I Think My Cat Suffered On High Quality Foods

[KarenKat]

Thanks, mizzely ! Trin's poops were very dark, and the vet said that it was common with rabbit foods but it makes me feel better knowing others had this. His smelled way better than when we had his other kibble (Natural Balance Green Pea and Chicken), but maybe now I my smell-scale is skewed.

 

[Furballsmom]

No two experiences are alike

you said a mouthful there!! (...which was an unintended pun LOL) and by the way -
I'm another who tried a multitude of different higher end foods, but finally after quite a long haul of it (three years plus if I remember correctly) have ended up with mostly grocery store brands in my cupboard.
No matter what I think about certain foods with a scary bad additive, he's eating and got weight back on him - he's no longer boney (he's healthy otherwise).

whew

 

[Ginger Tabby]

Ginger Tabby , I have a TMI question for you: Are your kitty's stools very dark in color on the NV LID? We started feeding the kibble and I would say we are at 70% dark chocolate color.

Yes, very dark stools. We only feed him wet. I remember at first being concerned that that Ginger was bleeding, but during that time, his stool was also tested. No blood, and the stools continued to be dark. Recently, his stool has occasionally been lighter. Not sure why, possibly different formula from NV LID.

 

[laura mae]

Wow! What a relief! I have tried a lot of different brands of food and most of the time the premiums are not as popular as the Purina foods, which get presented as "side dishes" to the uh, main course of expensive food.

I would have sure suspected allergies too based on all the symptoms. The stinky poo was probably some gut bacteria imbalance that the Friskies solved. And who knows, it could have been the supplements combo that Cannidae uses that was the problem and not the protein.

I switch up canned food brands between AM and PM and certainly day to day. I've never had a cat that has a problem with that, but dry food does have that effect for sure.

The licking does seem like an OCD thing. Then once there is a skin irritation, it creates more licking. I wonder if it will stop now that her tummy is more settled?

 

[mizzely]

The licking does seem like an OCD thing. Then once there is a skin irritation, it creates more licking. I wonder if it will stop now that her tummy is more settled?

Here's hoping. I keep watching her like a hawk to make sure it's not getting worse. Status quo I am tentatively okay with but worse is not where I want to be! So far no real change but its only been about 6 weeks with the Friskies.

 

[1 bruce 1]

So, we feed what works!!
One of my girls came to us on Purina Cat Chow. We transitioned to Taste of the Wild for cats and she had anal gland problems and explosive diarrhea, went back to PCC, things got a bit better, decided to just do a transition and within 2 weeks she was eating what everyone else was eating and was happy. Another one of ours was transitioned to our diet, did OK for awhile, and had diarrhea with constipation in between.
Cats, dogs, humans, I don't care....no two living things are exactly alike and a cat that's eating "good" food and puking, having diarrhea everywhere and not feeling well is worse off than a cat eating a "sub par" food that's thriving.
"High Quality Food" means 100 different things to 100 different people, everyone wants something different and finding a good balance can be rough.
Do what works and keep yourself educated in case some day what is working now no longer works, so you have a back up plan.

 

[maggiedemi]

Hi. I'm glad you found a canned food that works for your cat. It's so important to get moisture into them, so good job! My cats also had problems with a lot of the expensive foods. I think sometimes they take out things, but add other things back in that my cats are sensitive to. I don't think you can always trust the gimmicky claims. I ate an expensive organic soup the other day that tasted disgusting, like roadkill and chemicals. At the end of the day, it's still processed food. The only way to avoid all these so-called bad ingredients in cat food is to make it yourself, which I don't know how to do yet.

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh, eeeww, that is SUCH a description of a soup LOL

 

[maggiedemi]

Hee Hee. It was gross. And expensive!

 

[Green_Tea58]

Hee Hee. It was gross. And expensive!

Probably because it was organic... just like some cat foods, it's expensive because it has unnecessarily expensive ingredients and wouldn't cost that much if it didn't have 'em!

 

[rarepuss]

Some of what mizzely mentioned definitely took me right back to issues with my cat, described in posts on forum. I too solved it by going to a more high carb grocery type store food.

My cat would never eat a high-quality food to begin with, she would always rather starve, but she would eat fancy feast classic pate. When classic pate failed us, I took her to a highest carb version of fancy feast, McDonald’s so to speak. She’s 7 now. Fancy feast has been staple since I purchased her. Crazy in my mind, but in matter of days it fixed her.

Miraculously, it solved all the issues, some 0P talked about, specifically the stinky light colored poops and for me it was obsession with drinking water, for which I spent insane amount of money on my cat at the vet trying to figure out which disease she had.. which was none.

 

[mizzely]

rarepuss Omg yes the water! Now that you mention it, she was drinking a TON of water, even licking the tub immediately after a shower. I didn't even realize that she hasn't done this since the diet change. So interesting!

 

[maggiedemi]

rarepuss-- does your cat eat any dry food or just all canned food? I'm glad you found something that worked!