Cats and canned cat food

[sapphireangel81]

So I have a 10 year old domestic medium hair cat. She is fixed and has been since she was born. She has never had any real medical issues. About a year ago she started throwing up her food after eating. We were feeding her 9 lives dry cat food. We started supplementing the dry food with wet canned cat food which was also 9 lives. This worked very well for the past year or so until about a month ago.

Last month we fed her and within an hour or so she was vomiting, drooling uncontrollably, having bowel movements that were watery, watery eyes, smell coming from her body like that of fish, stomach spasms. We thought we were losing her so we rushed her to the ER vet. By the time we got her to the vet she was just exhausted but all other symptoms had stopped. The vet could not figure out what had happened but suggested she get a round of antibiotics and nausea meds.

This seemed to fix her right up. She was back to herself and we decided to stick with a dry food diet for awhile to see how she did. Well last night she started acting like she was still hungry after eating a bit of her dry food and since it had been a month with no issues I figured I could try a bit of wet canned food again. I gave her the canned food and by this morning she was back to the same symptoms as a month ago. This time since we knew she wasn't dying but actually becoming severely dehydrated from the vomiting, we gave her water through a dropper and gave her a bath to relax her.

She seems to be doing ok now but I am just at a loss as to what this could be. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Why after a year of having wet cat food is she all of a sudden having severe reactions? She did have a vet visit about 2 months before the first episode and everything checked out just fine. She was super healthy. I would also like to note that she does not go outside. She is an indoor cat. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[linda2147]

Do you change the protein source regularly? If not that could be part of the problem, if you don't change the protein source regularly they can get sensitive to whatever it is you are feeding. Cats should eat wet food more than dry, reason being cats don't drink a lot of water and can form bladder crystals. I don't think that is your problem, just throwing it out there. I feed mine Halo dry, change the flavor after every bag and I feed natural balance packets all different flavors. I also have a fountain that encourages them to drink. A lot of cats won't drink standing water so they have the fountain. 9 lives is not one of the better foods, anything made by purina in my opinion is junk because purina uses rendered meat in their foods. Not something I want my cats eating. You can give her pepcid ac for an upset stomach.

 

[Alpha1]

I agree with Linda on feeding wet more than dry, or at least equally, changing protein sources, etc. 9 lives is a very poor food to feed also, I feed Blue Buffalo dry along with Wellness, Natural Balance or Avoderm canned. The higher quality foods do cost more, but well worth it health wise. Glad your girl is doing okay now, not sure about why she would have such reactions. Maybe you should put away the dry for awhile and only feed wet or canned. Welcome, sorry I can't give more advice to you, but hope she's okay.

9 Lives shows a 2 star rating, not the worst, but poor ingredients with fillers, by-products, artificial colors and preservatives. A couple of their wet varieties are acceptable as far as protein and vegetables...http://petfoodtalk.com/catfoodreviews/9lives-cat-food/

 

[CatMom1994]

Based ib nt iwb feline nutition research, I am 100 percent against feeding a cat dry food unless it is freeze-dried raw nuggest mixed in water. Cats are adapted from the African desert, so drinking the few lakes availalbe is not a priority to survive. Eating prey that that never had a chance to dry because it had just been killed makes it easy for a cat to get enough water without human help. So when a cat lives indoors all the time, dry food is never a good thing to feed it. If your cat will not eat anything else, stick with that for a while, but only as long as it takes to find something better.

 

[johnkane]

I would definitely go with wet food.

 

[Alpha1]

I am 100 percent against feeding a cat dry food unless it is freeze-dried raw nuggest mixed in water.

You're not 100% against it, because you feed it to your cat every night.

"I feed Daisy kibbles at night to make sure even when the wet food is stale she has something to eat"

 

[CatMom1994]

Alpha, that is nnly because my mom is 100% against feeding her a wet-food only diet and buys the cat food.

 

[Alpha1]

Alpha, that is nnly because my mom is 100% against feeding her a wet-food only diet and buys the cat food.

Your mom seems to be reasonable, feeding both wet and dry like lots of people do. So Daisy is her cat, or did she get the cat for you?

 

[CatMom1994]

Daisy belongs to both of us. We adopted her together, take her to the vet together, and each have our own cat care chores.

 

[Yetidog37]

Does owning one cat cost a lot?

 

[CatMom1994]

The way I see it, there is no such thing as owning a cat.