth it to feed all wet food. That would be my advice to you. Do as many wet food feedings a day that you can. Look at the number of calories on a can of wet and feed around 20kcal per pound of weight a day.

you are right. the vet was not very nice and didn't help me at all. She just said that dry is good for their teeth so I took that as to feed both. but you are right thank you!

 

[Azazel]

you are right. the vet was not very nice and didn't help me at all. She just said that dry is good for their teeth so I took that as to feed both. but you are right thank you!

Sorry you had a bad experience with the vet. Dry food being good for teeth is really a myth. Cats chew on raw bones and raw meat in the wild for dental health. Kibble is starchy and doesn’t require nearly as much gnawing to tear it apart as raw bone. The best thing to do for dental health is to either mimic how they would clean teeth in the wild (feed raw treats), and/or brush teeth daily.

I would slowly start to increase the wet and decrease the dry. You can also add a little extra water to the wet food when you feed it for extra hydration. I would only do the Miralax until you notice that he’s pooping fine and on a regular schedule. Something that you can add to the wet food daily to feed the gut bacteria and keep things moving is half a teaspoon of plain canned pumpkin. This may not be necessary though if the wet food you’re feeding already has lots of soluble fiber added (most do). I would just monitor the poop and then decide whether it’s necessary.