Hairball Prevention/New feeding plans

thatfilmgirl

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So with Sammy in recovery from the (actually really small???) hairball that was lodged in his intestines, I'm going to make the long overdue switched from free-feed to meal times that I had planned to do two years ago but couldn't get anyone in the house to help me.

If life was perfect and I wasn't already having to spend most of my money on student loans, I'd love to switch Sammy to a completely raw diet. However right now that isn't doable so I'll be switching him to a wet/dry mix and Prissy to a diet more appropriate for her age (She will be 15 come May).

Initial plans:

We're switching Sammy to a Grain and Gluten Free diet and the dry foods I was considering were 
  • Nature's Variety Instinct
  • Natural Balance Alpha-Cat Grain Free Mix
I will also be providing him with a (small?) can of wet food a day and I was thinking maybe... 4x a week I would add egg yolk for the Egg Yolk Lichtien?

For Prissy, at her age, I didn't want to change things up for her too much so I wanted to stick with Blue Buffalo and was looking at their Elder formula in addition to the wet food + EYL.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

As a note, Prissy does have Hyperthyroidism.
 

ldg

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Sounds like a good plan. The timed meals may really help - indigestible solids are the last things to leave the stomach, and they actually need those "hunger pangs" to trigger the paristalsis to push that hair out of the stomach on through so it comes out the other end. And with the egg yolk, the choline will help motility, and the lecithin in it will help emulsify fats. A TCS member in the UK found she had to give 2 or 3 egg yolks a week to stop the hairballs - they don't seem to have the supplement egg yolk lecithin available there.

I don't know how much Natural Balance food costs, but I was feeding Nature's Variety, Ziwipeak, some Weruva and some Wellness, and it cost me less to switch to raw - even the NV frozen commercial raw cost less. (My cats are all adults, and were eating approximately one 5.5 ounce can a day each. On raw, the amount they eat ranges from 3.6 ounces a day to 4.5 ounces a day, with the average at about 4.2 ounces). Their meals cost me $0.47 per meal (and that includes some of the more expensive frozen stuff AND the shipping); they eat 3 meals a day. I could bring that down by just using stuff purchased on sale at the supermarket, and having just some organs and hearts shipped. Just something to consider.

For Prissy - is the BB Elder formula high protein? How is her thyroid being treated - with methimazole? You may be interested in this nutrition information for senior and hyperthyroid cats by the Endocrinologist vet that discovered hyperthyroidism in cats (and its cure, the radioactive iodine treatment): http://endocrinevet.blogspot.no/2011/11/optimal-protein-requirements-for-older.html
 
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thatfilmgirl

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Thanks for the reply! Right now it's going to be a matter of seeing if Sammy will take the egg yolk in the wet food. My mom makes herself meringues all the time as a low-carb meal so there's all the yolk that technically goes to waste anyway. He's not a particularly picky eater to begin with so we should hopefully not have any problems. I was reading the great post on EYL so we'll go with the simplest method first.

The 10lb Natural Balance in store cost $38 which was on the expensive side which is why I was also looking at the Nature's Variety for $23 (5.5lbs per bag). Which also not very cheap. It isn't just cost I'm concerned about but storage as well as time. Time is a huge factor and there is not a lot of left over space in our fridge or basement freezer for *my* food that I purchase let alone extra stuff just for the cats. While it's no problem feeding them bits of chicken or fish or what type of meat product we may be cooking with at the moment, I'm a little squeamish personally when it comes to dealing with organs. I'm definitely open and considering also supplementing with a raw diet. Both of my cats are avid hunters who eat their kill already. (and I'll be fully honest the idea of rabbit carcasses make me cry becauseI love rabbit just like how when I had pet rats in college all the people who threatened to feed them to their pet snakes upsets me)

Prissy's thyroid is being treated with 5mg of methimazole. She's supposed to take it twice a day but we can only get it into her once a day and she's been doing wonderful on it. I had considered radioactive iodine but she does have a heart murmur (it's not severe but it's there) and the procedure plus isolation would be severely stressful for her. Her brother/littermate died suddenly and unexpectedly four years ago and we weren't sure why.

The BB Mature Wilderness is Crude Protein (min.) 38.0%, Crude Fat (min.) 14.0%, Crude Fiber (max.) 3.5%, Moisture (max.) 10.0%, Magnesium (max.) 0.08%, Taurine (min.) 0.15%, Omega 3 Fatty Acids* (min.) 0.5%, Omega 6 Fatty Acids* (min.) 2.5%.

This would also be supplemented with wet food.

We've also been very lucky that both are cats have always been avid water drinkers.
 
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Willowy

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If the Natural Balance is $38 for 10 pounds, that makes it $3.80 a pound. . .And Nature's Variety at $23 for 5.5 pounds is $4.18 a pound so it definitely isn't cheaper :tongue2:.

Anyway, if you can get the older cat on all canned I'd recommend it. Older cats almost always have trouble with their kidneys and wet food puts much less stress on their old organs. If she doesn't like canned food I guess you have to stick with what she'll eat, but if she does like it, no reason not to switch.

Just switching to mealtimes may help Sammy with the hairballs. Emptying their stomach really moves the hair along while it's still loose hair, whereas when the stomach is always full of food the hair just kind of sits there and clumps up. So that might do it for him. I've also noticed my cats have fewer hairballs since they switched to canned food but that might also be because of the mealtime thing :lol3:.
 
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thatfilmgirl

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Reading all about the raw food is just a LOT of information to absorb. It all feels so overwhelming and how do I know if my cats are getting enough to eat? *pulls hair out* And god knows I have a hard enough time just mustering up the desire to make myself food. Sammy was fed exclusively wet food his first year of life before we got him so I don't think we'll have much of a problem. I might pick up a couple cans tomorrow and tempt Prissy to see how she deals with that possible change.

This all feels very overwhelming.
 

raintyger

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Raw can be overwhelming, that's true, and I understand being a student and not having much time to deal with it. What you might want to do is feed wet food and absorb the raw feeding info when you can. Budget canned food includes Friskies pate and Fancy Feast classic line. If you can switch to 100% wet that would help hairballs more than anything.
 

ldg

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Raw can be overwhelming, that's true, and I understand being a student and not having much time to deal with it. What you might want to do is feed wet food and absorb the raw feeding info when you can. Budget canned food includes Friskies pate and Fancy Feast classic line. If you can switch to 100% wet that would help hairballs more than anything.

:yeah: I didn't realize you were referring to dry food when you mentioned the brands. :anon: I read your first post too quickly.

The Friskies pate foods do contain some rice, but with their low-carb content, it isn't much. They can be purchased quite economically in the 13 oz cans. :nod: I'm able to purchase it here for $0.97 per can, so just $1.20 per pound. :)
 
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