(TMI) Poo on paws!

[IRegretNothing]

I've just adopted two boy cats. I was advised to keep them on an exclusive dry food diet as they tend to get a loose stomach on wet food. l tried introducing a grain free dry food (Applaws) starting at just 10% as I don't think the Whiskas the rescue centre had them on is the best food. Their poos went a bit looser but not full on diarrhoea although they were on the soft side even before the change. I've gone back to full Whiskas now.
Trouble is, one of the boys is a vigorous burier and often ends up with poo on his paws. He's quite a softie and I've managed to wipe as much off his paws as possible but unfortunately it's between his toes and he obviously hates being cleaned there and scrambles away. I don't want to ruin the trust we've built up by continuing or create a bad association with using the tray and getting an uncomfortable clean every time he poos.
Anyone have any advice?

What litter are you using?

Oko plus. I saw it recommended on here

Anyone?!

Switch to a raw diet (pre-prepared like Nature's menu if you don't want to make it). Poops will be small, hard and almost impossible to track.

I'd try different food until you find one that results in smaller, harder poos. My cat's poos are generally pretty hard now and don't smell strongly. The shelter were feeding her Whiskas and when she first arrive they were fairly soft and smelly and she was getting poo stuck to her fur round her backside regularly. We now feed her a variety of mainly wet, high meat, low carb, wheat-free and grain free varieties of food and now have no issues with soft poo, except when she managed to tear open and eat one of the packs of Whiskas treats that came in her stocking from the ILs. I've heard raw food can work wonders for cats with sensitive tummies. I'd also make sure the litter is good and deep, if our tray isn't filled deep enough our cat spends ages in there burying. If it's nice and deep the. It seems to take far less time.

I wouldn't want two boys on exclusively dry food. Cats tend not to drink enough. We had a boy on dried food who ended up quite poorly.
Whiskas is rubbish. It always seems to upset our cats tummies.

Fuzzy raw transformed my sickly rescue girl. At one point the vet didn't think she'd make it. I was scared to try because of the bacteria, but I'm quite evangelical about it now.

Thanks all. I'm reluctant to keep switching foods as I don't want to make either of them poorly. I think I'm going to have to trial a few though. I'd been planning to switch them to a raw food diet but got worried when I tried to introduce the Applaws. Switching to Applaws from Whiskas that the rescue place had them on was meant to be a kind of halfway between raw food and the whiskas. I'm glad to hear the endorsements though.
Do people think I should go straight from Whiskas to raw food or try them on wet food first? I've got them some Lily's kitchen that is high protein as a kind of mid way point.

It's Lily's kitchen wet food, grain free.

Try them with the Lily's Kitchen. I'd just give them a small amount each and see how they go and gradually increase it. My cat has Lily's sometimes with no ill effects.

Why did you get worried when you switched them to Applaws?

Lily's Kitchen looks good. I also use Thrive for convenience, which isn't raw but 100% meat. Nature's Menu is still the best food on the market in my opinion though. Good food is more expensive but you'll save it in vets bills. Here's a before/after pic of my cat Habibi:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_litter_tray/2530051-Bibi-then-and-now#prettyPhoto

I'm a worrier, ilove! the applaws seemed to make their stools looser, even though as a percentage they only had 10% of their daily food and they were only on it for one day. Seemed a pretty quick confrimation that it didn't agree with them. The rescue centre said that they best tolerated the Whiskas so felt guilty for changing it! But I've heard so many bad things about whiskas and dry food etc.

Habibi is gorgeous ilove my boys are black and white too! Love their white whiskers and eyebrows 😍 I'll be looking up Natures Menu tonight
Thanks everone for the help

And introduce new foods slowly, by mixing new food in with food they're on, until you gradually phase out the old food.

A specialised litter mat on front of their trays can help with pooey paws.

Also the excitement/nervousness of being in a new home can create loose stools. When Little M first came to live with me, I was constantly bathing his little pooey paws in warm water. He's v. chilled out though, and quite likes water.

Really wouldn't recommend any cats are fed dry food exclusively but especially not boys.

They may have been loose on wet food at the rescue if they were being fed rubbish quality like whiskas/ felix. I would try again with something better quality, you can buy prokolin powder which can be mixed in with food to help settle their tummies.

Butchers classic is a decent food that is readily available. Alternatively try things like smilla, bozita from zooplus which are mid range priced. Just make sure whatever you buy is 'complete' cat food rather than 'complementary'.

The various vets I've seen over the years have been happy with my boy cat having only dry food, providing it was a good quality one. He was on James Wellbeloved and they were OK with that.

I'm happier now he's having some wet food though. He now has either a Natures Menu pouch, or their Country Hunter pouch. We've tried him on 2 pouches a day and some days he'll eat them, some he won't. Not that he's fussy of course!

I did try him on NM raw (there's no way on Gods green earth I was preparing it myself!) and thankfully he didn't like it. Just looking at it made me feel queasy and I didn't want uneaten raw meat hanging around. I'm surprised he didn't eat it just to spite me!

Pink a purely dry diet really is not ok for cats. They have evolved to get almost all of their water intake from their prey/ meal. They simply don't have the thirst drive to gulp down enough water to compensate for dry food. So cats on dry food end up chronically dehydrated which eventually leads to things like urinary crystals/ stones, FLUTD, kidney disease, diabetes and more.

I'm only passing on what my vet said. My cat was on dry food only for the first 8 years we had him and he's been absolutely fine and has always drunk plenty, indoors and out. I can't afford to feed him wet only so he's going to be having one pouch a day and his other meals will be dry food. I've discussed this with the vet and they are happy with it.

Hope it goes well for you! I order just enough at a time to get free delivery.

I would not be happy feeding a cat only dry. Some vets say its fine, and maybe for most cats it is, but I recall a study reported by Dr. Karen Becker which showed that out of 70(?) cases of urinary tract infections and crystals, none of the cats afflicted had a solely or primarily wet diet. Males' urertha are narrow anyway, so why chance it?

ilove, in my case it's because he doesn't like wet food so what am I supposed to do, starve him? He's currently refusing his Natures Menu so I'm giving him dry. I discussed this with the vet again today and was told again that, providing it's a good quality complete dry food, it's better for him to have that than not eat.

I will be persevering with the pouches but as I said before I can't afford to feed him purely on wet food.

Well, sure, its better than starving him - if I were you I'd just try to make sure he gets a good bit of wet and hopefully some water daily. Some cats are better drinkers than others.

(And btw when I first got cats I knew nothing, fed them primarily crap for a year, and well, they're still alive and kicking!)

Ooh, you might find this helpful, Pink. I mix in some warm boiled water with the boys' wet meals. (Little M prefers dry food too.) So even if he just laps up the broth, I know I'm getting some water into him.

Thanks for the tip Mantra, I'll give that a try.

He's eaten most of his pouch tonight (he has to make a list out of me!) but I know he won't necessarily tomorrow. I'm sure he's doing it deliberately as I've got about 4 months worth of pouches!

He's got a huge bowl of water in the living room (yes, that's his toy box ) so I keep an eye on his drinking.

He's a good boy about most things, he's just bloody awkward when it comes to good!

Mine have a toy box too. Except they hide their toys...