Okay, this might end up being super long but I'm going to try to just jump into the situation...
Jinx is a 10 year old neutered male. For the first 6 or so years of his life, he ate Iams. He would vomit, on average, about once a day while on this, but was healthy and normal otherwise so we just accepted that the vomiting was just his "norm" and something we'd have to put up with.
I then learned more about nutrition and wanted to get him off the Iams ASAP. Decided to switch him to California Natural and, while the vomiting did not cease completely, it decreased in frequency and I would guess was "only" happening on about a weekly basis. Figured the diet change must have helped but, again, assumed that the vomiting was just "his thing" and not something that we'd ever get to go away.
So, July 2010 he goes through a urethral blockage. He had been on the Cali Natural for ~2 years at this point. 8 years old and this was the only time he had ever had any urinary problems. Much to my disappointment, he was of course put on Hills C/D, and as much as I don't like the food I was willing to do what it took to hopefully prevent this from recurring. He's been on it ever since (we feed the dry formula), no urinary problems and his most recent urinalysis done in November came back "perfect." So, something somewhere has obviously been working for him.
The problem is that ever since he's been on the C/D, his vomiting has gotten sooo bad again. He'll go through good spurts where he might go a week or two without vomiting, but then it's also not uncommon for him to vomit multiple times a day, for days in a row. I'm really inclined to believe it's an intolerance to the food, as we've experienced in the past that changing brands changes the frequency of the vomiting.... but obviously it's a little more worrisome to switch him off an Rx diet, and it requires a bit more planning. Bloodwork and such has never indicated any issues. In all other aspects, he's a perfectly healthy cat.
I work at a specialty pet food store so the other day, I got fed up with all the vomiting and decided to grab some Wysong Uretic kibble and Weruva cans, just because I can... my thought process here is that they were the only things I could find that most closely mimic the C/D, in terms of both being low in magnesium and phosphorous, and the Wysong contains an acidifier. Ideally I'd really like to see if a grain-free diet might help the issue, but I feel like that's too risky of a move.
He's been on the new food for 2 full days now and the vomiting has dropped to once a day, instead of 10 times a day... but it's definitely too early for me to make any real calls on whether or not the diet change is affecting him in any way.
Any thoughts or other input on this? I know it's a mess.
I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place though; obviously I don't want to risk having crystals form because he's not on the Rx diet, but on the other hand it can't be good for him to be vomiting up everything he eats.
I just don't want to make the wrong decision.
Jinx is a 10 year old neutered male. For the first 6 or so years of his life, he ate Iams. He would vomit, on average, about once a day while on this, but was healthy and normal otherwise so we just accepted that the vomiting was just his "norm" and something we'd have to put up with.
I then learned more about nutrition and wanted to get him off the Iams ASAP. Decided to switch him to California Natural and, while the vomiting did not cease completely, it decreased in frequency and I would guess was "only" happening on about a weekly basis. Figured the diet change must have helped but, again, assumed that the vomiting was just "his thing" and not something that we'd ever get to go away.
So, July 2010 he goes through a urethral blockage. He had been on the Cali Natural for ~2 years at this point. 8 years old and this was the only time he had ever had any urinary problems. Much to my disappointment, he was of course put on Hills C/D, and as much as I don't like the food I was willing to do what it took to hopefully prevent this from recurring. He's been on it ever since (we feed the dry formula), no urinary problems and his most recent urinalysis done in November came back "perfect." So, something somewhere has obviously been working for him.
The problem is that ever since he's been on the C/D, his vomiting has gotten sooo bad again. He'll go through good spurts where he might go a week or two without vomiting, but then it's also not uncommon for him to vomit multiple times a day, for days in a row. I'm really inclined to believe it's an intolerance to the food, as we've experienced in the past that changing brands changes the frequency of the vomiting.... but obviously it's a little more worrisome to switch him off an Rx diet, and it requires a bit more planning. Bloodwork and such has never indicated any issues. In all other aspects, he's a perfectly healthy cat.
I work at a specialty pet food store so the other day, I got fed up with all the vomiting and decided to grab some Wysong Uretic kibble and Weruva cans, just because I can... my thought process here is that they were the only things I could find that most closely mimic the C/D, in terms of both being low in magnesium and phosphorous, and the Wysong contains an acidifier. Ideally I'd really like to see if a grain-free diet might help the issue, but I feel like that's too risky of a move.
He's been on the new food for 2 full days now and the vomiting has dropped to once a day, instead of 10 times a day... but it's definitely too early for me to make any real calls on whether or not the diet change is affecting him in any way.
Any thoughts or other input on this? I know it's a mess.