Older kitty with constipation issues

[shortykatyk]

Hi everyone I'm hoping to gain some advice (long time lurker finally decided to post) I have a 17 year old cat that I have raised since he was a kitten. He has been through a lot. Surgery for crystals when he was 5 years old, then about 2 years ago he had surgery called Perineal Urethostomy because he had troubles with crystals coming back. Ever since he has been great no issues at all aside from constipation so we finally transitioned him fully from occasional dry and wet to fully wet food. The only problem is that he is so picky that he doesn't eat much of the wet food. He tends to lick up the gravy and leave the morsels. I'm afraid he isn't getting enough food and part of me wants to introduce grain back but I know that will just make his constipation worse. I am kind of at my wits end to be honest and am so thankful that he loves his water fountain. I have thought about raw or even cooked meats but wanted to see if you all had any ideas? I have tried him on different wet foods and he tends to favor fancy feast over everything else but like I said its usually gravy sometimes he might actually eat a bit of the morsels or some pate once in a while.

 

[verna davies]

Have you had his teeth checked, maybe it's difficult for him to chew the solid bits. Try mincing them with a folk to make them easier to eat or try a mousse cat food. If he likes his dry food, crush a little and sprinkle on top of the wet.

 

[shortykatyk]

His teeth were checked about 3 months ago and the vet said everything looked good but I will definitely try mincing his food up I have even thought about getting the blender out to mix it all up together and i'll try the dry food on top might make it more appetizing to him not sure why I didnt think about that before.

 

[shortykatyk]

OH! I forgot if anyone has any recommendations on food that would be great too. We have a petco near us and of course online ordering.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. If he will eat pates, you can also try Nutro, Sheba, Iams and Crave Perfect Portions - although they do have ones with meat pieces in them as well (called 'Cuts'). Feeby, who favors a lot of the Fancy Feast pates, really likes all of these brands. Tiki Cat Mousse is another pate that she likes too. You could also try the Purina One True Nature.

 

[shortykatyk]

Will give them a try thank you so much

 

[FeebysOwner]

Keep us posted!!

 

[shortykatyk]

I tried the Tiki cat mouse tonight and he sniffed it, ate some of the dry food that I put on top of it and walked away. I also purchased some Solstice, Weruva and Merrick. They didn't have the Nutro or Iams in stock but I'm going to keep my eye out for them. Can anyone recommend a good dry food? He had been eating (mind you this was years ago) purina but I wanted to make sure that the grain that I was putting on top of the wet was a good one. I looked at Tiki Cat dry, Merrick dry and a few more but its been so long since I have purchased dry food I'm a bit lost. I know that he has a sensitive stomach since he has gotten older and I remember reading that too much protein could be hard on his kidneys.

 

[shortykatyk]

I am looking at Dr. Elsey, Young Again and Essence cat foods both wet and dry. Using the dry as a treat every now and then and to help him transition to mostly wet (basically if it helps him eat wet i'm all for it but I want to give him the best that I can) Its just....he's 17 and has had kidney issues in the past leading to crystals and then his PU surgery. He got a good checkup about 3 months ago but I still worry when I see high protein in food especially dry. Should I be sticking with something in the 35-40% protein area? However I see that Young Again has pork in it and my old man sure did love bacon when I would notice my dad sneaking it to him.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Have you looked at this web site? Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Diet and Nutrition Overview (felinecrf.org) . There is a lot of data, but might be worth you spending some time to read through at least parts of it.

 

[shortykatyk]

I hadn't and wow thank you so much! My kitty is actually a survivor of the 2007 cat food poisoning recall, sometimes I wonder if he would have any kidney issues if that hadn't happened.

 

[shortykatyk]

Looks like I should give now fresh grain free for senior cats a try. Its a bit high on the carbs but it hits right with protein and phosphorus. Will continue trying different wet foods......thank goodness for chewy.

 

[shortykatyk]

I have to give a shoutout to Dr. Elsey's customer service. I sent them a message asking if there was any way to purchase one or two cans to see if my cat will like the food and they offered to send me a few free. They seem to have great ingredients so I'm really hoping Littlebit will like it.

Been looking over that dry food and I'm not sure about the Petcurean Now Fresh Grain. It has fruits and veggies in it like even papaya. Pecurean Now Gather seems to have better ingredients as does Solid Gold Indigo Moon. If it weren't for the high protein issue with kidney issues kitties I would go for Dr. Elsey's dry food as well or Young Again but going over that website information it seems like aiming in the 30-40% would be best even given as a treat. Maybe I am putting to much thought into this considering he will mostly (hopefully crossing my fingers) be eating wet.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hopefully, he will like the wet food and it will be less of an issue for you. You can always try crumbling up some of the dry to add as a topper to the wet food to see if he might like it that way. A few pieces of dry won't be a big deal if it helps him to want to eat the wet food!

 

[shortykatyk]

Update: he still will only touch fancy feast but I am grateful he's at least eating that wet. I picked up some cans of nutro and wellness today to give them a try and he seemed to like Merrick LID but then threw it up soooo it might not agree with him like I was hoping.

 

[shortykatyk]

Well ya'll.....I may end up transitioning him to raw. He keeps throwing up any dry that I give him and has mainly been licking up parts of his wet food. I know he's not getting enough protein, I had been feeding him wet food and giving him some dry "on the side" and he threw up the Merrick LID so I thought "Ok something in the ingredients isn't agreeing with him" so I stopped feeding it and switched him to solid gold and he threw that up too after about 3 days of me giving it to him as a treat. Maybe he just hates the ingredients in them? I have some Dr. Elsey on the way and it for sure has good ingredients so it will be my last try before heading to raw.