A bit of background: I adopted Gizmo when he was just under 3 months from an animal shelter a town over. Admittedly I hadn't asked them hardly any questions about him aside from when he was due for his next round of vaccinations and I went off on my way. Initially, they had him on Hill's Ideal Balance dry kitten food and I switched him over to Merrick Healthy Bistro dry kitten food, but after only about a month switched him to Fancy Feast turkey canned food for kittens. His stool has always been soft even when I first brought him home. After switching him to an all wet diet, he had a bad bout of diarrhea that he was put on metronidazol for and it cleared up. End of January/early February he had another bout of sickness and wasn't able to keep any food down so after another trip to the vet he was put on anti-nausea medication and a bland diet of boiled chicken for a couple weeks to see if it helped. Everything was wonderful until the tail end of the two week period where his stool began to get a little soft again and I began to suspect maybe he had an intolerance to poultry and the expensive (and unnecessary) switch to Hill's I/D didn't fix anything.
Since then I've had him on Redbarn Beef and Lamb pate and Ziwipeak venison pate and his stools have been as normal as I'd ever seen them, though still a bit soft and very large. He passes them with no issues, though he sure does make a lot of gassy noise back there and he goes quite frequently, I'd say 3-4 times a day. Yesterday I gave him I and Love and You rabbit pate and noticed he had diarrhea. This of course confused me since I thought his issue was with poultry! I researched every single label of every single wet food I'd ever given him and noticed that the cans that gave him the most trouble had guar gum, xantham gum, and any other number of gums in it. He hasn't had his I and Love and You rabbit pate at all today and his stool is back to soft but formed again just like it was before. I know agar agar is the better of the thickening agents but is it possible that the reason his stool is still a bit soft is because of it being included in his Redbarn and Ziwipeak canned foods?
Long story short, I'm just curious if anyone else's kitties have a sensitivity to these thickening agents. After learning about Hare-Today I am strongly considering making the switch over to raw to see if it beats these tummy troubles once and for all.
Since then I've had him on Redbarn Beef and Lamb pate and Ziwipeak venison pate and his stools have been as normal as I'd ever seen them, though still a bit soft and very large. He passes them with no issues, though he sure does make a lot of gassy noise back there and he goes quite frequently, I'd say 3-4 times a day. Yesterday I gave him I and Love and You rabbit pate and noticed he had diarrhea. This of course confused me since I thought his issue was with poultry! I researched every single label of every single wet food I'd ever given him and noticed that the cans that gave him the most trouble had guar gum, xantham gum, and any other number of gums in it. He hasn't had his I and Love and You rabbit pate at all today and his stool is back to soft but formed again just like it was before. I know agar agar is the better of the thickening agents but is it possible that the reason his stool is still a bit soft is because of it being included in his Redbarn and Ziwipeak canned foods?
Long story short, I'm just curious if anyone else's kitties have a sensitivity to these thickening agents. After learning about Hare-Today I am strongly considering making the switch over to raw to see if it beats these tummy troubles once and for all.
