"Expired" Stella and Chewy's upsetting tummy?

[LTS3]

Can frozen raw fed beyond the expiration or use by date cause tummy issues?

I bought a bag of Stella and Chewy's rabbit in November. I didn't realize until last week that the bag has a use by date of Sept. 15, 2015

I figured that since it was frozen it was still good. Leroy got maybe 10 nuggets for a bedtime snack since mid last week. No problems at all. Last night he got his usual bedtime snack and ate it all. This morning he would not eat his breakfast of NV. He just wanted to crouch kind of hunched up. His fur seems unkempt and he kind of walks with his back end hunched down if that makes sense. He did pee a normal sized amount and did poop though it wasn't as much or as large as normal. I noted a slight tinge of blood on one of the poop pieces but that happens sometimes.

I briefly considered taking Leroy to the ER but didn't want to waste the vets' time with a non-life threatening emergency issue

I'm calling the vet in about an hour and try to get an appointment for today. Probably won't get our regular vet, though, but any vet at the hospital will do. Very anxious pet parent right now

I'm at work, too. I have a morning meeting that I need to keep unfortunately.

Any thoughts if it's the expired Stella and Chewy's that is upsetting his tummy? I squeezed his tummy but he didn't react in pain or anything.

 

[paiger8]

Honestly, I'm a firm believer that nothing really goes "bad" if it's frozen. It might not taste the best, and be freezer burned but I don't think it'd actually harm anyone. I think best by dates for frozen food are more about the taste/texture being best by that date. The only thing I can see happening is a cat not eating it because it tastes weird from the freezer. 

How long was the food thawing in your fridge? I can see possibly leaving it thaw for too long and the food going bad in the fridge.

 

[lisahe]

I have the same view of "expired" frozen foods as @Paiger8: they're not so much harmful as tasting "off". The fact that he ate the same food last week makes me think it's not the food... unless maybe some sort of stomach upset has been building. (Can that happen?)

I hope you were able to get an appointment for Leroy and that you can figure out soon what's happening. It's so hard when cats are sick. Fingers crossed!

 

[Kat0121]

Honestly, I'm a firm believer that nothing really goes "bad" if it's frozen. It might not taste the best, and be freezer burned but I don't think it'd actually harm anyone. I think best by dates for frozen food are more about the taste/texture being best by that date. The only thing I can see happening is a cat not eating it because it tastes weird from the freezer. 

How long was the food thawing in your fridge? I can see possibly leaving it thaw for too long and the food going bad in the fridge.

I agree. I have cooked and eaten stuff from my freezer WAY after the "expiration date" and I'm still here. There might be a problem if it was in the fridge too long and went bad from that but I doubt that the freezer had anything to do with it. He may have pooped less because they usually do on raw. My 3 are very fussy eaters and sometimes don't finish a meal because of it. He may have passed on breakfast for that reason.

I hope he's OK.

 

[lisamarie12]

I also think that if the food had not agreed with him, there would have been a reaction when you started feeding it last week. 

Your a good cat mom - I probably would have waited 24 hours to take him to the vet. I've had a few instances where Molly "crashes" for about a half a day, not eating, hunched over, etc., but it usually resolves by the next day.

Let us know how it works out at the vet  - sending good wishes for Leroy.

 

[LTS3]

So I left work early and when I got home Leroy was more or less fine

He ate the NV I gave him but still was crouching / meatloafing. I decided to keep an eye on him for the time being. The litter box hadn't been used and there wasn't any vomit or anything on the floor. Later he pooped (again. Normal is once a day) and it was very soft poop, almost pudding like but not diarrhea. More crouchng and generally not being himself. He ate dinner (NV) just fine. Then another trip to the litter box and one piece of soft poop came out with oozy stuff still hanging from his butt

Fortunately I have cat wipes on hand to clean him up. His tummy does seem to be still bothering him somewhat. He lets me palpate his tummy and it feels tense. When I reach the area between his back legs he kind of widens his stance a bit so I think it's something in that area that's the problem, maybe intestinal related. When he sits next to me with his upper body across my lap, his back end is splayed out a bit instead of being normal.

I have a vet appointment tomorow afternoon. With such short notice I couldn't get our regular vet (he's booked weeks in advance anyways) so I had to settle for a different one

I can't figure out what happened. Leroy was fine last night. He ate his bedtime snack but didn't lick Emma's bowl of Weruva clean. Sometimes he doesn't so I wasn't worried. He ran around trilling as usual. Tehn I went to bed and he settled onto the bed not long afterwards. When I woke up to the alarm clock instead of Leroy screaming and walking over me I knew something was wrong.

As long as Leroy eats breakfast tomorrow and uses the litter box he should be ok. I can have someone check on him mid-morning if needed. Hopefully there won't be a poopy mess that needs to be cleaned up

 

[lisahe]

The food should be fine after just two days. We used to use defrosted Primal for three or four.

Was the oozy stuff coming out of Leroy's butt mucousy? Edwina had that when she apparently munched on a houseplant last month: what happened with her was a bit similar to what Leroy seems to have. She ate fine one night but then refused to eat anything in the morning; that's very unusual for her. What was different from Leroy is that she vomited. We brought her in right away since it was a Saturday, with limited vet hours. She had a lot of mucous that Saturday and it just kind of came out on its own (I guess it's a sign of inflammation). She spent most of the rest of that day under a futon. (She got pain killers, Cerenia, and Convenia since it was unclear what had happened... I wish I'd seen the pile of green poop hiding behind a chair before the vet visit but what can you do.) She didn't eat more than a lap or two of food until Sunday but then she got better very quickly.

I hope Leroy's doing better by the morning! It does sound like a good sign that he's eating. Here's hoping it continues!

 

[LTS3]

Yes, a bit muscousy. It wasn't drippy liquid, just sort of hanging out and clinging to the fur.

 

[lisahe]

 
Yes, a bit muscousy. It wasn't drippy liquid, just sort of hanging out and clinging to the fur.

Yes, Edwina's was very clingy and I had to wipe a fair bit off her, too, though most of it ended up in the box and on the floor.

Fingers crossed that Leroy's back to his old self in the morning.

 

[lcf2015]

Stella & Chewy's has had several recalls recently due to Listeria contamination, (although none of them listed the rabbit formula specifically).

 

[LTS3]

Another thought... I opened two new bags of NV last week as well, one chicken medallion and one rabbit medallion. Both bags have use by dates of later this year. I would think that if both bags were from bad batches any tummy issue would show up within a day or two. Plus if it was a NV issue my other cat probably would be sick as well.

Leroy didn't wake me up again this morning. Not sure if I should be 

about it or 

, lol

He did get onto the bed and nose around a bit but wasn't his usual self. I actually don't know if he even slept on the bed last night. I was so tired that I conked out right away. He left another mushy clump of stinkier than usual poop in the litter box. He did eat breakfast which is good but then kept crouching and didn't want to do much

I told Leroy to rest his tummy on the warm heating pad to ease the discomfort until I take him to the vet. Not sure if he understood that

 

 

[lisahe]

I hope the appointment goes well, LTS3!

 

[LTS3]

The vet couldn't figure out what was wrong

She thought Leroy might have eaten something he wasn't supposed to and it irritated his digestive system. She prescribed liquid Flagyl in chicken flavor to help soothe the tummy and FortiFlora to help firm up the poop. Hopefully both will help.

 

[lcf2015]

Poor Leroy! Hope they make him feel better.

 

[lisahe]

I also hope he feels better soon!

 

[lisamarie12]

Hope your little guy recovers soon.

 

[LTS3]

Thanks

Leroy seems a little better today. He woke me up

He seemed a bit fussy, though. He ate normally and then made pudding in the litter box

It was definitely a shapeless soft lump

I'm hoping it's not going to get worse. Might take a few doses of meds and FortiFlora to help.



 

 

[lisahe]

Well, maybe the wake-up call was a start? And, like you said, maybe the medicine will kick in soon.

In the FWIW department: Ireland once had diarrhea (we never figured out what caused it, though knowing now that she likes to chew shoelaces I wonder about that...) that only got better (after about a week) when I fed her a pouch of Soulistic chicken/pumpkin shreds. I'm not sure if it was time or the pumpkin that helped but the litter box went from very bad (and incredibly smelly) to normal immediately. No matter what helps, I hope Leroy's improvement comes on quickly, too!

 

[missmimz]

Poor kitten! Have you thought about adding in a stronger probiotic? 

I'm going to go against the group here and say that I never eat nor would i feed anything expired, but I am super food paranoid so I err on the side of caution. 

 

[LTS3]

I have not. What is a recommended probiotic? I've heard of Prozyme before. Is that one good?