Cat with upset tum issues - but has seen vet

[Orion and Holly]

My cat has had an upset tum for a few weeks so I took him to the vets where he ended up needing a vitamin b12 shot, this has mostly worked but his tum isn't 100%

He is 7 at the end of the month and I'm trying to move him on to senior dry food as he can't have wet as its too rich for his tum, I have tried most of the senior dry food and every time i introduce a new food ,
20 grams new 30 grams old food he make his tum go down hill.

He is fine eating the Purina one atm but if i give him the senior version of it - nope he goes down hill

I know their tums get more sensitive as they get older, he was on diet food for 3-4 years I never had any problems with him then (only the odd time where I forgot to take the other cats food up!) I took him of his diet as i wanted to move him to senior food he yo-yo on his diet and is generally a lazy cat.

The vets said if it doesn't improve then to bring him back for tests but he has improve but not 100% normal, im in two minds as I don't want to waste the vets time if i should take him back ??

Is it possible that some senior cats just can't get on with senior food??
I really want to get him sorted as he is due to go in to the cattery next month for a few days

He is my first cat but Ive had cats growing up so I'm not a new cat mum!

Any help would be great, Thanks.

[booktigger]

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about moving him on to senior at his age, the average lifespan is 14, so he's middle aged rather than senior. I don't always use senior food on 10+ cats

[Alice]

Hello and welcome
I agree with the last post - I'd just keep on with with what you've found suits his tum and that he likes.
My two are 8 and 10 years old and I don't give them senior food, as they don't like it and the last cat I lost was pefectly healthy for 19 years, having never had senior food.

[Orion and Holly]

Thank you and both are very interesting points, totally see where your coming from about senior food I think I'll listen to you guys and keep him on his normal food and see how his tum is
Thanks a lot really appreciate it

[Alice]

You mention feeding him on Purina One - I wonder if you're giving him the 'Sensitive' variety which is good for delicate tummies and liked by most cats?
Many of us on here order from Zooplus, where most things are much cheaper than in local shops/supermarkets........

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_ ... eds/195934" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Orion and Holly]

Thank you and yes he is eating Purina one atm but I'm going give him a couple more weeks just to see how things are going and then I'll try him on that option as I said he has a bit of a weight issue
I've shopped on zooplus before I brought him 2 x 4kg of the James wellbeloved which set him off the strange thing was I brought a small tester bag and he didn't have any reaction to the food ....very strange
Hopefully if I have done it right I've uploaded a photo of him he is the tabby and white one (I do call them little and large!)
Thanks for the help

[MarkB]

My cat Alice used to have terrible problems with her poo. There was often blood in it. She refused to eat prescription type sensitive food. We even tested her poos. I decided to try an elimination (no pun) diet. The first thing I tried was cutting out wheat. I fed her Purina One sensitive dry, along with Felix senior pouches. Almost overnight there was an improvement. I found out soon after that dairy was also a trigger, so also had to cut that out. As Alice says, most cats like the sensitive version. It is Turkey & Rice, rather than chicken and wheat. The other cats ate it too. When I tried giving them the regular version, they wouldn't eat it. I also buy it from Zooplus (much cheaper than buying it from a supermarket)

PS - Not sure if it will be a problem, but there was a sign up in Sainsbury's yesterday, warning that there is a shortage of Purina dry food due to a factory fire. The shelves were full though

[meriad]

I agree with the others about keeping Orion on a food that he's happy on.

Years back when I adopted Jamie and Abbie as gorgeous 5 month old kittens, I also had Molly who was 13 at the time.

I remember speaking to the vet about what to feed them as ideally the younger two should have kitten food and Molly should be on senior food. He just laughed and said most of this senior / kitten stuff was purely marketing and there wasn't much difference in the ingredients and that I should just keep them all on a good quality adult dry food. Esp if you think about it, when we (well most of us) were kids you could only buy normal adult food; they didn't have all these different varieties etc.... At the time I was feeding the three of them on Royal Canin Sensible which was great and they all were really happy on it.

Interestingly enough, a few years down the line I switched mine to Purina Sensitive. At that point I had (still have) 6 cats and the Royal Canin was working out just a tad expensive compared to the Purina. But the Purina didn't agree with some of mine and I'd regularly would find these delightful pools of dried food vomited back up. I subsequently suspected that one of mine was cereal intolerant so have now change them all onto Arden Grange which is cereal free and touch wood; it's been fine.

If your boy does have a dodgy tummy try ruling out food intolerances. The most common are cereals, fish and chicken. James Wellbeloved have a really good dry food http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/ ... loved%2522#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; maybe give that a try?

Good luck

[Kay]

can I just add yeast to that mix - cats love it so it's in a lot of cat food and treats, but can cause problems

[Sue Goddard]

When you say his tum is upset do you mean he vomits or has diarrhoea?
Sometimes a bit of both can indicate Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
My beloved Bailey had this and it was controlled by Hills z/d which contains hydrogenated
(small molecule) proteins which the gut can better deal with..He never looked back..it's quite expensive from the vet as it's prescription only but maybe you could ask the vet if it could be IBD..?
It's surprisingly common now with all these fancy foods as some of them are chock full of unneccessary ingredients, which might be the trigger.
Just a thought
Sue

[Orion and Holly]

Sorry for the late reply my phone has only just told me I had new reply's
Thanks for all the advice but his tum has gone down hill again (no blood or vomiting)
I've read white fish can help so I'm going to try that for a few days and see if that helps him

Orion is a bit fussy about his food, I've previously tried him on Wainwright food and left it down for him for a couple of days and he didn't touch it, wouldn't even eat it if I took it out the bowl and threw it across the floor which is very unlike him

I like the idea of the sensitive food think I try him on that next, yet again he has turned his nose up at the fish

If things don't improve my the end of the month I'm going to take him back to the vets

Thanks for the advice I'll keep you all posted

[Orion and Holly]

Thought I should update everyone, I went to pets at home last week and spoke to a very helpful sales assistant and I explained about Orion's tum and had picked up the Purina one sensitive but the sales assistant said that isn't a good one and recommended I try the royal canin sensitive and Orion has been on it for a week now and things have improved 100%
I'm now on the ratio of 20 gms Purina and 30 gms royal and his tum seems to be agreeing with this
I'm really hoping that in a weeks time he will be on sensitive ratio 40 gms and 10 gms Purina
I'm a very happy cat mummy now and Orion seems happier as well
I like to say a very big thank you to all of you for your advice on my lad's tummy