Greetings, all!
I'm brand new to the site, and also new to being employed by cats! I have soooo many questions-mostly about choosing a good quality canned food (one that's easily available in Canada)
Our two babies are both rescues, and both turned a year old in November. Toby joined our family at the beginning of September, and Callie in November. A couple of days after Callie's arrival, she showed signs of an eye infection of some sort, and she was sneezing A LOT. A trip to the vet resulted in an oral antibiotic that seemed to clear the infection within a couple of days, and the sneezing stopped, too.
About a week after Callie finished her antibiotics, Toby's eye started to 'gunk up'. A trip to the vet revealed that Toby had a scratch on the surface of his eye-most likely as a result of play fighting with Callie. The vet sent Toby home with some eye drops and several packets of Purina FortiFlora. We were told to give both cats a packet of the probiotic once daily, as it would help to boost their immune systems.
And that's when things got 'weird'. The two cats have proven to be very different eaters. (When Toby came to us, he was on Science Diet dry, and Callie was on Royal Canin dry) Toby has from day one been a bit of a 'grazer'. He will eat a few pieces of kibble, and walk away. Returns about every half hour to nibble. Callie, on the other hand, stands and eats everything all at once-so fast that she has thrown up a few times. Then she goes to Toby's dish...
We have been working towards a wet food diet, and so the FortiFlora was mixed in with a bit of water and poured over their dinner meal like a gravy. Both cats seemed to like it, and licked their bowls clean. From the next morning on, Callie's eating habits seemed to change. She turned up her nose at her morning kibble, and ate very little (for her) that day. Today is day 5, and since the introduction of the FortiFlora, Callie has stopped eating so fast. She often leaves food in her dish and returns to it later.
Does anyone know if this change could be a result of the FortiFlora? Has anybody used this (or any other) probiotic long term in their kittie's diets? At first I thought that Callie was sick, but thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case.
Also, the switch to wet food seems to be going well. They are currently eating 3 meals a day, two wet and one dry. Should be completely away from the dry within a few days. Does anybody have recommendations for a nutritional canned food without a lot of ingredients that cats just don't need? I've tried researching on the net, but there is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of information out there!
My apologies for the long post-if anybody made it through the entire thing, I'd sure appreciate any and all advice from all of you more experienced cat people!
: )
I'm brand new to the site, and also new to being employed by cats! I have soooo many questions-mostly about choosing a good quality canned food (one that's easily available in Canada)
Our two babies are both rescues, and both turned a year old in November. Toby joined our family at the beginning of September, and Callie in November. A couple of days after Callie's arrival, she showed signs of an eye infection of some sort, and she was sneezing A LOT. A trip to the vet resulted in an oral antibiotic that seemed to clear the infection within a couple of days, and the sneezing stopped, too.
About a week after Callie finished her antibiotics, Toby's eye started to 'gunk up'. A trip to the vet revealed that Toby had a scratch on the surface of his eye-most likely as a result of play fighting with Callie. The vet sent Toby home with some eye drops and several packets of Purina FortiFlora. We were told to give both cats a packet of the probiotic once daily, as it would help to boost their immune systems.
And that's when things got 'weird'. The two cats have proven to be very different eaters. (When Toby came to us, he was on Science Diet dry, and Callie was on Royal Canin dry) Toby has from day one been a bit of a 'grazer'. He will eat a few pieces of kibble, and walk away. Returns about every half hour to nibble. Callie, on the other hand, stands and eats everything all at once-so fast that she has thrown up a few times. Then she goes to Toby's dish...
We have been working towards a wet food diet, and so the FortiFlora was mixed in with a bit of water and poured over their dinner meal like a gravy. Both cats seemed to like it, and licked their bowls clean. From the next morning on, Callie's eating habits seemed to change. She turned up her nose at her morning kibble, and ate very little (for her) that day. Today is day 5, and since the introduction of the FortiFlora, Callie has stopped eating so fast. She often leaves food in her dish and returns to it later.
Does anyone know if this change could be a result of the FortiFlora? Has anybody used this (or any other) probiotic long term in their kittie's diets? At first I thought that Callie was sick, but thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case.
Also, the switch to wet food seems to be going well. They are currently eating 3 meals a day, two wet and one dry. Should be completely away from the dry within a few days. Does anybody have recommendations for a nutritional canned food without a lot of ingredients that cats just don't need? I've tried researching on the net, but there is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of information out there!
My apologies for the long post-if anybody made it through the entire thing, I'd sure appreciate any and all advice from all of you more experienced cat people!
: )
