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- Nov 15, 2014
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Hi all,
I will try to keep this short, but I figured some background would help with any advise or comments. It will be longer than I want, since I am stressing.
We have 4 cats. Three are siblings that I trapped as kittens when their mom weaned them and brought them to me (after I had fed her dry food and water when I had no clue she was pregnant). For reference, they are named Tigger, Little One, and Junie-Junie being the only female. I believe that Tigger has IBS but not sure about IBD, as his bouts of diarrhea seem to coincide with change/stress/life events, iike when my daughter moved to college, when we changed bedrooms, when we started bringing in boxes from my mom's when we were trying to sell the house, etc. The fourth cat is Loki. He was my mom's cat, and we took him right before she ended up moving into assisted living.
This post is mostly about Loki, who lived in my mom's bedroom for the 6 or so years she had him (she took him in after apparently he was abandoned after neighbors were evicted from the rental home a couple of doors down). Loki was free fed dry Science Diet when we got him here. My cats were on 90% wet food at the time and on timed feedings, so I knew he could never been incorporated into the home without eating wet. Also, we lost a cat to renal failure before, so I wanted him off the dry. At that time, my cats were eating Nutro, Nature's Variety Instinct, and Weruva (with only the rare treat of fish in the mix). It took me a few months to get Loki to recognize wet food as food, but his first full meal of wet was Nutro minced shrimp and chicken. He has been a foodie ever since, to the point that, when he did finally get run of the house, we have had him steal our food. He has been obsessed with food, and I have wondered if I was feeding enough food to him several times. He was overweight at 12 pounds when we got him, and the change to wet did cause him to lose some weight but not be too thin.
A year ago, due to having to sell my mother's home, we moved my brother and his dog in with us (as my brother had lived with my mom, and you have to take care of family). Unfortunately, this was very stressful for everyone, especially the cats. The dog is young and not well trained and a larger dog, and it was not safe to let the cats out in the house when she was out. We now live in shifts, where the cats get to come out of the two bedrooms they live in when the dog goes to bed. I do work from home and my office is in the bedroom where the three sibling cats are (which has a gated door so they can at least see and hear the people in the rest of the house), but Loki is often confined to my daughter's room alone (though my daughter graduated college and moved back home, she does work part-time). With all the change, the IBS reared its ugly head, and the Weruva flavors now also caused diarrhea, to the point where I was rinsing the gravy off. I started reading about some cats having issues with the gums in foods, and the Instinct line seemed okay--until they the formula change at the end of 2017. Suddenly, I had two cats with basically no food options. For a while, Loki was able to eat the Instinct LID Turkey as his only food, but then he developed constipation (not sure if that was due to the clay in it or just another stress reaction).
Desperate for food to feed the cats, I did some research, looking for something not made in Thailand, as Tiki, Fussy Cat, and Weruva all seemed to cause diarrhea, and I was trying to avoid gums. I read here about some people having good results with Lotus Just Juicy, and since it was close to the boiled chicken and baby food I was feeding to at least feed something that did not cause diarrhea (though I knew I could not feed that for long without the nutrients), I found a store locally that carried it and tried the chicken, pork, and turkey. Thankfully, all four cats have been able to eat it and done well for the last 3 months! With the bouts of diarrhea, Tigger and Loki had both lost weight and were down to 5 pounds (ugh!), after being on Lotus Just Juicy only for 2 months, all four cats were at a better weight (Tigger up to 9 pounds and Loki up to 8).
Unfortunately, Lotus is expensive, and with our college loans for my daughters coming due in months, I started doing trials to find other food options. Also, I have had times where funds were low and I found myself stretching foods, feeding less. In addition, I have been working more and have had times when I only got in 2 meals before collapsing into bed. Because of the high carb content of Lotus Just Juicy (my calculations show it to be 25% on a dry matter basis--someone please correct me if i did that wrong), I think these factors caused Loki to lose weight (in addition to just being a more active cat, as I think he sleeps less than the other three cats and frets more about what he is missing in the house when he is locked up). In addition. Loki is older than my cats. The vet estimate is that he is around 9-10, where my 3 siblings just turned 6. I believe he is at the age where he needs more calories and more protein.
Just FYI, after worrying about Loki's weight, we did take him to the vet Friday. The vet thinks he might be hyperthyroid. We are waiting on blood results. My daughter and I both feel he has not had the behavioral changes, appetite increase (again, he has always been obsessed with food for the 3 years he has been here and on wet food and that is not worse and meals do seem to satisfy him, but the Lotus does not satisfy him as long--which I think is a carb thing)--no yowling, excessive drinking and peeing, etc. that we saw with a previous cat who was hyperthyroid. Also, feeding that cat more never put weight on her, whereas feeding Loki more Lotus without the diarrhea did cause him to gain 3 pounds--which he lost when I reduced his portions/skipped feedings this last two months.
SO, as I sit around worrying about the results of the blood panel that we will get in the morning, I am trying to find a food that will help put weight on Loki with lower carbs, that might not cause diarrhea or constipation (constipation has been so bad on some foods, like the Instinct--even when trying the minced cups--that he has thrown up, and changing back to Lotus always fixes it). I am guessing that Loki really needs about 300 calories a day to maintain the 8 pounds he had, which takes 3 ounces of Lotus three times a day (where my more sedentary cats who sleep more are okay with about 210-220 calories a day to maintain weight at 8-9 pounds). For now, I am trying to feed Loki less of the soup part of the Lotus and make sure he gets 3 meals a day at 3 ounces (measuring it).
I have tried a lot of brands. Several have caused diarrhea in Tigger or Loki or both, some after as little as one bite or a couple of morsels. Maybe I am not being as patient with food transitions as i should be or should be more tolerant of diarrhea, but I do worry about starting a whole inflammatory thing with Tigger or Loki with their history of IBS, since food change can be stressful, I know. Recently, I tried Koha, both the LID pate and the Stew. I had better success with the Stews and would be willing to try them again, especially the duck stew, which has no chickpeas. The LID Koha caused Loki severe constipation and Tigger diarrhea.
I am at the end of my rope and tired of spending so much time studying cat food, trying cat food, returning cat food. I am about to go get some Fancy Feast Classics. At least it is cheap and lower in carbs--no weird veggies. The 3 siblings were on Fancy Feast until Tigger's first IBS flare 4 years ago, where I opted to try "better quality" foods with the Nutro, Weruva, and NV.
I welcome any ideas. I am opting against raw at this time for a couple of reasons. My brother has a compromised immune system, and I am the one who feeds the cats all the time, with my daughter doing it when she is awake and I ask. I work at lot of hours. I also worry about the cats being dependent on one brand of food. I have freaked over whether shipments from Chewy might be a day late and worry about possible recalls in this situation--not to mention worrying about finances.
So sorry about the length of this post. I am stressing over the possible hyperthyroid thing, and stress makes me chatty. LOL! I am not as impressed with the vet we saw as I am with the older one in the practice. I told him why Loki ended up on Lotus, and he basically blew off my comment about possible IBS and brought up an infection, which he then did admit would not get better with food change. Then, when I told him that maybe I was not feeding enough, as Lotus is pretty low-cal, and asked how much Loki should be eating, he admitted he did not know and referred me to reading recommendations on the "bag" after I had said they were on wet food only. I think he was convinced we were dealing with hyperthyroid due to Loki being 9-10 years old.
I hope I get replies and suggestions, especially if you think my food transitions should be slower. Oh, quick question, in the foods that now have green lipped mussels (Koha, Ziwi, Feline Natural, etc.), since that is shellfish, is that the same as feeding fish? Just wondering with all of the talk of hyperthyroid being possible and the possible fish link there.
Thanks for taking time to read this and comment. I promise short posts in the future.
I will try to keep this short, but I figured some background would help with any advise or comments. It will be longer than I want, since I am stressing.
We have 4 cats. Three are siblings that I trapped as kittens when their mom weaned them and brought them to me (after I had fed her dry food and water when I had no clue she was pregnant). For reference, they are named Tigger, Little One, and Junie-Junie being the only female. I believe that Tigger has IBS but not sure about IBD, as his bouts of diarrhea seem to coincide with change/stress/life events, iike when my daughter moved to college, when we changed bedrooms, when we started bringing in boxes from my mom's when we were trying to sell the house, etc. The fourth cat is Loki. He was my mom's cat, and we took him right before she ended up moving into assisted living.
This post is mostly about Loki, who lived in my mom's bedroom for the 6 or so years she had him (she took him in after apparently he was abandoned after neighbors were evicted from the rental home a couple of doors down). Loki was free fed dry Science Diet when we got him here. My cats were on 90% wet food at the time and on timed feedings, so I knew he could never been incorporated into the home without eating wet. Also, we lost a cat to renal failure before, so I wanted him off the dry. At that time, my cats were eating Nutro, Nature's Variety Instinct, and Weruva (with only the rare treat of fish in the mix). It took me a few months to get Loki to recognize wet food as food, but his first full meal of wet was Nutro minced shrimp and chicken. He has been a foodie ever since, to the point that, when he did finally get run of the house, we have had him steal our food. He has been obsessed with food, and I have wondered if I was feeding enough food to him several times. He was overweight at 12 pounds when we got him, and the change to wet did cause him to lose some weight but not be too thin.
A year ago, due to having to sell my mother's home, we moved my brother and his dog in with us (as my brother had lived with my mom, and you have to take care of family). Unfortunately, this was very stressful for everyone, especially the cats. The dog is young and not well trained and a larger dog, and it was not safe to let the cats out in the house when she was out. We now live in shifts, where the cats get to come out of the two bedrooms they live in when the dog goes to bed. I do work from home and my office is in the bedroom where the three sibling cats are (which has a gated door so they can at least see and hear the people in the rest of the house), but Loki is often confined to my daughter's room alone (though my daughter graduated college and moved back home, she does work part-time). With all the change, the IBS reared its ugly head, and the Weruva flavors now also caused diarrhea, to the point where I was rinsing the gravy off. I started reading about some cats having issues with the gums in foods, and the Instinct line seemed okay--until they the formula change at the end of 2017. Suddenly, I had two cats with basically no food options. For a while, Loki was able to eat the Instinct LID Turkey as his only food, but then he developed constipation (not sure if that was due to the clay in it or just another stress reaction).
Desperate for food to feed the cats, I did some research, looking for something not made in Thailand, as Tiki, Fussy Cat, and Weruva all seemed to cause diarrhea, and I was trying to avoid gums. I read here about some people having good results with Lotus Just Juicy, and since it was close to the boiled chicken and baby food I was feeding to at least feed something that did not cause diarrhea (though I knew I could not feed that for long without the nutrients), I found a store locally that carried it and tried the chicken, pork, and turkey. Thankfully, all four cats have been able to eat it and done well for the last 3 months! With the bouts of diarrhea, Tigger and Loki had both lost weight and were down to 5 pounds (ugh!), after being on Lotus Just Juicy only for 2 months, all four cats were at a better weight (Tigger up to 9 pounds and Loki up to 8).
Unfortunately, Lotus is expensive, and with our college loans for my daughters coming due in months, I started doing trials to find other food options. Also, I have had times where funds were low and I found myself stretching foods, feeding less. In addition, I have been working more and have had times when I only got in 2 meals before collapsing into bed. Because of the high carb content of Lotus Just Juicy (my calculations show it to be 25% on a dry matter basis--someone please correct me if i did that wrong), I think these factors caused Loki to lose weight (in addition to just being a more active cat, as I think he sleeps less than the other three cats and frets more about what he is missing in the house when he is locked up). In addition. Loki is older than my cats. The vet estimate is that he is around 9-10, where my 3 siblings just turned 6. I believe he is at the age where he needs more calories and more protein.
Just FYI, after worrying about Loki's weight, we did take him to the vet Friday. The vet thinks he might be hyperthyroid. We are waiting on blood results. My daughter and I both feel he has not had the behavioral changes, appetite increase (again, he has always been obsessed with food for the 3 years he has been here and on wet food and that is not worse and meals do seem to satisfy him, but the Lotus does not satisfy him as long--which I think is a carb thing)--no yowling, excessive drinking and peeing, etc. that we saw with a previous cat who was hyperthyroid. Also, feeding that cat more never put weight on her, whereas feeding Loki more Lotus without the diarrhea did cause him to gain 3 pounds--which he lost when I reduced his portions/skipped feedings this last two months.
SO, as I sit around worrying about the results of the blood panel that we will get in the morning, I am trying to find a food that will help put weight on Loki with lower carbs, that might not cause diarrhea or constipation (constipation has been so bad on some foods, like the Instinct--even when trying the minced cups--that he has thrown up, and changing back to Lotus always fixes it). I am guessing that Loki really needs about 300 calories a day to maintain the 8 pounds he had, which takes 3 ounces of Lotus three times a day (where my more sedentary cats who sleep more are okay with about 210-220 calories a day to maintain weight at 8-9 pounds). For now, I am trying to feed Loki less of the soup part of the Lotus and make sure he gets 3 meals a day at 3 ounces (measuring it).
I have tried a lot of brands. Several have caused diarrhea in Tigger or Loki or both, some after as little as one bite or a couple of morsels. Maybe I am not being as patient with food transitions as i should be or should be more tolerant of diarrhea, but I do worry about starting a whole inflammatory thing with Tigger or Loki with their history of IBS, since food change can be stressful, I know. Recently, I tried Koha, both the LID pate and the Stew. I had better success with the Stews and would be willing to try them again, especially the duck stew, which has no chickpeas. The LID Koha caused Loki severe constipation and Tigger diarrhea.
I am at the end of my rope and tired of spending so much time studying cat food, trying cat food, returning cat food. I am about to go get some Fancy Feast Classics. At least it is cheap and lower in carbs--no weird veggies. The 3 siblings were on Fancy Feast until Tigger's first IBS flare 4 years ago, where I opted to try "better quality" foods with the Nutro, Weruva, and NV.
I welcome any ideas. I am opting against raw at this time for a couple of reasons. My brother has a compromised immune system, and I am the one who feeds the cats all the time, with my daughter doing it when she is awake and I ask. I work at lot of hours. I also worry about the cats being dependent on one brand of food. I have freaked over whether shipments from Chewy might be a day late and worry about possible recalls in this situation--not to mention worrying about finances.
So sorry about the length of this post. I am stressing over the possible hyperthyroid thing, and stress makes me chatty. LOL! I am not as impressed with the vet we saw as I am with the older one in the practice. I told him why Loki ended up on Lotus, and he basically blew off my comment about possible IBS and brought up an infection, which he then did admit would not get better with food change. Then, when I told him that maybe I was not feeding enough, as Lotus is pretty low-cal, and asked how much Loki should be eating, he admitted he did not know and referred me to reading recommendations on the "bag" after I had said they were on wet food only. I think he was convinced we were dealing with hyperthyroid due to Loki being 9-10 years old.
I hope I get replies and suggestions, especially if you think my food transitions should be slower. Oh, quick question, in the foods that now have green lipped mussels (Koha, Ziwi, Feline Natural, etc.), since that is shellfish, is that the same as feeding fish? Just wondering with all of the talk of hyperthyroid being possible and the possible fish link there.
Thanks for taking time to read this and comment. I promise short posts in the future.
and please take good care of yourself while you are trying so hard to take care of everyone else. You have to put your own oxygen mask on first before you can help others with theirs, as they say.
There's a recent thread about Rawz and the new varieties that aren't in stores yet and pricing: 
