Starting my IBD cat on her transition to raw!

[christinaroo]

Well, here we are at the start of our journey, and I'm pretty excited! 

We adopted Dutch (shortened from Duchess, no princessy cats in this house! 

) almost exactly one year ago. She's around 2-3 years old, and an absolute 

 with wonderful house manners and a chatty disposition. She also has IBD. We've been trying to control it with daily prednisone and a prescription kibble recommended by the vet. But after her most recent flare-up - she was fine for 6 whole months, then spent two nights in the vet hospital - I've decided to give raw a try! Luckily for me, cost isn't a big issue - although if we can avoid hospital stays then raw will pay for itself, sheesh. My preferred local pet store just started carrying Rad Cat, hooray!

Dutch isn't a picky eater, and prefers canned food to dry when I give it to her. I had only been using canned after an IBD flare-up since it's easier on her stomach. She prefers it blended to a smooth paste, and mixed with some warm water to make kitty soup, even after her tummy feels better 

 (Uh, what did I say about no princesses? Oops!)

Soooo.... here's my plan. Please feel free to poke holes and make suggestions! 

Preparation: Get that cat off of kibble

Our vet had us on 100% Royal Canin HP kibble. In retrospect I wish I had found this site and learned more about IBD before accepting that feeding plan, but live and learn. Instead, I'm now planning a slow transition from free-fed kibble to 3x daily wet meals. (I'll eventually reduce that to 2 meals per day.) To start, I'm scaling back on the amount of kibble provided, and letting her run out of kibble between her new scheduled meals. Then she has to wait until the next meal for her dose of wet food, rather than getting more kibble to munch. I'm planning to eliminate kibble completely over the next two weeks. Hopefully I can use up the rest of her expensive prescription stuff by then. Like I said, she prefers canned to kibble, so I'm only trying to break her of the snacking habit.

Introduction: Will she eat it? So far so good!

Like I said, my pet store just started carrying Rad Cat, and they even had little sampler tubs of turkey flavor for free! I took a couple home to see what Dutch thought about them. I started by putting a little scoop of just the raw turkey in a dish. She came trotting over and gave it a sniff, then looked at me like 'what is THIS supposed to be?' 

. Then she sat right down and waited for something else to appear in the bowl. I mixed in some of her canned food 'princess paste' and put it back down. This time she dug right in! 

. Once it smelled familiar, she seemed to have no problem at all with the raw. Same thing with the next meal - right now as long as it smells familiar, she's just fine with it.

Transition: Moving toward raw only

Over the next few weeks as I wean her off kibble, I'm planning to use up the rest of our canned food to provide scheduled raw/canned meals. As our canned supply draws down, I'll reduce the amount of canned until she's eating only the Rad Cat. I'll probably keep a little extra canned in case she decides to start refusing raw, and maybe get some toppers too.

I can't thank everyone enough - all the amazing information and stories on this site have helped me make this decision. I'm really looking forward to seeing the benefits for my beloved little Dutch.

Wish us luck!

 

[ldg]

That sounds like the perfect plan! The key - especially with IBD kitties - is slow and low stress. (Works best for kitties and their mommas and daddies. :lol3: ).

You're ahead of the game, with your Dutch liking wet better than kibbles. That is going to really help out here! It's the being used to having access to nibbles that is going to niggle at you when she asks.... but you'll both get over it. It can be hard to get free fed kitties to eat enough at each meal, but it's the slow removal of the kibbles that gets you there. :nod:

When I made the switch to timed meals, I pulled the kibble during the day - but left it out at night. Then I went to a measured amount (and was always woken up VERY EARLY for breakfast!). The trick to that? DO NOT GET UP AND FEED BREAKFAST BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE. Do anything else first - get her used to the idea that if she wakes you up for breakfast, she doesn't get breakfast until you've done YOUR morning routine, or you'll live with never being able to sleep in.

If you're at home during the day, it can help to feed four or five meals at first (when you pull the kibble altogether). Then reduce it by one meal a day, and work her up to eating the amount she should for the meal.

The ideal number of meals is three or more, actually. There are some cats that do well on two - but it's best for their systems to have at least three meals a day. Most of us feed before work, after work, and before bed. Otherwise they can build up stomach acid, and that will make them throw up bile, or regurgitate the meal. So the only hole I'd like to poke in your plan is the goal of two meals a day. I think three is better.

And yeah - many cats don't recognize raw as food. :lol3: It's great that she'll eat it mixed in with her canned! That's another hurdle crossed already. :lol3: But if you come to a point where she has an issue with it, we've got a LOT of tricks to share. But you've really nailed the issue on the head - smell. And that's what it all boils down to.

I SO hope this process won't have you wondering if you need to join a few of us in the padded cell..... and I can't WAIT until you start seeing the benefits!!!! :rub: :heart2:

 

[oakshimmer]

Congrats for taking the leap!

I am pretty certain that this change will really help your kitty with the IBD. Many of us who made the switch saw results right away, and as you know for some, it seemed to clear up the problem completely. For my IBD kitty it has helped tremendously but it has not been a cure. She does have a much better life since the switch with fewer problems!

I agree that weening your kitty from the regular diet to the raw is best. For some kitties, switching to raw right away works too, but I also did a gradual transition. Funny thing is, when I introduced the raw, my kitty wanted it more than her "usual" meal!

LDG mentioned about getting up early for the meals and I had a good chuckle!

My cat always makes sure I am up at a decent time to feed her her morning meal, or she will tap my forehead with her paw till I get up!

I break up my cats meals also, I start with her morning meal, then she gets a early supper. In the evening around 8pm she gets a snack and before I go to bed she gets another. That seems to keep her happy.

Keep us posted on your kitties progress, and again congrats! Feeding raw is a wonderful choice for your little sweetie!

 

[christinaroo]

Thanks for the encouragement!

And LDG, your kibble elimination plan sounds better than mine. I'm going to start by removing the kibble during the day. Dutch thinks she's pretty sly about the morning feedings.- she hops on the bed, purrs, and kneads like she just wants love. Until you make any move to get up, that is. Then she heads right for the bowl, twitching her tail and chatting as if to say 'as long as you're up!' Based on both of your feedback, I'm also going to plan to give her multiple small meals throughout the day. I work from home full-time, so that's easy to do!

As far as day two of introducing some raw? Well, I figured the easy first taste was too good to be true. 

 After the first enthusiastic couple of meals of mixed canned/raw, Dutch is turning her nose up at anything with raw in it. 

 I've put it on the side of her favorite canned, I've mixed it in, no go so far. I tried just a little scoop of raw when she was hungry first thing this morning to see if she'd nibble, but she just sat looking at it. I tried sprinkling it with a little parmesan cheese. She looked offended. I mixed in some of her canned food - she buried it, gave me an exasperated look, then gave it a few grudging bites. Looks like my hopes of an easy transition are dashed! 

I'll keep trying of course. I'm going to try the chicken flavor next. And I can't tell you how much it's helped to read everyone else's transition stories. Save me a space in the padded room with y'all!

 

[ldg]

:lol3: You just never know - she may change her mind tomorrow.

The way I TRIED to introduce raw was one protein at a time. I would make it 25% of the canned for a day, then 50%, then 75%.... well, that was the plan. :lol3: But they got sick of the same thing every day. I'd been feeding them canned only for over a year, and rotating a lot of flavors/brands, and they just didn't like the same protein every day - even if just a portion of their meal. :dk:

 

[christinaroo]

Well, in the face of resistance, I've scaled back my master plan. 

First I need to wean the little darling off of kibble, and break her addiction to ONLY smooth blended food mixed with water. It seems that her highness really prefers her meals to consist of crunchy snacks and a main course of creamy soup! 

 Before starting the transition to raw in earnest, I want her to get in the habit of eating regular meals of canned food with some texture to it. 

Question for those of you who moved from free-fed kibbles to regular meals, especially with an IBD cat. 

Dutch's usual habit with free-fed kibble is to munch just a few at a time through the day. I've noticed that if I keep the kibble away and then feed her a bigger meal, she tends to get the *urps*. 

 She gives a little hiccup-like movement, then licks her lips. This happens repeatedly after a meal. She doesn't necessarily seem uncomfortable, but an escalated version of that behavior is what I see during a flare-up just before 

We've just recently scaled her back to 2.5mg of Prednisone daily from the 5mg/day doses used during her most recent flare-up, so I'm fully aware I may be over-examining every movement she makes. 

 I just really, really, REALLY want to get her transitioned to see if raw will help her. 

 

[ldg]

I know Carolina is really busy right now, but I pinged her anyway... hopefully she'll have time to chime in, because she had (how nice is that to write? ) and IBD kitty AND an "urpy" kitty. She transitioned her IBD kitty from kibble to canned to raw, and I think it was her urpy kitty that went straight from kibble to raw.

I do know that when I transitioned my kitties from being free fed kibble to canned food, I had to feed them a lot of small meals at first, because they just didn't eat enough food at one sitting. We work from home, so that made it a LOT easier on us. I finally worked them down to 4 meals a day - which is where we stayed for about a year, and then I decided to move them to three a day. That was the easy one.

How often are you trying to feed her now?

And how much does she weigh? I'm guessing that on an all canned diet, she'd need about one can a day. Maybe you're trying to feed her too much? Or not frequently enough? :dk:

How much does she eat when she gets urpy?

Oh - and what canned food(s) are you feeding her?

 

[southpaw]

My IBD kitty had always been free fed kibble, but we dived full force into raw - put him on set meals right away. He never had an issue getting "urpy", but when he was fed kibble, I don't think he really ate small amounts anyway lol. And his raw meals are the size of an ice cube, so not really large, either.

Good luck! Raw has been a literal lifesaver for us and sooo much easier than trying to manage him with medications. I hope you get similar results!

 

[carolina]

Hi

OMG - your first post was such a flashback to me :lol3:
Down to the IBD, to Royal Canin HP and making the wet food soupy...... only, I went a step further - I blended it on a Magic Bullet and spoon fed :lol3::lol3::lol3:

Ok - I have two cats that feed the bill here - my IBD cat Bugsy, who has been complately symptom-free since gon on raw and my other cat Lucky - who was a die hard kibble addict and very Urpy

The key to transition an IBD cat to raw is to transition him very SLOWLY.

Since Bugsy ate wet and dry, I quickly put him on timed meals, immediately pulling the kibbles. That was done at once.
To make sure he ate all he had to eat, I fed him more meals, but wet only - kibbles were gone immediately.

Then I slowly reduced the number of wet meals until I had three meals a day.
Then came the raw introduction:
I started him with 1 TSP of raw mixed on his wet food per meal.
So on the first day he had 1 TSP of raw and about 1/3 can of wet (or whatever your kitty eats per meal of wet), mixed. Did this for all the meals.
On the second day, I put two TSP of raw..... Repeated for all the meals.
Third day I put 3 TSP, and removed one of wet.
Fourth day put 4 TSP, and removed 2 of wet..... Kept doing this until all her was eating was raw - it took a total of 8 days.

One protein at a time..... Rad Cat is FANTASTIC - you got the right food :nod:

To go straight from kibbles, my kibble addict took a full 35 days to lick raw - she was free-fed nasty purina...... long story...... YUCK!
The first thing I did was to put her into a schedule. It was tricky...... Being free fed all her life and not eating wet, I had to separate them from the others - so I locked her into the bathroom and started feeding her there. I have a feeding stqation controlled by a microchip door, so only her has access to it.....
So, in discussing here in the forum, we came up with a plan that worked - leaving the kibbles inside of the station so sh could free feed on her will, but at the same time make meal times special by feeding her personally, speding one-to-one time with her in there.
Wit time she started to wait for feeding times as she LOVES company and attention, and ate less and less from the station. I also changed her to EVO as it is very calorie rich and even if she ate very little per meal, she would be covered.
I used to put tiny meatballs covered on crushed freeze-dried chicken on her plate, along side her kibbles - always on the meal times, so she thought it was special. At first she RAN! :dash:
But then she ate from the plate....... Then on day 35 she ate it...... and guess what? on the very next day she didn't want kibbles anymore
At the same time, she would only eat 0.3-0.5 oz per meal.... which meant I had to feed her about 8 meals a day in order for her to get her nutritional needs :nod:
Again, little by little I reduced the amount of feedings, as slowly increased the amount per meal - soon she was eating 3 meals a day.

Things that happened both of them - three meals a day, Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes (Digestive Enzymes really helped with the urpies), not going too long in between meals is a MUST - if you can feed a treat or two in between meals - freeze dried treats is EXCELLENT - that will help tons!
and introducing meats very very slowly.

This is my introduction thread - the beginning will be specially helpful to you...... it is VERY long, but it has a TON of information.
I hope this helps you some.....
I will be on the road tomorrow, but if I can help, will be glad to!
and welcome to the amazing World of Raw!
this-is-going-to-be-one-for-the-books-transitioning-lucky-bugsy-and-hope-to-raw-challenges-galore

 

[christinaroo]

You guys have no idea how helpful this is - thank you soooooo much! 

It's obvious to me that I'm going to need to get more precise about her food right now. I'm used to keeping a detailed log of  

during a flare-up, I don't know why I didn't start a journal for this 

. Kibble was out overnight last night, and she did eat some but not all. After I took it away this morning, she ate probably 1/2 ounce of blended soupy food and left the rest. 

. Today I'm planning to just offer her a bowl of 'soup' any time she goes looking for kibble and see where we are by the end of the day. I'll track how much she eats today in volume and frequency, since I'm concerned about her appetite right now. Her appetite always decreases when her prednisone dose does, but it also tapers off before a flare-up. We've only had her for a year and we've spent that time trying to get this under control. I wouldn't recognize 'normal' appetite and habits even if she was exhibiting them! 

She's around 11-12 lbs right now. I'd like to keep her around 10-11. She's a big-framed girl (like her mama 

), but could stand to lose a little. The canned I've been using is Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet (Venison and Green Pea). I'm going to pick up some more Rad Cat today too, she might as well get little doses of raw when I can sneak them in.

I haven't used probiotics or digestive enzymes before. Recommendations are very, very welcome! I've poked around and noticed that some people love FortiFlora, some don't - and that the consensus seems to be to use human-directed probiotics instead of those manufactured for pets?

I honestly don't know what I'd be doing without this site and all of you. When I think back to the very first IBD flare-up that Dutch had, and me sobbing as I mopped up yet another patch of vomit while poor Dutch huddled miserably nearby... well, I thought I was resigned to a life with a miserable, barfy cat. I'm not expecting miracles, but I have hope for improvement thanks to your stories!

Carolina, your thread about transition is amazing. Hearing how much Bugsy improved on raw is really inspirational! As is the amount of work you put in to get him there. That's yet another story that makes me glad that Dutch is a barfer, not a crapper!

More later, we'll see how today's meal schedule turns out...

 

[ldg]

These are the digestive enzymes Carolina used:
These are the digestive enzymes I'm using for Lazlo: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/digestive-enzymes-for-pet.aspx

Fortiflora works for some cats - but it's a terrible probiotic, really. It's a great appetite enhancer, so you may want it for that reason: it's a great "taste" enhancer, because it's main ingredient is animal digest. (And that's what makes it NOT a healthy probiotic). BUT - it makes food smell like kibble, as most kibble is sprayed with animal digest. :lol3: Just don't follow the instructions - open a small corner, and kind of "fluff" it over the food, to get a dusty layer on top.

It's not a good probiotic for another reason: all of the ingredients are "fermentation" products. This means dead. More effective are live cultures. It also has only like 4 billion colony forming units. My holistic vet said our pets need 10 billion CFU from LIVE cultures. So based on her recommendation (and she is a DVM), this is the probiotic most of us use:

 

[carolina]

Well, I was gifted with a Barfer and a pooper
Thank you for your kind words, raw has been just short of a miracle for me and others too, I certainly hope it will be Tue same for you too :cross:

Laurie, if I remember correctly, fortiflora has only100 million cfu...... But yeah, as a taste enhancer, we all know. Powerful stuff! (like Lauren say, fortify!) :lol3:

The OP should get some whole life freeze dried chicken too, to sprinkle over the food, a little bad of tricks always helps!

 

[christinaroo]

OMG Carolina, a barfer AND a pooper? 

 I'd like to hope I'd have your patience in that situation! 

In response to my desire to transition Dutch to raw... she's become a kibble fanatic. 

 I guess that's what I get for bragging about how much she loves canned, and how I think she'll be easy to transition. Can you say instant Karma? My new project is to find a topper or taste enhancer that she likes. So far, freeze-dried chicken is a big NO THANK YOU, as is parmesan cheese. She's even stopped finishing her 'kitty soup' of blended canned food with water, and turns her nose up completely at the raw. I've got some Fortiflora on order, so we'll see if she likes the taste of that one before I resort to using crushed up kibble!

 

[ldg]

Christina - Carolina had a typo. It's "FLortify!"

Oh yeah, there are some kitties that like to try our patience! Here's hoping that FLORTIFICATION will do the trick! :cross:

 

[christinaroo]

Ha, Dutch seems pretty indifferent to FLortification 

, and isn't even sniffing raw right now...

Of course it's tough to tell because she's in the midst of YET ANOTHER IBD FLAREUP 

. It never fails - I was packing for a girls' getaway weekend (just some friends headed down to SF for a couple of nights out) and when I brought my suitcase to the bedroom, I caught her horking up. So instead of drinking with the girls, I'm double-dosing prednisone and doing my best to tempt the little darling into a few licks of anything. Darling hubby is out of town this weekend too, or he'd be on 

duty instead of me. My parents were scheduled to kittysit, but I wasn't about to dump Her Barfiness on them! 

I may have tried to change her food too soon after the last flareup, just a few weeks back. She managed to stay 6 months barf-free on 2.5mg of pred per day and the dang HP kibble. This time it's been under three weeks. I've kept her from vomiting since this morning, but she's definitely not feeling good. I'm going to sign off of this thread until the next time I can try her on raw. Thanks again for ALL of the help and advice. For now I'm back to the Cat Health forum. 

 

[ldg]

Oh I'm so sorry! for you and :rub: :rub: :rub: for her! And, of course, for both of you. :heart2: