Will raw diet help Irritable Bowel?

vintage40s

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Hi - I'm new and desperately wanting help with my Tommy. He's 4 yrs old, weighs in at 15 1/2 pounds and has loose, very smelly stools. He takes Pred every other day and eats Nutro, which is expensive but has lots of grain in it so is probably making him WORSE. I am willing to try the raw diet! Do I have to get supplements like that Feline Instincts stuff? I am such a Newbie at this. Please, if anyone has advice, I'd be so thankful!!! Tommy is a completely indoor cat, so if grass is on the diet, I'll grow him some indoors. (P.S. I've already tried other remedies such as yogurt, other meds, etc) THANKS
 

kalikat

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Hi & welcome to the forum.
You should get him checked out by your vet 1st.
I've only fed my dogs the natural diet. For them, eating bones makes for firmer stools. When I used to feed tin food they had your problem. Blossom my kitten eats whiskas kitten pouches & Purina One for kittens & she doesn't have a problem. I would like her to have chicken wings to keep her teeth clean but haven't given her many so she might be reluctant to eat them.
I have several books on natural feeding, mostly for dogs. They are by Dr Ian Billinghurst - Give a Dog a Bone. etc, he uses supplements & Dr Tom Lonsdale - Raw Meaty Bones. & Works Wonders., I don't think he believes in using supplements, both vets & advocates of natural feeding. They are available in Australia but don't know about US. You can certainly find info about them on the net. Good luck.
 

panther pride

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I would do it gradually and wait and see how he handles it sometimes cats go into a withdrawl stage when switched to raw, worms come out of their butts they act funny and then they come back and forward in leaps and bounds they get coats softer then you would beleive and healthy weight healthy teeth, ect. Sharky here knows all about pet neutrtion. It sounds scary with what I just told you in the begining about the worms but trust me its GREAT!
 

scamperfarms

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Def.have him checked out by a vet first.But, yes a Raw diet should helpan irritable bowel. I know my Diagnoised IBS girl Maia, its the only thing she can tolerate and have good solid stools.
 

sharky

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FIRST and foremost find a vet who will either learn with you or is knowledgable in a raw diet... I am lucky to have to vets to ask questions to ... Like I thought every meal had to be perfectly balenced ... Well my vet corrected that ... feel free to drop me a PM ...


Yes raw can help with IBS... What tests have been run???.... what meds have you tried other than pred.... >>>???Which Nutro and how long on that formula?? What other foods have been tried???

Well with my girls I use some human supplement s and am finding that it is cheaper and easier than the "raw" supplement s thou I do recommend the commercial ones for beginning ... It is trial and error ....

...
 
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vintage40s

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This has been going on so long that I can't remember what we have tried. But it includes several types of prescriptions and prescription foods. He cannot and will not tolerate pills, in ANY form. Question - how does this raw diet affect their teeth? I feed my pets no canned food for that very reason. I read ingreds carefully and try to get the "best" for sensitive stomachs, but it all seems like glorified cereal/meal no matter how big a brand name it is. I have to do something soon, as we are leaving on a two week trip and I can't subject my teenaged pet sitter to Tommy's repugnant litter box and Prednisone dosing chase. Thanks to all advisors!!!!
 
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vintage40s

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oops, P.S. you asked about tests... not surgical. can't afford, with 4 other pets and some special needs. But he has had stool and blood tests and medication that would have supposedly cured other maladies.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by vintage40s

This has been going on so long that I can't remember what we have tried. But it includes several types of prescriptions and prescription foods. He cannot and will not tolerate pills, in ANY form. Question - how does this raw diet affect their teeth? I feed my pets no canned food for that very reason. I read ingreds carefully and try to get the "best" for sensitive stomachs, but it all seems like glorified cereal/meal no matter how big a brand name it is. I have to do something soon, as we are leaving on a two week trip and I can't subject my teenaged pet sitter to Tommy's repugnant litter box and Prednisone dosing chase. Thanks to all advisors!!!!
The theory that dry food keeps their teeth clean seems to be on it's way out. Most of the recent research I have come across states that dry food doesn't help teeth. I tend to agree...but I'll wait for others to weigh in on that too.

I don't have any cats that have been diagnosed with IBS but I do have a formerly chronic barfer with occasional diarrhea that is doing 100% better on a 90% canned diet. Stools are nice now and the vomiting is very very minimal. I would try raw on him, but he's old and stubborn so I will work on him later


Sharky has some excellent advice about diet. We recently sampled some premade raw and I would have to say the biggest question is how easily will the cat accept the food? That is the first factor to consider, and there's only one way to find out. On my first try, 6/8 at least tried it, and now I have 3 that will consistenly and enthusiastically eat it without any "tampering" or bribe food mixed in. There are tricks for stubborn cats, though...and I'm still working on that.


Have you tried Pill Pockets for Tommy's prednisone? Beandip took his Prednisone in pill pockets every day without fail for about 5 months. They've worked well for my other kitties too.
 
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