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- Aug 8, 2016
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Hello! I'm new to posting on TCS, but I've been reading and following threads here for a while. Smokey, my first and only cat, is 2.5 years old at 11 lbs, and we've had her since she was a kitten.
Let me provide a bit of history before I get to the meat of my question. Smokey was on grain free dry food when we got her (Taste of the Wild) but we switched her to Wellness dry shortly after. Since the day we had her she had chronic diarrhea, which actually got to the point where she had blood and mucous in her stool. The vet put her on Metronidazole which made things worse (other than the diarrhea, she had a clean bill of health), so we tried a second round of deworming and completely switched her over to Wellness grain free wet food (patte). This stopped her diarrhea and so long as we keep her off dry food (she can't even handle kibble as treats), she doesn't normally have diarrhea.
Smokey was fine on Wellness until she seemed to get bored of it and started eating slower - her meals used to take 10-20 minutes and they shifted to 1-3 hours. She still had a clean bill of health from the vet, so we switched her to Soulistic wet food (chicken only). She loved this and her appetite picked up, but after we stopped feeding her Wellness, her diarrhea started again. We did transition her slowly since we were worried that the transition would cause diarrhea, but it seems there's something in Soulistic that she's intolerant to. We put her back on Wellness - this time Wellness Minced chicken and Wellness Signature Shredded chicken since she won't eat the pattes. Her appetite was normal on these two foods as well, but if we only fed her Wellness Minced, she would have diarrhea again.
So now Smokey's only on Wellness Signature shredded chicken. However, her appetite has dropped off again. She will eat all her food, but it takes her hours just to finish a portion. She recently had a visit to the vet and had blood and urine analysis done - which came back clean. The vet says her teeth are fine and isn't very concerned with her eating habits (I do doubt that it's a teeth issue since she does eat raw chicken necks that I give for her as a treat). The good thing is she hasn't lost any weight and her energy levels are very high. However, I would like to try to put her on a rotation diet to avoid having these issues with her appetite, but I'm having a hard time convincing her to try new foods. Not to mention, some of the foods she does like give her diarrhea. I haven't been able to narrow down the cause of her diarrhea and trying unique proteins is difficult with her pickiness.
The way we've tried introducing her new food is by placing a small amount near her regular food, then slowly over the course of the week, mixing more into her food (except with Soulistic which we transitioned over a month).
Foods that cause her to have diarrhea:
Dry food
Soulistic
Weruva
Wellness Minced
Whole Paws (whole foods brand)
Food she's refused when trying to transition:
Wellness Pattes
Nature's Variety
Nutro
Candidae
Earthborn Holistic
Any wet food with a large amount of fish
(As a side note - she absolutely loves Orijen freeze dried treats and those don't cause her any problems - but she only has a few a day).
I'm currently working on convince her to try Tiki Cat. She had a small amount yesterday and the day before, with no change in her appetite or stool yet. Have any of you had to deal with picky cats or maybe cats who have diarrhea from eating the foods I mentioned? Do you have any advice for how I can put her on a rotation diet without so many refusals or what types of food I can try? I would prefer to stay on grain free, low carb wet food that costs less than Tiki Cat (Tiki's at the top end of my budget).
Let me provide a bit of history before I get to the meat of my question. Smokey was on grain free dry food when we got her (Taste of the Wild) but we switched her to Wellness dry shortly after. Since the day we had her she had chronic diarrhea, which actually got to the point where she had blood and mucous in her stool. The vet put her on Metronidazole which made things worse (other than the diarrhea, she had a clean bill of health), so we tried a second round of deworming and completely switched her over to Wellness grain free wet food (patte). This stopped her diarrhea and so long as we keep her off dry food (she can't even handle kibble as treats), she doesn't normally have diarrhea.
Smokey was fine on Wellness until she seemed to get bored of it and started eating slower - her meals used to take 10-20 minutes and they shifted to 1-3 hours. She still had a clean bill of health from the vet, so we switched her to Soulistic wet food (chicken only). She loved this and her appetite picked up, but after we stopped feeding her Wellness, her diarrhea started again. We did transition her slowly since we were worried that the transition would cause diarrhea, but it seems there's something in Soulistic that she's intolerant to. We put her back on Wellness - this time Wellness Minced chicken and Wellness Signature Shredded chicken since she won't eat the pattes. Her appetite was normal on these two foods as well, but if we only fed her Wellness Minced, she would have diarrhea again.
So now Smokey's only on Wellness Signature shredded chicken. However, her appetite has dropped off again. She will eat all her food, but it takes her hours just to finish a portion. She recently had a visit to the vet and had blood and urine analysis done - which came back clean. The vet says her teeth are fine and isn't very concerned with her eating habits (I do doubt that it's a teeth issue since she does eat raw chicken necks that I give for her as a treat). The good thing is she hasn't lost any weight and her energy levels are very high. However, I would like to try to put her on a rotation diet to avoid having these issues with her appetite, but I'm having a hard time convincing her to try new foods. Not to mention, some of the foods she does like give her diarrhea. I haven't been able to narrow down the cause of her diarrhea and trying unique proteins is difficult with her pickiness.
The way we've tried introducing her new food is by placing a small amount near her regular food, then slowly over the course of the week, mixing more into her food (except with Soulistic which we transitioned over a month).
Foods that cause her to have diarrhea:
Dry food
Soulistic
Weruva
Wellness Minced
Whole Paws (whole foods brand)
Food she's refused when trying to transition:
Wellness Pattes
Nature's Variety
Nutro
Candidae
Earthborn Holistic
Any wet food with a large amount of fish
(As a side note - she absolutely loves Orijen freeze dried treats and those don't cause her any problems - but she only has a few a day).
I'm currently working on convince her to try Tiki Cat. She had a small amount yesterday and the day before, with no change in her appetite or stool yet. Have any of you had to deal with picky cats or maybe cats who have diarrhea from eating the foods I mentioned? Do you have any advice for how I can put her on a rotation diet without so many refusals or what types of food I can try? I would prefer to stay on grain free, low carb wet food that costs less than Tiki Cat (Tiki's at the top end of my budget).
