Fancy Feast Classic Issues

[kjoke14]

Hello everyone. I am currently working through an issue with my 12 year old cat with very recent vomiting issues. He has been on a diet of fancy feast classics chicken pate and Royal canin gastro for the past 2.5 years. I opened a new 12 pack box of FF on saturday night and put some in his bowl. the next morning he is throwing up. I am fairly certain he didn't eat it until the next morning. He ONLY throws up within 17 minutes of eating. like clockwork it has ranged between 11 and 17 minutes. it's like his stomach immediatley rejects the food.
He keeps his Royal Canin Gastro dry food down fine. we went 48 hours feeding only that (and plenty of water) and he didn't puke once.
Today, i tried two cans of FF turkey and Giblits to see if I just got a bad batch or he had a chicken intolerance develop and he threw it up 17 minutes after eating.

He acts COMPLETELY fine. energetic, happy, strong appetite. I've seen him sick before, and this is not him acting sick.....

I purchased some KOHA rabbit meat pate and introduced that slowly today at 1pm. he has had half a can of it so far, and NO vomiting.

Has anyone else had issues with FF recently? This seems like either a formula change in FF, or a food intolerance he has developed. He was last at the vet 7 months ago for teeth cleaning and wellness exam and checked out fine. Going to get him in next week for another visit to just rule out anything serious.

To be clear, this is not regurgitation. he licks lips, retches, and vomits 11-17 minutes after eating fancy feast. He does not do when when feeding only dry food. I have logged every feeding since sunday and it's stunning how predictable it has been.

 

[maggie101]

My cat loves ff classics but she started vomiting and being nauseous. The vet discovered her gums looked swollen and did an xray. She had a crown removed and now back to ff! She is also 12. She lost weight from all the vomiting and appetite loss

 

[IndyJones]

I heard they changed the formula reciently and now people are having issues with it. I've only ever used it to feed ferals (gone now) so I wouldn't know. Neither of my cats like it.

 

[maggie101]

Maybe hair ball?

 

[louisstools]

I heard they changed the formula reciently and now people are having issues with it. I've only ever used it to feed ferals (gone now) so I wouldn't know. Neither of my cats like it.

While I understand that the food companies have to change the formulas from time to time I do wish they would communicate that better. They know how picky cats can be. Hell, my own girl gets a Purina prescription diet (the one advantage of prescription is a higher quality control, more consistency between batches, and better communication about formula changes) and every time we open a new bag it is a roll of the dice if she'll eat it because Purina isn't consistent enough between batches/machines for her. To her credit even I can tell a difference often between kibble size, texture, color, puffiness, and odor between bags. Thankfully they have a good refund policy but so far we're up to 3 bags this year refunded...she eats about 1 bag a month so they're doing pretty poor this year with qc.

 

[GranolaLouise]

So ...don't feed her FF! Easy Peasy!

 

[FeebysOwner]

The only change I know of for sure is that Purina stopped adding artificial colors and preservatives a while back. How that would cause a vomiting issue, I don't know. I looked at the ingredients now and compared them to what I remember them being when Feeby first started eating the classic pates, and cannot find any changes - except for 'meat-by-products' stood out for me, and I honestly don't remember that being in them before. Purina states they have not changed anything other than the removal of coloring and preservatives.

I do know that some time ago, the texture/consistency changed a bit (not as smooth) and at first my cat seemed to be a bit less than happy with that, but I have since added more water or broth to it and that seemed to take care of the issue for her.

If meat-by-products were added more recently, there is one line that does not contain it - Gourmet Naturals. However, this line does contain carrageenan (in addition to guar gum as most all FF products do) and actually has wheat gluten in it too.

 

[Meekie]

I'm about ten packets away from never buying or feeding Fancy Feast again. I do not trust Nestle and feel better spending my money somewhere else.

During the pandemic the Liver and Chicken flavor my cat was eating disappeared for a month or two, when it came back, my girl wouldn't touch it. She didn't even try a taste, which is what she usually does even if she shuns the rest. That was enough for me.

She's a picky eater so I'm glad I discovered Weruva. They're a small company, not some multicapitalist conglomerate, the food is better quality. You can see it. When I was feeding her the little trays of Purely Fancy Feast, the color of the chicken varied, and I didn't like that.

To be fair, my former crew ate Fancy Feast all their lives and they all lived a good 13-15 years without any major health issues. Two of them succumbed to kidney disease but that's common and there's no reason to attribute it to Fancy Feast, but you never know.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I'm glad I discovered Weruva. They're a small company, not some multicapitalist conglomerate, the food is better quality.

That all would be great, if a cat likes Weruva. My cat, who will only eat pates, hates the 'hydrating puree' - whatever that is made of - that comes in ALL their pates. It is some sort of 'jelly/gel' like stuff and it totally turns her off. If they would offer pates without whatever that is, I'd be happy to try them again.

 

[Meekie]

That all would be great, if a cat likes Weruva. My cat, who will only eat pates, hates the 'hydrating puree' - whatever that is made of - that comes in ALL their pates. It is some sort of 'jelly/gel' like stuff and it totally turns her off. If they would offer pates without whatever that is, I'd be happy to try them again.

I stumbled upon Weruva after trying just about everything else. I mentioned it because I had never heard of it before. Weruva also makes the Soulistic brand which Petco sells, but she doesn't like it as much. She will not eat pates, not even the Weruva pates.

 

[Robyn5678]

One of mine recently started throwing up after eating FF chicken classic. He doesn’t do it every time he eats but every few days. I’m not sure what food to try next for him.

 

[maggie101]

My senior cat is intolerant to chicken but she can eat turkey. Hates fish!

 

[FeebysOwner]

One of mine recently started throwing up after eating FF chicken classic. He doesn’t do it every time he eats but every few days. I’m not sure what food to try next for him.

If it doesn't cause him to throw up every time he eats it, then it doesn't seem like that food would necessarily be the issue.
However, if you want chicken, you might try Purina One chicken pate - my cat will eat that as well as the FF. They are pretty similar in ingredients.

 

[Robyn5678]

If it doesn't cause him to throw up every time he eats it, then it doesn't seem like that food would necessarily be the issue.
However, if you want chicken, you might try Purina One chicken pate - my cat will eat that as well as the FF. They are pretty similar in ingredients.

Yeah it’s not every time. I don’t know if he’s eating to fast? I try to give them a small amount 3 times a day but it still happens. So I’m hoping to find a food that maybe he won’t throw up at all. I feel between him puking and them not eating the entire can I’m wasting food.

 

[Alldara]

Hello everyone. I am currently working through an issue with my 12 year old cat with very recent vomiting issues. He has been on a diet of fancy feast classics chicken pate and Royal canin gastro for the past 2.5 years. I opened a new 12 pack box of FF on saturday night and put some in his bowl. the next morning he is throwing up. I am fairly certain he didn't eat it until the next morning. He ONLY throws up within 17 minutes of eating. like clockwork it has ranged between 11 and 17 minutes. it's like his stomach immediatley rejects the food.
He keeps his Royal Canin Gastro dry food down fine. we went 48 hours feeding only that (and plenty of water) and he didn't puke once.
Today, i tried two cans of FF turkey and Giblits to see if I just got a bad batch or he had a chicken intolerance develop and he threw it up 17 minutes after eating.

He acts COMPLETELY fine. energetic, happy, strong appetite. I've seen him sick before, and this is not him acting sick.....

I purchased some KOHA rabbit meat pate and introduced that slowly today at 1pm. he has had half a can of it so far, and NO vomiting.

Has anyone else had issues with FF recently? This seems like either a formula change in FF, or a food intolerance he has developed. He was last at the vet 7 months ago for teeth cleaning and wellness exam and checked out fine. Going to get him in next week for another visit to just rule out anything serious.

To be clear, this is not regurgitation. he licks lips, retches, and vomits 11-17 minutes after eating fancy feast. He does not do when when feeding only dry food. I have logged every feeding since sunday and it's stunning how predictable it has been.

At the vet exam i recommended testing for hyperthyroidism. Vomiting food can be an estly sign. It can develop quickly in older cats.

It couls also be an acid issue. Dry food soaks up liquid in the tummy. So it could be soaking up the acid and allowing food to be kept down. Wet food would not do that. You could test this by giving a little dry and tsp of wet alongside one another.

 

[FrazzledMumbly]

I've noticed a lot of different brands have been hit or miss lately and I kind of put it down to storage and transit issues, maybe too much temperature fluctuation. Could be that removing preservatives made the food more sensitive to that kind of thing?

I had to stop feeding Max the Tiny Tiger brand from Chewy because the texture got too weird and greasy, made me feel like I was giving him spoiled food.

 

[dc_chica]

My 16-year old cat Boris just had issues eating Fancy Feast - without going into too much detail, it turns out that he potentially has other GI issues but it got really bad two weeks ago (he occasionally barfs, but I could tell this time was different). After several trips to the vet and emergency vet, he's stable and taking 2 anti-nausea meds for now (in addition to a steroid he was already taking for his asthma and something for high blood pressure). He's improving, and based on what you said I suspect that your cat and mine have developed a food intolerance/allergy to something in the FF.

My vet recommended that I try the specialty foods for cats with GI issues (i.e. "for sensitive stomachs"), so I went to PetCo and I bought 2 cans of each of the different varieties they had - luckily my cats liked the Purina One chicken and arctic char pates, and the Royal Canin chunks in gravy ("Digestion") flavor out of the options (they didn't like any of the Hill's varieties). Both of my cats seem to be doing better now -- my other cat, 9-year old Natasha, had lost some weight recently too and was barfing occasionally which was unlike her (but unlike Boris, she has no underlying conditions and her bloodwork is fine).

Back in 2018-2019 when I adopted these two I tried switching them from FF to a higher quality brand (including Weruva) a few times, but they didn't like anything else I offered them, so I'm very happy that they liked these other brands. They've been on strictly canned for a few years now out of concern that Boris was showing signs of kidney disease, but I just bought a bag of the Royal Canin Sensitive Digestion dry food and them seem to like it so I've been putting out small portions of it.

One of the potential diagnoses for Boris is IBD, which I just learned can show up with vomiting as the primary symptom, but for you I would definitely try switching away from FF first in case it's just a food allergy/intolerance (in DC, an abdominal ultrasound costs $700-800 and based on what I've learned, a subsequent biopsy is typically needed to confirm a diagnosis of IBD, which I'm sure also costs $$$). My vet commented that eating FF is the human equivalent of eating a Big Mac, so as our kitties get older it's probably a good idea to try to get them on something healthier if we can (I had always heard that Fancy Feast was fine quality-wise, but maybe not!)

 

[SunshineKitten00]

My cat eats fancy feast for almost a month now (tender liver and chicken classic pate). It’s usually fine with her but sometimes she’ll thrown up because she eats something from the garbage. Maybe your cat managed to sneak other food before eating ff? Try feeding him ff in a crate/cage/carrier. Put him in in the cage 1 hour before feeding time and let him out 1 hour after feeding. This will rule out sneaking foods.