We Need To Switch To Dry Food, Unsure Where To Start. Desperate For Advice!

[kttn]

Our female was extremely overweight before we got her (21 lbs), but today she is around 11 lbs and on a healthy wet food diet. However her previous obesity (which is known to weaken anal gland muscles) along with this diet has given her severe anal gland issues. We've put in a lot of time/money/effort into resolving this issue. At our last vet visit, our very pro-wet food vet summed it up as basically "dry food or surgery."

Dry food it is! The question is: where do I begin?! I'm so out of touch with dry food! I haven't fed it in years. I want low carb and as high fiber as possible, but I know that's at odds with each other.

Evo looks good but I read it was discontinued?
Epigen 90 looks good too, slightly higher fiber than Evo. I think they were bought out recently and people are complaining about the quality.
Young Again Zero is awesome in theory but half the reviews I've read said it gave cats diarrhea. Too low fiber anyway.
Tiki Cat Carnivore and Fish Luau is nice, not a huge fan of the fish part but it is 3.3% fiber and 11% carbs.

Is above 4% fiber possible with under 20% carbs? Any recommendations?

 

[Willowy]

If it's just the fiber she needs, do you think adding a little fiber powder, such as Benefiber or unflavored Metamucil to her wet food might do the trick?

 

[kttn]

If it's just the fiber she needs, do you think adding a little psyllium husk to her wet food might do the trick?

She eventually rejects food that we alter in any way which is why this has been such a headache. We've exhausted every wet food additive I can think of!

Benefiber etc gets rejected as well.

I'm also not willing to pill her daily as she's extremely high anxiety and borderline aggressive (largely due in part to these bum issues and constantly having to be messed with down there). Hoping just letting her eat in peace without being messed with for a few months will let her gain some self confidence again.

 

[duckpond]

have you checked fancy feast classics? it is a wet food, but higher in fiber than most, and higher than many dry foods. 7% dry matter. its also low in carbs? just a thought, might want to ask your vet about it?

 

[Neo_23]

I'm confused why your vet would want you to switch to dry food if your cat has struggled with obesity in the past? Was there a specific reason given besides the fiber? Because you can just get a high fiber wet food or bulk up the wet food you're already feeding.

 

[kttn]

have you checked fancy feast classics? it is a wet food, but higher in fiber than most, and higher than many dry foods. 7% dry matter. its also low in carbs? just a thought, might want to ask your vet about it?

That's one of the main foods we rotate and sadly she still has this issue on it. I'm not sure why either since that's extremely high fiber compared to most dry foods...

 

[kttn]

I'm confused why your vet would want you to switch to dry food if your cat has struggled with obesity in the past?

She's recommending it because of the anal gland issue. Because we've tried everything (including bulking up wet food which she rejects eventually), the vet is offering two final things to try: dry food or surgery.

The vet seems to be under the impression that dry food will bulk up her stools easily, which she definitely needs. Now I'm confused though because someone said up-thread that FF classics are 7% fiber and I feed that and it definitely isn't enough. But I'm intrigued by the high fiber wet foods you mentioned.

I'm not sure what else to do at this point

 

[Smoda61]

Hi, So I have a boy kitty, Han, who has some digestive issues. I'll be watching the overall discussion. Anyhow, Han has been on an all wet diet for a month+ now and I am hoping to add a good dry food eventually. A dry food I came across that seems very intriguing to me is a newer brand called Nulo. It caught my eye in part due to its ingredients but also due to its probiotics. Last week, I called and spoke with one of their staff for more information and I think it has potential. Maybe check that one out. It has a Petsmart only line (medalist?) and then general pet stores (freestyle?). Also, another thing I have been doing with Han, and I don't know if it would help your kitty, is his wet food gets probiotics and S. Boulardii added. S. bourlardii seems to be helping to regulate/firm up his stools, while I am hoping the probiotics re-establish a healthier colon. I wonder if the S. Boulardii would do what you are hoping fiber would do. I put a half capsule in a can of fancy feast classic and mash/stir it all together. I have not problem with it being eaten.

Wishing you luck.

 

[Neo_23]

She's recommending it because of the anal gland issue. Because we've tried everything (including bulking up wet food which she rejects eventually), the vet is offering two final things to try: dry food or surgery.

The vet seems to be under the impression that dry food will bulk up her stools easily, which she definitely needs. Now I'm confused though because someone said up-thread that FF classics are 7% fiber and I feed that and it definitely isn't enough. But I'm intrigued by the high fiber wet foods you mentioned.

I'm not sure what else to do at this point

One last thing you could try with the wet food before switching to dry is adding some pumpkin to the food for fiber and then topping it with a probiotic called fortiflora. This will do 2 things: fortiflora has animal digest in it that is very appealing to cats. Many people use it as an appetite stimulant, so it will likely make the pumpkin-topped wet food appealing to your cat (hopefully). It's also got a strain of probiotic in it that has been shown to help with soft poop. So it's kind of a 2 for 1. You might try it out.

 

[Smoda61]

Many report good things about fortiflora. For my cats (two at the time), it did not make the food more appealing which was a surprise. Since then, I have read a lot of writings about probiotics being added and there are many that feel fortiflora does not contain a wide enough variety of bacteria or sufficient CFUs. Right or wrong, I am using human grade probiotics and S. Boulardii. It's all a very interesting concept.

 

[Neo_23]

Many report good things about fortiflora. For my cats (two at the time), it did not make the food more appealing which was a surprise. Since then, I have read a lot of writings about probiotics being added and there are many that feel fortiflora does not contain a wide enough variety of bacteria or sufficient CFUs. Right or wrong, I am using human grade probiotics and S. Boulardii. It's all a very interesting concept.

If using a probiotic mainly because you want the benefits of healthy gut flora then fortiflora is not the best. But if you are using it as an appetite stimulant it usually works well. As I mentioned before, it only has one strain of probiotic in it, although there have been many studies showing that this one strain is beneficial. S.boullardi is a probiotic that typically helps with diarrhea, the thread starter could potentially try incorporating this probiotic, but it's only found in human probiotics (the only animal probiotic I know that has it is the Mercola brand).

But yes, there are many other brands that have more strains of probiotics that may be more beneficial. I was just mainly thinking that the poster could use fortiflora to attract her cat to the wet food with pumpkin in it.

 

[Smoda61]

All good advice. I just have a box of fortiflora that has no appeal to my cats (I have to stir it in to hide it), but I know that is not the typical response, which was unfortunate as I was counting on its appeal. Pumpkin, when I tried it, was eaten readily, just not by itself. I stopped adding it for other reasons, but I may go back and try it again. Han's digestive system is still a work in progress.

 

[Neo_23]

All good advice. I just have a box of fortiflora that has no appeal to my cats (I have to stir it in to hide it), but I know that is not the typical response, which was unfortunate as I was counting on its appeal. Pumpkin, when I tried it, was eaten readily, just not by itself. I stopped adding it for other reasons, but I may go back and try it again. Han's digestive system is still a work in progress.

Same, my cat doesn't mind pumpkin mixed with his wet food, but I think the poster was saying that her cat didn't like it at all.

 

[Smoda61]

It does sound like she has a challenge.

 

[kttn]

Thanks guys you gave me a lot to consider.

It looks like there are a lot of high fiber wet food options too, unless I am misunderstanding how this works.

For example Instinct Grain-free Chicken wet food has a dry matter analysis of 14% fiber which is comparable to most dry foods. I'm guessing this is higher fiber than what I was doing (before she rejected it) which was Fancy Feast Classic (7% DMB) with 1/4 teaspoon of flaxseed, though I'm not positive.

I was looking at Newman's Own Adult Cat dry food which is 18% fiber (DMB) and a bit lower carb than many other options, but if Instinct is truly 14% that is probably high enough

Any thoughts?

 

[lisahe]

If there are wet foods that fit your fiber targets, I would definitely go for those over dry food, particularly given the cat's weight issues. Instinct is very decent food, though not all cats (like ours!) are enthusiastic about it. Anal gland issues are no fun -- our previous cat had them and now I wonder if it was because she had gained weight -- so I hope some good fibrous wet food can help. Fingers crossed for you!