Next choice of food for 14 yo cat with diarrhea, hair loss

miss orange

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Hi. I visited a thread here about two months ago.  Cat got worse on Solid Gold grain-free chicken kibble. Based on other discussion in thread, it seemed like LID duck was the next rational choice, given her love of poultry. She likes the duck less than chicken but acclimated over many, many weeks. I was immediately impressed with stool improvement, from pure liquid or pudding texture to cow pies.  At the same time I limited her to just one flavor of Fancy Feast wet food, Mixed or (Chopped) Grill, because it seemed to have the least amount of ingredients, with pork byproducts as the sole protein source that I know of. It was great not having to hold her down to give her children's Imodium, 0.5 to 0.6 cc orally via a tuberculin syringe. I was so disheartened to see pure liquid in her box again tonight, though I had loosened up on the Fancy Feast restriction, most recently giving her beef and liver. 

Because of my mother's failing memory, I feel some kibble is necessary because my mother forgets to feed her, and kibble in a bowl is good backup. I would like to swap out the kibble, restrict FF to one flavor again. Which kibble should I next try? Thanks :)
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Whatever limited ingredient canned DUCK you are feeding her probably comes in a kibble form.  You could always feed her that for her kibble. But, honestly, almost anything is better than Fancy Feast kibble for a cat who has digestive issues.   And I would try to go back to what was working before, but I need to tell you that the Chopped Grill is NOT a single source protein.  Here's what the Fancy Feast website lists for the ingredients inthe Classic Chopped Grill Feast: 

meat by-products, meat broth, poultry, poultry by-products, artificial and natural flavors, calcium phosphate, guar gum, potassium chloride, salt, magnesium sulfate, taurine, added color, zinc sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin e supplement, ferrous sulfate, niacin, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention), manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, vitamin a supplement, copper sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin k activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide

Hope you can get this soft stool issue back under control.  Are you using probiotics as well?  If not, I would highly recommend them.  1/2 capsule twice a day, just mixed into her wet food.  With my guys, I actually dissolve the probiotics in a little water first.  It's a texture thing for them...they don't like the powder
  You can use human probiotics, that's fine. 
 

missmimz

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Have you had this cat at the vet for a full senior panel? at 14 hair loss and diarrhea could be a symptom of hyperthyrodism. You need to rule out a medical issue before tacking anything else. 

I wouldn't put a 14 year old on any kibble. Just leave wet food out, it's fine to be out all day. 
 
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miss orange

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Hello, and thanks for the replies.

Worked with a housecall vet, who did draw blood in the summer, I do not remember if thyroid was part of the panel or not. I will leave her a VM to check.

Clarify on hair loss: It is from overgrooming, with a spot the size of nickel on the her neck getting the worst of it.

Clarify current foods: Natural Balance LID green pea & duck kibble. Fancy Feast Classic Chopped Grill for wet. I did look at the can tonight and saw that poultry was part of it. Oops.

Since Fancy Feast wet, with mixed proteins, is more likely the source of the food intolerance, I am willing to keep her on Natural Balance LID green pea & duck but put her on something more hypoallergenic for wet food.  I have to make sure I leave something out she will eat.

The probiotics prescribed were Fast Balance GI Paste, but I haven't given it to her routinely for a while. I can resume. She is so suspicious of me hiding things in her food that I have to put the paste on roof of her mouth so she does not boycott her wet food.

I am looking around on the Petco Web site because there is a small Petco near the supermarket. I spy a Nutro grain-free duck loaf.  Assuming I have a choice, should I match animal protein already in her kibble, duck in the this case, with a grain-free duck wet food. If I cannot get grain-free duck wet food, what other protein should I look for? Rabbit? Lamb? Something else?

Thank you :)
 

missmimz

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Hello, and thanks for the replies.

Worked with a housecall vet, who did draw blood in the summer, I do not remember if thyroid was part of the panel or not. I will leave her a VM to check.

Clarify on hair loss: It is from overgrooming, with a spot the size of nickel on the her neck getting the worst of it.

Clarify current foods: Natural Balance LID green pea & duck kibble. Fancy Feast Classic Chopped Grill for wet. I did look at the can tonight and saw that poultry was part of it. Oops.

Since Fancy Feast wet, with mixed proteins, is more likely the source of the food intolerance, I am willing to keep her on Natural Balance LID green pea & duck but put her on something more hypoallergenic for wet food.  I have to make sure I leave something out she will eat.

The probiotics prescribed were Fast Balance GI Paste, but I haven't given it to her routinely for a while. I can resume. She is so suspicious of me hiding things in her food that I have to put the paste on roof of her mouth so she does not boycott her wet food.

I am looking around on the Petco Web site because there is a small Petco near the supermarket. I spy a Nutro grain-free duck loaf.  Assuming I have a choice, should I match animal protein already in her kibble, duck in the this case, with a grain-free duck wet food. If I cannot get grain-free duck wet food, what other protein should I look for? Rabbit? Lamb? Something else?

Thank you :)
Hyper-t can cause over grooming, but so can a food allergy. Hyper-t is very common in cats over 10, so if she hasn't had a T4 done, she needs one ASAP. Personally I would take her off the kibble and try and get her on 100% wet food diet. 14 year old cats are also prone to kidney disease and really need the moisture in wet food more than younger cats. Try something like Tikicat, Weruva, Merrick LID, those are more simple ingredients wet foods with higher quality ingredients. You should be able to find Merrick LID wet foods at Petco, they have a duck. Maybe even try just the FF classic chicken or turkey and giblet, which have slightly better ingredients than the mixed grill. 
 
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miss orange

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Clarify need for some kibble: my mother, the cat's owner, lives in her own apartment over a mile a away. She has dementia and forgets to feed the cat. When I am there in the evening, it can range from my not having to give the cat anything (all meals given per Sharpie marks on cans) or I am playing catch-up, trying to get one two meals in her before I leave, plus GI paste or Imodium.(Pretty infrequent on Imodium since putting her on Natural Balance Duck.)

We are getting a snowstorm, not bad enough to keep me away, unless it freezes before I leave home (live up steep hills.)  We will be coming up on longer snow periods where I stay away two or three days and set up one or more KSafes that unlock to release food on a schedule. (Her forgetfulness was initially leading to overfeeding, so I had to lock my mother out putting cat food in KSafes until the countdown I set stops)

I had success in acquiring LID wet foods. Merrick was one of duck-pea LID wet foods I picked up. Natural Balance was another. 

As to T4, that is beyond what the housecall vet does/offers. I do take her to a vet having an office, often for second opinions or if housecall vet is unavailable. He has seen the cat several times over the years and he belongs to 'It's the food" camp as well.  Has never asked or recommended any other blood tests.

I do have kidney disease in the back of my mind because Muffy died from from that and she was just 2-3 months shy of 15 years.
 
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miss orange

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....however, short of going to my mother more than once a day, I do not know to get more wet food into Miss Orange.
 

missmimz

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Clarify need for some kibble: my mother, the cat's owner, lives in her own apartment over a mile a away. She has dementia and forgets to feed the cat. When I am there in the evening, it can range from my not having to give the cat anything (all meals given per Sharpie marks on cans) or I am playing catch-up, trying to get one two meals in her before I leave, plus GI paste or Imodium.(Pretty infrequent on Imodium since putting her on Natural Balance Duck.)

We are getting a snowstorm, not bad enough to keep me away, unless it freezes before I leave home (live up steep hills.)  We will be coming up on longer snow periods where I stay away two or three days and set up one or more KSafes that unlock to release food on a schedule. (Her forgetfulness was initially leading to overfeeding, so I had to lock my mother out putting cat food in KSafes until the countdown I set stops)

I had success in acquiring LID wet foods. Merrick was one of duck-pea LID wet foods I picked up. Natural Balance was another. 

As to T4, that is beyond what the housecall vet does/offers. I do take her to a vet having an office, often for second opinions or if housecall vet is unavailable. He has seen the cat several times over the years and he belongs to 'It's the food" camp as well.  Has never asked or recommended any other blood tests.

I do have kidney disease in the back of my mind because Muffy died from from that and she was just 2-3 months shy of 15 years.
You need to get a T4 test done. Hyper-t is incredibly common in older cats and some of his symptom match at this point. Untreated cats with hyper-t will die. Any vet that hasn't tested an elderly cats T4 and wants to claim it's "food" is an awful vet. Any cat over 10 needs a T4 ran yearly, at minimum. 
 
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