Best wet food for keeping cystitis away?

From: Brian or Sharon Beuchaw

PawsForThought wrote:
From: Alison Perera lid

While you should be able to find ground psyllium husk at a health food
store, I highly recommend a gentler soluble fiber like canned pumpkin
(not the pie filling with additives, just 100% pure packed pumpkin). As
a bonus, many cats like the taste.


Good advice. You have to be careful with psyllium because if you don't add
enough water, the cat can actually get constipated from it. My cats like
sweet
potato and also squash as well as pumpkin.

We got some pumpkin and have been adding it to their food since Thursday
night. Doesn't seem to have helped much, but we may just need to give
them more (it's probably a little less than a tablespoon per cat per
feeding (we feed them 3 times/day). They also don't like it when we
heat the pumpkin and food that's been in the fridge (just enough to knock
the chill off, we know about hot food and cats :-)), so we're having to
get it down them when we get fresh food from a new can. Should it have
started working by now?

Thanks,

brian

Hi Brian,
I'm glad to hear that your cats seem to like the pumpkin. My cats won't eat it
but they do like squash and sweet potato. I would give it more time to see
results. I'm thinking at least a couple of weeks if you are treating for
chronic constipation. Another good remedy is slippery elm bark, both for
constipation and diarhhea. I have a recipe around here somewhere if you're
interested in trying it. Here's a bit of information about it:

http://www.holisticat.com/slipelm_arch.html

http://proliberty.com/observer/20000312.htm

Are your cats going at all? I can't remember your original post. If they're
not, they might need the vet to give them an enema if they're that badly
constipated.

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

PawsForThought wrote:

Hi Brian,
I'm glad to hear that your cats seem to like the pumpkin. My cats won't eat it
but they do like squash and sweet potato. I would give it more time to see
results. I'm thinking at least a couple of weeks if you are treating for
chronic constipation.

It's actually to hopefully firm up their loose stools (not diarrhea, at
least it doesn't seem like diarrhea, more like a cow pattie in the
litterbox) from their switch over to canned food (since it doesn't have as
much fiber).

Another good remedy is slippery elm bark, both for
constipation and diarhhea. I have a recipe around here somewhere if you're
interested in trying it. Here's a bit of information about it:

http://www.holisticat.com/slipelm_arch.html

http://proliberty.com/observer/20000312.htm

Thanks - I'll check 'em out if the pumpkin or psyllium (which we might
have to use due to their finicky attitude towards the canned pumpkin)
don't work. Or I'll investigate the sweet potato angle.

brian
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PawsForThought wrote:

Hi Brian,
I'm glad to hear that your cats seem to like the pumpkin. My cats won't eat it
but they do like squash and sweet potato. I would give it more time to see
results. I'm thinking at least a couple of weeks if you are treating for
chronic constipation.

It's actually to hopefully firm up their loose stools (not diarrhea, at
least it doesn't seem like diarrhea, more like a cow pattie in the
litterbox) from their switch over to canned food (since it doesn't have as
much fiber).

Another good remedy is slippery elm bark, both for
constipation and diarhhea. I have a recipe around here somewhere if you're
interested in trying it. Here's a bit of information about it:

http://www.holisticat.com/slipelm_arch.html

http://proliberty.com/observer/20000312.htm

Thanks - I'll check 'em out if the pumpkin or psyllium (which we might
have to use due to their finicky attitude towards the canned pumpkin)
don't work. Or I'll investigate the sweet potato angle.

brian
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have to change the reply address to

In article ,
Brian or Sharon Beuchaw wrote:

It's actually to hopefully firm up their loose stools (not diarrhea, at
least it doesn't seem like diarrhea, more like a cow pattie in the
litterbox) from their switch over to canned food (since it doesn't have as
much fiber).

Cow patty in the litterbox...that's the classic sign of malabsorption.
Were the cats prone to this kind of loose stool before the switch? Does
the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

-Alison in OH

In article ,
Brian or Sharon Beuchaw wrote:

It's actually to hopefully firm up their loose stools (not diarrhea, at
least it doesn't seem like diarrhea, more like a cow pattie in the
litterbox) from their switch over to canned food (since it doesn't have as
much fiber).

Cow patty in the litterbox...that's the classic sign of malabsorption.
Were the cats prone to this kind of loose stool before the switch? Does
the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

-Alison in OH

Alison Perera wrote:
In article ,
Brian or Sharon Beuchaw wrote:

It's actually to hopefully firm up their loose stools (not diarrhea, at
least it doesn't seem like diarrhea, more like a cow pattie in the
litterbox) from their switch over to canned food (since it doesn't have as
much fiber).

Cow patty in the litterbox...that's the classic sign of malabsorption.
Were the cats prone to this kind of loose stool before the switch?

Nope, I don't think so - The older cat wasn't and I don't think the new
kitten was - there were some harder stools in there occasionally, but
mostly well-formed.

Does the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

Surprisingly, last night I checked and the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice dry
that we were feeding them has more fat (13 - 16.5%) than the Nutro Kitten
(8% min) and Nutro Adult Science Diet canned (5% min).

brian
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Alison Perera wrote:
In article ,
Brian or Sharon Beuchaw wrote:

It's actually to hopefully firm up their loose stools (not diarrhea, at
least it doesn't seem like diarrhea, more like a cow pattie in the
litterbox) from their switch over to canned food (since it doesn't have as
much fiber).

Cow patty in the litterbox...that's the classic sign of malabsorption.
Were the cats prone to this kind of loose stool before the switch?

Nope, I don't think so - The older cat wasn't and I don't think the new
kitten was - there were some harder stools in there occasionally, but
mostly well-formed.

Does the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

Surprisingly, last night I checked and the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice dry
that we were feeding them has more fat (13 - 16.5%) than the Nutro Kitten
(8% min) and Nutro Adult Science Diet canned (5% min).

brian
--
If you want to reply to this message by mail, you will
have to change the reply address to

From: Brian or Sharon Beuchaw

Alison Perera wrote:

Does the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

Surprisingly, last night I checked and the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice dry
that we were feeding them has more fat (13 - 16.5%) than the Nutro Kitten
(8% min) and Nutro Adult Science Diet canned (5% min).

Have you tried another brand of canned food like Wellness, for example? A few
of my cats used to get loose stool from Science Diet foods.
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

From: Brian or Sharon Beuchaw

Alison Perera wrote:

Does the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

Surprisingly, last night I checked and the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice dry
that we were feeding them has more fat (13 - 16.5%) than the Nutro Kitten
(8% min) and Nutro Adult Science Diet canned (5% min).

Have you tried another brand of canned food like Wellness, for example? A few
of my cats used to get loose stool from Science Diet foods.
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

PawsForThought wrote:
From: Brian or Sharon Beuchaw

Alison Perera wrote:

Does the canned food have much more fat than the kibble did?

Surprisingly, last night I checked and the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice dry
that we were feeding them has more fat (13 - 16.5%) than the Nutro Kitten
(8% min) and Nutro Adult Science Diet canned (5% min).

Have you tried another brand of canned food like Wellness, for example? A few
of my cats used to get loose stool from Science Diet foods.

Actually, the kitten gets Nutro Max canned kitten food (that was about the
only brand that PetsMart had that she would eat (we bought cans of each
brand/flavor and she turned her nose up at pretty much all of them except
Nutro and (I think) Purina ProPlan). Our adult cat gets Science Diet and
Nutro Max Gourmet Veal Pate. So they've been on a couple of brands, but
no real extensive testing.... I guess we can go that route, we were just
trying to up the fiber in their systems to see if that worked first.

Thx.

brian
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