Cat stinks, food suggestions?

[smidgeyy]

So a bit of background information...

Last Halloween, I brought home a kitten. Some clients who regularly rescue kitties were given him by their friend who found him outside of a AAA. Like most of the cats they find, he needed a home. I simply couldn't resist myself and I gave it a shot, since I thought my older cat would tolerate a kitten more than another adult. 

Anyway, brought him home and he had pretty nasty stools from day one. I've  never smelled a cat like him. Obviously poop stinks but he's bad enough to clear a room, and working in the veterinary field kind of desensitizes you to those odors. Sometimes his stool was slightly soft, until it went to straight up diarrhea and I sent out another fecal. First one while his stool was semi soft was negative, that one came back positive for giardia. Giardia was treated, fecal came back negative after that.

His diarrhea went away but his stools were still softer than I had wanted them to be. He's had several blood/urine tests and he's only a year old, but everything checked out great. He was on Wellness CORE kitten wet food, which he absolutely loved. Since everything looked good... It came down to the food. I bought a variety of brands, some not as good as others, but I wanted to see what would solve the problem. The only one I tried was Natural Balance Wild Pursuit, since upon feeding that his stools were a bit more solid AND not quite as smelly. Until recently... They've been softer again(still formed, but not as solid as I want) and they're back to kicking you out of the room. 

Suggestions? My initial thought was maybe he's not doing well on the richer food, but I'm not sure. Something is causing this reaction, that's why I bought a variety. He will literally eat anything, he'd be a perfect candidate for raw feeding. That's not happening right now, as the risk of contamination to my chinchilla is too high and I already almost lost him once this year. Once I move to a place where my chinchilla can have his own room, I'll give it a go.

Despite working as a veterinary nurse, I do not trust the Drs food recommendations. They'll just tell me to feed Royal Canin or Hills i/d, neither of which I want to feed for obvious reasons. 

 

[smidgeyy]

Not sure if I can edit my original post but I forgot to add...

Perhaps he can't be eating the same brand all the time? I had meant to try other formulas thinking his body needed variety, but I stopped myself in case I was changing the brand all together. 

 

[destinyz12]

Both food brands you mentioned are kind of heavy on the fruit ingredients- which some cats have a hard time digesting- Cranberries particularly are something I avoid in cat food because the benzoic acid in them has been known to be harmful to cats over time.   You could always try a food without any fruit ingredients to see if that's the issue.   A lot of grain-free foods do have that in the ingredients unfortunately but I use Nutro and Whole Earth Farms which do not have it.

 

[lisahe]

Smelly cat poop is no fun! I would also suspect that a specific ingredient is causing the problem. From Wellness Core did you only feed him the canned kitten food? And which flavors did you feed him from the Wild Pursuit? And were those only canned food? At least some of those have ingredients like peas and chickpeas, which I would definitely avoid if I had a cat with smelly poop. (Legumes!)

Our cats' litterbox lost almost all its smell after switching them first to high-protein, very low-carb canned foods and then adding in raw foods. Even just very low-carb canned was a nice improvement over the combination of dry and canned foods we fed them when we first adopted them. Now that they're eating primarily raw and homemade cooked food, the box barely smells. Our previous cat had a horribly smelly box and we didn't realize until too late that it was the result of a terrible diet that, over the years, gave her IBD.

Depending on what you've already been feeding him, I'd probably first try getting rid of foods with significant carbs, which cats don't need anyway, and, if that doesn't work, then trying to eliminate specific ingredients, starting with fish, if that's been in his diet. (I remember it being in the Wellness Core kitten food: our cats loved that but I cut it for various reasons.) The two canned foods I'd probably consider the purest, in terms of not having carby fillers or undesirable thickeners and chemicals, would be Tiki Cat and Feline Naturals: our cats love those brands and they do help them stay sated, happy, and smelling fresh! The only problem with those foods is that they're very expensive, though they're worth it because of the cats' sensitive guts and taste buds.

@destinyz12's post came up just as I was about to post and yup, those cranberries are another ingredient I don't much like to feed, though they do get a little in their Primal freeze-dried raw food... which I'd like to cut eventually, too, though the cats seem to do very well on it.

 

[thegreystalker]

I have learned that the menu really does determine what the litter box smells like.

Just found out my gal doesn't care for the Duck in a can from Whole Earth Farms.  Our battle of wills over the weekend ended with me thoroughly defeated.  Tried to fool her by mixing it with other flavors.  Took her a while to finish a few mouthfuls, but she left the rest.  There's 23 more cans headed to the Rescue Shelter donation box.  Anyway, the Duck recipe gave her very soft near-diarrhea stools, the smell of which nearly drove me out of the house.

 

[smidgeyy]

Thanks for the replies! I'll look into something without cranberries. He will seriously eat anything so I doubt it would be an issue finding something. 

He's been on this formula https://www.chewy.com/natural-balance-wild-pursuit-turkey/dp/113915 

There are cranberries but they are a lot lower on the ingredient list than they were in the Wellness CORE kitten. This was the wellness core formula that I had been feeding him when he was younger. https://www.chewy.com/wellness-core-grain-free-kitten/dp/37155 Perhaps that's why his stool smelled less right when I switched him over to Natural Balance, but ultimately went back to stinking me out of my bedroom.

The problem cannot be fish related since besides the rare treat(most my treats are turkey or chicken based), he's never had fish. So I'm leaning towards the fruit and veggies being the issue. I'll try something without cranberries first I guess and go from there. 

AvoDerm was one I was looking into but I had no experience with the brand. 

Taste of the Wild was also on my list of brands to give a try. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to let me know!

ON ANOTHER NOTE....

My other cat started vomiting on Nature's Variety, so I switched him to Wellness CORE(was giving him the chicken or turkey)  and he does well with that. No vomiting unless he eats too quickly. He had lots some weight because he was vomiting frequently on the NV after doing so well on it for a while. I'd like to give him more of a variety but my concern is that he will start the vomiting again. Do you have any suggestions on brands? Years and years ago he was on Blue with no problems, but I'm not sure what's up with that since Purina bought it. That's kind of irrelevant I guess, since he was on NV for a while and suddenly started vomiting on it. Anyway, I appreciate any help.

 

[destinyz12]

You could always try a brand that has a Limited Ingredient Diet formula (L.I.D.)  Off hand I know Merrick has both dry and wet food in several flavors that are L.I.D. and they don't have any fruits or unhealthy fillers or grains, ect. and only one single type of protein per flavor-which helps if you suspect it might be an allergy to something.  If you use dry food, this one does have potatoes and peas listed but most grain-free dry foods will use those.   My own kitten doesn't have any issues so far but I am highly considering giving her this type because I really like the healthy ingredients.  Example of what It looks like: wet food:  http://www.chewy.com/merrick-limited-ingredient-diet/dp/115594  and dry food: http://www.chewy.com/merrick-limited-ingredient-diet/dp/115603  

The one issue I see with Taste of the Wild is that there is fish in the ingredients in all of the flavors I've noticed, so It's not one I would recommend on a regular basis.  Other grain-free suggestions without fruit fillers (these ones I personally use) are Whole Earth Farms and Nutro Natural Choice- but some of Nutro flavors have Carrageenan in the canned food which could cause upset stomachs to some, so be sure to look for the ones without it- most of the chicken flavors are safe that I know of.

 

[smidgeyy]

I had read some complaints about Merrick, which is why I was hesitant to try that one. I order bulk food online and I had seen people mention the brand was not consistent, some watery/different colors and whatnot. I'm not sure how many people actually had issues with it though.

His diet is mostly wet, and I notice the issue with the wet food vs the dry, despite him being on Wellness CORE dry. 

He's the one that I ultimately want on raw since I know he'll eat it, but that's on hold for now. I'd like to start rotating brands once I can find some that work.

 

[lisahe]

I'd definitely recommend Nutro Natural Choice over the Merrick LID: the Merrick LID now has peas in some form or other. Our cats used to love the Merrick LID but then wouldn't eat it: the recipe change made them very unhappy. I'm one of the people that noticed other oddities with the Merrick food, like cans not filled well (@missmimz had some worse ones!) or sloppier consistency.

Nutro Natural Choice's minced chicken, sliced turkey, and chunky chicken are all carrageenan-free, though they do have gums. A couple others also lack carrageenan (kitten food?) but I don't remember which. Our cats love the Nutro foods so much that one cat scarfs and barfs often enough that I don't feed them much anymore!

 

[destinyz12]

That is disappointing to hear about the Merrick LID.  It seems like there's something wrong with almost every kind of cat food out there, whether its consistency issues, too much fish, cranberries, carrageenan, ect.    But yes, with Nutro Natural- So far I've seen without carrageenan- Sliced turkey, minced chicken, chicken chunky loaf, minced chicken & shrimp, and kitten soft loaf chicken.  I wish they would take it out of the other flavors as well. 

 

[smidgeyy]

I can give it a try, he's had mostly Turkey based food since I got him. That's what he was eating when I adopted him so I kind of stuck with it, even though I know he will eat anything(I often worry about foreign bodies because he will literally eat anything that he can swallow, he's a dumpster cat). He's always eaten pate food as well, I've never tried anything else with him. He's over a year old now so I've had him on all life stages type food for a while.

I'll give the Nutro a try. Any other brand suggestions, limited ingredient or not? As I said, I'd like to get him a variety eventually.

 

[destinyz12]

Whole Earth Farms has mostly pate style canned food-including turkey flavor.  I know Petsmart doesn't carry the brand but Petco does and its available online.  Not sure if independent stores carry it or not- my local one doesn't seem to, so I get it from Petco.

 

[smidgeyy]

I haven't tried Whole Earth Farms yet but I did buy a few cans. I also broke down and got some Merrick, Soulistic, and a can of Nutro. Also bought some Nature's Variety LID dry. 

He hasn't had his old wet food for about two days now and he's had a bowl movement with little to no smell. None of the foods I was feeding have cranberries in them, so I actually think that may be the problem. He REALLY liked the Soulistic, I thought I was going to get bitten when I tried to take the plate from him when he was done haha. 

How many brands do you guys rotate?

I was thinking I'd go with WEF, Soulistic, Merrick, and FF classic. The FF is cheap and gives me a bit of a break for my wallet, and it's still grain free. Should I add another brand to help balance out the FF? I've never bothered rotating brands before so this is new to me. 

 

[thegreystalker]

Call me crazy but I rotate quite a few wet brands and flavors.  Been successful thus far.

Fancy Feast Tender Chicken Classic Pate

Fancy Feast Tender Turkey Classic Pate

Sheba Chicken Entree Pate

Sheba Turkey Entree Pate

Companion Wholesome Formula Chicken & Beef

Pro Plan True Nature Turkey & Chicken Classic

Pro Plan True Nature Beef & Giblets Classic

Natural Value Sardine & Shrimp

Natural Value Chicken & Sardine

Under the Sun Lamb Formula

Friskies Poultry Platter

Friskies Cat Concoctions Salmon & Chicken Liver

Newman's Own Organic Beef

The only flavor she has outright rejected thus far is the Whole Earth Farms Duck.  She enjoyed Purina Beyond Turkey & Sweet Potato dinner quite a bit, but I bought only a few cans because of the high price.  Pro Plan True Nature is a better buy ( for Purina no corn, no wheat, no soy formulas).  My gal is a 14-month old kitten who is healthy and active.

 

[thegreystalker]

You'll find Companion Wholesome Formula brand at Stop & Shop for less than 90 cents for a 5.5 oz can.  Dollar Stores sell a 13oz can of Friskies Poultry Platter. for $1 or less.

 

[smidgeyy]

Thanks for the list! My one cat got sick off of Friskies so that's definitely a no go. I'm rotating mostly for my younger kitty since he eats anything and his stomach is less sensitive. My other boy started vomiting on Nature's Variety, so I've been careful with him since. I'd like to transition him to multiple brands eventually, so I've got to try to pick things I know will work for both of them. I'd love to try it again since he did well on it before... So perhaps he will do better with it if it's rotated between different brands. 

I'm hoping to feed FF once or twice a week, as their breakfast. They get smaller meals in the morning with some dry food to top it if they need it, a little dry for lunch, and canned for dinner. 

My picky boy won't touch anything beef... He did once and it was NV brand, but he wasn't super interested in it. He's not a fan of venison, but he likes SOME rabbit, depending on brand. 

 

[destinyz12]

Which type of Merrick did you decide to go with?  I know the regular line of Merrick does have cranberries so watch out for that, but the L.I.D. does not.  I never tried Soulistic but I was actually thinking about trying that one out with my kitty- which flavor did you get, and what does the texture look like?   At the moment I only rotate Nutro and Whole Earth farms, but looking to add a couple of more eventually.

 

[smidgeyy]

Pretty sure I got the limited ingredient Merrick. I picked up the regular and was going to get that but I saw the cranberries. For the soulistic, I got the patè and shreds in gelee... Chicken I believe, I think it had turkey as well. I can't check at the moment which flavor I let them try haha. It's more jelly than the other brands I've used but they absolutely loved it.

 

[smidgeyy]

Sorry I wasn't home to check. I got this one. http://m.petco.com/shop/en/petcosto...chicken-dinner-adult-canned-cat-food-in-gelee

It has a lot of gum in it and has a bit of a jelly appearance, with little shreds of chicken mixed throughout. It's definitely an odd texture but I'd say it smells just like chicken. First ingredient is water which I wasn't fond over but I think I'll keep it since it helped with the odor problem.

 

[destinyz12]

Thanks, I think I may check it out and have her try a flavor or 2 the next time I go to Petco.  She's never had anything shredded before,  only pate or minced so far so hopefully she likes it.