Newbie in Spain

Hello all,

I found the site when searching for advice about feeding raw food.

My kitten, Merlin, is 15 weeks old and is passing blood at the end of every bowel movement.

He had diarrhea for some time after I got him and the vet has ruled out parasites and changed the food several times, this improved the consistency but not the blood problem.

Today the vet gave him an antibiotic injection and some tablets to give him, but I'm wondering if raw food mind settle his sensitive stomach.

Look forward to reading through the posts for advice.

Hi and welcome to TCS! Sorry to hear of your kitten's issues. He seems so young to have GI troubles not related to parasites. Raw may help, but I'm wondering if there's not something else going on. Blood indicates bleeding in the lower GI tract. If the blood is at the end of a bowel movement, I'm wondering if the bowel movement itself isn't causing some physical irritation?

What kind of food have you tried in the past? I'm wondering if the use of slippery elm bark would be helpful for Merlin. Its soothing and coating properties might be good for his GI tract.

He is currently on both dried kitten food and a high quality canned food, a fish mousse, which seems to be fine.

The vet suggested the most expensive dried food for sensitive stomachs, but he can't spend his life on that, so thought introducing raw and stopping the biscuits might help.

I definitely wouldn't recommend dry food. Raw is very easily digestible and will leave very little waste, so it is definitely worth a shot. There is a Resources thread at the top of the Raw Feeding forum that has a lot of useful info. Are you thinking homemade? Ground or prey model raw? I'm not sure if you have any commercial options in Spain?

The biscuits are definately coming off the menu, I have a box of the sachets of meat in jelly which I will still give with raw until it's all gone then hoping for raw only. Been doing lots of research into the ratios of meat/bone/liver/other offal, so will freeze in small portions. Chicken wings, ox liver, chicken meat and heart to start with and build on that.

My partner thinks everything in moderation is better but thinks the biscuits should stay, these are down all the time but for Merlin I want to cut them out and see if his condition improves.