REGURGITATION AND HAIRBALLS- HELP!!!!

[finnlacey]

I do think so, yes. No one here is trying to scare you by any means, please don't take it that way. We've all just been there and it's not something my vet would wait 21 days to see. What if she does in fact have something wrong? 21 days is a long time, almost a month! I'd do it. 

 

[ldg]

Hun, moms aren't always right.

Will you be able to go to the vet with your mom and your kitty? If so, please ask the vet if regurgitating once every week or two, sometimes several times a day is normal.

If your kitty has lesions from acid reflux, you wouldn't be able to see those. And megaesophagus starts somewhere. Maybe she doesn't have it yet. :dk:

You asked if reguritating that frequently is normal. It isn't, and I believe the vet will tell you that. Sadly, vets often have little in the way of nutrition training, but they do know what is normal and what isn't when it comes to medical issues.

I've only had cats for 10 years. But we have 8 of them. We rescue, and we kept the health-compromised kitties. Having fed them a similar diet, then switching to grain-free, low carbohydrate only canned foods, and then having switched from that to feeding them only home made raw foods, all I can say is that in my experience, diet makes an enormous difference. And even on the poor diet of kibble, none of my cats regurgitated food that hadn't made it down to the stomach. Ever.

Feeding your kitty Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Iams is like your mom raising you on Captain Crunch Cereal (with no milk) and McDonald's. It's not good for you. You need vegetables and fruits and milk.

Cats are obligate carnivores. People don't put up fences around their gardens to keep cats from eating their carrots, corn, peas, and green beans. Cats eat mice, rabbits, and other small mammals. Cats' digestive systems are designed to digest meat, bones and organs. That is what they thrive on: meat-based foods. They have no - zero - dietary requirement for carbohydrates. They do not digest them well, and they do not utilize them at all (other than as fat, which cats cannot use as an energy store like people do).

The ingredients in Science Diet Sensitive Stomach kibble are:

Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Pork Meal, Dried Egg Product, Whole Grain Corn, Chicken Liver Flavor, Lactic Acid, Oat Fiber, (and then the supplements).

The ONLY "meat" based ingredient in it is "pork meal" http://www.examiner.com/article/dog-food-101-what-is-rendering
But the primary protein source is Brewers Rice and corn.


The ingredients in Iams' ProActive Digestive Health food are:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Chicken, Brewers Rice, Corn Grits, Dried Beet Pulp, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Natural Flavor, Fructooligosaccharides, Dried Egg Product (and then the supplements).

This has more meat-based ingredients (Chicken by-product meal, chicken, animal fat, and "dried egg product"), but corn meal is 2nd on the ingredient list, and that pesky Brewers Rice is fourth. http://cats.about.com/od/catfoodglossary/g/brewersrice.htm

The amount of carbohydrates in the Hill's Sensitive Stomach food is 37%.

And the amount of carbohydrates in the Iam's Digestive Health food is 37%.

It's actually difficult to find cat foods with more carbohydrates than these foods - there are a few. http://catcentric.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Combined-Products-Cost-Comparison-1.pdf (This is a cost comparison of various foods, but the last row in the table lists the carbohydrate content).


http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/The_Essential_PUFA_Guide.shtml

Unlike domestic dogs, house cats have retained their hunting instincts and are not entirely dependent on humans for food. ...Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds to live and reproduce. [15] As such, felines have specific metabolic differences from humans and dogs. [11]

- Cats cannot make vitamin A from beta-carotene and require preformed vitamin A from animal sources.

- Felines metabolize carbohydrates poorly and can neither tolerate nor thrive on a high-carbohydrate diet.

- Cats have high protein requirements but cannot easily replace protein in the diet with other energy sources to conserve body protein. In starvation conditions, cats waste their own muscles in a matter of days.

- The amino acids arginine and taurine are essential for cats. Lack of these in the diet rapidly causes blindness and death. Only animal protein provides arginine and taurine at the levels cats require.

Naturally, feline PUFA metabolism is strictly carnivorous. Cats do not eat fruit, vegetables, nuts, or seeds in their natural diet and have no need for vegetable oils, either.

I doubt very much the carbohydrate content is causing your kitty's regurgitation problem. I'm simply illustrating the point that what you feed your cat will impact her health. And as your mum is probably responsible for feeding her, you may have no influence over her diet. But this is information that may help you when you're on your own, with your own kitty, and responsible for her health and well-being.

I hope you'll be able to find the root of the problem with your kitty. :rub:

 

[emilymaywilcha]

Great post LDG. Ever since I learned Science Diet is junk food, I have wondered why so many vets recommend it. I fed it for many years after a vet recommended it.

Sadly, at animal shelters, because it is so expensive to feed every cat and dog, money is a big factor in choosing what to give them and that's bad for the animals. By volunteering at a shelter, I learned the only reason they have posters recommending Science Diet is the contract. The shelter is only allowed to feed dry Science Diet unless special dietary needs require something different. They also are required to have those posters recommending Science Diet. The reason for both requirements is they are included in a contract with Hill's that allows them to get cat and dog food free by only paying for shipping.

 

[brightsunray812]

LDG- THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

i showed my parents thhe package of science diet and i told them your analogy about the mcdonalds, spand long story short, tomorrow we're going to petco to see what other brands there are.

however, the iams aren't too bad- chicken is the first ingredient, followed by another type of meat, but yes, we are going to try to get as much meat as we can into her dry food.

good news on the vet appt.- my mom is going to try to move the appt. further up, because another thing of concern that we're slightlybworried about is the fact that on the back of her ear, she persistsntly scratches the fuzz behind it, and has developed a scab around the size of half my pinky nail (the long way) -- we think its ear mites or something else, but i have recently had poison ivy and i've become apt to noticing bumps on skin, and i noticed in the center were two small pink dots that honestly looked like pimples which were itchy- could it be acne? i've heard about cats getting acne, and, well, she is in her 'teen years'...

but anyways, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR HELPING AND RECCOMENDING STUFF FOR ZALA

 

[finnlacey]

She could have flea allergies or even food allergies. If you go to Petco you can get Merrick Before Grain there and even Nature's Variety. 

 

[brightsunray812]

that's AMAZING- THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[brightsunray812]

uh, bad news,,.

my family cant make it to the vet any time other than the 7th. would that be too late?