Is Royal Canin Prescription Wet Food Making Him Vomit?

[ginnyj]

My 9 year old indoor cat is throwing up his food almost every single day! I have had cats for 35 years and they were on dry food and didn't do this. When my last cat had old age kidney problems the vet put him on prescription wet food. To make it easier on me I put this 9 year old on the same food but it's time to get him off of it and back onto dry food. Dry food is so much easier on me!

Routine tests were done at the vet recently which showed no problems. The vet's answer was to change the wet food again to another Royal Canin variety and if that doesn't work to give him an antacid before meals. The change didn't work and I just want to get off of this expensive hard to find food!!

I am getting so tired of cleaning up vomit, frequently on my furniture! (Yes I cover my furniture, really pretty...)

I know the reason for the vomiting can be when he eats too fast or if he has a hairball mixed in but the one I found this morning appears to be neither of those. I think the Royal Canin GI High Energy is just too rich for him.

Please help me, please let me know it's ok to go back to dry food and suggest a good quality. I can't live with this kitty for another 9 years with this going on.

Thank you!

 

[maggiedemi]

Is there a reason that he has to have special canned food? My cats usually don't throw up from canned cat food, it's usually the dry food I have problems with. I do about half wet food, half dry food.

 

[ginny]

Canned low-carb food is best for cats. No fillers like rice or potato or peas. Dry food is not species appropriate for cats because it's too high in carbs while too low in protein and moisture. Plus high carb can lead to diabetes (one of my kitties is now diabetic) and overweight too. Dry food doesn't help their teeth either, regardless what marketers say. Have you tried just plain commercial foods like canned Fancy Feast, Friskies, 9Lives, or Sheba? They aren't expensive and if you use the pate or classic variety it'll be low carb too.

Maybe you're right that the Royal Canin is just too rich. I've never tried it before. It's possible he's allergic to one of the proteins in the food too, but the only way to find that out is to do an elimination diet. Poor kitty! I hope you can find a food he will eat and keep down!

 

[mizzely]

My cat Jasmine started doing this last year. Turns out she developed an allergy to chicken. She vomits a lot less when eating canned vs dry food, but I've had to completely eliminate chicken from her diet.

 

[ginnyj]

Thank you for your speedy replies; you guys are the best!

The idea of him being allergic to the protein in the food is interesting and something I'll pay attention to. I will go back to the Fancy Feast type. When I tried switching him to FF he vomited but maybe that was because of the change in foods. Do you recommending switching slowly over a few days?

Here's what my vet recommended today (that's a doctor for you, never focus on food!!)

I recommend we diagnose Jersey's vomiting with an exam and some more tests- specifically targeted at diagnosing or ruling out likely inflammatory disease first. I'd take xrays and do an abdominal ultrasound here next Tuesday with our radiologist and run a pancreatitis blood test.

I'll stick with switching foods for now and being aware what is in it.

Thanks again!!
ginny

 

[mizzely]

It definitely could be inflammatory. The Fancy Feast doesn't have grains, right? Or just rice at least? Royal Canin I believe has more grains which could be part of the problem too.

 

[ginnyj]

Thank you for your speedy replies; you guys are the best!

The idea of him being allergic to the protein in the food is interesting and something I'll pay attention to. I will go back to the Fancy Feast type. When I tried switching him to FF he vomited but maybe that was because of the change in foods. Do you recommending switching slowly over a few days?

Here's what my vet recommended today (that's a doctor for you, never focus on food!!)

I recommend we diagnose Jersey's vomiting with an exam and some more tests- specifically targeted at diagnosing or ruling out likely inflammatory disease first. I'd take xrays and do an abdominal ultrasound here next Tuesday with our radiologist and run a pancreatitis blood test.

 

[valentine319]

Here are the ingredients. It's highly possible there's an allergy to something.

Loaf in Gel
Water sufficient for processing, chicken, chicken liver, corn flour, rice flour, chicken by-product, pork plasma, powdered cellulose, fish oil, potassium chloride, sodium silico aluminate, natural flavors, sodium tripolyphosphate, carob bean gum, taurine, calcium sulfate, hydrolyzed yeast, carrageenan, choline chloride, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), niacin supplement, biotin, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement], magnesium oxide, trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, calcium iodate], marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.).

 

[ginnyj]

Thanks for listing the ingredients, I just looked also.

His long time vet did bloodwork a couple of weeks ago, a urine test, and a physical. Since the problem continues now he wants to do bloodwork $134, xray 217, ultrasound 580 for total of close to $900!

 

[valentine319]

It might be more food intolerance.
Dietary Reactions in Cats there are allergies and intolerance

What diagnosis was kitty given when put on this specific food? I'm assuming it's just because you're other cat was having kidney issues and you just switched them both?

Of the testing done so far did anything come back abnormal?

 

[ginny]

Thank you for your speedy replies; you guys are the best!

The idea of him being allergic to the protein in the food is interesting and something I'll pay attention to. I will go back to the Fancy Feast type. When I tried switching him to FF he vomited but maybe that was because of the change in foods. Do you recommending switching slowly over a few days?

Here's what my vet recommended today (that's a doctor for you, never focus on food!!)

I recommend we diagnose Jersey's vomiting with an exam and some more tests- specifically targeted at diagnosing or ruling out likely inflammatory disease first. I'd take xrays and do an abdominal ultrasound here next Tuesday with our radiologist and run a pancreatitis blood test.

I'll stick with switching foods for now and being aware what is in it.

Thanks again!!
ginny

Boy you hit the nail on the head when you said they "never focus on food". It usually is the food, the most likely cause. Or at least it's the first place you'd look before throwing all kinds of tests at the poor kitty. Human doctors aren't any different though, although there are some smart vets and human doctors catching on

And yes it's best to do a slow switch. My goodness when I switched THEIR WATER, I had to go slowly. I had been giving them city water, which is horrible of course, but when I switched to filtered water I had to slowly mix in the filtered in SLOWLY in increments (1/4, 1/2, 3/4...). But at first I just filled their bowls to the brim with filtered water thinking well it's just water. But I came back to find someone had thrown up in the water, eww. So some kitties are more sensitive than others about switching, so it's best to move slow. Hope your kitty gets better soon!

If he doesn't get better soon, I'd say maybe then another vet visit is called for.

 

[orange&white]

You have my permission to change his food and see if it helps.

Seriously though, I would definitely pick a new food with a different base protein before spending a thousand dollars on more tests. If that doesn't help, then go for testing.

 

[ginnyj]

Good Morning to all!

Sorry I didn't see the last couple of messages until now.

Yes I put him on prescription Royal Canin when my other cat needed it, the vet said that was ok.

Labs so far are normal.

Opps, I'm not going slow with the food change, I just gave him a small amount of the new food, Friskies Pate, a couple of times yesterday and so far all is well.

I wonder if he was telling me he didn't like the old food.....a few times I saw him walk to the bowl with a fresh spoonful and he would walk away but did return later. Other times I saw dried food in the bowl in the morning meaning he hadn't finished the small portion I gave him at bedtime. I am thinking he didn't like it!

As a thank you to all who have helped me with this problem I want to share a website with you. Actually I'll share two. This first one is a site I found years ago but still haven't read most of it. This is not her home page, go to catinfo.org.

http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChartPrint.pdf

The second one is a website I've been enjoying for years, GardenWeb. They have forums on many topics, of course lots of garden topics but under their "Home Site" everything from cooking to computers to car repairs etc. You'll love it I'm sure.

The GardenWeb Forums - GardenWeb

Thanks again for your wisdom!
Ginny

 

[ginny]

It really sounds like he didn't like the food if he's already taking the Friskies well. That's great! Cats are funny. One of mine just about went on a hunger strike when I eliminated fish from their diet. Luckily when I switched them all over to low carb and no wheat (her favorite was FF flaky tuna which has wheat in it) she kept on eating! Thank you for the links! Actually there's an updated PFC content just put up by Dr. Lisa in March this year (on the feline diabetes website): http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf