Does my cat have an upset stomach?

[cheesecake]

Oh wow, I hate to be the one who keeps asking poop-related questions....

My cat Cookies (medium-long hair) had traces of poop (not actual dangleberries) stuck to her butt fur twice this week and I had to chase her down to wipe her butt. I also tried to trim it with a pair of scissors, half an hour and a hissy cat (she has never hissed at me before until today ;_; ) later, I still cant reach the part of her fur that's matted with poop.
(She does groom herself, but usually after wiping her butt on the floor first >_> Also, I have a bigger litterbox after the first time she had poop stuck to her butt, which is a few months ago.)


Could this have something to do with the fact that I gave her a lot of different kinds of canned food this week?

She was eating Evo and Innova wet for the past few months after sugarcatmom and 14+ linked me to catinfo.org. She still gets dry food (1/4 of a cup) but it's fed to her in the slimcat ball, which is pure awesomeness as it entertains her and actually gets her off her butt and move around for a bit. (she's a very lazy girl and turns her nose up at most toys)

But lately she's been turning her nose up at the wet food and keeps begging for the dry stuff. She will only eat her wet food if I:

1. add a little bit of water and heat it up, stir it so it's at a soupy consistency. Even then she may not finish it. (I feed about 1/3 of 5.5oz at once, three times a day)

2. Sprinkle the dry stuff or mix some dry stuff on top of the wet food.

3. Hold the wet food in my hand and offer it to her so she can eat it off my hand. (I am her slave now :x )


I thought omg, I cant turn into an enabler but I don't want her to refuse all food so... following the advice on catinfo about converting a dry food addict, (I think that's what my cat is since she's been in the shelter for 2~3 years and they feed Hill's dry there) where she talked about cats liking the lower-end stuff better and it can help convert them, so I went and got different brands/kinds of wet food in smaller cans and tried them all out within a week. Could that be causing her poop to be stickier than usual?

The new canned stuff I got her was Fancy Feast shredded chicken (which is pretty bad but she freakin loved it and wolfed it down), Friskies sliced Turkey and cheese, BFF tuna and chicken in two different flavors, and BFF fish and shrimp.

The first instance of sticky poo occurred after the BFF fish and shrimp, and the second instance of sticky poo occurred after I finished experimenting and put her back on Innova. (But the day before that she was eating the BFF chicken tuna in gravy)

Also, a picture of the lazy cat

[14+kitties]

That'll do it. Unless kitty has a rock hard tummy introducing that many foods that quickly will have the same effect on her as it would on a human being introduced to veggies after living on a fast food diet for a while.
May I suggest instead of the chunky FF you try the pate style ones? The ones with gravy have wheat gluten which was the reason for the food recall in '07. The pate style ones mostly don't. One food at a time being introduced for a week or so before giving another will probably solve the problem.
Btw - watering food down isn't a bad thing at all. In fact it is a great way to ensure your kitty gets enough fluids. Also - most cats are grazers. They usually don't eat a lot at one time. If you find you are feeding thrice a day and she isn't eating it all then she is probably getting enough. You may be able to eliminate one meal or make the three meals smaller portions.
What kind of dry do you put in the exercise ball?

[cheesecake]

Originally Posted by 14+kitties

May I suggest instead of the chunky FF you try the pate style ones? The ones with gravy have wheat gluten which was the reason for the food recall in '07. The pate style ones mostly don't. One food at a time being introduced for a week or so before giving another will probably solve the problem.

She doesn't like the pate ones is what I suspect. The EVO and Innova food is pate, and the BFF chicken gravy had a pate-like texure, which she didnt like as much out of all the food I tried with her.

She seems to like the shredded stuff most. I haven't tried any of the "chunky/meaty bits" varieties though.

Originally Posted by 14+kitties

Btw - watering food down isn't a bad thing at all. In fact it is a great way to ensure your kitty gets enough fluids. ....

What kind of dry do you put in the exercise ball?

Yes, I read that on catinfo and started doing it because she does eat dry food as well. She also go drink some water when she feels like it, so I don't think she's dehydrated. (she pees 3~4 times a day)

I put the Hill's stuff in the dry ball since i bought it from the SPCA when I adopted her x__x
I know the stuff is bad but even though I can afford EVO and stuff, I'm still not really in a position to throw away 50 dollars worth of food.

It's also the stuff that she's been eating for the past few years that she's been in the spca, so the less bad part is that I'd need it during the transition anyways. (I'm thinking about either Orijen, EVO or Before Grain, orijen doesn't have a fishless formula and I read fish is a hyperallergen and shouldn't be fed for more than 2 times a week. However, it has a higher protein content than Before Grain and EVO. Is it a huge risk? If it's not I would like to feed her Orijen as i would be supporting a local food source.)

Again, I wont be feeding her more than 1/4 cup a day and it's mostly for treating purposes. She takes better to her dry kibble than most of the actual treats I got for her, so I just use it as a treat now. (for after brushing her teeth, cleaning her tear duct, etc)

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by cheesecake

She seems to like the shredded stuff most. I haven't tried any of the "chunky/meaty bits" varieties though.

Some other shredded or chunkier types of food that you (well, Cookies that is) might want to try are Merrick, Halo Spot's Stew, Weruva (by the same people that make BFF, but better quality), and I think some of the Avoderm flavours. These days my cats are loving Merrick's Grammy's Pot Pie, Thanksgiving Day Dinner, and Turducken, all which have chunks in a kind of pate base. Even I think it actually smells pretty good, and I'm a vegetarian !

I'm wondering if Cookie might benefit from the addition of some digestive enzymes (like Prozyme) and/or probiotics. I can't remember if you've already tried probiotics, but if not, that would be a good place to start. Also a pinch of slippery elm bark could help keep things firmer until you figure out a good diet plan.

For treats, if you can find some freeze-dried chicken like Pure Bites or Halo Liv-a-Littles, they would be a healthier alternative to the Hill's. My cats go nutso for them. The Hill's could always be donated to a local shelter.

Cookie looks very comfy! Do you ever stick your face in all that belly fur?

[cheesecake]

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

Some other shredded or chunkier types of food that you (well, Cookies that is) might want to try are Merrick, Halo Spot's Stew, Weruva (by the same people that make BFF, but better quality), and I think some of the Avoderm flavours. These days my cats are loving Merrick's Grammy's Pot Pie, Thanksgiving Day Dinner, and Turducken, all which have chunks in a kind of pate base. Even I think it actually smells pretty good, and I'm a vegetarian !

I was looking at nutritional info on Binky's page (the one with the charts for protein/fat/carb content and calories per can) and apparently the innova can is 14% carb The good thing is that its not by-product based. So now I'm actually thinking about switching Cookies to either wellness, avoderm or merrick (they are all below 10% carb, which is what catinfo suggested as the rule of thumb). I got some Grammy's pot pie for her, but I'm going to keep feeding her innova for another few days so her stomach settles down a bit, then give it to her to see if she likes it.

Have you heard about/ever fed your cats the Evanger's Game Meat cans? Apparently it's 100% meat (Rabbit, duck, chicken, pheasant, etc) but the can says for dogs and cats. It doesn't have any additives on the label, but I'm wondering about the nutritional value since it's cooked... would the taurine be destroyed?

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

I'm wondering if Cookie might benefit from the addition of some digestive enzymes (like Prozyme) and/or probiotics. I can't remember if you've already tried probiotics, but if not, that would be a good place to start. Also a pinch of slippery elm bark could help keep things firmer until you figure out a good diet plan.

For treats, if you can find some freeze-dried chicken like Pure Bites or Halo Liv-a-Littles, they would be a healthier alternative to the Hill's. My cats go nutso for them. The Hill's could always be donated to a local shelter.

I haven't tried probiotics, but I tried mixing some pumpkin into her food. When i was getting the slippery elm from the petstore, the people there told me to not feed my cat anything for a day so her stomach gets a chance to settle down and get the bad stuff out. So I did that for Saturday, her stool is back to normal yesterday morning. I started feeding her again at noon, so I'm gonna see what it's like today when I get back home from work (Hopefully she pooped by then.)

The healthier treats she has are freeze dried salmon bits (that I dont give it to her as often, mercury and all) and zukes (which is a soft treat kind of like Liv-a-Littles, but smaller) However, the Hill's fits into the silmcat ball better so that's what I use to get her to exercise (By that I mean get off the bed/computer chair, otherwise she will sit there all day).

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

Cookie looks very comfy! Do you ever stick your face in all that belly fur?

I tried, but she doesnt like my face in her belly fur xD

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by cheesecake

I was looking at nutritional info on Binky's page (the one with the charts for protein/fat/carb content and calories per can) and apparently the innova can is 14% carb

Which flavour are you feeding? The 95% meat varieties are all low carb, with the bonus of being a simple (and sometimes novel) protein source (which can be a good idea in cases of intestinal issues). They are quite high in fat though. Some of the Merrick flavours have a better fat/protein/carb ratio.

Originally Posted by cheesecake

Have you heard about/ever fed your cats the Evanger's Game Meat cans?

They're fine for supplemental feeding (at most, a couple times a week) but they aren't nutritionally balanced for regular feeding. Not only because of the lack of taurine but also calcium and other nutrients.

Originally Posted by cheesecake

However, the Hill's fits into the silmcat ball better so that's what I use to get her to exercise (By that I mean get off the bed/computer chair, otherwise she will sit there all day).

Sounds like one of my guys.

Originally Posted by cheesecake

I tried, but she doesnt like my face in her belly fur xD

But it's so hard to resist! How can she flaunt it like that and not expect to get a belly snuzzlin?

[cheesecake]

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

Which flavour are you feeding? The 95% meat varieties are all low carb, with the bonus of being a simple (and sometimes novel) protein source (which can be a good idea in cases of intestinal issues). They are quite high in fat though. Some of the Merrick flavours have a better fat/protein/carb ratio.

I'm feeding her the Innova line, not the EVO (she used to have EVO but I got a case of EVO and a case of Innova cat and kitten canned, the EVO ran out first)

I was going to feed her the Merrick tonight but she just pooped and it still looks kind of... loose? It's not like a puddle or anything and most of it is normal looking pellets, but parts of it seems really moist/slightly loose and not as dark as they used to be.
Kind of like this color but more moist in the looser part?? (WARNING, picture) The rest is more like this.

Not sure if she's still adjusting or if its diarrhea
Or mabbe the poop just seems more moist to me because i went to scoop her box right after she went, whereas on Sunday the poop had a chance to sit in the litter for a bit to dry up lmfao.

Mabbe I'm mixing too much water in with her food? :x
(I didn't add any pumpkin or anything this time, just her normal canned stuff with water mixed in)

Her activity level seems fine, still bats the slim ball around and actually played chase for a bit with the danglely mice. She went to drink some water on her own too.

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

But it's so hard to resist! How can she flaunt it like that and not expect to get a belly snuzzlin?

haha she's got a fluffy tail that she likes to flaunt in my face often. Mabbe she wants me to sniff her butt or sumthin? Everytime when I'm in bed and she comes to greet me, she'll always end up turning around with her tail in my face.