Diarrhea with change on to low carb wet food

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CatherineandIssey

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Hi there.
My cat - a 12.5 yo Oriental called Issey - was recently diagnosed with diabetes and we seem to be settling into a routine with injecting and testing. She is an extremely tolerant cat, which has made things a lot easier. I also have her sister, Lily, who is not diabetic!
Anyway, my question was, after reading on here that everyone recommends low-carb wet food I decided to switch her over. I wondered if anyone else had noticed their cats suffering from diarrhea when you made the switch? And it's not just Issey, Lily is the same. Previously, I had been feeding them Iams senior dry (they like to graze) and the pouches such as Whiskas etc- just one pouch between them twice a day. Now they are on the HIlls MD (yes, I know) and wet food such as Applaws and Encore that we have over here in the UK (these are 75% chicken or fish, 1% rice and 24% cooking water). As soon as I stop the wet food, so does the diarrhea...
Is this just a question of their systems getting used to a different way of eating?
 
Yes. Often the wet food can either cause diarrhea or constipation. It's a change. How about starting over and introducing it slowly: 1/4 wet and 3/4 dry, then 1/2 and 1/2 etc. Hopefully that will get their tummies used to it and things will calm down. And I would add only one flavor for a week or so to see if it is one of the brands/flavors that are causing the problem.
 
You've been given excellent info so far, so I'll just add one more thing to keep in mind... dry food contains a huge amount of filler (primarily corn) that cats' bodies cannot process, so it literally goes in one end and out the other. When you switch to a low carb wet food, your cats' bodies suddenly are able to process and use much more of the food going into their system, which means far less waste coming out the other end. Once the liquipoo clears up (probiotics can indeed be a big help here, and the animal digest in fortiflora is the coating manufacturers use on dry food, so it can make the transition to dry food even smoother), you will notice far less poo action in the litter box. Don't be alarmed... it is to be expected!
 
My vet suggested the FortiFlora when Romeo started having his loose stools from switching foods and adding insulin to his system (he hates when I talk about his stools in public). After a week, he was still pretty runny, so the vet further suggested adding some digestive enzymes to his food, too. She recommended AbsorbAid, but you can probably use anything that's a digestive enzyme. I haven't had a chance to try this one out, as I didn't want to add *too* much to his system all at once, and we just added B12 in for his neuropathy. But that's what my vet recommended.

If you go the FortiFlora route, definitely pick it up online. My vet charged me $21 for 7 packets. Meanwhile, PetFoodDirect via Amazon charged me $19.98 with free shipping for a box of 30.

-Stacy
 
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