Question for Laurie regarding Spencer's diet!

Spencer keeps on doing good, his behaviour is totally "pre-blockage" normal and he has stopped licking his genitals so much; I think he was indeed sore after his first day without painkillers.
My main concern here is that he is not eating as much as I'd like him to. He really doesn't seem to like the Royal Canin urinary SO food. I gave him some tuna water (no tuna, just water that had sat in tuna) and he lapped it all up. He does eat some of his prescription food but not enough for my liking.
My question is, I know the vet told me to give him only the urinary food for now, etc, but I am wondering if I should try to mix it up with another canned food? Or, could I mix in some poultry or something else that would make him want to eat it more. Spencer's illness just cost me over $3500 and I cannot really afford to buy a whole new other batch of another brand of urinary food at the vet - not this week anyway. Is there a not so bad canned food that I could get at the grocery store (like Iams?) that I could give him to see if the problem is that he won't eat the Royal Canin - or if the problem is he won't eat anything at all.

Amy

By the way thanks for the link you send me in the other thread, I read it and really I wish I had known those things before. I would never have fed my cats dry food.
Also, weirdly Spencer's sisters love the urinary Royal Canin and eat whatever he doesn't eat. I'm wondering if perhaps Spencer associates it with the vet.

When you need to replace the prescription wet food, consider trying the Hill/s prescription c/d if your vet sells it. I really don't like any of the prescription foods - they are typically loaded with grains. BUT for the urinary prescription foods, they really do an excellent job of stabilizing kitties with crystals. The Hill's is high fat, so most cats really like it.

I would recommend using the prescription food for a couple of months, until you know he's stable. It's so hard on them (and our pocketbooks!) when these problems happen, so paying more for the prescription food temporarily is worth it in the long run, IMO.

And because you don't want to waste that food, I see no reason not to mix in a different grain free wet food. If you're shopping at the supermarket, I actually like the Friskies PATE foods better than the Iams. :nod: The Iams has more carbs than is appropriate - it has veggies, potato, alfalfa, brewer's yeast... ( http://www.iams.com/cat-food/iams-proactive-health-adult-pate-with-chicken-liver ) where the Friskies pates are low-carb, and only have some rice in them ( http://www.friskies.com/Cat-Food/Wet-Cat-Food/Classic-Pate-Mixed-Grill ). I like Fancy Feast classic foods too (for supermarket food), but they're much higher in phosphorus (which can be an indication of how much magnesium is in the food). Right now, you need a low magnesium food for your boy. :nod:

This list, compiled by Dr. Pierson (same website) shows the protein/fat/carbs AND phosphorus of the foods: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf Look at the middle columns - the dry matter basis column. What you're looking for is something with less than 10% carbs, but also low in phosphorus. The Iams doesn't fit the bill - the Friskies pate foods do. Most cats LOVE Fancy Feast, which doesn't even have any rice - but with the MUCH higher phosphorus content, I'd avoid it. Oh - and avoid all fishy flavors. Forever.

If you have a locally owned pet store, you might want to consider the By Nature 95% cans or any of the EVO canned foods (except Venison). Others to consider: Nature's Variety Instinct canned foods (but they're usually kind of expensive). Also any of the Merrick foods - and if Before Grain, only beef would be appropriate.

(And here's the article that goes with the commercial canned food list: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods ).

Thanks! These articles are very interesting - and again really something I wish I had know before.
What about the tuna water I gave him, was that really bad?
I may be able to switch the RC for the Hills at the vet - I bought like 60 cans and I don't know what I'm gonn do with all this if he doesn't want it, except feed it to the girls.
I will go get some Friskies pâté today, that will be a quick solution which is what I need. I'll mix it with the RC and see what happens. I'm going back to work tomorrow but I do have a pet sitter who will come to check on him. I'll probably isolate him to a room too so I can see what he's done and eaten during the day.

When we rescued our first kitten, we asked the vet what to feed, and he said Iams dry food was good for them - free feeding allowed them to eat many small meals throughout the day, which is how wild cats would eat. And who doesn't trust their vet? So 1.5 years later, when the boys blocked... the vet says, here, feed this prescription diet, and to help increase the amount of urine, consider adding this prescription wet food - mix a little water in it and give that to them in addition to this dry food....

And the prescription food solved the problem, so I didn't do any further research.

Well, six years later we rescued a VERY sick kitty with a LOT of problems. He seemed to be allergic to everything, and no food was fixing the problem. So we sought out a holistic vet - one trained in nutrition and alternative medicine (but also a D.V.M.). She's the one that brought us up to speed on feline nutrition - well - a crash course - enough of one to put me on the hunt for more information. She resolved our sick/allergic kitty's problems inside of a FEW DAYS - and our traditional vets hadn't been able to help him in over six months of trying things.

So... we don't know what we don't know, and when it comes to feline nutrition, so many of us have no REASON to know - and we trust our vets! It's when problems crop up that.... we sometimes learn the hard way that vets don't know everything - and unlike human doctors, many vets actually know very little about nutrition and how it impacts our cats' health. They understand "vitamin A, vitamin D, etc." - but not that all of those vitamins and minerals really need to come in the right format and from the right sources. After all - they're seeing cats live to be 15, 16, 20 years old, right? But it doesn't occur to anyone - those cats are all living to be that old because they've moved inside from outside, and they're not being eaten by coyotes or hit by cars, or falling out of trees... and as pet food companies move to cheaper and cheaper ingredients to keep those foods affordable for us, our cats that are living longer are now experiencing more and more problems... FLUTD, chronic renal failure, obesity and diabetes, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease.... just like people, they need food that is less processed, with appropriate ingredients. It's just that appropriate ingredients for cats, as obligate carnivores, is very different than appropriate ingredients for humans.

But yeah - see if you can swap out the Royal Canin s/o for Hill's. I don't know the ingredients in the Royal Canin - I just doubt there's much difference, and the Hill's is usually pretty well liked. And in the meantime, adding some friskies pate may help. BTW, if he's really resisting wet food, you can buy a small bag of the dry prescription food, and pick up a pill crusher. Crush 5-6 kibbles into a powder, and dust the top of the wet food with it. That might help him dig in. :nod: (And to increase his water intake, you can try mixing a little warm water into the wet food. My cats liked "gravy," and that kind of made the whole thing gravy, so it worked for them).

Yep my regular vet had told me a long time ago that Iams was the best of the cheaper foods and I could feed Iams kibble to my cats pretty safely. Live and learn hey. I have to also add that Spencer is my first male cat, ever. I've always had females.
I have been making a gravy with his RC food but it does concerns me that he is licking off the "gravy" and not eating the actual food. Spencer is a big cat - 20 lbs - and I know that makes it all the more important that he eats properly, I don't want him to come down with jaundice or anything like that.
I just took his old bag of Whiskas and shook it next to the bowl of canned food, he looked at me licking his chops but then passed by the bowl without stopping to eat. So I guess he is trying to wear me out til I give him the kibbles, that won't happen. I'll throw the bag now as maybe it's smell is distracting him from the canned food.

Yep, tossing the bag is a good idea. The smell IS distracting. :nod: And you'realso right about how important it is he eat - especially as a big kitty, it's really important he eat his daily requirement of food. SUCH a balancing act right now! I hope the Friskies pate will help. BTW, if he likes the "gravy," do you have a food processor or blender? Toss his portion of canned in there (or try 1/2 friskies and 1/2 prescription), add a little warm water, and turn the whole thing into gravy. That worked for my kids when I was transitioning them to an all canned food diet - and they'd been eating kibble for 8 years. It also gets more water into him.