Advice Please

Hi

I adopted a 12 year old cat last June, she's absolutely gorgeous.

When I adopted her the Blue Cross told me she had blood in her stools so was on Royal Canin Sensitivity Control.  She has continued to have this problem and although it's stable there is still a little blood probably three times a week.  Probably every 5/6 weeks there will be one stool with more.

The vets don't seem too worried and told me that cats often have blood in their stools and that we just don't see it because they do their business outside.

Anyway, today I took her again today and they suggested I change her diet to either Hills z/d (which comes in wet and dry) or Purina HA (dry only).  If this doesn't work then in 2-3 months they will do a colonoscopy

I really don't know what to do.  I have to say that having looked on the internet the Hills z/d seems to have changed recipe recently and there are lots of people saying it's terrible.  On the other hand I'm not sure I want her on a dry only diet.

Does anyone out there have experience of Hills or Purina?  Any advice would be most welcome.

Thank you

I am not a fan of the prescription diets. In many cases, I feel the vet is toting whatever they have to sale and increase profits instead of offering advice to really help the cat. I will do short term high calorie food when the cat isn't eating much but only as a short term option. I also don't think vets have a whole lot of training in cat nutrition (my vet had admitted it really is a grey area in their schooling and new research is constantly coming out so if they don't keep up they can fall behind). Add on that if your vet is not a cat specialist they may not give as much focus to cats and the dietary needs and system of a cat is vastly different than a dogs. I have also noticed what you mentioned, that prescription formulas often change and the reviews or studies on them can be years out of date. Really all pet foods change with little notice and it is up to us to be diligent.  Usually her problems are related to digestive issues from an allergy, intolerance or IBD all of which can result in tummy problems and blood in stool (when any other causes, like parasites, have been ruled out of course). I am actually surprised that the possibility of IBD hasn't been brought up by your vet. 

All that said I would be right with you on not switching to the recommended foods. In my opinion, there is no solid evidence they would be any better than a high quality food. Since she has continued problems though on the Royal Canin it might be worth a try for something else. 

Personally, I would switch to a short term diet of plain boiled chicken and rice (no flavors or anything added just water to cook, a chicken breast with water in a slower cooker is one way. You can also let her drink the broth made when cooking the chicken). That would give her a clean base line to start at trying new foods, its not long term because it isn't really a nutritionally complete diet. You could probably search the forum for a probiotic recommendation too which might help out. After a week or so of that slowly add in a new cat food a little at a time while cutting back on the chicken and rice until she is on the cat food only. Give her 6-8 weeks on the new food and see how she is at the end of that time. If good, you're good. If not, switch again slowly and try again. 

I would look for a limited ingredient food. The main problems for cats tend to be  fish, beef, dairy, corn and wheat. So I would look for a limited food without those items in them. Natures Variety makes one and that is the brand I use for my cats. But I know there are many options out there. Probably a search for IBD and limited ingredient or one protein on the forums would send you in the right direction.

My experience with rx diets is it depends on what it's for if it's for ckd or bladder stones it works well. My oldest is on rx food for bladder stones and hasn't had one since. I'm not a fan of foods with grains and corn but it helps him.

I've never heard of a fish allergy but my Hector was allergic to chicken and corn she ate a limited ingredient food with pheasant in it until diagnosed with ckd. She would throw up anything that had chicken or corn in it.

She also struggled with IBS since she was 2.

The pheasant was the only thing that agreed with her.

Thank you for your helpful advice. I had originally planned to give her Canagan which is grain free.  I will do some research.

I would be tempted to at least try the Hills, just to try and narrow down what she's reacting to. If you don't want to do that (which I can understand - the ingredients aren't wonderful), then go for a single protein, limited ingredient food. Do talk to the vet about food choices, whatever you decide - you really do need to pinpoint what is causing this issue.

If you want a grain free, low carb food, one of your best bets is Catz Finefood Purrr (available from http://www.zooplus.com ). Other possibles (again from Zooplus) are GranataPet, Feringa and Thrive Complete. These brands all have some varieties that are single protein. Integra Protect is a European brand that makes targeted foods for different conditions (not sure if they're prescription or not though), and they do a decent looking Sensitive wet food too.

FYI - Canangan wet food is NOT complete. It's fine for a treat, but shouldn't make up the majority of the diet

Thank you Columbine, there are lots of options there and I already buy from Zooplus so will take s look. Interestingly the vet firstly suggested Royal Canin Allergenic which on investigation is actually only for dogs!

The canagan I was referring to was the dry complete food but thank you for the advice.

Much research to be done.

Rainbow22 said:

Thank you Columbine, there are lots of options there and I already buy from Zooplus so will take s look. Interestingly the vet firstly suggested Royal Canin Allergenic which on investigation is actually only for dogs!

The canagan I was referring to was the dry complete food but thank you for the advice.

Much research to be done.

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You sure the vet didn't mean hypoallergenic? This is a cat food Hector was on it until they changed the formula from pheasant to duck. Her IBS returned when they changed it. Then she got primal pheasant till the ckd got her.

http://www.royalcanin.ca/products/c...GENIC-SELECTED-PROTEIN-canned-cat-food/226021

I wonder if she made a mistake then and did mean Hypoallergenic. Thank your for that. I am going to Pets Corner today so will ask their advice. Their training in nutrition is second to none and takes longer than a vet!

First off, Rainbow22, you are right to be concerned about the bloody stool: this is not normal and it is a cause for concern. Blood on the stool was our previous cat's first sign of digestive issues, when she was around 8 or 9, and our vets also told us it was common and not something to worry about, despite being a symptom of inflammation. Brooksie went on to live a long life (she was at least 16, perhaps even considerably older, and she had a raft of other health issues, too) but she most likely had IBD that developed into lymphoma. You're very fortunate to have so many more Internet resources available now than we did back when her symptoms started!

As for food, it can take considerable time and effort to find what's right for your individual cat, but I particularly agree with this suggestion and the list of typical problems that kieka offers:

Kieka said:

I would look for a limited ingredient food. The main problems for cats tend to be  fish, beef, dairy, corn and wheat. So I would look for a limited food without those items in them. Natures Variety makes one and that is the brand I use for my cats. But I know there are many options out there. Probably a search for IBD and limited ingredient or one protein on the forums would send you in the right direction.

Click to expand...

Sometimes feeding the simplest foods -- and often in a diet with just one protein, one the cat has never eaten, such as the pheasant that @IndyJones mentions -- possible can give good results. After what we went through with Brooksie, we feed our "new" cats only low-carb wet foods without carrageenan or fillers. They're young Siamese mixes with sensitive stomachs, and the diet has made a big difference for them. One advantage of simple recipes is that short ingredient lists make it easy to figure out what ingredient is causing problems: that's how we figured out that potato was making one of our cats vomit. The list of problematic ingredients that other Cat Site members have mentioned is pretty long so finding solutions can, as I already mentioned, take time. A food diary can help -- I kept one for Brooksie and it helped me realize that, even in her final months, taking fish and grains out of her diet lessened her symptoms.

Good luck! And what is your cat's name? I'm figuring that's her in your avatar: she's very pretty!

Echoing what PP's have said, Limited Ingredients diets are awesome. I started with one type of protein canned food and once the cats were fine with that food, I slowly added another and another. If your kitty is fine with one food, and not another - read the ingredients and see what is different between the first food and the second.

Thank you all for your really helpful advice. LisaHE yes that is my cat and her name is Gypsy. She is 12 and I adopted her from the Blue Cross last June. She is such a lovely and loving cat, I'm very lucky!

Today I went to Pets Corner and they recommended two foods I have never hear of. I can't find any information on them either so I wonder if they are new to the market.

Wet
The Cheshire Cat's Garden - Senior/Sterilised

Containing
80% fresh chicken, Chicken broth, Cranberry 1%, Minerals, Green Lipped Mussel, Rosemary, Glucosamine (200 mg/kg) & Chondroitin (200 mg/kg)

Dry
MORE Senior - Recommended for cats over 7 yrs and particularly for those with sensitive stomachs

Containing
Fresh Chicken (25%), Rice, Chicken Meal (11%), Maize, Oats, Potato Protein, Cellulose, Chicken Fat, Salmon Oil (2%), Chicken Digest, Yeast, Beet Pulp, Fish Meal, Dried Egg, Sodium Chloride, MSM (0.15%), Glucosamine (0.15%), Chondroitin (0.15%), Prebiotic FOS (0.08%), Prebiotic MOS (0.08%), Yucca (0.008%), Marigold Extract (0.004%), Cranberry (0.004%).

I've not seen them before either, and I've done a lot of UK food research too. They look like pretty decent foods to me (though I'm not keen on the number of fillers in the More). My biggest hesitation is simply that they're chicken - it can be a potential allergen, and as the RC (chicken based) didn't help her I'd be considering trying different protein source. Having said that, both the Hills and the Purina are chicken-based. If IndyJones is right, and the first suggestion was to try RC Hypoallergenic, then your vet was likely thinking in terms of a novel protein food as being the next thing to try. (Hope that makes sense )

As I've said before, I really think this all needs to be in consultation with your vet. If you're not happy with your vet's approach (and it is a little worrying that you were told blood in the stool was normal) you can always look at getting a second opinion. A good vet should be happy to work with you using limited ingredient non prescription foods to manage this issue in any case.

The wet food looks very good to me with its simple recipe. The dry food, though, as Columbine says, has a lot of fillers, what with the rice, maize, and oats, among other things.

Approaches differ of course, but personally, my first step would be to feed a diet with no grains to see if that helps and then move on to the proteins. (Rainbow22, I'm not sure if Gypsy is already on a grain-free diet...) And then, after grains, I'd move on to removing chicken because, as Columbine notes, it's a relatively common irritant, too.

That said, I also agree with Columbine about working with a vet and possibly (even preferably?) getting a second opinion, perhaps from a cat specialist. Kieka mentioned cat specialists, too, and I highly recommend them, if you have one nearby. We take our current cats to a cat specialist and it's such a change from the practice where we took Brooksie: the vets there were very dog-centric and were horribly unfamiliar with cat foods and feline nutrition. A cat specialist can make a huge, huge difference!