Wet food causes diarhhea

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fostersrule

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I am at a loss for what is going on with one of my fosters. She is a momma of 3 eight week olds. They have perfect poops and yes, as a foster parent who has had to deal with way too many groups with yucky runny stool, I am thrilled to have this bunch of diarrhea free babies. However, their momma has some tummy issues. At first things were normal. I started giving her wet kitten food. She turned her nose up. Only wanted dry. Then she finally had some wet and she had terrible..and I mean terrrrrrible diarhhea. At first I thought it was coccidiosis due to the color but then it would go back to normal. I started experimenting and sure enough it is caused by any wet food that I give her aside from raw. She does well on raw and dry food. Anyone have any idea what it could be in wet food that causes her tummy upset? I only feed carrageenan free wet food if that makes any difference.
 
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Not sure if this matters but she drinks a lot of water. Way more than any other cat I've had here. When she goes in to be spayed on the 20th they are going to do a blood test to see if she's diabetic. From what I've found online, diarhhea is not a symptom associated with feline diabetes but maybe I haven't looked enough.
 
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What food specifically are you feeding her? It's not "wet" food that's giving her diarrhea it's the type you're feeding. Often times it's foods that have a gravy that cause diarrhea, because to make that gravy the company adds either wheat gluten, gums, or some other thickener which is irritating. Try some simple pates. On the low end Fancy Feast classic chicken and turkey, or Merrick LID, which you can get a Petco. She's drinking more most likely because diarrhea causes dehydration. 
 
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fostersrule

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Thank you for your reply! Haha yes I realize it is something in the wet food but I've tested a few and have gotten the same result so I figure it must be something commonly used in wet foods. I only every feed grain free. I avoid fish. I avoid gravy at all costs. I will have to see how she reacts without any of the gums. I had a previous special needs foster who I put on a strict diet which avoided all of those things to avoid diarhhea since he didn't have complete control over his bowels and solid poops are much easier to clean up:p. I'll give that stuff a shot. Normally I'd agree that she's drinking more because of the diarhhea except she drinks the same amount regardless. When her stool is normal she still drinks just as much. To give you an idea of how excessive it is, this is my 11th momma cat so I have a good idea of what is a "normal" amount for them to drink. I usually have 1 water bowl and sometimes 2 if they like to play in it/spill it everywhere. They get emptied and refilled with new water daily or twice daily. This momma has 3 water bowls and I still wake up to every single one very low and sometimes one will be dry even when I filled them right before bed. I wish it was as simple as her spilling or playing in it but she really drinks that much. I have to refill them multiple times a day because she'll empty them throughout the day as well. I'm adding another bowl tonight since the kittens are beginning to make a good dent in it too. She will lay down next to a bowl and lap it up. She's also pretty fat. Okay, she's really fat. Definitely the fattest mom I've had. They usually come to me too skinny and malnourished. She was obviously someone's very well-fed house cat before she ended up at the shelter.

So aside from the gums, what other thickeners are there? Is there any other ingredient commonly found in wet foods that can set a cat's stomach off? Unfortunately, we are not supposed to feed raw so I'm trying to get her on some type of wet food that won't irritate her stomach. I'll drop by Petco tomorrow and pick up some LID food and try that.
 
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missmimz

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fostersrule said:
Thank you for your reply! Haha yes I realize it is something in the wet food but I've tested a few and have gotten the same result so I figure it must be something commonly used in wet foods. I only every feed grain free. I avoid fish. I avoid gravy at all costs. I will have to see how she reacts without any of the gums. I had a previous special needs foster who I put on a strict diet which avoided all of those things to avoid diarhhea since he didn't have complete control over his bowels and solid poops are much easier to clean up:p. I'll give that stuff a shot. Normally I'd agree that she's drinking more because of the diarhhea except she drinks the same amount regardless. When her stool is normal she still drinks just as much. To give you an idea of how excessive it is, this is my 11th momma cat so I have a good idea of what is a "normal" amount for them to drink. I usually have 1 water bowl and sometimes 2 if they like to play in it/spill it everywhere. They get emptied and refilled with new water daily or twice daily. This momma has 3 water bowls and I still wake up to every single one very low and sometimes one will be dry even when I filled them right before bed. I wish it was as simple as her spilling or playing in it but she really drinks that much. I have to refill them multiple times a day because she'll empty them throughout the day as well. I'm adding another bowl tonight since the kittens are beginning to make a good dent in it too. She will lay down next to a bowl and lap it up. She's also pretty fat. Okay, she's really fat. Definitely the fattest mom I've had. They usually come to me too skinny and malnourished. She was obviously someone's very well-fed house cat before she ended up at the shelter.

So aside from the gums, what other thickeners are there? Is there any other ingredient commonly found in wet foods that can set a cat's stomach off? Unfortunately, we are not supposed to feed raw so I'm trying to get her on some type of wet food that won't irritate her stomach. I'll drop by Petco tomorrow and pick up some LID food and try that.
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What foods have you tried that cause diarrhea? She may just be sensitive and you might just need to transition slower. 
 
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She's had Wellness Core, Nutro, and awhile Earth Farms. My usual wet food is Nutro but she was uninterested in the beginning and only wanted dry so I tried some others. She'd nibble at first then decide she liked it. She had her same dry food available and she still gobbled that up. She didn't rush into eating wet and I had to throw away quite a bit that hadn't been eaten. They were also only the 3 oz cans. This cat eats a lot so comparatively with the dry food she was consuming it wasn't much wet food. It is entirely possible that she is just veryyyy sensitive to changes but after seeing what her litter boxes looked like for a couple days..well, I'm convinced it's more that that. If she hadn't been with me or in her first foster home for more than a couple weeks I would have felt positive it was coccidia or giardia. Thats when I decided to start giving her raw and things got better almost immediately so for about a week I kept her on hard food Whole Earth Farms and raw then gave her some Whole Earth Farms wet food and the result was not fun for either of us.
 
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fostersrule said:
It is entirely possible that she is just veryyyy sensitive to changes but after seeing what her litter boxes looked like for a couple days..well, I'm convinced it's more that that. If she hadn't been with me or in her first foster home for more than a couple weeks I would have felt positive it was coccidia or giardia. Thats when I decided to start giving her raw and things got better almost immediately so for about a week I kept her on hard food Whole Earth Farms and raw then gave her some Whole Earth Farms wet food and the result was not fun for either of us.I 
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I can totally relate, I tried transitioning our Persian kitty from Acana dry to wet food.  I did it very, very slowly over the course of a month, even tried 5 different brands and flavors, e.g. Wellness, Merrick, Natural Balance, Fancy Feast Classic and Tiki Cat.   All with no success and just as you said, diarrhea.  Plus he never finished the amount I gave him while trying to transition  I spoke with several different employees at independent pet stores and they gave me samples of raw.  When I tried the Stella & Chewy sample he gobbled it up and no diarrhea so far.  Unfortunately it is much more expensive.  
 
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I have a senior cat who was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and she was put on hills science diet wet food. She refuses to eat the veterinarian recommended wet food, and she will refuses the dry food as well. She only eats the store brand wet food but now it's giving her the runs and even some blood in her stool. Please advise
 
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meg1980 said:
I have a senior cat who was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and she was put on hills science diet wet food. She refuses to eat the veterinarian recommended wet food, and she will refuses the dry food as well. She only eats the store brand wet food but now it's giving her the runs and even some blood in her stool. Please advise
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Have you transitioned the food slowly? What food has she been put on? The z/d? I found my kitties wouldn't touch the z/d dry so I gave them the Royal Canin Hypoallergenic (HP) and they loved it. I know it's not recommended but for 3 days I gave them only the dry (transitioned slowly from their old dry food) then gave them each a teaspoon of the wet. They refused to try it for 3 days but I held out because they were eating the dry so not starving. Eventually they gave it a try and when they realized nothing else was forthcoming they began to eat it and we managed to finish an 8 week elimination trial. Also maybe ask the vet if she can have a short course of prednisolone to help with the diarrhea while you transition her. Hope this helps!
 
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fostersrule

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She is at the shelter now so I'm not sure how things have been. She did very well on raw so I know it's something in the wet food. I just couldn't figure out what. Hopefully things have gotten better but I'll go in and check her chart. They keep a chart everyday that records whether or not they urinated and how soft or hard their stool was on a scale of 1-5. I don't think the shelter feeds grain free so it'll be interesting to see if she's done well. Thank you!!
 
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