Safe cat food?!

[prairieglitter]

Hey there! I mostly post over on Style & Beauty, but need some pet advice. Right now, my cat is in the vet hospital. We took him there for lethargy, stomach pain, fever and dehydration. They've run all sorts of tests and nothing is conclusive. The one change we HAVE made recently is pet food. We were feeding him Blue Buffalo and switched to Nutro because for some reason he stopped eating the Blue Buffalo. Ever since, I've noticed more throwing up, grooming, hairballs, etc. I did some online research and read some pretty bad reviews. My question is: Is there a safe cat food out there? It seems like every one I research has reported problems (which I understand there probably won't be one with NO issues).

Any cat owners here have recommendations? I am a little freaked out! I really appreciate it.

[prairieglitter]

Okay, so I went to the FAQ section and thank you to whoever put that together. I linked up to the pet food reviews page and it looks like there are some five-star foods out there: Fromm's, Innova Evo, Merrick, Orijen, Solid Gold Indigo Moon, Wellness core and Taste of the Wild.

Anyone have a favorite?

[mrssavy42112]

Is there a particular food that the vet recommends? We use Wellness, but I've never tried any of the other 'five star' rated brands.

[polarbearfans]

My cats like canned Wellness.

[welder'swife]

My cats liked Wellness. I would like to try them on TOTW. I'm sorry to hear about your kitty.

[katietornado]

We feed TOTW dry to two cats and our special cat gets exclusively Merrick wet.

[starburst]

My cat does really well on Acana. It's made by the same company that makes Orijen, but is slightly more affordable.

[kellbell191]

Ours like Wellness. I would also highly recommend taste of the wild and Instinct.

What happened to you sounds similar to what happened to us. We've had our cats on grain free food for years, the vet prescribed lysine treats that have corn and what, and my cat got deathly ill from them. We think he's developed a grain allergy or intolerance so we just make sure to stick with grain free food and treats. I hope your cat feels better!

[prairieglitter]

Thank you ladies!

The vet really didn't recommend anything in particular. I appreciate the feedback. It is so hard to know what to give them. I feel like every time I turn around there's something in the news about bad pet food. From what I read online, I would definitely stay away from Nutro.

I just talked to the vet and his fever is coming down. It sounds like it's pretty probably he has pancreatitis. I have no idea whether or not bad food could cause this, but I did read that IBS/gastro problems can cause pancreatitis, so perhaps there is a connection.

If it is pancreatitis (which is hard to diagnose, I guess) they said a low fat food is a good option. So I'll be looking into some of these foods and your recommendations to see if there are any good low-fat varieties.

Thanks again!

[mrs.jacinthe]

Our boys currently eat TOTW dry and Friskies (Eww) wet. They really like the TOTW at the beginning of the bag, but I don't think it ages too well, because it's a struggle to get them to eat the stuff at the end of the bag. They both loved EVO, but it made their poo wake-you-up smelly. Wellness was good for one, but my fatso wouldn't eat it.

At this point, my senior can't eat any fish and has to be limited on fish byproducts, so our choices are relatively limited. I'm thinking there's an Innova product without much fish. Merrick BG Chicken has also made the short list for our next round of dry food.

[prairieglitter]

Jul 20, 2012 13:33:07 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Our boys currently eat TOTW dry and Friskies (Eww) wet. They really like the TOTW at the beginning of the bag, but I don't think it ages too well, because it's a struggle to get them to eat the stuff at the end of the bag. They both loved EVO, but it made their poo wake-you-up smelly. Wellness was good for one, but my fatso wouldn't eat it.

At this point, my senior can't eat any fish and has to be limited on fish byproducts, so our choices are relatively limited. I'm thinking there's an Innova product without much fish. Merrick BG Chicken has also made the short list for our next round of dry food.

Thanks! It's interesting you mention the end-of-bag dilemma. My cat does the same thing. I think I'll go by PetCo and check out some of the suggested foods. I want to see what the fat contents are, because if he does have a pancreas issue, it sounds like lower fat food might help.

You ladies have been so helpful. I may just have to start popping over here more often!

[polarbearfans]

Have you tried air right containers? That seems to help with our dry food. I hate feeding it, mainly because my cats were grain free and I consider this lower quality (science diet), but the vet recommends it for female cat for her bad teeth. It is the prescription t/d which is supposed to help clean the teeth for a stubborn girl who won't allow brushing. I hate to admit it, but we haven't had any dental problems in 4 years now and she previously had terrible teeth (several pulled) and gums. The other cats love it, so all get it even though I prefer grain free for them (cut back on females digestive issues)

[kellbell191]

I stay away from "low fat" "low calorie" foods like the plague. Feed your cats a high protein diet and they will feel fuller and eat less.

[kellbell191]

Also pancreatitis is vet code for stomach issue we don't know the cause of : ). Lots of stomach issues lead to funky pancreas values when there's no obvious cause.

[prairieglitter]

Jul 22, 2012 11:45:10 GMT -5 kellbell191 said:

Also pancreatitis is vet code for stomach issue we don't know the cause of : ). Lots of stomach issues lead to funky pancreas values when there's no obvious cause.

Thanks for the great info. I did notice that it seemed they were a little stumped. And rightfully so. Everything was coming back normal (tests) but we still had a kitty with a fever and stomach pains. I was able to go get him Friday night and it seems like he's doing a little better each day. We're going to keep him on the Prescription Diet food the vet gave us for a few days and slowly start mixing in with a grain-free food like Wellness or maybe one of the others I mentioned. It's so strange though--as I started doing research on Nutro food (which we had just switched to) I found a ton of people online talking about how their cats started having stomach troubles after switching. Hmmm. Hopefully the steps we're taking will help him. Thanks again!

[Deleted]

Check out petfoodratings.net.

[breezy814]

My cat eats wellness and BFF she loves them both. I do half dry foor and half wet. it settles well with her tummy