IBD cat is picky on what he eats

mewlittle

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I have a cat with IBD he is 2 and a half years old was diagnoses with IBD not long ago before he was diagnosed he was having off and on bloody diarrhea for awhile he still has the bloody dirrahea every once awhile . he has natural balance venison and pea wet food but he wont eat it I mx some prozyme from lambert in his food but I can't get Marty to eat his wet he will dance around the food plate meowing at me all excited and acting like he is starving but he wont eat the food I know he is being picky because I gave him some friskies wet I know it ain't good for him and he ate it I did that because he went a day with out eating then I tried to get him to eat natures variety raw medallions rabbit he wont eat that either so I tried like a 1/8 cup taste of the wild venison dry and he ate that with no issues he loved it so I tried the natural balance again like a hour or so after I tried the dry he wouldn't eat it all he wanted to do is try to go in Mikaelas <his mom's room to try to steal her friskies wet the next day I tried grandma lucys freaze dried mix on him he wouldn't eat it awhile later I tried mixing the stuff he won't eat in the friskies  wet he wouldn't eat it he knew it was in there then right before i went to bed I gave him a 1/8cup 50/50 mix of natures variety instinct chicken and diamond naturals dry and he at that like it was gold or something I don't want him to starve so I been giving him some friskies wet and kroger wet so he don't starve what can I try on him to get him to eat? and everytime I put the proenxyme in his friskies he wont touch it, he also needs to gain some weight.
 

goholistic

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Does he not do well on Friskies wet? Does it give him loose stools or something? It seems he likes Friskies and the dry foods you've offered. I would suggest mixing Friskies with one of the foods you want him to eat, such as the premium canned or raw. It would probably need to be a slow transition. Given that diarrhea was his primary symptom, I'm thinking that a raw diet might help. You could mix Friskies with a small amount Nature's Variety raw chicken. Are you trying to get him to eat novel proteins because of a food allergy?

Ugh...having a fussy cat is so frustrating.
 
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mewlittle

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What do you mean novel proteins?

And he don't do good on friskies every time he has diarrhea it has a little blood in it.
And I tryied mixing the friskies in the other foods I want him to eat and he wont touch it he knows the stuff I want him to eat is mixed in there


Is soulistic wet a good brand for IBD cats? I might try that when I go to petco soon.
 

goholistic

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Well, I noticed you bought the rabbit and the venison and green pea. They are considered novel proteins, meaning proteins that aren't usually found in most cat foods and are typically fed to cats with food allergies to proteins such as chicken and beef.

Soulistic is pretty decent. It's shredded meat, though, not a pate. Not sure if that matters. My Boo has been really fussy lately, too, and I'm trying to get him to eat better canned foods. He tolerates the Nature's Variety Limited Ingredient Lamb, Nutro Natural Choice Soft Loaf Turkey, and Wellness Core Turkey & Duck.
 
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mewlittle

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A friend gave me the rabbit and natural balance stuff

The reason why I asked about soulistic because I don't see any bad ingredients in it beside the gum stuff and I feed it bore he seemed to like it the one time i feed it can IBD cats have solid gold dry?

I cant get any raw stuff tell i get a freezer the friend was letting me do the taste test
 

southpaw

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It can be trial and error to find a food that he will do well on. Unfortunately, there's not really one food out there that I can say "yes, a cat with IBD will do well with this." It's different for each cat. My cat has IBD and there are a couple things he does well on: Natures Logic chicken, Natures Variety Instinct chicken (but not duck!), Holistic Select Indoor/Weight Management, and raw. All of these are dry foods, aside from the raw of course. And I can't give you any good reason why he does well on these particular foods. Out of those 4, by far he has done the best on Holistic Select. But another cat with IBD might do horribly on that food!

I've experimented a lot, some foods I've tried he just won't eat, and some foods he goes on a vomiting spree as soon as I switch him to it. It definitely helps that the store I shop at has a great return policy :) If I try something that he won't eat, I just move on to something else and see how he does with that.
 

micknsnicks2mom

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What do you mean novel proteins?

And he don't do good on friskies every time he has diarrhea it has a little blood in it.
And I tryied mixing the friskies in the other foods I want him to eat and he wont touch it he knows the stuff I want him to eat is mixed in there


Is soulistic wet a good brand for IBD cats? I might try that when I go to petco soon.
my cat snick has IBD, has had it for almost 5 years now. we started out with snick eating natural balance salmon and green pea limited ingredient canned and dry cat foods. per our vet's recommendation, i added plain unflavored metamucil to her wet food, the daily amount suggested by our vet split up into a morning meal and an evening meal. it took a month before the at times explosive diarrhea stopped, but it did stop.

i would only try the metamucil under your vet's supervision. i would strongly suggest that before trying metamucil, you discuss it with your vet and get the vet's recommendation on the dosage. i know our vet suggested starting out with a tiny bit (like a tiny sprinkle), to make sure there wasn't going to be an undesired reaction to it (like worse diarrhea or vomiting, etc). metamucil might be something you could discuss as a treatment option with your vet. it's the fiber in the metamucil that helped.

i kept snick on the dosage of metamucil that stopped the diarrhea and kept it from coming back, for about a year. at that point i gradually reduced the daily dosage of metamucil until she was not getting any, then started mixing just a tiny bit of plain canned pumpkin puree into her wet food each day. the pumpkin worked fine for my snick, and eventually we were able to taper the dosage down to where she wasn't getting that too.

it must have been between 1 and 2 years after the diarrhea stopped that i started introducing grain free canned and dry foods for snick. one of her favorites is petco's soulistic canned foods. snick does fine with this wet food, but IBD can be kind of "individual". each IBD cat experiences their own individual version -- some vomit, some have diarrhea, and others have both vomiting and diarrhea. so while my snick does very well eating soulistic canned food, another IBD cat may not.

something our vet told me when he'd just diagnosed the IBD was to "pick a cat food and stick with it". switching foods, even wet foods (that would not cause gastro upset for a non-IBD cat), can cause the initial symptom (ie, diarrhea in your boy's case) to continue or even get worse in the beginning/when just trying to get the initial symptom(s) under control. so i'd try to find a canned and dry cat food that your boy will eat/likes and doesn't get bloody diarrhea from and then stick to it -- give his gastro system the time it needs to settle down.

what flavors of canned cat food does your boy like? what flavors of the friskies canned foods does he like? does he like juicey/gravy in it? does he like pate, shredded, or chunky? knowing what your boy likes with his cat foods will help you to find foods he'll eat and that are also good for his IBD. i started snick out on the natural balance salmon and green pea because she loves fish. snick is a very picky eater, so i knew i had to pick a food she would like so she would eat it.

the "proexyme" that you mentioned you need to put in marty's wet food -- is that something your vet prescribed? part of the problem may be that marty doesn't like the taste of it. is it a probiotic? our vet had me add fort-i-flora to the wet food, and that had no effect on the diarrhea snick was experiencing back then.
 
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mewlittle

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my cat snick has IBD, has had it for almost 5 years now. we started out with snick eating natural balance salmon and green pea limited ingredient canned and dry cat foods. per our vet's recommendation, i added plain unflavored metamucil to her wet food, the daily amount suggested by our vet split up into a morning meal and an evening meal. it took a month before the at times explosive diarrhea stopped, but it did stop.

i would only try the metamucil under your vet's supervision. i would strongly suggest that before trying metamucil, you discuss it with your vet and get the vet's recommendation on the dosage. i know our vet suggested starting out with a tiny bit (like a tiny sprinkle), to make sure there wasn't going to be an undesired reaction to it (like worse diarrhea or vomiting, etc). metamucil might be something you could discuss as a treatment option with your vet. it's the fiber in the metamucil that helped.

i kept snick on the dosage of metamucil that stopped the diarrhea and kept it from coming back, for about a year. at that point i gradually reduced the daily dosage of metamucil until she was not getting any, then started mixing just a tiny bit of plain canned pumpkin puree into her wet food each day. the pumpkin worked fine for my snick, and eventually we were able to taper the dosage down to where she wasn't getting that too.

it must have been between 1 and 2 years after the diarrhea stopped that i started introducing grain free canned and dry foods for snick. one of her favorites is petco's soulistic canned foods. snick does fine with this wet food, but IBD can be kind of "individual". each IBD cat experiences their own individual version -- some vomit, some have diarrhea, and others have both vomiting and diarrhea. so while my snick does very well eating soulistic canned food, another IBD cat may not.

something our vet told me when he'd just diagnosed the IBD was to "pick a cat food and stick with it". switching foods, even wet foods (that would not cause gastro upset for a non-IBD cat), can cause the initial symptom (ie, diarrhea in your boy's case) to continue or even get worse in the beginning/when just trying to get the initial symptom(s) under control. so i'd try to find a canned and dry cat food that your boy will eat/likes and doesn't get bloody diarrhea from and then stick to it -- give his gastro system the time it needs to settle down.

what flavors of canned cat food does your boy like? what flavors of the friskies canned foods does he like? does he like juicey/gravy in it? does he like pate, shredded, or chunky? knowing what your boy likes with his cat foods will help you to find foods he'll eat and that are also good for his IBD. i started snick out on the natural balance salmon and green pea because she loves fish. snick is a very picky eater, so i knew i had to pick a food she would like so she would eat it.

the "proexyme" that you mentioned you need to put in marty's wet food -- is that something your vet prescribed? part of the problem may be that marty doesn't like the taste of it. is it a probiotic? our vet had me add fort-i-flora to the wet food, and that had no effect on the diarrhea snick was experiencing back then.
The proenxyme is a probiotic and enxyme and i add it to his wet and yes thy proscribed it
He likes the pate kind he mostly likes chicken and turkey but that seems to upset his stomach and intestines more
 

micknsnicks2mom

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The proenxyme is a probiotic and enxyme and i add it to his wet and yes thy proscribed it
He likes the pate kind he mostly likes chicken and turkey but that seems to upset his stomach and intestines more
i'd try very hard to stay away from the chicken and turkey with your marty then. does he like fish? has marty tried any rabbit, venison, or lamb canned cat foods?

if you can even find a chunky or shredded kind of canned food that marty likes, you can whiz it up in a food processor to make it more like pate style -- you could even drain off some of the juice/gravy before running it through the food processor.
 
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mewlittle

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i'd try very hard to stay away from the chicken and turkey with your marty then. does he like fish? has marty tried any rabbit, venison, or lamb canned cat foods?

if you can even find a chunky or shredded kind of canned food that marty likes, you can whiz it up in a food processor to make it more like pate style -- you could even drain off some of the juice/gravy before running it through the food processor.
What I was going to do is get the fish and different meats in soulistic brand in the 3 oz cans and a few other brands that is chicken and turkey free I didn't really want to do just fish because fixed males tend to get utis from it so I'm trying to avoid that issue
 

micknsnicks2mom

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What I was going to do is get the fish and different meats in soulistic brand in the 3 oz cans and a few other brands that is chicken and turkey free I didn't really want to do just fish because fixed males tend to get utis from it so I'm trying to avoid that issue
that sounds like a good plan!
 
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mewlittle

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I still can't get him to eat the natural balance so I tried it on my other 2 adult cats they wont touch it and there not picky one of the 2 is nursing kittens and always hungry makes me wonder what is in it :/

he still has soft to diarrhea stool but I don't see any blood in it and he also gained a pound since I been giving him the friskies wet and kroger wet i'm still going to do the no grain wet brands on him next month hope he ain't picky on thous and he does good on it I been giving him the fish and the beef flavors of the friskies and kroger wet
 
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