Cat Chat Feline Forum

Crewella wrote:I live in a rural area with a big garden surrounded by fields but a very busy main road nearby. For that reason I lock everybody in at night so they never get used to the road when it's quiet - by day it's so busy, and noisy, that they're unlikely to go near it. It also helps the local wildlife to have the cats locked in at dawn. In the summer most of my gang are out for most of the day, but in the winter only my two dedicated hunters are still spending much time outdoors.

My Daz is 7 and a big, chunky 5.5kg cat - a late-neutered tom that was a stray for the first years of his life, and I suspect he could still pretty much cater for himself if necessary. He hunts every day and eats what he catches, including bunnies, squirrels, pigeons - he even came home a blooming pheasant a few weeks back, as well as mice and rats, but I have to keep a close eye on his weight as he is prone to urinary problems. He actually gets the same amount as the oldies, 50g of wet food and a handful of prescription urinary dry food (reduced calorie) twice a day. He uses a lot of energy hunting, so overall we seem to have found a balance. Touch wood!

Merrick is the other outdoorsy cat, and yes I do give him a little more than the others, although he too is eating much of what he brings home. Actually, most of them do have a snack on Daz's kills from time to time. I worm them all more often than I did before we moved here because of that.

I feed chicken wings raw at it's good for their teeth - never give cats cooked bones as they go brittle and can splinter. The chicken breasts I just boil (or occasionally steam) in water - any chicken meat would probably do but it's just easier to get breast fillets, and the meat is drier and less fatty. It's just the meat you want, no fat or skin, when you're trying to calm their digestive system.

Sorry, I seem to have given you my life story here!!!!!

I loved reading your story, honestly!!!! I was imagining everything you described, as if I was a little child and my mother was reading me a bedtime story hahahaha! Thanks for being so descriptive!

Really appreciate your responses/you taking the time to help me out!

You're very welcome.

By the way, this is Daz, complete with his dinner and a nice healthy side-salad!

I would be very wary of feeding just chicken for a week without a vet's say so. It may be OK for an acute bout of diarrhea, but cats with chronic diarrhea could well have long-term absorption issues. In Kylie's case, she had dangerously low levels of B12 and folate - both of which we had to supplement. The B12 deficiency had made her anaemic and it can cause all other kinds of health problems, including heart and nerve damage. Taurine deficiency (cooking destroys taurine) can cause blindness and heart problems.

That's a good point, and why I said it's not a complete food so not a long-term solution. For a normally healthy cat, it shouldn't cause a problem, but it's certainly worth mentioning. I tend to give chicken for a couple of days for upset tums.

Ironically, the vet mentioned this to me after prescribing him Hills and said this could be another option (feeding him chicken or rice)

MarkB wrote:In Kylie's case, she had dangerously low levels of B12 and folate

What type of symptoms did Kylie have before you took her to the vet and found out the above?

Tobias eats well and is a good size. I took him to the vets two days back to have his claws trimmed and they weighed him again/did a normal check (touching his ribs, looking at his teeth etc) and they said he was fine.

I know I cant be certain but I dont think he has a major issue - I do believe hes slightly sensitive to foreign foods like Bozita (I havent tried any "normal" food ie Whiskers, Felix etc) but it would be great to hear what led you to take her to the vets before discovering she had a more serious issue

Kylie was rapidly losing weight. Her poos had gone from sloppy to liquid and basically food was passing right through her. We never really got to the bottom of what caused her diarrhea in the first place, despite testing for everything, including hyperthyroid, parasites etc. He even thought at one point that it could be an autoimmune disease of even lymphoma. She was actually booked in for a biopsy a couple of month ago when she had dropped to 2.5kg, they got as far as sedating her, before the vet decided that she wasn't strong enough to have a GA and surgery. He said she had a matter of weeks to live if she continued losing weight. We don't know if it was the B12 that helped, the probiotics, or just that it resolved itself. I now know that certain foods make her worse - sadly, her favourite, Gourmet Perle is the worst offender - although very odd as it wasn't something she ever ate regularly.

PS - Not sure if ou are aware of it, but Hill's make a stabdard dry food (not classed as prescription diet) for sensitive cats, It is chicken and rice. Alic did well on it.

I don't now if you saw my other thread in general chat about Sainsbury's own grain-free dry? - another odd thing is that in all the years (nearly 14) that I have had Kylie (she was 2 1/2 when I adopted her from cats protection) she mainly ate dry food. When her diarrhea got bad, she completely stopped eating all dry food. In an attempt to get her weight up, I tried every dry food going (wheat-free ones anyway) but she refused them all, including old favourites. Quite recently I bought a bag of the Sainsbury's food to try with my 2 young cats. A couple of weeks ago, I was shocked to find Kylie munching away at it. It may be worth you trying. It is 60% chicken (40% poultry meall + 20% fresh chicken) with potato, linseed, Yukka and vitamins. She has continued eating it without any problems. Apparently Linseed is good for gut issues. Worth a try. They only sell 500g bags for only £2.50

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/gro ... ction-500g

MarkB wrote:Kylie was rapidly losing weight. Her poos had gone from sloppy to liquid and basically food was passing right through her. We never really got to the bottom of what caused her diarrhea in the first place, despite testing for everything, including hyperthyroid, parasites etc. He even thought at one point that it could be an autoimmune disease of even lymphoma. She was actually booked in for a biopsy a couple of month ago when she had dropped to 2.5kg, they got as far as sedating her, before the vet decided that she wasn't strong enough to have a GA and surgery. He said she had a matter of weeks to live if she continued losing weight. We don't know if it was the B12 that helped, the probiotics, or just that it resolved itself. I now know that certain foods make her worse - sadly, her favourite, Gourmet Perle is the worst offender - although very odd as it wasn't something she ever ate regularly.

PS - Not sure if ou are aware of it, but Hill's make a stabdard dry food (not classed as prescription diet) for sensitive cats, It is chicken and rice. Alic did well on it.

I don't now if you saw my other thread in general chat about Sainsbury's own grain-free dry? - another odd thing is that in all the years (nearly 14) that I have had Kylie (she was 2 1/2 when I adopted her from cats protection) she mainly ate dry food. When her diarrhea got bad, she completely stopped eating all dry food. In an attempt to get her weight up, I tried every dry food going (wheat-free ones anyway) but she refused them all, including old favourites. Quite recently I bought a bag of the Sainsbury's food to try with my 2 young cats. A couple of weeks ago, I was shocked to find Kylie munching away at it. It may be worth you trying. It is 60% chicken (40% poultry meall + 20% fresh chicken) with potato, linseed, Yukka and vitamins. She has continued eating it without any problems. Apparently Linseed is good for gut issues. Worth a try. They only sell 500g bags for only £2.50

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/gro ... ction-500g

WOW, what a story....... So glad to hear shes doing better now and thank u so much for sharing!

And thank you so much for the link!!! I used to feed Tobias wet food only, then I tried wet and dry, then the vet told me that she only fed her cats dry and they only get wet as a treat(!) so I did this (with Hills) but there were two issues with feeding him dry only:

1. I would find hair balls around the house, this never happened when he had wet food
2. He seems less settled (always wanting more food) whereas when I give him wet he doesnt act like he wants more

So Ive gone back to feeding him wet/dry. Hes fine with dry food, its the wet food that Im having issues with. Im 1/2 way thru weaning him into Grau - if the diarrhoea comes back then I will try the Sainsburys wet food in your prior link.

The Sainsbury's food is dry. Often, potato is used in hypallergenic foods. The senior vet at my local practice (next door!) thinks that cats with sensitive digestion do better on dry food, which surprises me - but he has 50+ years experience as a vet.

They also do a wet version in the range - a tuna version and a chicken one. they are 100% meat or fish with vitamins to balance them - 55p a pouch. Kylie has the tuna one as a treat meal

I adopted a kitten and his poo was not in the normal solid shape and really stinky. We took him to the vet to make sure there was nothing wrong as far as parasites and he had the kitten fecal test.

Nexabiotic Probiotics for Cats were recommended so I tried this one and it really helped. His poo is now normal shaped and less smelly. I tried taking him off once the bottle was empty and the symptoms returned, so it seems like I am now a customer for my kitten's life

Personally I will never buy chicken prepared in any way when dealing with sensitive stomach issues breast fillets can be injected to make them look more appealing and bulk them up for the shopper I would always buy a whole chicken and cook it yourself I use Purina dry sensitive and dust it with brewers yeast powder you can buy in good health food shops it has elimated the odd stomach upset keeps the cats in lovely condition and my lot all accept it as it is B vitamins which are water soluble you won't overdose