- Joined
- May 23, 2018
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- 31
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Hey! New here and could use some sage wisdom and advice. Apologies for the wall of text, but the devil is in the details, right?
I have a 9mo old shelter kitty, Zaza, who I'm having issues with while getting her onto raw. It's not a matter of wanting to eat it, she adores the stuff; the problem is keeping it down recently.
Within a week of her coming home from the shelter, I transitioned her to canned food no problem. Approximately a month ago, I decided to give Dr. Pierson's recipe a try. I started Z out on just a few small chunks of chicken thigh in with her canned, then by itself, and eventually went full hog and bought all the supplements and made her a full batch of food. She did gloriously for the 3 weeks that batch lasted her. Always cleaned her plate, always excited about her food, etc. When she ran out, I sprung for the fancy Whole Foods Step 2 chicken for the next batch. That's when the issues began...
Within 2 hours of her first meal of the new batch, she vomited pretty violently. I thought maybe she had just eaten too fast or something, so I gave her a couple of hours and then gave her some more food. Everything was fine for the rest of the day until her last meal, when she vomited half an hour after eating. The next day, breakfast went okay, but she vomited lunch and then dinner was fine. I got freaked out and ran her to the vet. He gave her the all clear, admonished me for feeding raw, and said to just switch her back to canned if I'm not going to feed kibble. There was no rhyme or reason I can figure to her episodes: I froze portions in ice cube trays and everything was coming from the same batch, same tray, same bag, prepared and served the same way (heated in warm water, in her favorite low sided dish on her place mat) and at roughly the same times, 7am, 5pm, 11pm. Since there was nothing physically wrong with her, I figured maybe something was wrong with the mix and since I had added another capsule of fish oil to that batch, I placed all the blame on myself. She started avoiding the plate all together, so I just switched her back to canned until yesterday.
I made a new batch, different store brand (which now I'm thinking has entirely too much sodium?? I totally missed the added solution bit on the pack) and I even talked with the meat department who told me that the delivery had literally just come in within the past hour or so, but everything else is exactly like the first batch. I gave her roughly a teaspoon in with 1oz of canned (her normal amount is about 1.5oz/meal). She threw up within 2 hours of the first meal again. Tried a 1/4tsp raw all on its own, and she threw up within half an hour. Ran her back to the vet, he says she's fine, "maybe she's just not made for this raw stuff," and switch her back to canned. I swear I'd take her to another vet, but I live in an area where it'd cost me almost $200 just to get in the door for the majority of them and I can't afford that.
So, other than the possible sodium issue with this batch --which wasn't an issue for the fancy pants Whole Foods chicken thighs -- can anyone shed a little light on what might be going on? She's eaten chicken flavored everything since day one, and I always stuck to poultry flavors with her canned foods, so I'm not understanding how it could be an allergic reaction or anything. While she does bolt her food, she does this with everything I give her, so I'm not sure why she doesn't throw up with everything else. She's a spunky little thing and keeps on trying for me, but I feel just awful since she doesn't know why her body is betraying her and acts horrified that she's capable of such a thing.
I have a 9mo old shelter kitty, Zaza, who I'm having issues with while getting her onto raw. It's not a matter of wanting to eat it, she adores the stuff; the problem is keeping it down recently.
Within a week of her coming home from the shelter, I transitioned her to canned food no problem. Approximately a month ago, I decided to give Dr. Pierson's recipe a try. I started Z out on just a few small chunks of chicken thigh in with her canned, then by itself, and eventually went full hog and bought all the supplements and made her a full batch of food. She did gloriously for the 3 weeks that batch lasted her. Always cleaned her plate, always excited about her food, etc. When she ran out, I sprung for the fancy Whole Foods Step 2 chicken for the next batch. That's when the issues began...
Within 2 hours of her first meal of the new batch, she vomited pretty violently. I thought maybe she had just eaten too fast or something, so I gave her a couple of hours and then gave her some more food. Everything was fine for the rest of the day until her last meal, when she vomited half an hour after eating. The next day, breakfast went okay, but she vomited lunch and then dinner was fine. I got freaked out and ran her to the vet. He gave her the all clear, admonished me for feeding raw, and said to just switch her back to canned if I'm not going to feed kibble. There was no rhyme or reason I can figure to her episodes: I froze portions in ice cube trays and everything was coming from the same batch, same tray, same bag, prepared and served the same way (heated in warm water, in her favorite low sided dish on her place mat) and at roughly the same times, 7am, 5pm, 11pm. Since there was nothing physically wrong with her, I figured maybe something was wrong with the mix and since I had added another capsule of fish oil to that batch, I placed all the blame on myself. She started avoiding the plate all together, so I just switched her back to canned until yesterday.
I made a new batch, different store brand (which now I'm thinking has entirely too much sodium?? I totally missed the added solution bit on the pack) and I even talked with the meat department who told me that the delivery had literally just come in within the past hour or so, but everything else is exactly like the first batch. I gave her roughly a teaspoon in with 1oz of canned (her normal amount is about 1.5oz/meal). She threw up within 2 hours of the first meal again. Tried a 1/4tsp raw all on its own, and she threw up within half an hour. Ran her back to the vet, he says she's fine, "maybe she's just not made for this raw stuff," and switch her back to canned. I swear I'd take her to another vet, but I live in an area where it'd cost me almost $200 just to get in the door for the majority of them and I can't afford that.
So, other than the possible sodium issue with this batch --which wasn't an issue for the fancy pants Whole Foods chicken thighs -- can anyone shed a little light on what might be going on? She's eaten chicken flavored everything since day one, and I always stuck to poultry flavors with her canned foods, so I'm not understanding how it could be an allergic reaction or anything. While she does bolt her food, she does this with everything I give her, so I'm not sure why she doesn't throw up with everything else. She's a spunky little thing and keeps on trying for me, but I feel just awful since she doesn't know why her body is betraying her and acts horrified that she's capable of such a thing.