Hello everyone, I'm hoping someone here can give me some guidance or ideas in how to proceed with transitioning my cat to wet food. Also this may be a bit long so please bear with me.
Shadow, who is ten years old, has been having loose stool off and on since the end of February. Initially we took him to see the vet because he kept obsessively licking the area around his anal opening and he ended up having his glands expressed and they gave us some medicine to help with the loose stool that had recently developed. It helped him while he as on it but after the treatment the loose stool returned about a week later. After another visit the vet did blood work and a fecal test, but nothing out of the ordinary showed up. I was given Fortiflora and powdered vitamins to put in his food and told to try switching him to a sensitive stomach dry food to see if that would help. The Fortiflora and vitamins didn't seem to help much if at all.
I changed his food from Purina Cat Chow to Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe and this seems to have helped somewhat. Where before every bowel movement he had was a combination of soft/runny/loose he can now go two, maybe three days before having issues again. Then there are times where it will be random. He'll have one that's runny and be normal again after. However, when he's "normal" he sounds like he's straining when he goes. He does not have the use of his tail however (he's never been able to flex it or anything), so I don't know if that would cause him to strain or not.
Since the food switch, he has had more hair balls lately and has thrown up a few times as well. He's also developed gas.
I've been wondering if I should switch to a different kibble (something grain free, maybe?) to see if this helps as I'm not sure if this is the food or the underlying cause of the loose stool. Aside from that, he's been acting like himself, eating and playing normally.
Still, I would prefer to get him on all canned so for the past few months I would periodically give him shredded Friskies with crushed kibble on top in between his dry food meals. This progressed to the point where he would lick the gravy off and maybe eat a bit of the meat with out kibble on top. Good progress considering he had never eaten anything other then kibble and the occasional Pounce treat. He's always hated “human food”. I then switched to pate style canned food since he would only lick the gravy off the Friskies and leave all the meat. Since doing this he will sometimes, if I leave it out between meals, eat small portions of the canned food. I've tried a couple of times to replace one of his meals with a meal of canned and he would only lick it for about a minute then “bury” it and leave it there until his next dry food meal.
It's a bit confusing for me because I know he's capable of eating the canned he just won't eat it consistently. When he does eat it he'll leave it there for hours before doing so. There is only one exception where I put the food down and he began eating it right away, and I think it was a fluke as he hasn't done it since.
I've tried the Fortiflora, crushing his kibble and his favorite treats and sprinkling them on top and he doesn't seem to care for this. I'm uncertain what else to try sticking on it at this point since he doesn't care much for anything.
The interesting thing is that I bought some chunky canned food and was able to feed pieces to him individually. If I put them on his saucer or his placemat he proceeds to lick them for a bit, “bury” them, then leave them to get hard.
I understand that this will take time and a great deal of patience since he's been a kibble addict for so long. I guess I'm just uncertain if there is something that I should be doing that I'm not.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Shadow, who is ten years old, has been having loose stool off and on since the end of February. Initially we took him to see the vet because he kept obsessively licking the area around his anal opening and he ended up having his glands expressed and they gave us some medicine to help with the loose stool that had recently developed. It helped him while he as on it but after the treatment the loose stool returned about a week later. After another visit the vet did blood work and a fecal test, but nothing out of the ordinary showed up. I was given Fortiflora and powdered vitamins to put in his food and told to try switching him to a sensitive stomach dry food to see if that would help. The Fortiflora and vitamins didn't seem to help much if at all.
I changed his food from Purina Cat Chow to Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe and this seems to have helped somewhat. Where before every bowel movement he had was a combination of soft/runny/loose he can now go two, maybe three days before having issues again. Then there are times where it will be random. He'll have one that's runny and be normal again after. However, when he's "normal" he sounds like he's straining when he goes. He does not have the use of his tail however (he's never been able to flex it or anything), so I don't know if that would cause him to strain or not.
Since the food switch, he has had more hair balls lately and has thrown up a few times as well. He's also developed gas.
I've been wondering if I should switch to a different kibble (something grain free, maybe?) to see if this helps as I'm not sure if this is the food or the underlying cause of the loose stool. Aside from that, he's been acting like himself, eating and playing normally.
Still, I would prefer to get him on all canned so for the past few months I would periodically give him shredded Friskies with crushed kibble on top in between his dry food meals. This progressed to the point where he would lick the gravy off and maybe eat a bit of the meat with out kibble on top. Good progress considering he had never eaten anything other then kibble and the occasional Pounce treat. He's always hated “human food”. I then switched to pate style canned food since he would only lick the gravy off the Friskies and leave all the meat. Since doing this he will sometimes, if I leave it out between meals, eat small portions of the canned food. I've tried a couple of times to replace one of his meals with a meal of canned and he would only lick it for about a minute then “bury” it and leave it there until his next dry food meal.
It's a bit confusing for me because I know he's capable of eating the canned he just won't eat it consistently. When he does eat it he'll leave it there for hours before doing so. There is only one exception where I put the food down and he began eating it right away, and I think it was a fluke as he hasn't done it since.
I've tried the Fortiflora, crushing his kibble and his favorite treats and sprinkling them on top and he doesn't seem to care for this. I'm uncertain what else to try sticking on it at this point since he doesn't care much for anything.
The interesting thing is that I bought some chunky canned food and was able to feed pieces to him individually. If I put them on his saucer or his placemat he proceeds to lick them for a bit, “bury” them, then leave them to get hard.
I understand that this will take time and a great deal of patience since he's been a kibble addict for so long. I guess I'm just uncertain if there is something that I should be doing that I'm not.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
