Diarrhea after switching diet to low carb

[Matt & Redbeard]

Hey all, just a quick update on Redbeard. After that first week of going low and slow with vetsulin and monitoring his BG with both a Relion and Freestyle, he seems to be in remission!!! He hasn't had any insulin since 8/15 and his BG was 112 this morning. So thrilled! It seems the diet switch was the biggest determining factor. However, it has come at a cost...

He has had extremely bad diarrhea for two weeks now. He's going so often we can't keep up with cleaning it, and he has had a few accidents. I know it's due to the FF, but did anyone else experience this when switching the diet? Is it transitory, or is this the norm on the low carb diet? I'm also thinking it may be one particular type of FF that is causing it, as I have been giving him a varied assortment of flavors and meat types (chicken, beef, fish). I may have to find one or two that he likes that do not produce the diarrhea and stick with those. Any thoughts? Thank you all so much!

 

[Sarah&Soph]

It could be that he just has a sensitive stomach and giving him a bunch of different flavors instead of sticking to one is causing stomach upset. It could also be the fancy feast. It works well for a lot of cats but if he has any kind of food sensitivity, it could be upsetting his stomach. Most of the FF flavors have multiple kinds of proteins, even the ones that are marketed as just one flavor (ie chicken). It might be a good idea to just stick with one flavor for now and see if that helps, and if not then maybe try a different kind of food. There are lots of other low carb wet food options. For the diarrhea, you could try giving him S. boulardii which is a probiotic commonly recommended here for that

 

[Heather38]

My cat gets diarrhea from wet food with guar gum, which is unfortunate because most wet foods have it or some other gum. I'm not sure if all gums would trigger it, but I just avoid it completely. That could be something to look at after you have tried other things but I would definitely try to rule out specific flavors of fancy feast or specific proteins that might be causing his tummy troubles first. Because it would be easier to be able to keep feeding him fancy feast since it has already helped him and it is more available in stores and cheaper than the guar gum free foods.

 

[Mocha's_mom]

I'm definitely experiencing it with my non-diabetic cat. I switched them both over cold turkey from their high carb kibble to low carb dry (Epigen90) and I'm still working on getting them to eat the wet food. So far the FF chicken pate is the only thing Mocha will eat and FINALLY Charlotte is tasting it. Mocha barely eats any (maybe 1/4 can per day) and Charlotte has snuck a few bites here and there. But she's had diarrhea for about a week off and on. I was so excited that this morning she had a normal poop and then just now out of the blue back to terrible diarrhea.

Mocha's had no digestive issues at all since changing the diet.

I'm hoping it's just a sensitive stomach and she'll eventually get used to it. I'm wondering the same thing, how long will it last? She's long haired so it's getting pretty messy.

I wonder if it's an age thing too? Mocha's 10 and she's only 1. Wish I could figure it out too!

 

[Gracie85]

I have one cat who is allergic to chicken, immediately gets stinky diarrhea. I have another who gets diarrhea from fish flavors. This is not just with FF, it's with any wet food. So, rather than rotate flavors/proteins, try just one at a time for several days and see if you can connect certain types to the diarrhea.
Do read the ingredients carefully, most flavors have some chicken, or fish in them now, no matter what flavor or type they sell them as. This is common with other brands, also, chicken is evidently a very cheap source of meat for cat food, and unspecified fish (leftover catch-of-the-day?) is too, these are the two most common "surprise" meats in wet food.

If a food doesn't agree with them, their stools will stink to high heavens, even if solid. When on something their body likes, the smell is much less.

Our second cat continued with soft stools until we started giving him some Slippery Elm. That then solidified things right up, as long as we don't let him have anything fish. But even when solid, we can smell the difference immediately if he gets into the wrong food (we have a third cat who can and does eat anything, so we use up "unacceptable" food from the other cats on him.)

 

[Mocha's_mom]

If a food doesn't agree with them, their stools will stink to high heavens, even if solid. When on something their body likes, the smell is much less.

Oh yeah, that's definitely a given with Charlotte!! I've been pretty good at following her to the litter box so I can clean up any mess before she drags it around the house or smells up the place!

I feel bad changing it up so many times. My concern with her is that the macronutrients of both the wet food and low carb dry food are so drastically different than what she ate before. So it doesn't really matter what the flavor or texture is, it's still gonna be low carb and maybe that's what's messing her up?? I feel like everything I've tried thus far (both wet and dry) with her has caused diarrhea. There's been a couple good days in between so I don't know what to attribute that to. The first solid stool I saw was the day after she ate her first few bites of wet food. And it was literally like 2 bites so I don't know if I could count that.

They're still both grazing on the Epigen90 throughout the day. That could be the culprit but I feel bad taking that away when I can't seem to get either one to eat any significant amount of wet food to get adequate nutrition.

As @Matt & Redbeard said, is this just something fairly common to switching to low carb & eventually resolves itself? I feel like in the past I've switched up dry kibble (the terrible high carb stuff) with many of my cats and had no issues making the switch. But this low carb stuff isn't going over well.

 

[Denver & Magic (GA)]

When we hard-switched Magic this was one thing we were both very concerned would happen to him. Thankfully the stars and planets aligned and it didn’t. My vet said if the switch isn’t gradual enough or they’re dealing with new proteins it can cause stomach issues that usually end up as diarrhea or vomiting.

I’d be tempted to feed him like only chicken for a day and see if it’s better or worse and try that with the others. At least that may give you an idea if it’s a specific type of meat that’s provoking it.