Wet food suggestions for gastrointestinal support

TuxManx

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Hi all!
I’m looking for some wet food input for gastrointestinal support for my 5 year old manx.
He was having some pooping problems- there was fresh bloody mucus that seemed to just be at the end of his poop. So it looked like a normal poop except for the drips that were on top or at one end of it. It was also extra stinky.
We went to the vet, multiple xrays were taken(I paid extra for a radiologist to give input on them), he was prescribed metronidazole & fenbendazole in the meantime while we waited on the results from the fecal, bloodwork, radiologist. He was also put on royal canin gastrointestinal wet & dry foods. He loves the dry, but isn’t really a fan of the wet food & I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of other wet foods that would be gastrointestinal oriented that I could try to mix with the royal canin wet to make it more appealing to him.
The results from the vet were unhelpful, they said there were no worms or bacteria in any of his tests & the only thing the radiologist commented on was a kidney that has a small amount of calcification/possible stones, which the tech said was just an fyi.
It’s been almost a month since the vet visit, this morning was the first time i saw a small drip of blood next to the litterbox, but nothing with his poop in the litterbox(the poop is back to a normal smell). The only thing that has been different over the past few days is that he has been eating less & less of the wet food. He licks the gravy off of it, eats maybe half of it, & just wants to eat the dry food. I still have some of his previous wet foods that he never had a problem eating & have been debating trying to mix some of that with the royal canin. I went on chewy to try to find other gastrointestinal foods, the ones that don’t need vet approval seem to have a lot of the same garbage ingredients as the royal canin & say they are for both digestive & skin support.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
 

StefanZ

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Raw goats milk is almost always good to try with.

Otherwise some nice full fat unflavored yoghurt. If it has added health bacteria, extra good.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Since you mentioned he is a manx, has he had "poop" issues before? I know Manx cats can have issues all their lives in this area, so am wondering if that is the case before really making any comments on food. Was it the R/C Gastrointestinal Fiber Response that the Vet put him on? Is he prone to constipation, or diarrhea, or usually have the perfect poops?
 
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TuxManx

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Since you mentioned he is a manx, has he had "poop" issues before? I know Manx cats can have issues all their lives in this area, so am wondering if that is the case before really making any comments on food. Was it the R/C Gastrointestinal Fiber Response that the Vet put him on? Is he prone to constipation, or diarrhea, or usually have the perfect poops?
The dry food is the fiber response & the wet just says moderate calorie.
His poop had always been normal looking. He’s never had diarrhea. He never seemed to have any constipation that I could tell, he was very regular. When the problem started it went along with him switching to pooping every other day & it being larger amounts, like he should have still been pooping every day & was holding it.
Since he’s been on the new foods he’s been pooping every day again, a couple days into the new foods he pooped a very large amount a couple days in a row & then it went back to his normal amount.
Something that has been strange to me is the consistency of the poop on this new food- it looks normal on the outside, but the inside of it is a different, softer consistency. It stays together, but ends up looking kind of deflated if that makes sense. He’s always had solid poop, I’m not sure if it was too solid before & the consistency it is now is what it should have been all along.
I thought the manx part was important to include since they can have some of these problems :)
 

mrsgreenjeens

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OK, so what exactly is the wet food the Vet recommended, and what was he eating before? Was he eating a combination of food prior? If so, what wet food did he eat before? Does he need to gain weight? Just wondering why the Vet gave this specific wet food?
 
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TuxManx

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OK, so what exactly is the wet food the Vet recommended, and what was he eating before? Was he eating a combination of food prior? If so, what wet food did he eat before? Does he need to gain weight? Just wondering why the Vet gave this specific wet food?
The wet food is Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Moderate Calorie. When we were at the appt the Vet said he thought it might be colitis & since he is a Manx he thought putting him on those Royal Canin Gastrointestinal foods would generally be easier on his system. No mention of needing to gain weight, the Vet referred to him as being “big, but not fat” & said physically he looked great. I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if the Moderate Calorie food was given because it was the only Royal Canin Gastrointestinal wet food that was on hand at the time/might also be the only one they choose to carry.
He has always eaten a combo of wet & dry foods, around 50/50. When everything started he had been eating American Journey, a wet variety pack that was 3 different flavors involving different combinations of chicken, turkey, tuna, & salmon- for a couple years. I had been wanting to switch him to better quality food before his poop problem started, so as a result of it I began transitioning him to Essence Oceanfish wet food & was planning to increase the wet over dry to closer to 75/25. We were getting close to being done with the wet food transition by the time we managed to get in to see the doctor.
When the test results came back with no explanations for the poop problem, but with the small bits of calcification/possible stones in one kidney I was told that both of the Royal Canin Gastrointestinal foods he was put on were still recommended for that issue.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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In looking up the wet food the Vet recommended, I'm thinking that may be mainly for the kidney stones more than anything else. You might call them and tell them your little guy isn't interested in that particular food and see if they want you to try another of their S/O foods, OR maybe try switching him over to the poultry Essence food vs the fish one. There is a lot of thinking that fish can contribute to kidney stones. But that Essence looks like a pretty good food, and if you continue to feed some of the Fiber Response along with it, you might be ok. Wish we knew exactly what the Vet thought the original issue was that he thought these new foods would correct.

Oh, and do you give him probiotics? That might help too. We can ALL use a healthy gut, which pre and probiotics can help with. It's fine to give cats human pre/probiotics. Many of us do. I give 1/2 capsule in the a.m. and 1/2 at night, mixed into their food.
 
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TuxManx

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In looking up the wet food the Vet recommended, I'm thinking that may be mainly for the kidney stones more than anything else. You might call them and tell them your little guy isn't interested in that particular food and see if they want you to try another of their S/O foods, OR maybe try switching him over to the poultry Essence food vs the fish one. There is a lot of thinking that fish can contribute to kidney stones. But that Essence looks like a pretty good food, and if you continue to feed some of the Fiber Response along with it, you might be ok. Wish we knew exactly what the Vet thought the original issue was that he thought these new foods would correct.

Oh, and do you give him probiotics? That might help too. We can ALL use a healthy gut, which pre and probiotics can help with. It's fine to give cats human pre/probiotics. Many of us do. I give 1/2 capsule in the a.m. and 1/2 at night, mixed into their food.
Oh wow, I had no idea about the fish & kidney stone thing, that is great information to have, thank you!
When I started to switch to the Essence fish I also began giving him a little bit of pumpkin & probiotics with it. I was in such a panic about his problem that I didn’t think to check if human ones were safe(so that information is great to have now). I got him NWC Naturals Total-Biotics probiotics. When we were at the Vet, he told me to stop giving the pumpkin & probiotics. He said the foods had everything he needed. But when I got home from the appt & was able to read about the Royal Canin foods I noticed that they mentioned prebiotics, but not probiotics so I had been wondering about that. I can restart him on those. And I think to start off I’ll get some of the wet poultry Essence to see if he maybe will be more interested in the wet Royal Canin with some of that mixed in. Initially he was okay with the wet Royal Canin & has ended up being picky about it, so hopefully adding to it will make it more tasty for him.
Thank you sooo much for your time & suggestions, they are greatly appreciated! :)
 
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