Copper intake in the finicky cat

Hello!

I'm a little concerned about Suzie's copper intake. Since mid-July, the only food she can consistently keep down (and not throw up within a couple of hours of her meal) is plain Applaws/Almo Nature/Thrive Complete chicken - which, in all but the latter case, is basically boiled chicken with absolutely no additives in, including vitamins and minerals. I've been supplementing that with a cat multivitamin (the only one in Finnish pharmacies, Orion's Aptus Multicat). The other day, I read the packaging on the Multicat a little more closely and discovered that no mention was made of copper. I emailed Orion and asked about it only to be told that no, Multicat does not contain copper. And therein lies my problem. As far as I know, chicken is fairly low in copper (even the Thrive contains only 0,6 mg/kg of added copper, according to Zooplus.com), and while I do my best to give Suzie seafood for both breakfast and dinner on Fridays, she can't always keep that down either.

She can, on a good day, keep down a bit of raw beef - but raw chicken (and other poultry) are completely out of the question. I suspect it might be a texture thing, but we've tried mince, little bits, chunks, you name it - same result. If she throws up more than once in a given sitting, her stomach rebels and she can't keep anything much down for the rest of the day. The only thing she can keep down at that point is Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal (in tiny little portions throughout the day), but that has way, way too much sugar for her to be getting it on a daily basis.

When she's not having a bad day stomach-wise, I try and give her as much variety as I can in terms of brands (MAC's, Miamor, Sheba pate, various Finnish store brands), but matters are complicated by the fact that she flat-out refuses to eat most forms of cooked beef, and when she does eat it, it tends to come straight back up. I tried her on Animonda Carny kangaroo in July - and promptly triggered her tummy for the first time in a long time, prompting a couple of very expensive trips to the emergency vet for re-hydration and anti-emetics. Going by previous experience with the same problem, I reckon I can safely say her stomach has declared that Animonda need not apply...

She also hates liver and will refuse to eat it, even with bribery/toppers such as crushed, freeze dried Thrive treats.

Help, please? Should I just beg my vet for some sort of pill or oral-liquid-form anti-emetic to give her for the rest of her life?

Thanks in advance.

Kutoja

ETA - All our cats are almost-exclusively on wet food: Silky and Sammy get a little kibble for dinner on Fridays (to get rid of an old bag).

I am a little confused on what you mean by being concerned for her copper intake? Typically, copper deficiencies are extremely rare in cats. I would be more worried about whether the vitamins you are replacing her with in place of nutrition are actually being processed by her body versus copper. What is wrong with your cat to be vomiting so much? Is she Ill or Does she have like a severe case of allergies? If her body is rejecting all of that I would "try" to narrow it down to what it actually is. On a second note, there are more and more cats rejecting all of this food crap with 2 mile long ingredients. If the food has quality ingredients, there is no need to have a supplement for every little thing. I personally am not a fan of royal Canin regarding their ingredient list however if you say she vomits from practically everything else but can tolerate that food and if she likes it I personally would feed it to the poor baby. That has to be miserable for her. And if she can keep it down then in my opinion I would give it as a main meal. At least until, you could find something else. I mean is she diabetic is that why you are concerned for sugar? What exactly is wrong with her? If she isn't a brittle diabetic patient per say and can tolerate that food I would definitely give it to her for her sake. I would try other brands that have limited ingredients. If she is eating fish, she is getting copper. And no you don't have to feed it to her twice a day, everyday for her to get enough copper? I mean think about lion, mountain lions, cats in the wilds diet. Do they eat fish everyday? Do that have a vitamin that includes copper ? No. We do have to take into consideration the way the kibble food and dry foods are processed and what nutrients may be lost along the way but overall they don't eat large amounts of copper. Nonetheless, copper can be found in other sources besides fish and liver just maybe is smaller amounts. I could maybe give some more specific advice , just not sure on what direction to focus toward if I knew the answer to these questions... What is wrong with your cat, why she is vomiting so much, and why your concern is for copper?

And while just feeding my spoiled babies I was thinking back to when my cat was cat and thinking about your cat and the vomiting. Regarding the sugar intake from Royal Canin on a daily basis: if she is is barely eating and vomiting on a daily basis like you say, she most likely is in need of sugar. Her sugar levels are most likely low unless there is some other disease process going on. If she can handle the Applepaws and the others as you say I would feed those along with the Royal Canin, and try other limiting ingredient foods. If you notice on most canned food that "Copper" is not a typical mineral included in any canned food despite limited ingredient forms that have no added supplements or not. It also isn't typical in most dry formulas either to add copper in itself or synthetic form. Many formulas (ones that I most likely wouldn't preference but not because of copper) do not contain fish, liver or organ meats, bone or cartilege and most don't provide an added source of copper. I would not be concerned with this factor at all. I would be more concerned regarding the cause of her vomiting and what it's doing to,her health in the long run and her mental health as well. She must be miserable. While I am known to be a sucker when it comes to giving my cats what they want within reason of course I know that is my weakness and why they became so spoiled and finicky with food. However, I also know though a sick cat is a whole other story. If she is vomiting practically everything her body is obviously actively rejecting certain things. And if her body doesn't reject those few things for the mean time that is what I would be feeding her. Like I said before, I am not sure what is going with your cat whether she has some sort of disease or she is suffering from major allergies and he body has finally decided to reject everything. I think if you can get a hold of her stomach regardless on something that she doesn't vomit for an extended time I think later you could transition her to something else. And while we know dry food isn't the best of she can tolerate it better for the time being I would even consider it. Anyhow,i wouldn't be to much worried with copper . I would focus more on stabilizing her and finding out what is wrong and the cause of it. Also, even vitamins can upset a cats stomach and defintely mess with digestion. Think how humans relate to vitamins and certain minerals.

How long after she's eating is she vomiting? 

Thing is, she's not vomiting every day - I think the last time she did was in October(ish). But then, October was the last time I tried her on anything even marginally more complicated than Sheba Delicato or Meowing Heads (about once a week for each, and topped with human-grade Lactobacillus from the pharmacy [all the animal probiotics I've seen have contained insane amounts of sugar]). If she does throw up her meal, it's generally within a couple of hours of eating, as I said before.

What I am concerned about is her fairly monotonous, chicken- (or turkey-)based diet - can she possibly manage on whatever copper she does get from (essentially) boiled chicken, weekly seafood, raw beef a couple of times a week (innards permitting) and whatever brand-and-flavour-rotation her stomach can or will put up with?

Even the vets I took her to during the summer seemed to think she just has a sensitive stomach (and considering I've tried her on some pretty exotic things like the kangaroo, which is hardly something you find in run-of-the-mill cat food, at least in Finland, I reckon Occam's razor tells me a sensitive stomach is more likely than her being flat-out allergic to rabbit, duck, goose, cooked [but not raw] beef, pumpkin, something or other in Catessy treat sticks [but not Catessy Snacks] and one or more of the ingredients in Animonda anything).

All my cats have been on grain-free, as close to no-carb food as possible for several years now (Silky's even on raw food for cystitis and some crystals in his last urine sample), which is why I'm so uncomfortable giving Suzie the sugary Gastro Intestinal. Considering her stomach issues, the absolute last thing she needs is diabetes (since raw feeding is essentially out of the question for her).