Digestive Care or Hairball Control??

[shebaa]

my cat throws up often. mostly after eating. i want to try the digestive care but it says 42% less stool. she doesnt always poop. would this make it worse? vet also said vomit could be cause hairball is getting backed up. shes med-long hair. i would like to try the hairball one cause its higher in fiber which i notice with one brand i had tried it helped her with constipation. which do you recommend?

royal canin digestive care
royal canin hairball

 

[abyeb]

Hi there! It looks like both of those foods are in Royal Canin's "Retail" line and not their "Veterinary" line, so you don't need a Rx to buy them. Still, I would recommend asking your vet to see which diet they think would be best for your cat.

Just off the top of my head, I don't think that a diet that advertises "42% less stool" would be the best for a cat who has struggled with constipation, but I could be wrong. Also, do you know if your cat's vomit is hairballs? If the vomiting isn't caused by hairballs, I'm not sure that a hairball control diet would fix the problem. If she's throwing up often, I would say that it would be best if you could take her to the vet to determine the underlying cause of the vomit.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I think when a product is promoted as generating less stool, it is because they are claiming that there is less 'junk' in the food and therefore digestive processing is more 'efficient' and produces less stool. If you read about raw food diets, even completely wet diets, there are many claims that it is because there are less non-essential fillers in the food, so less stool is produced as a result. No offense to the theory, but Feeby who is now on almost exclusively canned food (of her own choice) doesn't produce any less stool than she did when she was on a totally dry regimen.

I know that doesn't help your dilemma, but perhaps you could go with the digestive care and add something as simple as butter/margarine to her diet to help with passage of hairballs. The butter can also help with constipation to a degree.

The problem with making more than one change at a time is that you have no idea which change actually made the difference.

Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful.

 

[LTS3]

You can try alternatives to hairball / digestive food. Pet stores sell various kinds of hairball remedies. You an also try egg yolk lecithin. Here are some threads that discuss egg yolk lecithin:

A Big Hairball!
Egg Lecithin Vs Egg Yolks Powder?
Good Sources Of Choline For Hairball Control For Kitty Who May Be Allergic To Eggs?
Hairball, Egg Yolk, Slippery Elm, Petromalt - Confused.....

Does your cat eat too fast? Slowing down may help. There are bowls meant to slow down eating and various methods for canned food. Elevating the bowl may also help keep food down.

 

[Azazel]

Is your cat eating mostly kibble? Increase the canned and decrease the kibble.

I wouldn’t touch Royal Canin with a 10 foot pole.

 

[Azazel]

I think when a product is promoted as generating less stool, it is because they are claiming that there is less 'junk' in the food and therefore digestive processing is more 'efficient' and produces less stool. If you read about raw food diets, even completely wet diets, there are many claims that it is because there are less non-essential fillers in the food, so less stool is produced as a result. No offense to the theory, but Feeby who is now on almost exclusively canned food (of her own choice) doesn't produce any less stool than she did when she was on a totally dry regimen.

Just being on canned food isn’t going to guarantee less stool. Lots of canned foods also contain veggies and multiple fiber sources that would bulk up stool. There are also individual differences between cats.

Increased water intake from canned food will always be a good choice though, especially for constipation and avoiding dry feces.

 

[CatLover49]

Is your cat eating mostly kibble? Increase the canned and decrease the kibble.

I wouldn’t touch Royal Canin with a 10 foot pole.

Whats ure opinion of the RC...and is ure opinion for dry or wet or both...

 

[Azazel]

Whats ure opinion of the RC...and is ure opinion for dry or wet or both...

My opinion of RC is that they have very smart marketing campaigns to "solve" dietary problems that probably wouldn't have ever occurred in the first place if their original formulas were appropriate for obligate carnivores. Their ingredients make no sense for a predatory animal that requires animal meat to survive and that cannot properly digest plants, grains, fruits.

These are the first ingredients in their dry hairball food:

Chicken meal, corn, brewers rice, rice hulls, corn gluten meal, chicken fat, natural flavors, wheat, wheat gluten, pea fiber, dried plain beet pulp, grain distillers dried yeast, vegetable oil, calcium sulfate, fish oil, psyllium seed husk.

So it's a bunch of unnecessary crap followed by a laxative. The canned version is not much better - although having more moisture in the diet is always a pro.

Don't be fooled by these marketing strategies. Feed your cat an appropriate diet in the first place and they will have fewer hairballs. If they do have a hairball, you don't need to switch to a "hairball" food; just give them the laxative that's in the food on its own and/or check for underlying medical issues (e.g., psyllium husk).

 

[lisahe]

my cat throws up often. mostly after eating. i want to try the digestive care but it says 42% less stool. she doesnt always poop. would this make it worse? vet also said vomit could be cause hairball is getting backed up. shes med-long hair. i would like to try the hairball one cause its higher in fiber which i notice with one brand i had tried it helped her with constipation. which do you recommend?

royal canin digestive care
royal canin hairball

I'm a little unclear about the cat's problem: is it hairballs or is it constipation? Or both? It sounds like it's just constipation, is that correct?

What are you feeding your cat now?

 

[shebaa]

ive taken her to the vet many times for this. they dont know. she mainly throws up after eating, so she throws up food. sometimes hairballs but not as much compared to food. i asked about RC digestive care and she liked that idea, dont think she actually paid attention to the type though, just that it was rc. i told the vet that i never tried the hairball food before and she said that it can be hairballs getting backed up which will interfere with food basically. and that a hairball type food might be something i should try. my cat is medium to long hair. ive been giving her one tablespoon full of wet food 1x a day and been feeding her more often/slowly, the vet told me to try this first. AND the only one tablespoon 1x a day is a whole lot more than before, kitty would rarely get wet food before i have to give it another week to be sure its working. so maybe a specific food isnt necessary. but if so i maybe want to try the hairball one since she never had a hairball one before. she has tried science diet sensitive stomache, z/d and rc fiber response. i just want to know which of the 2 would she benefit the most. hairball or digestive care

 

[shebaa]

I'm a little unclear about the cat's problem: is it hairballs or is it constipation? Or both? It sounds like it's just constipation, is that correct?

What are you feeding your cat now?

right now purina one healthy metabolism. so far its going better but should give it another week. if its still all good i wont know what actually fixed it. cause i feed her a little bit of wet food everyday and i made my own slow feeder and feed her more portions. so would be hard to figure out what worked the best

 

[stephanietx]

If she's throwing up after eating, it could be a food allergy. I would switch to an all canned food diet, or greatly decrease the dry food, and eliminate any fish or chicken flavored foods. Try one protein such as rabbit, duck, venison, or turkey and see if that helps.

 

[shebaa]

If she's throwing up after eating, it could be a food allergy. I would switch to an all canned food diet, or greatly decrease the dry food, and eliminate any fish or chicken flavored foods. Try one protein such as rabbit, duck, venison, or turkey and see if that helps.

shes tried z/d which is for food allergy and it didnt help

 

[Azazel]

Before you switch to a hairball food, try increasing canned food and adding a small amount of plain canned pumpkin mixed with it every day (up to a teaspoon).

 

[shebaa]

my cat is gonna run out of dry food this week. so ive decided to give her more wet food instead of trying RC hairball or digestive care. so what dry food should i buy? purina one brand

 

[FeebysOwner]

Good luck, wish I could help.

But, I use dry RC SO (and Hill's C/D) for Feeby to ensure that she doesn't have a recurrence of bladder stones as she did ten years ago - it required surgery to remove them. Since that time (about 3 years ago) I added some of the same brands of wet food - but can happily report she has been stone free ever since the surgery even when she has been mostly on the dry food for that time. So, while RC may not work for you for what you are specifically trying to accomplish, not all RC foods are bad.

 

[lisahe]

Before you switch to a hairball food, try increasing canned food and adding a small amount of plain canned pumpkin mixed with it every day (up to a teaspoon).

If she's throwing up after eating, it could be a food allergy. I would switch to an all canned food diet, or greatly decrease the dry food, and eliminate any fish or chicken flavored foods. Try one protein such as rabbit, duck, venison, or turkey and see if that helps.

I agree with both of these: some cats will stop vomiting altogether if they're fed only wet foods. If you strongly suspect the cat has hairballs, brushing can make a huge difference. Some cats can be resistant to it at first but over time they often get used to it and even start to like it. (True story: one of our cats barfs if she's not brushed regularly, pretty much daily. She eats only wet foods and also has some food sensitivities so there's always a lot going on in her gut!)

 

[shebaa]

I agree with both of these: some cats will stop vomiting altogether if they're fed only wet foods. If you strongly suspect the cat has hairballs, brushing can make a huge difference. Some cats can be resistant to it at first but over time they often get used to it and even start to like it. (True story: one of our cats barfs if she's not brushed regularly, pretty much daily. She eats only wet foods and also has some food sensitivities so there's always a lot going on in her gut!)

Im gonna go with wet food for now. 50/50 wet and dry. the vet was completely fine with that. my cat is crazy over wet food.she often follows me into the kitchen hoping for more wet food and i catch her eyeing the counter after she eats wet food. she know the word "no" so i just tell her that when i catch her. vet said maybe overtime she will stop if me feeding her wet food everyday. so hopefully thats the case

 

[lisahe]

Im gonna go with wet food for now. 50/50 wet and dry. the vet was completely fine with that. my cat is crazy over wet food.she often follows me into the kitchen hoping for more wet food and i catch her eyeing the counter after she eats wet food. she know the word "no" so i just tell her that when i catch her. vet said maybe overtime she will stop if me feeding her wet food everyday. so hopefully thats the case

It's great that she loves wet food so much! It really is much better for cats so the more you can feed her wet food (or all wet food, which is what our vet recommends!) the better. I hope some feeding changes can stop the vomiting.

 

[stephanietx]

We feed Taste of the Wild dry food. My kitties only get snack size portions of dry to supplement their twice daily wet food feedings. I also use the kibble as treats.