cat digestion issues have me questioning raw

[Rafiki]

Nutrical should be fine in small quantities. I would give it if she likes it, but I wouldn't force it on her. Have you ever tried Crisis Care or similar on her during these times?
https://www.completenaturalnutrition.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=72
https://www.completenaturalnutrition.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=65

She most certainly does not like Nutrical - I have learned NOT to place it on her paws unless I want the walls and myself to be coated with it. But squeezing a small amount into her mouth is doable.

I have not tried Crisis Care. Thanks for the suggestion. This is really the first time that she has had something more than soft stools. I don't recall her ever having actual diarrhea before a month or so ago.

 

[Rafiki]

Have you tried Probiocin probiotic? It's a gel so you don't need to mix with food. Shango thinks this stuff is THE BEST treat ever lol! Too bad he can't have it as often as he'd like. He goes crazy when he sees me get it out of the fridge (you don't have to keep refrigerated though). I get it from my local vet, but saw chewy.com sells it for less.

https://www.chewy.com/probios-probiocin-oral-gel-dog-cat/dp/111150



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have never heard of this one....but then again I only had issues with anorexia due to liver issue and not digestive issues. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Rafiki]

I am thinking that I will leave her be for tonight and hope that her belly settles down in the morning. She was definitely hungry this past morning.

How much Florastor is recommended for a 15 lb cat?

 

[Kristin]

If she is having tummy troubles, slippery elm is helpful as it helps both constipation and diarrhea. You just have to add water to it so it doesn't take water from the intestines. The only issue is not all cats like the taste in their food.

My cats are dumb sometimes and don't chew, which makes them sick. Then they think it was the food that made them sick so I give them slippery elm and they're fine as soon as they don't get sick again.

If you are giving them just one type of meat, could that be causing the issue? I know Rafiki had a lot of stress recently, and that could've triggered a bout of leaky gut? If it were my cats, I would go with a novelty protein and see how that goes. Maybe with some slippery elm and freeze dried treats to entice them to it.

 

[Rafiki]

Rafiki is ridiculously picky about food. It probably has something to do with all the meds we shoved at her when she was sick. I tried feeding Rafiki bland poached chicken Saturday morning. Epic fail. She wanted nothing to do with it. I added the Florastor to her regular raw. At first she acted as if it might have been poison....to put it mildly, she was not impressed with the pumpkin that I added Friday morning. With plenty of kitty crack including chunks mixed in her food, I finally got her to eat. She still had diarrhea but nothing like it was on Friday. She happily ate her food that night. It had both the Florastor and Psyllium powder. Saturday night was the return of crazy cat. OMG she leaped and played and ran up and down the hallway. She was definitely feeling better. Today has been more of the same. Stools are still soft but her behavior has returned to normal.

Jammu is being rapidly transitioned to beef. I started with 1/2 oz on Saturday morning. His appetite was so-so but I noticed that he ate all the beef. I increased the quantity with each meal. Tonight's meal was 1.75 oz of beef, .75 oz of chicken chunks and .5 oz of ground. He devoured it. Hopefully we will have him transitioned completely to beef in the next few days and his skin allergies will settle down. From there, we need to get both of them on a more varied diet.

 

[kokogal]

Hurray! Happy to hear your kitties are improving

 

[Rafiki]

Update on my kids:

The combination of the Florastor and Psyllium did the trick for Rafiki. She has a monstrous appetite and is bouncing off the walls. I think that poor Jammu may be wishing that she wasn't feeling quite so well. LOL.

Jammu is now 100% on beef. The transition from chicken went unbelievably well. He had been very picky for the last month and did not always eat all his chicken. I think that he knew that it was causing issues and it was his human that was slow to figure it out. When he had had the ultrasound a few months back, the IM vet had noticed a slight thickening of the intestines and I am thinking that the chicken allergy may have been responsible.

I will continue to add a bit of Florastor and Psyllium to the food for both cats for another week or so as added insurance. I will let Jammu's skin settle down for a few weeks as we try to decide what proteins to add to both cats' diets.

Question:
For those of you that feed rabbit (but not whole prey), what protein do you add to the rabbit? I hear that the bone-to-meat ratio is too high and I obviously do not want to add chicken to Jammu's food!

Now for a bit of TMI (skip this part if you are squeamish!):
Rafiki did not poop at all Monday/Tuesday but this morning I found a poop that was over 6" long. I have never seen such a thing originate from a cat. I actually showed it to my hubby, I was so impressed! LOL Since it was not buried, I assume that it came from her. There were also 3 normal size poopies that I attribute to Jammu. Not only were they properly buried, they were the same color as the ones that had a ton of fur in them from when he was so itchy and constantly licking himself.

 

[DumaLove]

Isn't it funny how poop obsessed we become when it comes to our fur babies??

Beef would probably be a good protein to add to rabbit if both cats can tolerate it. Rabbit is low in taurine and beef is high in it. Plus it's easy to get boneless beef. You can also get boneless rabbit to add to the bone in meat, but it is pricy and still low in taurine.

 

[kokogal]

6 inches!?! Poor baby that must have been...an experience.

 

[Patti]

Glad to hear that Rafiki, and that roller coaster of yours, is back on track!