Hello everyone,
This is going to be a bit of a long one - fair warning!
I have heard about the benefits of a raw diet in dogs and cats for a long time, but never got the opportunity to try it until now (well, sort of).
A month ago I adopted a (almost) 10 year old cat named Sinbad. I knew I didn't want him on dry food, so we began transitioning him to the Innova wet formula right away. He seemed to handle getting two meals of that a day pretty well (at least in the poop department), but I noticed that if I didn't leave out some kibble for him to munch on throughout the day, he would vomit. The vomiting was happening every morning after he would eat breakfast, and once in a while at other times. The vet decided to just put him back on whatever he was on at the shelter (Purina blend with mostly cat chow free fed) until his stomach settled down. I did this begrudgingly (I really wanted him to get better nutrition), and the vomiting seemed to stop for awhile. Two weeks ago, my partner and I slept in and Sinbad hung out with us instead of going down to eat his breakfast at ~7 as normal. He probably ate around 10, and threw up soon after. He then threw up twice more in the next few hours, and one of those times was projectile clear liquid EVERYWHERE. I have no idea how he even drank that much water without us noticing. So, we called the vet again and took him in. We had planned on doing some blood work to rule out IBD, but since he had gained weight since we adopted him (he was underweight when we got him), the vet decided we should try better nutrition before doing more tests. (I should mention that when we took him for his initial checkup his bloodwork and urinalysis was great, but they did not check for signatures of IBD.)
So on the vet's suggestion, I went to PetPeople and talked with them about Sinbad's issues and what was the best course of action. I was planning on doing half wet/half dry (I am a poor graduate student and really can't afford to pay for high quality wet for both meals), but when I saw that Primal was actually cheaper than the wet food they carried, I decided to give that a shot. The plan was to do Evo kibble in the morning and Primal in the evening. The saleswoman (who said she was pre-vet and explained that all employees at PetPeople must take extensive pet nutrition courses) suggested that I make the switch cold turkey. This contradicting all of my instincts and my better judgement as an animal owner, but I decided to follow her suggestion since she was the expert. I figured that maybe some loose stools were better than throwing up all the time.
Now, Sinbad is pretty miserable. He ate the first two servings of Evo just fine (we did Evo at night the first day since there wasn't sufficient time for the Primal to defrost) and was hungry and looking for more all day yesterday. His poops were looking good and I began wondering if everything I've ever been taught about switching food gradually was inaccurate. Then, last night, he had two pieces of kibble and promptly threw up all over - more clear liquid and one piece of the kibble. I hoped it would pass, but he proceeded to throw up all over our bed and then all over the couch. He has never thrown up in the places where he sleeps like that, so I am assuming he was really feeling horrible. He also had liquid diarrhea in the litter box. Since he was so sick, we decided to hold off on the Primal and just get him used to the Evo, so he got more of that last night. Sometime during then night he finished most of the kibble so he must have started to feel better. This morning he ate a little without throwing up.
I just got home from work and there are no new surprises, but I heard him go in the litter box and it was pure torture. The poor thing is literally defecating liquid, and it sounds like it must be horribly painful. He has also not eaten any of his remaining kibble from this morning. He greeted me at the door, but he is not himself. He is sleeping comfortably right now at least.
So to recap, I switched my cat cold turkey from Purina cat chow to Evo and there have been explosive consequences. It's important to note that he has not had any of the Primal at all.
The vet told us we should give him Pepto as needed, so we are going to pick that up tonight.
I feel so horrible because Sinbad is paying the price for me not going with my gut. I am tempted to just switch him back to the Purina and start over, but I don't know if that would just make things worse. Eventually, I want him to be on Primal twice a day with no kibble whatsoever. Right now, I'd settle for anything as long as he is not suffering.
The saleslady said that when cats are switched from a food that contains gluten to a gluten-free product, they shed some lining of it in their stomach and to be prepared for that. Is that what all of this is about? What is your advice for how to salvage this transition as best I can?
I know this is not exclusively about raw food, but in my experience owners that feed raw are very knowledgeable and I would appreciate the help of that knowledge base. Plus the goal is to get him on raw in the end, so some suggestions for that transition would be really helpful as well.
Thanks everybody. Here's a picture of my sweet old man.
This is going to be a bit of a long one - fair warning!
I have heard about the benefits of a raw diet in dogs and cats for a long time, but never got the opportunity to try it until now (well, sort of).
A month ago I adopted a (almost) 10 year old cat named Sinbad. I knew I didn't want him on dry food, so we began transitioning him to the Innova wet formula right away. He seemed to handle getting two meals of that a day pretty well (at least in the poop department), but I noticed that if I didn't leave out some kibble for him to munch on throughout the day, he would vomit. The vomiting was happening every morning after he would eat breakfast, and once in a while at other times. The vet decided to just put him back on whatever he was on at the shelter (Purina blend with mostly cat chow free fed) until his stomach settled down. I did this begrudgingly (I really wanted him to get better nutrition), and the vomiting seemed to stop for awhile. Two weeks ago, my partner and I slept in and Sinbad hung out with us instead of going down to eat his breakfast at ~7 as normal. He probably ate around 10, and threw up soon after. He then threw up twice more in the next few hours, and one of those times was projectile clear liquid EVERYWHERE. I have no idea how he even drank that much water without us noticing. So, we called the vet again and took him in. We had planned on doing some blood work to rule out IBD, but since he had gained weight since we adopted him (he was underweight when we got him), the vet decided we should try better nutrition before doing more tests. (I should mention that when we took him for his initial checkup his bloodwork and urinalysis was great, but they did not check for signatures of IBD.)
So on the vet's suggestion, I went to PetPeople and talked with them about Sinbad's issues and what was the best course of action. I was planning on doing half wet/half dry (I am a poor graduate student and really can't afford to pay for high quality wet for both meals), but when I saw that Primal was actually cheaper than the wet food they carried, I decided to give that a shot. The plan was to do Evo kibble in the morning and Primal in the evening. The saleswoman (who said she was pre-vet and explained that all employees at PetPeople must take extensive pet nutrition courses) suggested that I make the switch cold turkey. This contradicting all of my instincts and my better judgement as an animal owner, but I decided to follow her suggestion since she was the expert. I figured that maybe some loose stools were better than throwing up all the time.
Now, Sinbad is pretty miserable. He ate the first two servings of Evo just fine (we did Evo at night the first day since there wasn't sufficient time for the Primal to defrost) and was hungry and looking for more all day yesterday. His poops were looking good and I began wondering if everything I've ever been taught about switching food gradually was inaccurate. Then, last night, he had two pieces of kibble and promptly threw up all over - more clear liquid and one piece of the kibble. I hoped it would pass, but he proceeded to throw up all over our bed and then all over the couch. He has never thrown up in the places where he sleeps like that, so I am assuming he was really feeling horrible. He also had liquid diarrhea in the litter box. Since he was so sick, we decided to hold off on the Primal and just get him used to the Evo, so he got more of that last night. Sometime during then night he finished most of the kibble so he must have started to feel better. This morning he ate a little without throwing up.
I just got home from work and there are no new surprises, but I heard him go in the litter box and it was pure torture. The poor thing is literally defecating liquid, and it sounds like it must be horribly painful. He has also not eaten any of his remaining kibble from this morning. He greeted me at the door, but he is not himself. He is sleeping comfortably right now at least.
So to recap, I switched my cat cold turkey from Purina cat chow to Evo and there have been explosive consequences. It's important to note that he has not had any of the Primal at all.
The vet told us we should give him Pepto as needed, so we are going to pick that up tonight.
I feel so horrible because Sinbad is paying the price for me not going with my gut. I am tempted to just switch him back to the Purina and start over, but I don't know if that would just make things worse. Eventually, I want him to be on Primal twice a day with no kibble whatsoever. Right now, I'd settle for anything as long as he is not suffering.
The saleslady said that when cats are switched from a food that contains gluten to a gluten-free product, they shed some lining of it in their stomach and to be prepared for that. Is that what all of this is about? What is your advice for how to salvage this transition as best I can?
I know this is not exclusively about raw food, but in my experience owners that feed raw are very knowledgeable and I would appreciate the help of that knowledge base. Plus the goal is to get him on raw in the end, so some suggestions for that transition would be really helpful as well.
Thanks everybody. Here's a picture of my sweet old man.