Food switch now diarrhea

Is commercial raw a possibility for you. If not have you looked into freeze dried as that is the next best option.

zoneout said:

Is commercial raw a possibility for you. If not have you looked into freeze dried as that is the next best option.

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Freeze-dried raw food doesn't look or smell much like meat. Our cats love Primal and Stella & Chewy's. I do eat and cook meat but admit I sometimes have trouble watching the cats eat certain raw foods, particularly Rad Cat chicken.

Is the freeze dried raw food hard like kibble? Or can it be softened? haze has stomatitis so it's hard for him to crunch down on hard food

Have you tried Nature's Variety Instinct canned food? My cat's diarrhea got resolved with it. 

I've heard that Probiotics have short shelf life. What worked for my cat was refrigerated acidophilus from Wholefoods. When I started giving it to my cat, he became very gassy next day (only for a day) so I knew that it was working, then his poop became firmer in a couple of days. 

Haze n Blaze said:

Is the freeze dried raw food hard like kibble? Or can it be softened? haze has stomatitis so it's hard for him to crunch down on hard food

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It has a funny texture, sort of like meaty crushable styrofoam. You add water to it to soften it. You can mix it up, with the water, and keep it in the refrigerator for a few days. One of the pluses of the stuff is that you can make pieces as large or crushed as you like. It's very convenient for us. Primal also has frozen raw foods that are in little loaf shapes. Our cats prefer the freeze-dried, though, which is good by me!

And ouch, stomatitis. Did you have him tested for Bartonella? (Did I already ask you that on another thread?) Our cats had worse-than-usual gingivitis for their age (they're almost 2), so our vet tested them... they had Bartonella, which apparently can cause dental issues.

Haze n Blaze said:

Is the freeze dried raw food hard like kibble? Or can it be softened? haze has stomatitis so it's hard for him to crunch down on hard food

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It comes in the bag hard and then it should be rehydrated by adding warm water.

LisaHE said:

It has a funny texture, sort of like meaty crushable styrofoam. You add water to it to soften it. You can mix it up, with the water, and keep it in the refrigerator for a few days. One of the pluses of the stuff is that you can make pieces as large or crushed as you like. It's very convenient for us. Primal also has frozen raw foods that are in little loaf shapes. Our cats prefer the freeze-dried, though, which is good by me!

And ouch, stomatitis. Did you have him tested for Bartonella? (Did I already ask you that on another thread?) Our cats had worse-than-usual gingivitis for their age (they're almost 2), so our vet tested them... they had Bartonella, which apparently can cause dental issues.

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Never heard of Bartonella. I'll have to ask. Is it treatable?

Haze n Blaze said:

Never heard of Bartonella. I'll have to ask. Is it treatable?

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Our cats just got three weeks of antibiotics. Bartonella is a bacterium... it seems to be kind of a new diagnosis/treatment, something that's not yet well studied. Our vet says she sees a lot of cats with Bartonella whose dental problems improve dramatically after antibiotics. I'm very interested to see what happens with our cats!

LisaHE said:

It has a funny texture, sort of like meaty crushable styrofoam. You add water to it to soften it. You can mix it up, with the water, and keep it in the refrigerator for a few days. One of the pluses of the stuff is that you can make pieces as large or crushed as you like. It's very convenient for us. Primal also has frozen raw foods that are in little loaf shapes. Our cats prefer the freeze-dried, though, which is good by me!

And ouch, stomatitis. Did you have him tested for Bartonella? (Did I already ask you that on another thread?) Our cats had worse-than-usual gingivitis for their age (they're almost 2), so our vet tested them... they had Bartonella, which apparently can cause dental issues.

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After researching Bartonella, I've left a message asking my vet if he can test for Bartonella. Haze has had quite a few of those symptoms that I read about. URIs, stomatitis, diarrhea, vomiting, and on an X-ray, the vet noticed a pulmonary granuloma(if I remember correctly)...will ask about the last one. We always chalked the URIs up to FHV but what if it really IS Bartonella and can be treated with azithromycin?!! I'm so hopeful at this point.

Let me know what your vet says, @Haze n Blaze! It sounds like treating for Bartonella is a little controversial/under-researched/unfamiliar but I was only too happy to try the azithromycin on our cats, with the hope that they wouldn't have their gum problems get worse and worse. I do trust our vet, who's a cat specialist very concerned about teeth, and Bartonella is very common so we're hoping for the best. Good luck!

LisaHE said:

Let me know what your vet says, @Haze n Blaze
! It sounds like treating for Bartonella is a little controversial/under-researched/unfamiliar but I was only too happy to try the azithromycin on our cats, with the hope that they wouldn't have their gum problems get worse and worse. I do trust our vet, who's a cat specialist very concerned about teeth, and Bartonella is very common so we're hoping for the best. Good luck!

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My vet said they can send the bartonella testing out but it ranges from $100-300 Just don't have that kind of money right now after everything else I've paid for lately

Whoah, that is expensive! I think ours was about $60 per cat.

I've briefly scanned thru this threaded and wanted to give my input.

I did the food trial with my Max about 3 yrs ago. I started him out on HA (it was new at the time) and after a few about 2 weeks or so diarrhea started. I did fecals on a few of the cats and all came back negative (we did the full PCR.) Switched to Royal Canin for a bit, but it wasn't very well liked, so switched to z/d. Like on HA, things went fine for a while and then diarrhea again. Longer story short, after contacting our dermatologist was informed that he had received multiple reports of z/d causing GI issues. He didn't have anyone else try HA at that time.

He told me to find a limited ingredient diet with single protein, single carb source and give it a go. Once the kitties were off the prescription food, diarrhea stopped.

Are there any proteins your kitty hasn't had?

I would stay clear of chicken and fish as those are quite common triggers.

The freeze-dried raw is kind of like kibble. I like Stella & Chewy's which has a softer texture than others I have tried. It breaks easily apart. I have a stomatitis kitty on this right now and he is doing VERY well.

I will mention that our stomatitis kitten also has GI issues and cannot tolerate dry food of any kind nor chicken. I have him on Nature's Variety Instinct limited ingredient turkey formula (canned) and Stella & Chewy's turkey formula. He has normal stool and this diet.

Haze n Blaze said:

My vet said they can send the bartonella testing out but it ranges from $100-300

Just don't have that kind of money right now after everything else I've paid for lately

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I live in a town where there are vets practically on every corner (sick pets must be a growth industry - go figure) anyway if there are a few in your town I would phone all of them and ask what they charge for Bartonella testing.  When I did this for a simple blood test I found a vet that was $215 less than where I had been going.