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- Dec 2, 2016
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My housemate has an 8 year old male cat she adopted from a local shelter in June 2015. He's kind of in between short and long-haired, we think he's a Tabby/Coon mix. Anyway, a couple months into owning him, we noticed he wouldn't eat a lot of dry food a lot. I made a joke that maybe it was because he had old man teeth and, after a vet visit, his vet confirmed gingivitis and my housemate started feeding him wet food once a day on top of keeping one side of his double dish always full with dry food.
She fed him the little Whiskas variety packages once a day until recently; she switched to 9 Lives canned pate varieties somewhere between June-October of this year. I don't know if this is because it was cheaper or what (she was a college student and had loan/grant money refunds to fall back on but she's since graduated), but I digress. He's gone through different dry foods since last year, and I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. I know she fed him Nutro Max Cat dry food for a while, then within the last six months switched to one or two different hairball remedy type foods (he had a bad flea infestation, and would scratch and chew on himself five or ten minutes at a time, pulling out tufts of hair as he went) and she's now feeding him Purina Gentle. The dry food bowl stays full as well as we can maintain it, and he gets half a 5.5 can of wet food in the morning and the other half at night (originally just one can at night, but he's become insistent in wanting food in the morning because he has empty food bowls).
I don't remember a time where this cat had solid stool. And I use the solid term very broadly. As of the past few months, his poops have been nothing but thick, liquid-y piles. Nothing resembling an actual turd for months. And though he's usually good about keeping it in the box, sometimes he climbs out of it before he's completely done and it gets on the floor (ew). He can rarely cover it up with the litter because one potty break can fill up almost a quarter of his XL litter box. There are a few rare times where you can hear him doing his business, because he sounds like squirts from a ketchup bottle. It stinks. It really stinks. I only recently invested in an AirWick oil warmer and it is a godsend but even then, sometimes it's not enough. Very rarely the stink is so bad I can smell it from downstairs in the living room-- though it's only when he first makes it, the smell fades after ten or twenty minutes. The first time I noticed it, I cornered him and checked to see if he had gotten any on his fur just in case because I couldn't believe how bad it stunk.
I want to say this started once we put him on hairball remedy stuff and started the 9 Lives twice a day. In the house we lived in from June 2015 to 2016, the litter box was in the smaller bathroom right between the toilet and the wall. And it stunk, as any open litter box does, and again, I can't remember if he ever had solid stool during this time, but it was never as bad as it is now in my memory. He mostly had a dish of Max Cat (she'd occasionally buy something that was a black bag with a blue label but I remember her feeding him Max Cat the most)
My housemate is unable to afford a vet visit (we live in a small area in Adirondack New York and they are generally super expensive to visit-- her first vet visit to finding out about gingivitis was because the shelter she adopted from provided the first visit). I think she ended up calling the humane society shelter she adopted him from and they said she was risking dehydration with the frequency and constant liquid state of his stool, and it was probably a sign of a food sensitivity.
A couple weeks ago, she decided to try cutting out wet food and only feeding him dry, and vice versa, but only did so for a few days before calling quits. Main reason is because he became a pain-- he'd meow loudly and incessantly anywhere between four and seven in the morning (if he saw you go to the bathroom and knew you were awake, he'd start up, on a good day) and whenever his food dish was empty. One night he was trying to get into the garbage (he never had done so in the past. I believe this was the first night she cut out wet food, but I may be wrong). She tried giving him a can and a half of wet food a day in hopes of stopping the meowing so early in the morning, but no such luck. (he doesn't have a habit as meowing as much at night, but if you go into the kitchen where his food it, he will circle you and meow, but only then and rarely after you leave). She barely got three days into cutting out wet food before she called it quits because he was being such a pain.
I've been stressing to her that she needs to give it like a month at least before she sees any possible difference (at least that's my assumption, because people are supposed to do that to detect gluten sensitivities). The problem is, she can't afford a vet's diagnosis, so we're left puzzled over whether to switch foods or which of the foods to cut out, while also groaning at the knowledge that he isn't going to accept any changes quietly. We're going to try putting him back on Max Cat and a Whiskas or 9 Lives a day because his flea problem is under control, but I am looking for any suggestions or tips in the meantime.
I'm not really sure what I'm looking for in posting about this, though. Opinions and suggestions on food, mostly? And the best way to switch him from a halfsies diet to a wet or dry? Maybe a dry food that's like soft cat treats, to promote him eating the dry food so she can cut down on wet (if that'll affect anything at all)? Also suggestions for time frames for testing for these intolerances or sensitivities would be great.
She fed him the little Whiskas variety packages once a day until recently; she switched to 9 Lives canned pate varieties somewhere between June-October of this year. I don't know if this is because it was cheaper or what (she was a college student and had loan/grant money refunds to fall back on but she's since graduated), but I digress. He's gone through different dry foods since last year, and I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. I know she fed him Nutro Max Cat dry food for a while, then within the last six months switched to one or two different hairball remedy type foods (he had a bad flea infestation, and would scratch and chew on himself five or ten minutes at a time, pulling out tufts of hair as he went) and she's now feeding him Purina Gentle. The dry food bowl stays full as well as we can maintain it, and he gets half a 5.5 can of wet food in the morning and the other half at night (originally just one can at night, but he's become insistent in wanting food in the morning because he has empty food bowls).
I don't remember a time where this cat had solid stool. And I use the solid term very broadly. As of the past few months, his poops have been nothing but thick, liquid-y piles. Nothing resembling an actual turd for months. And though he's usually good about keeping it in the box, sometimes he climbs out of it before he's completely done and it gets on the floor (ew). He can rarely cover it up with the litter because one potty break can fill up almost a quarter of his XL litter box. There are a few rare times where you can hear him doing his business, because he sounds like squirts from a ketchup bottle. It stinks. It really stinks. I only recently invested in an AirWick oil warmer and it is a godsend but even then, sometimes it's not enough. Very rarely the stink is so bad I can smell it from downstairs in the living room-- though it's only when he first makes it, the smell fades after ten or twenty minutes. The first time I noticed it, I cornered him and checked to see if he had gotten any on his fur just in case because I couldn't believe how bad it stunk.
I want to say this started once we put him on hairball remedy stuff and started the 9 Lives twice a day. In the house we lived in from June 2015 to 2016, the litter box was in the smaller bathroom right between the toilet and the wall. And it stunk, as any open litter box does, and again, I can't remember if he ever had solid stool during this time, but it was never as bad as it is now in my memory. He mostly had a dish of Max Cat (she'd occasionally buy something that was a black bag with a blue label but I remember her feeding him Max Cat the most)
My housemate is unable to afford a vet visit (we live in a small area in Adirondack New York and they are generally super expensive to visit-- her first vet visit to finding out about gingivitis was because the shelter she adopted from provided the first visit). I think she ended up calling the humane society shelter she adopted him from and they said she was risking dehydration with the frequency and constant liquid state of his stool, and it was probably a sign of a food sensitivity.
A couple weeks ago, she decided to try cutting out wet food and only feeding him dry, and vice versa, but only did so for a few days before calling quits. Main reason is because he became a pain-- he'd meow loudly and incessantly anywhere between four and seven in the morning (if he saw you go to the bathroom and knew you were awake, he'd start up, on a good day) and whenever his food dish was empty. One night he was trying to get into the garbage (he never had done so in the past. I believe this was the first night she cut out wet food, but I may be wrong). She tried giving him a can and a half of wet food a day in hopes of stopping the meowing so early in the morning, but no such luck. (he doesn't have a habit as meowing as much at night, but if you go into the kitchen where his food it, he will circle you and meow, but only then and rarely after you leave). She barely got three days into cutting out wet food before she called it quits because he was being such a pain.
I've been stressing to her that she needs to give it like a month at least before she sees any possible difference (at least that's my assumption, because people are supposed to do that to detect gluten sensitivities). The problem is, she can't afford a vet's diagnosis, so we're left puzzled over whether to switch foods or which of the foods to cut out, while also groaning at the knowledge that he isn't going to accept any changes quietly. We're going to try putting him back on Max Cat and a Whiskas or 9 Lives a day because his flea problem is under control, but I am looking for any suggestions or tips in the meantime.
I'm not really sure what I'm looking for in posting about this, though. Opinions and suggestions on food, mostly? And the best way to switch him from a halfsies diet to a wet or dry? Maybe a dry food that's like soft cat treats, to promote him eating the dry food so she can cut down on wet (if that'll affect anything at all)? Also suggestions for time frames for testing for these intolerances or sensitivities would be great.
