Hello, everyone.
My kitty started severe overgrooming during a stressful period.
He was diagnosed with FIP and we had to give him daily shots, more than half of them done at the vet.
Although his health was improving daily his mental health took a huge hit.
Severe anxiety, overgrooming, food aggression, neck and ear mutilation... You name it, he had it.
Thankfully we’ve switched to pills instead of shots and after quite a bit of TLC (and gabapentin) we seem to be putting it behind us.
The improvement is astounding. Still not 100% but we’ve came off of gabapentin just yesterday and he’s doing so well even without meds.
He has stopped the scratching and all his other anxiety induced symptoms have become almost non existent.
We’d been having quite a bit of a hairball problem due to the overgrooming.
I’m talking daily 5 inch hairballs vomited up and poop size and consistency fluctuations, probably due to blockage.
At the time, I immediately switched to Royal Canin Hairball Remedy wet food, got him the Greenies Hairball treats, 30 minutes of daily grooming, butter etc.
He’s a lot better now so I switched back to our usual diet which is a mix of Ziwi wet and dry and Royal Canin Instinctive but I’m still giving him the Greenies treats just in case.
Back when he was overgrooming, I blamed hairballs for his occasional mild diarrhea but now I think it’s because of Greenies.
He’s a big boy so I can apparently feed him 20 treats daily but I’ve recently halved the amount to 10-12 treats yet he still gets soft stool 6-8 hours after eating them.
His morning poop is perfect.
I feed him 10-12 treats with a puzzle feeder an hour or so after his breakfast, and boom, his evening poop is half normal and half mild diarrhea.
I experimented and gave him the treats after dinner and lo and behold, this time around his morning poop turned problematic.
I know Hairball remedies are supposed to basically lube the digestive tract up so things pass easily but greenies seem to work a bit too well.
Has anyone else had similar problems?
Obviously, I’ll be cutting them out of his diet and opting for butter if push comes to shove but I want some reassurance that I’ve identified the problem here.
Should I go as far as avoiding Greenies completely as a brand?
My kitty started severe overgrooming during a stressful period.
He was diagnosed with FIP and we had to give him daily shots, more than half of them done at the vet.
Although his health was improving daily his mental health took a huge hit.
Severe anxiety, overgrooming, food aggression, neck and ear mutilation... You name it, he had it.
Thankfully we’ve switched to pills instead of shots and after quite a bit of TLC (and gabapentin) we seem to be putting it behind us.
The improvement is astounding. Still not 100% but we’ve came off of gabapentin just yesterday and he’s doing so well even without meds.
He has stopped the scratching and all his other anxiety induced symptoms have become almost non existent.
We’d been having quite a bit of a hairball problem due to the overgrooming.
I’m talking daily 5 inch hairballs vomited up and poop size and consistency fluctuations, probably due to blockage.
At the time, I immediately switched to Royal Canin Hairball Remedy wet food, got him the Greenies Hairball treats, 30 minutes of daily grooming, butter etc.
He’s a lot better now so I switched back to our usual diet which is a mix of Ziwi wet and dry and Royal Canin Instinctive but I’m still giving him the Greenies treats just in case.
Back when he was overgrooming, I blamed hairballs for his occasional mild diarrhea but now I think it’s because of Greenies.
He’s a big boy so I can apparently feed him 20 treats daily but I’ve recently halved the amount to 10-12 treats yet he still gets soft stool 6-8 hours after eating them.
His morning poop is perfect.
I feed him 10-12 treats with a puzzle feeder an hour or so after his breakfast, and boom, his evening poop is half normal and half mild diarrhea.
I experimented and gave him the treats after dinner and lo and behold, this time around his morning poop turned problematic.
I know Hairball remedies are supposed to basically lube the digestive tract up so things pass easily but greenies seem to work a bit too well.
Has anyone else had similar problems?
Obviously, I’ll be cutting them out of his diet and opting for butter if push comes to shove but I want some reassurance that I’ve identified the problem here.
Should I go as far as avoiding Greenies completely as a brand?
