Two of my boys are vomiting dry cat food, I need to make changes

[cccdlx]

My boy is almost three years old.  I've been feeding all my cats Purina Indoors dry for years now with no problems.  He just stared throwing up within the last year, and then his son started just recently. ( I do feed some canned food.  Twice a day now, with added water.)

  In August I started adding Wellness Core grain free dry and got to about a 50/50 mix.  No more vomitting.  Then I started experimenting with new canned foods higher up on the 'quality' scale.  In late October Scooter got a urinary blockage that the vet said was mucus and not crystals. He has recovered very well and is back to being the active boy he was before.  Except that he is still throwing up his dry food occassionally. No bowel problems.

I went back to what I was doing before Scooter got sick except for:

1. I've purchased two water fountains (everyone is drinking more
   
    )
2. More wet food meals I can't feed more than 2x a day during the week
3. I'm mixing in Purina One UT formula dry.

I am having no   problems with my other six kids, so I hate to make a 100% change in the dry food.

I hate to see Scooter and Chip losing their lunch so often. 

Here are my questions..

• What causes mucus plugs?
• .Any suggestions on a dry food mixthat isn't going break the budget?

• I still want to switch to better canned food, should I wait until I get the dry food problem solved?
• How do I make my own cat grass?

 

[raintyger]

I can't answer all your questions, but it's very possible that the dry food is the culprit. It is better overall for your cats to be on 100% wet. Dry food has a high amount of carbs which can cause allergies and inflammation and could well be the root of the problem. Have you asked or had the vet examine the cats for problems in relation to the vomiting? Some diseases like IBD do cause vomiting. The dry food also tends to leave cats in a state of chronic dehydration, which can lead to other diseases such as UTIs. Although dry is cheaper, one incident at the vet for a UTI or other disease will easily surpass the cost of feeding wet.

So at minimum I would move the cats to 100% wet, especially Scooter and Chip. Their names make them sound male, so this is an especially good move since UTIs are much more of an emergency in male cats. Fancy Feast classic line or Friskies pate style are reasonable budget choices.

I would also at least inquire at the vet about the vomiting. If switching to wet doesn't resolve vomiting, then take them to the vet. It's not normal to vomit regularly.

 

[cccdlx]

Thank You Raintyger, your advice is greatly appreciated and wish it were that easy.  I have been on Dr. Pierson's website and heartily believe in the 100% wet being the best way to go for our kitties. I am sure the culprit is the dry food, there is some ingredient that bothers just those two.  I have a total of 8 cats, so for the most part,  I have to find something that works for everyone.  The Wellnes Core g-f dry seemed to work, until Scooter got blocked.    

I've only had one UTI, that was Scooter's mom.  Scooter wasn't showing any signs of a typical infection at the time he got blocked.  I had him to the vet's office twice before it got bad.  Both times they missed the diagnosis.  The second vet got it right on the second visit.

I keep kibble down for a couple of reasons...

• I can't feed them canned as often as they need it, it's a time and volume thing more than $. Scooter and Chip are close to 16 pounds each.  If they eat too much wet at one time they throw that up too.
  

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  • cccdlx
  • Aug 24, 2013
  Scooter is the big boy at the bottom on the sofa and Chip is the big boy in the window.

 

[raintyger]

Hi ccdlx,

There are timed feeders you can put wet food in. Not sure exactly how they work, but maybe you should look into a unit.

Are there other ways to accommodate the spraying kitties? Maybe even dry food that the other kitties like but Scooter and Chip find unpalatable? If there's dry food available Scooter and Chip probably won't convert.

Dry food has a higher bacterial load, so adding water to it is not recommended. The bacteria could multiply to unhealthy levels. How much is everyone peeing without adding water to the dry food? I think I read most cats pee about 3x daily and if using clumping litter it's about the size of a golf ball.

 

[cccdlx]

Could the Wellness Core dry have caused the mucus pleg? They really liked it.  I'ld like to put it back in if it wasn't the problem.

A timed feeder for conned food? All but one of my cats eat canned food.  Valentina will eat it occassionally.  I NEVER wet the kibble.  I add water to the wet.  I'm feeding canned twice a day now.  I can leave more down but I have a couple that get more than thier share.

Here are my questions..

• What causes mucus plugs?
• .Any suggestions on a dry food mixthat isn't going break the budget?

• I still want to switch to better canned food, should I wait until I get the dry food problem solved?
• How do I make my own cat grass?

 

[vball91]

From the research I have done, I don't think it's entirely known what causes mucus plugs in some cats. It seems to be some combination of bladder inflammation, lack of adequate moisture and genetics. I do think that Raintyger's suggestion to increase the wet as much as possible is good. You may well be dealing with some kind of food intolerance which is causing both the vomiting and urinary issue. If they are only vomiting the dry food, then the logical thing to do is cut out the dry, but if that's not feasible, then your other option is to do food trials of different dry foods to find one that won't cause the vomiting AND is tolerated by the other cats.

As for dry foods, the best ones I know of are Wysong Epigen 90, Young Again Zero Carb and Ziwipeak. They are expensive though... While they are high protein, low carb, they still contain some starch and they're still dry.

I would not change more than one thing at a time. Otherwise, if there is an issue of any kind, you don't know what caused it since there's more than one variable.

Cat grass seeds can be found at most pet stores. I prefer organic seeds. You plant them in a small pot in a sunny spot and replace periodically.

 

[cccdlx]

Thank you vball91 The last vet Scooter went to mentioned diminished water intake with the cold weather and the possible genetic link.  Everyone is strictly indoors, but my house stays cold all the time.  Water intake for everyone has increased alot since I added the fountains.  Makes me feel a little better.  I have increased the wet food alot.   I can't cut out the dry completely though.  My goal right now is to get the dry to no more than 25% of their daily food.  The vet told me told make sure I keep everything in balance as far as the UT issues go.  You know, the calcium oxalate crystal thing.  Right now I'm not adding any canned UT food to the mix.  Since crystals weren't the problem.  MORE WATER!!!

All it takes is one vet visit for a blockage and the expense of the food gets shoved way down on the priority scale

 I think I'm going to reintroduce The Wellness Core g-f dry and mix it 50/50 with the dry that everyone has been on forever.   I eventually want to put most of the $ into a high quality canned.  But like you said, one thing at a time.  I need to get the vomitting thing taken care of first.  They all did well on the WC dry.  My concern was that it is what caused the blockage. 

I gotta do some grass, these guys are waaayyy too interested in my house plant.

 

[catmagik]

I feed Gizmo ( 5.5 yrs old ) Iams original dry & he too throws up undigested food, maybe from eating to fast or not enough water, I dunno. My ? Is, when I feed him wet food his stool is quite loose; will this improve sometime after the switch to wet? And what brand wet would you personally recommend?

 

[cccdlx]

I can't really recommend any wet food to you.  I'm just now starting to switch mine over to primarily canned.  There are people here with way more experience than I have.  I can recommend a great website for nutrition education.  Look up catinfo.org.  I'm not sure what to say about the loose stools. Mine seem to be doing pretty good in that department.  A bit softer. but not too bad.

As for the dry food.  My cats have done well on the Purina Indoor formula until recently.  After paying more attention to the ingredient list, I am not very pleased.  I started mixing the PI with Wellness Core grain-free about 50/50 and the vomit ting stopped.

Doing specific searches of the forums from the search bar at the top helped me find answers to lots of things.  Lots of great discussions with lots of valuable information.

 

[raintyger]

I feed Gizmo ( 5.5 yrs old ) Iams original dry & he too throws up undigested food, maybe from eating to fast or not enough water, I dunno. My ? Is, when I feed him wet food his stool is quite loose; will this improve sometime after the switch to wet? And what brand wet would you personally recommend?

Dry food can cause inflammation due to the high carbs. I would switch to 100% wet and see what happens. Cats have sensitive digestive systems so it is possible change in diet will soften up stools for a short while. If you switch to 100% wet and there's still problems with vomitting, it is time for the vet. Regular vomitting is not normal and could be indicative of IBD or other diseases. If you were vomitting on a regular basis, you'd see your doctor, wouldn't you?

I favor Hound and Gatos because it is high protein/low carb and on the reasonable side costwise. See my signature for information on how to obtain this food, it is not widely distributed. Other good brands if your kitty has no health concerns are Wellness, Evo, Nature's Variety, Tiki Cat (chicken flavors) and Weruva. The Tiki Cat and Weruva are low calorie, so you need to feed about double the volume as compared to other wet foods.

Dr. Lisa Pierson has compiled information on feeding and cat food.

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

 

[cccdlx]

Hi again Raintyger.  I saw some timed feeders and think I might give one a try for one of the boys, since he stays by himself half of the day.

Scooter and Chip are chow hounds and they will eat anything I put down.  No problems recently with the vomitting. Everyone is getting canned twice a day now.  I've been putting down less than 2 cups a day of the dried for all 8 kitties, and the never clean it all up.  Leftovers go to the dogs.

My spraying boys have started whizzing in the little cardboard boxes I put down for them.  A majority of the urine clumps are closer to tennis ball size.

Thanks to you great people here and Dr. Pierson, I think I'm well on the way to providing healthier meals for my babies.

I haven't posted much much because many things can be found in older threads.  Thanks agian