Diet change to fancy feast causing upset stomach?

[Bella's Mom]

hi all,

I am new to this site. I recently changed my cats wet food from Wellness pate (which is under 10% carbs) to Fancy Feast. She doesn’t seem to have much of an appetite for it and recently I’ve been noticing some loose stools in her box.

I switched her back to the Wellness today as she will eat more of this. Is this a sign of something more serious than food change?

We are not monitoring glucose levels but have a monitor that should arrive in a couple weeks. She seems to be in good spirits and is acting normal. We are doing one unit of glargine twice a day after meals.

Thanks,

(I am still working on my signature...)

 

[Sarah&Soph]

When you switched the food, did you introduce the fancy feast slowly or just swap it out completely? Sometimes switching to a new food too fast can cause upset stomach and soft stools. My girl has a very sensitive stomach and if I don’t take at least a full week to introduce new foods, it makes her stomach upset

 

[Idjit's mom]

It's always possible that the Fancy Feast caused a GI upset, and if the Wellness is less than 10% and works for her, that's fine. Every cat is different relating to what food they can tolerate and like.

Regarding the testing meter arriving in a couple of weeks, I checked back to your first post and see you are in Canada. What brand of meter are you waiting for? We have many Canadian members and we can tag some of them to provide what kind of meter they use, and where to get less expensive strips so that you don't have to wait weeks to start testing. The sooner you begin testing, the more you will see how the insulin is working for Bella. It's not a bad idea to have a back up meter in the house, so it might be a good investment for you at this time.

Just a note, I showed my hubby that pic of Bella earlier, and he just mentioned it again.."talking" to Idjit about the beautiful Maine Coon lady he saw a pic of today. So we had to look at Bella again.

 

[Bella's Mom]

Hi! Thanks for your reply! I am such a Maine Coon fan too, they are such neat cats. She has quite the gentle demeanour and silly personality.

Yes I was at the drugstore today looking for a cheaper backup that’s sold in Canada but I got confused as there quite a few choices. I am waiting for the Alphatrak as I found it cheap online and can buy cheap back up strips here in Canada. I did end up getting the urine strips to test for Ketones and Glucose though.

Here’s another of her face up close

 

[CandyH & Catcat]

oh what a love! I too want to bury my fingers in her fur

 

[Idjit's mom]

Fantabulous pic, gorgeous eyes.

I checked the information on some Canadian members and see the Freestyle Lite meter, and also one Freedom Lite meter. But I'm wondering if that latter might have been a typo.

I remember responding to a thread about choosing a meter in Canada, and of course can't remember who originally posted or when. Brain cells going dark!! I will try hard to look back at my posts and see if I can find it.

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

Gorgeous. Rover, who was a big lad with a hairy underbelly and hairy feet, had a lot of Maine Coon characteristics. I could fit four fingers comfortably between his ears. And he was a dog, basically. Not many Maine Coons born in a local dumpster though.

Waving to you from central Ontario (formerly of Q Beach and used to spent time on Hornby).

Many Canadians go with the FreeStyle Lite meter. This meter takes a small drop of blood (0.3). Some meters take a bigger drop (0.6) If you make trips south of the border, or know someone who does, you can buy strips at a fraction of the price.

Go back to the Wellness and see if the stomach upset continues.

And ask all sorts of questions. Vets do not get a lot of training in school about diabetes. This forum has been going forever and has a lot of people who have done their research.

 

[Bella's Mom]

Yes, I got lucky that this gorgeous rescue came into my life and at such a young age! Waving back to a fellow Canadian

Thank you for the info on the FreeStyle lite I will check them out tomorrow.

I will go back to the Wellness - it’s higher in carbs than the Fancy Feast but still well under 10% carbs and she’s always eaten it. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

FreeStyle Lite strips are roughly 75-80 cents each.

There is a cheaper option. It is called a Bravo meter. The strips are 40 cents. (Going from memory here.) There are two problems with the Bravo meter: 1) it takes the larger drop of blood; and 2) you cannot buy strips in stores. The strips must be ordered online. You will go through more strips than you imagine. A night of low numbers requires a lot of testing and will eat up a lot of strips. That is also a problem with the AlphaTrak.

There are quite a few Canadians here, including some from the west coast. I'll move back one day.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

Fancy Feast caused poop issues for my girls, too. I gave it to them when we were first transitioning to wet food, because it was one of the only ones they would eat much of at the time. They had the opposite problem though. Poop became hard and small. I started adding pumpkin to their food but that was not good enough. Willow ended up having a ruptured anal gland (I had never even heard of such a thing!) because her poop was not properly expressing the glands. It was awful, and I have never given them FF again. I also did not like some of the ingredients in it. Even the chicken pate has fish in it, and there are by products and artificial flavors. Thankfully, my girls were a little more open to eating other foods at that point since the initial shock of the transition was over, and we eventually landed on Weruva Chicken Frick A Zee which they have eaten exclusively for a long time now.

If your cat likes the Wellness pate and it meets the nutritional specs recommended for diabetics, I don't see why you can't just keep giving her that. If you are wanting to lower the carb content even more you might consider something from Tiki Cat or Weruva.

(PS. I know that a LOT of people feed their cats FF, and it works out just fine for them. I'm not trying to 'bash' it, just sharing my experience and thoughts on it. Different things work for different cats/people. )