Vets recommended we use dry food - confused now!

[biscuitbadger]

Our kitty has been a bit constipated since he came to us a week ago, he is pooing regularly but they're hard and small. He's on the same food he used to have, but I guess he's been inactive as he was hiding, and he didn't eat much the first few days either. I checked with the rescue place he came from, and he had always been fine there, so I'm thinking it'll settle.

We're feeding him pouches in jelly/gravy and adding a little water too to see if that helps, and also I've been encouraging him to play and run about with me as much as possible.

Anyway, I called the vets today to book him in for his vaccinations, and asked them if they had any tips re the constipation. They recommended a dry food diet and said that it would be better for his dental health too long term. I was advised to wean him off the pouches over the course of a week.

That sounds counterintuitive to me - what do you think? (I'm assuming the lady who answered the phone wasn't one of the vets by the way.)

[thecatneuterer]

That sounds bonkers! All our vets recommend wet food for many, many reasons (although I don't know how it relates to constipation, but you would think that more water would be a good thing). And of course dry food is a huge risk factor for cystitis and, for males, urinary blockages. Also obesity.

The teeth thing may be true, but is outweighed by the other risks.

Personally I would ignore. There are treatments you can give for constipation in cats that the vet should be able to supply, but I have completely forgotten what they are.

[biscuitbadger]

Thanks catneuterer.

Our cat seems a little bit overweight to me too, and I had understood that wet food was better for that. And wet food seems more similar to what a cat's natural diet would be. But the lady on the phone referred to him being 'spoilt' on the pouches...

We always used this vets with our old cat and always liked them, they are a family business with a good reputation. I don't remember this being raised before, but then our old cat had very few teeth so struggled with dry food. If I'm going to get lectures about his diet maybe we need to consider finding a different vet... or maybe it's just the receptionist!

The sceptic in me wonders whether they've been given money to promote a particular dry food brand...

[MrsJayy]

Dry food has grains in it so they might have suggested that for constipation it is not true that vets dont recommend (sp) dry food our vet advised us to put an elderly cat on dry for her kidneys was easier to break down. Feed your cat what its on but i would put some biscuits in for its teeth

[thecatneuterer]

MrsJayy I said 'our vets' ie the ones in our clinic. I have certainly heard of other vets recommending it, but the consensus of those working in our clinic seems to be that wet is generally better, although there are circumstances where special dry food is recommended.

As a general rule though wet tends to be better.

[Heirhelp]

Vets have always recommended dried food to us but only if it was a high quality dried food.

[MrsJayy]

I think ime cats eat more wet food than dry i always fed mine dry food with the odd pouch here and there or some chicken or tquna

[babyboomersrock]

Vets tend to recommend varieties they sell, I'm afraid. I did a lot of reading when one of our cats developed diabetes and was struck by the myths around dry food - if you think about the cat in the wild, its teeth are kept clean by chewing and tearing small (soft, wet) creatures apart; not by biting into a carb-loaded small nugget.

With dry food, some cats get to the stage where they're barely biting the nuggets, let alone chewing through them - ours just hoovered them down - so it's unlikely their teeth are being cleaned.

Ours got very fat on dry food over the years and after reading up on it, we put them on to a high protein (ie not Whiskas) wet food. I've found a vet who accepts that we don't want advice on nutrition, but it's been a long haul and you need to be prepared just to say you're making your own choices.

This links to some studies, if you can be bothered to read through - www.catbehaviourist.com/dental-care-for-cats.html

[MERLYPUSSEDOFF]

I wanted to switch our 2 9 month kitties to predominantly dried for when we are on holiday and neighbours feed them.

Any recommendations for which brand?