Moist food causing diarrhea

What to do when my cats stomach can't tolerate wet food? Started her too fast first time...ended up at the vets office with diarrhea, dehydration and a fever. Got her back to normal, started her slowly mixing in dry food with the moist, little at a time. Now back to diarrhea. I am feeding her Fancy Feast Classics - low carbs. Has anyone had this problem?

 

what is the best dry food for diabetic cats?

 

It may be an ingredient in the Fancy Feast Classics that she has a food allergy too. My one diabetic can't tolerate dried egg which is in Fancy Feast but not in Friskies Pate, when she eats the FFC she gets horrible diarrhea but on Friskies Pate she does just fine. As far as what is the best food for a diabetic...well the one that they will eat, that is low in carbs and fits your budget. There are lots of choices and sometimes it just takes a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best. Folks here use everything from Walmart's Special Kitty Pate Style to Merrick or Wellness. This is the charts that a lot of us use to pick foods for our diabetic cats. Binky's Lists you just want to stay under 10% carbs (third column) and most of us try to stay under about 7-8% carbs.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

I agree, you may want to experiment with different brands. I really wanted to feed my cats Merrick because my research indicated that it was nutritionally one of the better brands, so I had been feeding them a combination of that and Wellness for some variety. They had softer stools (not diarrhea, but not your typical firm cat stool) that weren't seeming to go away, so I decided to try eliminating one kind of food at a time and see if it made a difference. I really thought it was the fat content in the Wellness that was doing it, so I was surprised to see their stools firm up when I took away the Merrick. I'm not sure what ingredient(s) were to blame. For your cat, maybe Special Kitty or Friskies would be worth a try? Wellness is also about the same price as Fancy Feast if you get the large 12.5-oz cans, so you could try that, but as I mentioned some cats have trouble with it due to it being higher in fat.

 

How long has she been on the canned food? Sometimes when cats first switch, it can take a week or so for their systems to adjust to the food. Fortiflora (a cat probiotic) can help a lot with these problems. You can get it from your vet, or online where it's way cheaper.

Even if you change the diet slowly (over a week) for some cats, they still can have GI issues because of the change. These will resolve on their own and are no reason to change the diet back--doing that will just have to make you start over again. Add some water to her canned food to make sure she's getting enough moisture to prevent dehydration.

What flavors of Fancy Feast are you feeding? What dry food was she eating before you switched her? If the runny poo doesn't resolve on it's own in a week or so with the probiotic, then it's possible your cat has a food intolerance to one of the ingredients in the Fancy Feast. The most common protein food intolerances for cats are Fish, Beef, and Chicken, in that order. If we compare the ingredients of the dry she was eating to the Fancy Feast ingredients, it might be revealing as to what the problem may be, if it's not just a system upset because of the change in diet. If it is a food intolerance, all you have to do is avoid the offending ingredient and the problem will resolve.

High fat content can also cause these issues, but Fancy Feast isn't super high in fat so I wouldn't guess that's your problem.

There is no dry food that is good for a diabetic cat. Even the lower carb dry foods still raise blood sugar levels in many diabetic cats. Bandit's blood sugar will shoot up by about 100 points from even the low carb dry food. Even if the cat is one that can tolerate it, you are still setting yourself up for future Urinary, GI, and kidney problems with it.

 

Her first bout of dirrehea was with with the Merrick and Natural Balance food. The vet got her much better - and now the next bout is with Fancy Feast Classics. Fed her Ocean Whitefish and Tuna last night - wondering if that had anything to do with it. Fed her Turkey Giblets this morning. Time will tell.

 

What dry food were you feeding her before the canned food (brand and flavor). What flavors of Merrick's and Natural Balance did you feed? How long was she on the canned food the first time before you put her back on dry? How long has she now been eating canned food at this point?

If we compare the ingredients, we can see what the similarities and differences are, and perhaps find a clue if there is an food intolerance. However, Natural Balance is generally used for cats with food intolerances issues because they have several flavors that are novel proteins, so I would suspect that this is a case of GI upset due to the general change in food, which a probiotic should clear up in about a week. But, if she has an intolerance to beef or fish and you were feeding a Merrick's flavor with the offending ingredient along with the Natural Balance, then it's still a possibility.

 

She has been on dry Eukenuba Mature since she was 7, now she is 11. Merrick and Natural Balance was a combo of the fish flavors, beef and chicken. I did give a lot of Merrick fish. This was all last week, and she went to the vet last Wed. Thursday, she came home and we started mixing her dry with a little of the fancy feast. the feces seemed like it was getting better - I have another cat so I am not exact. But there was no dirrehea. I started to increase the fancy feast and lower the dry as the vet recommended. Now, we are talking part of a small can, not a large one. This morning, I found the dirrehea, in and out of her box in another part of the house. I did feed her the ocean whitefish last night. This morning, turkey.

 

BTW, thank you so much for your response

 

I checked the ingredients for the Eukenuba, and the only protein source in that food is Chicken. So there could be a Fish or Beef intolerance. Try feeding a canned food that only has no fish, beef, or byproducts in the ingredients for now--Natural Balance has several, so does Merrick's, Wellness, and EVO. Fancy Feast is hard to feed if a food intolerance is in the mix because it contains meat and fish byproducts, even if it doesn't say it in the name (for example, Fancy Feast Classic Chicken has fish byproducts in it). I think Turkey and Giblets and Chicken and Liver are the only flavors that don't have fish, and there are none that you can't guarantee don't have beef because of the meat byproducts.

Fish is the most common intolerance, so once the problem has resolved you can try introducing a food that is just beef and see if you can add that to the mix as well. If you don't runny poo again with the beef, then you know fish was the culprit. It's a good idea to generally avoid fish anyway because intolerances are so common with it.

 

It could be the fish, I have a civie here that can't tolerate fish in large quanities, he is fine if the fish is way down the food list but if it is a primary portein source he gets the runs and does his best impression of an erupting volcano....and always on the one spot in the house that still has carpeting. :roll:

Mel, Maxwell, Musette, Autumn & The Fur Gang