Need Help With Food/Tummy Troubles

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scooterpie

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Really need help with food choices. When my cat was diagnosed with diabetes, I immediately put him on a mix of dry and wet food (as I wanted to transition him from dry to wet food eventually). The dry was a mix of some leftover Royal Canin HP and some dry low-carb food from the vet. After coming to this site, I learned about what foods to feed him, so I slowly switched him over to Innova Evo dry and was also giving him either EVO wet or Wellness wet twice a day. He did well for a while (say a week or two), with loose stools but nothing too bad. After a while, he developed severe diarrhea, and after a couple days of that, I removed all wet food completely and fed him only dry. At that time, I also switched to Wellness Core dry food. He did well for a week on that, no loose stools, so I tried to slowly reintroduce the wet food, but that eventually gave him diarrhea again. Then I read about Wellness Core causing crystals, so again I switched back to EVO dry (after a week of him being on Wellness). But even though he hasn't had wet food in 4 days, he's starting to develop diarrhea.

I'm at a loss as to what to feed him. Maybe all this switching is causing the diarrhea, and I should just "ride it out." But everything seems to give him diarrhea! He seemed to react the best with Wellness Core dry but I'm worried he'll develop urinary problems. He's also itching a lot, and seems to have some sort of allergies that I can't seem to figure out the origin of. Any recommendations? I'm out of ideas! I wonder if I should just switch to something easy like Fancy Feast canned? Maybe it's the expensive stuff that's too rich for his tummy! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Could be the changing of foods that is prompting the tummy troubles. One of my brood really needs to get the same food all the time or she starts getting loose stools. Another one gets tummy troubles with Wellness, apparently because of the high fat content - doesn't bother most cats, but definitely bothers her. The third has asthma, which acts up if he gets anything *other than* Wellness Chicken or Turkey.

What works well with the one of mine who doesn't handle Wellness properly is Merrick. Lower fat but still low-carb and no-grain. She does fine on Cowboy Cookout, but even the few molecules left after she has shined her bowl is enough to make the asthma cat's coughing act up, so now I'm giving her Grammie's Pot Pie, which agrees with her and doesn't cause problems with either of the other cats if they lick a little bit.

So, first thing is consistency. Second is to try Merrick if you can get it locally. (The PetCo here recently started carrying it.) But don't switch foods all at once. Sneak up on it. First day, mostly the old food with just a spoonful of the new food. Next day, if all is well, slightly less of the old food and 2 spoonfuls of the new food. And so forth, until you are feeding entirely the new food.
 
Thanks for answering. Do you think I should keep him on the EVO dry for a little while first (and hope his tummy troubles clear up) before trying to introduce Merrick? I'm worried that adding a new food will only make his diarrhea worse.
 
Given that he is already having troubles, I would be inclined to try to start introducing Merrick *very slowly* right away. Most kitties (not all, but most) do better on a wet food than on a dry one. For general health, wet is definitely better, but in your case the tummy troubles may have to govern the eventual food choice. In any case, slow down on the transitions. It sounds to me as if one thing your kitty needs is stability.
 
I called my vet to ask about the vomiting and pooping that was going on when I tried a new food. She said for me to give my cats probiotics in their food while i made the transition to a new food. She said that it helps their tummies during this time. I got it at PetSupermarket.
 
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