Cat frequently ill - what to do?

MsFifers

Hi
My male 1yearold cat, Pugs, is frequently struck with either vomiting or diarrhea - maybe once a week or so.

Its usually mild enough - eg just one dose early morning, then he goes for a sleep, and is perky again in the evening. He hasn't lost any weight, is in great condition, and seems happy and energetic (apart from a few hours when he is sick.) Its been going on for 2 or 3 months now.

I have brought him to the vet who checked him over, said its not an infection of any kind and that he is in very good condition. He didn't know what the cause was and suggested blood tests but sort of discouraged me from them as Pugs is so healthy otherwise. We agreed I'd come back for the tests if it continued or Pugs lost weight.

He gets Royal Canin Neutered Cat dry food, and one sachet of Whiskas Oh So Meaty/Fishy daily (which is the highlight of his life!!). I gradually changed from Hills about a month ago - but no difference. The vet said if it was food related it would be happening more frequently, and if it was an infection of some kind then my other cat would have the problem too. (Which she doesn/t)

He had another bout of diarrhea this morning - and I'm feeling v. sorry for him now. What can I try?

Should I cut out the Whiskas? It seems to have the highest real meat content of any of those wet foods - and I was advised that a mix of wet and dry is the best thing.

Any ideas of what to try next?

Thanks a mill!

JB1

Hi,
i would cut out the whiskas for a couple of days and see if that makes any change.if he loves meat, try and give him boiled chicken filet (make sure it is through and through boiled)...not alone do they usually love it, it's also very light ...I would actually suspect that it is the whiskhas as I noticed my 7 get the runs after it...

Sigma Force

Ditto with the Whiskas I know it's hard esp. when they love something like that but give it a go leaving it out for a while and see if that helps.
Also in case the cat is getting milk, cut the milk out and just give water.

If it is the Whiskas that is causing it eventually perhaps giving a little roast chicken or boiled chicken now and then as a treat instead.

BlackCat2008

I agree with no milk, if you check all whiskers, hills and RC they all contain a lack of meat not even good meat but meat by products or derivatives and only about 4%. One reason for the sickness and diarrhoea could be the cereals or corn which they find hard to digest and very upsetting for the tummy they don't need these foods full stop, if they are indoor cats bring in some grass in a bowl for them to chew on and clear their tummy's I get mugged for fresh grass even before I get to put it down.

You could try giving them Burns 20% meat although the first ingredient is brown rice it is good quality and contains more meat and less cereals, corns, no additives, colourings, flavors or unnatural preservatives or chicken from battery hen farms, it is higher in protein and will take them time to get use to it but mine adjusted well and then I moved them on to Arden Grange and they are great on it the dogs look so much more healthier and calm and the cats seem to be glowing I'm glad I changed even the old cats coat seems to be looking better. You must mix the old food with the new for a week or so putting less of the old in at the end of the week I started seeing results after about 2 weeks of giving them the full bowl of the new food. They should also get wet food once a day as you are doing can't advice on that as I can't find any decent one's at the minute just replace it with chicken or turkey.

The corn and cereals also cause allergies which sound like what your cat is going through.

You could try giving him chicken or turkey boiled with some whole grain or brown rice and some carrots, give it a good mashing to hide the carrots and see how he gets on you should know by the end of the week if the change has made a different.

From what I can tell a cats diet should contain 80% protein (20% should be fats), 15% plant or veg fats and 5% carbs.

Has he been wormed lately if not check with the vet next time if it's OK to do, never give a sick animal worm tablets. Hope some of this helps.

MsFifers

Thanks for that - Blackcat, I'm a bit confused about your advice on the different brands though.

Nowhere near me sells Arden Grange or Burns, but on looking them up on the web - they have meal (not meat) as its main ingredient - same as RC & Hills. Arden Grange has only 5% fresh chicken listed on its ingredients. (The Whiskas OhSoMeaty/Fishy real meat content is listed as 14%). Am I interpreting this wrongly?

Its hard to figure out what the actual meat content of RC is, as they only give a protein %. But Hills say 59% protein from poultry meal (I know that probably includes indigestible protein from beaks etc).

It seems to me that all of these dry food are more or less the same - ie. fairly crap!! From looking at the ingredients listed on various foods on zooplus, the highest meat content I can find seems to be on tins of Almo Holistic which is 50 - 75% http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/almo_nature/cans/14053#composition

But its v. expensive!!

I'm CONFUSED!!! I'm just wondering how to analyse the ingredients list so that I can figure out which type of food has the least "deriviatives" in it. Any suggestions?

I know I'm now over-analysing - but if I'm going to spoil my cats, I want to spoil them properly!!

carwash_2006

The wet food should only be looked on as a treat part of your cats diet, so as long as you do try to get a fairly decent one it isn't so important to worry about it being amazing food. The main reason for adding the wet food is actually for the moisture content as a lot of cats don't drink as much as they should.

The dry food can be very hard to analyze, just because some of them say that it's meal and others don't mention that does not mean that what is going in isn't pretty much the same. Ingredients lists for pet foods don't have to be very comprehensive really. Some companies just list cereals, whereas others will break it into a list of types of cereal.

The Hills may be 56% of protein being poultry, but that is only 56% of the protein in it, there is a fairly high chance that some of that protein does not come from meat at all, as carnivores with a short digestive tract they have practically no ability to digest grains, so any proteins derived from grain will be lost.

The Arden Grange is probably one of the best foods readily available on the Irish market at the moment but do keep your eyes open for new products and check the list of ingredients, if you find a product that lists more than one meat ingredient in the first four products you are on to a winner. If you don't see any decent foods in your local stores why not ask them about other products

The Sweeper

When did you last worm him? That, and take him back to the vet and request blood tests. If it's upsetting you because it's upsetting him, that's enough reason for me to get your pet tested for some answer to what's wrong.

galah

second the opinion of leaving out whiskay, or switch to another brand of wet food for a while.
My cat doesn't tolerate Felix pouches at all, he keeps vomiting a couple of hours after he's had it.

Glowing

I fed my cat dried food plus one sachet a day of wet food. He was grand with Felix and Sheba but once I tried the Whiskas, it pretty much came out the other end in the same format it went in about 5 minutes later!!

I'd cut it out entirely, or just try another brand ....

lubie76

My kitty had a similar problem with a similar diet as yours so I looked into complementary treatment and found a Homeopathic Vet in Cork. I emailed him explaining the symptoms and he felt it could be the dry food that is irritating her stomach. He recommended that i give her raw or lightly cooked chicken and he also sent me a homeopathic remedy to give her.

This was a couple of weeks ago and there has definitely been some improvement (though its a struggle to administer the drops). I found the following site good to explain how it works.

http://farrington.vet.googlepages.com/home