Royal Canin canned rabbit. What to do now (EGC)? [Updated post #6]

[burkey]

We were all set to start a food trial with one of our cats, George, this weekend. Our vet prescribed Royal Canin Selected Protein Rabbit. The vet had the dry kibble in stock, so we've already started transitioning the dry portion of his diet. The vet placed an order for the canned which was supposed to arrive at the end of this week, or so we thought.

Today I received a message from the vet stating that Royal Canin is not currently producing ANY canned rabbit. And that we should use the canned venison or duck, instead. (At the appointment last weekend we were told the Venison was in short supply...so not sure why they are offering it now.) This after we've already bought the dry rabbit and started using it.... I thought the point of a food trial was a single protein anyway.

I'm at a loss over what to use now. His food trial needs to last a minimum of 6 weeks, 10 weeks or more if he's doing well. If I pick another Royal Canin protein, I have no confidence that I'll be able to get more when we finish the first batch. They're obviously having some big issues, with the change in dry formula to add hydrolyzed soy in place of some of the animal protein, etc.

Any suggestions?  His current diet is almost entirely chicken based, with the occasional turkey. So I'm thinking it would be a really good idea to avoid all poultry completely.  I've already looked into commercial rabbit canned, and NVI contains pork fat, Hound & Gatos contains duck liver, etc...

We adopted him as a certified kibble addict. And these last few weeks we've had some success getting more wet/canned food into his diet, but it's been with a lot of effort and bribery on our part. I had thought briefly about raw or home cooked, but have ZERO confidence that he'd happily eat enough to meet his daily needs, if at all.  Hmmm.

Just a bit flustered because I'd hoped to get him started on the food trial, like yesterday. 

I really want to avoid any more steroid usage for a while, if at all possible (he's 7 months, and already had 3 depomedrol injections for eosinophilic granuloma complex). A food trial is the next step in the process of hopefully revealing the source of his issues.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Well, I'm wondering if your Vet (or you) could call Royal Canin and find out if they still have a supply of the rabbit to sell.  Even though they are not currently producing any doesn't mean there isn't some out there still to be sold.  There could be plenty on shelves waiting to be purchased. 

Another option might be Wysong's Au Jus.  It's Rabbit and only Rabbit.  As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure it's 100% nutritionally complete.  You could call them and find out.  Here is the link to this product.   http://www.wysong.net/products/aujus-natural-healthy-dog-cat-ferret-food.php    They have different Au jus', including duck and venison.  Perhaps this will fit the bill?  And if it needs supplementation, I know Wysong sells that too, because I use it for one of my cats that I feed raw to.

 

[burkey]

The vet stated that Royal Canin contacted them stating they had no canned rabbit, and were not currently making any, thus could not fulfill their request. They made it sound like they order directly from Royal Canin, and that it was RC who told them this info.

Thank you for the Wysong recommendation. I will look into that to see if it's an option.

 

[goholistic]

I just talked to Royal Canin earlier today to ask about the canned rabbit formula, and they didn't mention anything about it not being produced.

Okay, I just called them again, and they said it is still being produced. It was only the venison dry that had shortages recently, but that is resolving.

You can contact them directly if you want, and maybe have them clarify the situation with your vet: http://www.royalcanin.us/contact-us (the Technical Services phone number is their Customer Care number)

 

[burkey]

Thank you very much for that information! I listened to the message from my vet again, and I wasn't hearing things... they did indeed state Royal Canin contacted them. It'll be interesting to see how the conversation goes when I return their call. I think we are going to get a copy of the prescription from the vet, and try to source the food ourselves from a well-known online retailer.

Thanks again, everyone's been most helpful.  Hopefully we'll get the food trial underway soon, and I can stop feeling like I'm running in circles over the issue.

 

[burkey]

UPDATE: We also called Royal Canin using the info at the link GoHolistic provided, and were also told that they ARE indeed producing the PR canned, and have it in stock for ordering, that it is fully available to vets & other retailers, etc. So we called a couple local PetSmart's... they carry it, and have plenty in stock. 

I have NO idea what the issue is with our vet. We've used them (happily) for the last 12 years for our previous dogs, but this is the first time we've had to deal with prescription food. We're going to call this afternoon and get our hands on George's prescription and buy it elsewhere.

Thank you again.

Edited to add: I went to edit my original post in this thread to indicate that my vet was misinformed so no one who might also be using this food thinks there's a problem. But, discovered I can't edit it for some reason (the pencil isn't there). Hopefully everyone will read down this far and realize that we were sent on a goose chase, and that there aren't supply issues with this food. Sorry about that.

 

[jcat]

Edited to add: I went to edit my original post in this thread to indicate that my vet was misinformed so no one who might also be using this food thinks there's a problem. But, discovered I can't edit it for some reason (the pencil isn't there). Hopefully everyone will read down this far and realize that we were sent on a goose chase, and that there aren't supply issues with this food. Sorry about that.

I've changed the thread title slightly and stressed that there's an update in post #6.

 

[goholistic]

@Burkey, just make sure you have a back-up plan in case the Royal Canin canned rabbit doesn't work out for whatever reason. Sebastian took to it right away, but we started the food at the same time as starting him on prednisolone (a steroid), so the pred alone gave him an increased appetite.

Sebastian has GI issues and the past few weeks have been a struggle. After being on it for five months, this week he completely stopped eating the Royal Canin Selected Protein PR canned and dry. I'm not saying don't get the food! Luckily, I had other commercial rabbit foods on hand that I could offer him without veering too far away from the novel protein. (I can't worry about cross-contamination right now.) The abrupt change in foods (including the introduction of raw) has given him diarrhea, however.

 

[burkey]

That's very good advice, GoHolistic!  I'm sorry to hear that Sebastian has been put-off by the PR recently, and I hope things resolve. I'm slowly learning how frustrating dietary challenges can be....and I don't even know yet if food is the culprit in George's EGC. I'm actually hoping that it is, because really the other possibilities would be even more frustrating to deal with... pollen, dust, never discovering the culprit at all, etc.

George is already happily eating the PR dry. We've been slowly introducing it to him this week, and we're at about 75% PR & 25% old. We'll go to 100% either tomorrow or Sunday.  I'm hoping he'll eat at least some of the PR canned at each meal, too. But worst case scenario, we'll let him have 100% PR kibble and when the trial is over we can start working again to get wet food back into his diet.

As far as back-up plans go, I had considered using Nature's Variety Instinct LID Rabbit kibble instead of the Royal Canin PR at one point. I've got that on the back burner to try, if he decides he doesn't like the PR kibble at some point. As for an alternate wet...other than leaving the canned out completely, I'm not sure what I'll do.  I'm very interested in raw feeding at some point down the line, and I've learned in another thread that I can get ground rabbit...so that would be an option, if I'm ready to take that plunge. If he goes off rabbit all together... I think venison would be the next best option. Fingers crossed the next few months will go smoothly, but I'm glad to be thinking a little ahead if we hit bumps in the road.

Again, hope Sebastian is feeling good again soon. I have really appreciated your help with this stuff!

 

[sweetpea24]

We were all set to start a food trial with one of our cats, George, this weekend. Our vet prescribed Royal Canin Selected Protein Rabbit. The vet had the dry kibble in stock, so we've already started transitioning the dry portion of his diet. The vet placed an order for the canned which was supposed to arrive at the end of this week, or so we thought.

Today I received a message from the vet stating that Royal Canin is not currently producing ANY canned rabbit. And that we should use the canned venison or duck, instead. (At the appointment last weekend we were told the Venison was in short supply...so not sure why they are offering it now.) This after we've already bought the dry rabbit and started using it.... I thought the point of a food trial was a single protein anyway.

I'm at a loss over what to use now. His food trial needs to last a minimum of 6 weeks, 10 weeks or more if he's doing well. If I pick another Royal Canin protein, I have no confidence that I'll be able to get more when we finish the first batch. They're obviously having some big issues, with the change in dry formula to add hydrolyzed soy in place of some of the animal protein, etc.

Any suggestions?  His current diet is almost entirely chicken based, with the occasional turkey. So I'm thinking it would be a really good idea to avoid all poultry completely.  I've already looked into commercial rabbit canned, and NVI contains pork fat, Hound & Gatos contains duck liver, etc...

We adopted him as a certified kibble addict. And these last few weeks we've had some success getting more wet/canned food into his diet, but it's been with a lot of effort and bribery on our part. I had thought briefly about raw or home cooked, but have ZERO confidence that he'd happily eat enough to meet his daily needs, if at all.  Hmmm.

Just a bit flustered because I'd hoped to get him started on the food trial, like yesterday.  I really want to avoid any more steroid usage for a while, if at all possible (he's 7 months, and already had 3 depomedrol injections for eosinophilic granuloma complex). A food trial is the next step in the process of hopefully revealing the source of his issues.

Iams makes a prescription kangaroo diet...maybe ask your vet about that. I think it's called KO.

 

[cprcheetah]

Just as a side note, my dad has a cat with severe EGC, he added Lysine to his regimen as well as Microlactin and is seeing a difference in his kitty, who has to have high doses  of steroids to keep his under control usually.  Food trial didn't work for his cat.   But in 40 years of being a vet Petey is the worst case of EGC he has ever seen.  Probably why he is his cat   I do know of several kitties who did quite well on food trials with EGC though.  I wish you luck with your kitty.

 

[goholistic]

Iams makes a prescription kangaroo diet...maybe ask your vet about that. I think it's called KO.

I looked this up, and for some reason it seems as though the KO is only available for dogs.

Here are the cat products: http://www.iams.com/cat-food/buy-now/iams-veteranary-formula

Looks like they have an "LB" for cats, which is lamb and barley. The barley could be an allergen in of itself, so I don't know about this. 

 

[goholistic]

@Burkey, have you started the Royal Canin canned rabbit, yet? How are things going?

I've had to start Sebastian on it again because he developed a reaction to the other food I was feeding him when he started refusing the RC.

 

[burkey]

This Monday will be two weeks since we started the food trial. George vehemently despises the RC canned rabbit. If I'm really lucky, I can sometimes convince him to eat some if I dilute it with a ton of water, but for the most part he's eating just the RC dry rabbit kibble. All our work the first few weeks after we adopted him, to get him to start eating some canned....out the window! Thankfully George is a water drinker, or I'd be really perturbed with the current situation.  I keep reminding myself that I should be happy he's at least willing to eat the kibble, because if he wasn't I don't know what we would have done for this food trial. He's not thrilled with it, but is getting the minimum he needs each day. As a growing kitten (8 months now), I do wish he'd eat more. He's rather slender as it is.

What food did you try Sebastian on, that he didn't do well with? How's he doing back on the RC... willing to eat enough of it each day, I hope?

 

[goholistic]

LOL....sorry he doesn't like the canned rabbit. I do hope after the trial that you can revisit George's diet and incorporate wet food again. An all-dry diet is really tough on the GI and urinary systems, and of particular concern is with George being male, they are more prone to urinary blockages. If you have access to rabbit meat, you could offer him some boneless cooked (or raw) rabbit meat as a treat in between dry meals. You wouldn't have to supplement it as long as it's not making up a significant portion of his diet.

I was giving Sebastian Hound & Gatos Rabbit when he stopped eating the RC. He really liked it. It contains duck liver, however. He had an allergic reaction (see post # 541 in his thread for pictures), which I'm attributing to the duck or one of the gum thickeners. In order to address the allergic reaction, I put him back on RC. He was eating it really good for about five days, and then started rejecting it again this past Sunday. It seemed like the rash on his ear was starting to clear up, and now I have to give him something else again so that he'll eat.