Spencer having a hard time adjusting to new food

Poor Spencer is having a hard time adjusting to new food. He's been throwing up the kitten chow and his stools are not really diarrhea, but really, really soft.

I'm going to pick up the vet brand that they were feeding them and keep them on the same diet that they were on, at least for now.

P/D wet and Hill's Healthy Advantage. The food is very pricey. $2.25 per can (that's with the 20% case of 24 discount), that's $4.50 per day in wet food!

Any other suggestions for something that I can feed them that they might tolerate?

Linda - did you transition them slowly from their old food to their new food? If not, that could account for his GI upset.

Yes, you have to do the transition slowly or this can happen...especially if he is a kitten. I can tend to change my older cats food and not have the same problem, but I always have a hard time with kittens changing foods.

I second the above comments. Make sure you transition slowly! If you didn't have any of his old food available when adopting him, then yes, it's probably a good idea to get some of it, and then slowly add in his new food to the old food in increasing proportions. Here's a rough guide to show what I mean: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=100

If you did transition the food slowly, then it could be there's a particular ingredient he's sensitive to in that food that wasn't in his previous food. Some ingredients are more common allergens/irritants than others. Common ones include: grains, corn, soy, fish, dairy, and beef. But it may not be any of those, it could even be something most cats do fine on. If you suspect a food allergy or intolerance, compare the ingredients of the new food to the old food to see what the new one contains that the old one does not.

No. I didn't transition And I'm surprised that the vet office didn't suggest that either. If they had I would have brought some of their cat food home with me.

I'm going after work to pick up some of the type they were feeding them and will feed it for a few days and then slowly transition by mixing in gradually larger amounts of the different food.

Ahh yeah that could be it then. That's a shame they didn't tell you! The only way I even knew to do this when I first got my cat was because the shelter told me.

No worries though. Putting him back on his old food and transitioning slowly should hopefully solve the problem.

I went and picked up both the canned and dry food from the vet. They sent me home with 3 packets of something to sprinkle on their food when they heard that one or/both had been having diarrhea.

Probably Fortiflora... they will like that... it is a probiotic so it certainly cannot hurt!

Aw, I hope a slow switch will do the trick! (It should!). Like Adrien, I assume it's a probiotic of some sort... I hope it helps too. Fortiflora made Chumley's diarrhea worse - just an FYI. (Acidophilis helped).

Originally Posted by AddieBee

Probably Fortiflora... they will like that... it is a probiotic so it certainly cannot hurt!

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Originally Posted by LDG

Aw, I hope a slow switch will do the trick! (It should!). Like Adrien, I assume it's a probiotic of some sort... I hope it helps too. Fortiflora made Chumley's diarrhea worse - just an FYI. (Acidophilis helped).

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Yes, I just looked at the name and that is what it's called. They sure did like it on their wet food!

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Yes, I just looked at the name and that is what it's called. They sure did like it on their wet food!

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Yes, it tastes good to them... some cats get hooked on it and won't eat their wet w/o it.

Originally Posted by AddieBee

Yes, it tastes good to them... some cats get hooked on it and won't eat their wet w/o it.

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Is it a bad thing to give on a regular basis? I was only given enough for 3 days for both cats. 1/2 package each once a day.

If it will benefit them to keep getting it, I'll get some more. It is a "Purina" brand, can this be bought elsewhere? I'm assuming it will be extraordinarily expensive if I buy it at the vets. The 3 packages I got were at no charge.

EDIT: I just looked it up on line. It has SALT as one of the ingredients. No wonder they like it!! I'd rather not contribute to future heart disease by giving them added salt.

It also has something called "Animal Digest", not sure what that is. Sounds awful though!

If it's probiotics, will a bit of yogurt work, or will that cause them diarrhea? Abby likes yogurt and so did Chynna. Neither got diarrhea from it. I don't know if kittens are different.

Fortiflora ia a great product, but expensive. Yogurt is okay, but since you are changing their diet, I'd go with a probiotic such as benebac or probios. It comes in a gel form in a tube, you can get it at a pet supply store, and it is not expensive. Give daily during the food transition and for a week or so after.

Don't feed kitten chow, that stuff is disgusting! That's what Queen Eva was eating when I rescued her. I couldn't bear the smell of it, so after three days she was not transitioned slowly any more, but I used a probiotic and she did not have any diarrhea during the transition.

Since I couldn't find a good quality kitten food she would eat I just switched her to the canned cat food Tolly and Jennie eat. Blue Healthy gourmet flaked chicken, Wellness grain free, three flavors (turkey, chicken, beef) and Petite cuisine sesame chicken. But I started her on only two flavors, the Blue flaked chicken and the wellness chicken, and gradually (after a month or so) branched out from there.

For kibble snacks she got (then) Innova cat and kitten kibble, and now gets Blue kitten kibble. But I feed kibble as snacks only.

Keep us posted on how Spencer and Katie are doing in their food switch.

Since I put them back on their original food, there has been no further vomiting or diarrhea. I've watched both go to the bathroom and their poops are formed and normal looking.

I also found that they much prefer the dry food to the canned. They pick at the wet and most of the can ends up being thrown out. It's too expensive to waste. I might just take the balance back to the vet and get a refund and just stick to the dry food.

Our kitties hated wet food at first too. Finally, 8 years later, we're finally on an all wet diet.

It is important especially for Spencer to have wet be a part of his diet. It may help you avoid any problems with crystals or UTIs. ALL of our boys had problems with them - Tuxie and Lazlo had to be catheterized several times. The two (Chum and Bill) that got introduced to a mostly wet food diet never had a problem with them.

With boys, you need to try to keep the urine as dilute as possible.