Newbie with food prob!

Big newbie hello!

I'm a newbie here at the forum and new also to the cat experience
Last year my sister found three calico kittens in a box and I fell in love with the three little devil sisters (or the Powerpuff Girls as my niece calls them ). I gave them the bottle and watched them grow, and its been a beautiful experience. I had never had cats just dogs and I have a lot to learn about this mysterious creatures. They are so smart and can communicate so much with just one look.

One day in April one of the girls got sick, she ate but couldn't keep anything down, she started crying (she's very vocal) and I immediately took her to the vet. He told me she was a bit dehydrated and that she showed signs of poisoning. Since I never let my cats outside, it seemed very unlikely but I thought maybe she had nibbled on one of the house plants, she was given an iv and treated for poisoning and then released. A couple of days later she got sick again and it seemed even worse, this time she had to stay at the vet for a whole week. My vet was as baffled as I was (there were no plants left at home), but my girl got better and came home.

The first few days I kept her separated from her sisters so she could eat and sleep in peace (the doctor gave her some special diet from Science Diet) and she gained some weight back. I started searching the web for some answers and followed some of the suggestions. I changed my litter to non-scoopable (just in case) and stopped feeding them supermarket brands. They are now all eating Pro-Plan Total Care for Kittens. But still Marty (that's the one who got sick) weights much less than her sisters and cries for more food constantly. At first I thought she didn't like the food and just wanted to eat the treats I gave her sometimes (Whiskas Temptations), but now I'm not so sure.

The real problem with cat food around here is that there are no places to buy it! All the pet shops here only carry Pro Plan, Science Diet (bit expensive) Iams and another brand called Exclusive (anyone heard of this one?), the others are the regular supermarket brands. Shipping anything over here would be waaay to expensive.

This week I started giving them their usual Pro Plan dry, with Fancy Feast cans (1-2 a week) plus this food supplement called The Missing Link (anyone used this product?). I'm still waiting for the results of this little experiment.

I just don't know what else to do, I'm worried that she might get sick again and just want her to gain some more weight, its very frustrating since her sisters are doing so well. She's very active and she's the one that's always getting into trouble but she seems to be hungry all the time and when she eats wet food she gets a slight diarrhea. Marty is the leader of the pack around the house, she's funny and sociable and a great cat and it would hurt so much to see her sick again

Please advise,
Pugui

Hi,
I am not an expert, but my first guess would be that she has worms. However you took her to the vet, and he probably ruled it out.
My 0.02 would be to give her as much food as she wants, you don't want to limit access to food while she's growing. Wet foods in my limited experience are very good; you might want to change her to something better than Fancy Feast, though, best would be a kitten formula. Science Diet is definitely better IMO, if there's nothing else available.
Hope this helps, and your kitty gets better!
*sending good vibes*

I beleive Pro Plan also makes a canned food. I've never used Exclusive but it looks like a good brand though I did'nt see a kitten formula listed on their website maybe the adult formula is suitable for all life stages...if so it should be stated somewhere on the bag.

If your interested in trying other brands you can also look at the websites of the foods your interested in because most of them have store locators so you can see if they are available in your area.

Also, as the other poster mentioned...it would be a good idea to free feed the dry food if your not doing so already in this case.

Thanks Vanessa and Elena for your advise

I do free feed the dry food, but she seems to loose interest in it and starts looking for something else. Maybe I should feed her the wet food (+ Missing Link supplement) everyday instead of 2-3 times a week

Originally posted by puguita
Maybe I should feed her the wet food (+ Missing Link supplement) everyday instead of 2-3 times a week

Click to expand...

Sound like a good idea to me. If it is wet food she likes, by all means, give it to her.