Sensitive stomach - Hills?

[oxcat1]

I have two beautiful 4-yr old rescue moggies. One has always been smaller and more delicate, but is definitely top cat amongst the pair. She has also always been notoriously fussy with her food!

Over the last few weeks, she has been vomiting almost every other day. The vomiting seems to come on almost with no warning to her - she suddenly cries out and is then sick.

I spoke to an online vet today (part of the Bought by Many insurance plan) who said that I needed to feed her only high-quality cat food going forward, and not to chop and change too often. The trouble is, I alway thought I was! I don't buy Felix or Whiskers, but instead buy from Zooplus and try to find at least 45% meat/fish contents. I also deliberately buy a variety as my cats seem to get fed up with any variety if given it consistently, however much they love it at the start.

The vet wrote this:

'use only high quality food like
James wellbelover
royal canin
hills
proplan'

I have deliberately avoided brands like that as I thought they were often not high-quality, despite the price? Have I done it all wrong?!

Could you track which food you give that may cause the most vomiting. Yes some of the ones suggested are pretty crap when it come to meat content

It seems almost random. And she's immediately hungry again afterwards too!

I honestly thought I was giving them the best I could, was also pandering to their fickle natures. I just can't imagine them eating anything without change.

Have you tried feeding only grain free? My cat has a sensitive stomach and some of the "vet-approved" brands like Hills and Royal Canin are full of cheap fillers and grains.

James Wellbeloved is good and grain free, but my cats get bored of it. My cats like Bozita and Feringa which are both grain free. I figure if you're feeding 90%+ meat you can't go wrong.

Hello Oxcat,

Have you considered feeding a raw diet? I decided to go down this route three years ago after my kitty was diagnosed with IBD (would vomit constantly, lost lots of weight). Tried loads of different cat foods prior to this, including Hills, and spent a fortune. None of it helped.

You can read around the pros and cons of a raw diet online but I genuinely think it's saved my cat's life and he took to it straight away. I buy online from a company called Purrform. They've also got lots of helpful advice on their site and plenty of reviews from other customers.

Hope your kitty gets better soon

I mean that if you're feeding mainly meat with little additives/filler you can change brands without any problem. My cats will be fine on anything with high meat content but give them Hills/Royal Canin and they vomit and have horrible stinky poos!

Just look at the ingredients.

I might be wrong but don't gets get paid/freebies for recommending Hills/Royal Canin,?

vets not gets...

@KingaRoo: I thought I read that somewhere too, hence wanting to check with other ideas first! Not my usual vet but the one from the insurance company.

I usually feed high quality from Zooplus - Feringa, Core, Rosie's Farm, My Star etc. All these are good, I thought?

Before lockdown I panicked slightly and bought a large quantity of Whiskers from Approved Foods, as I have been shielding and I thought some food would be better than no food if push came to shove for my cats.

Since then, I have mixed and swapped, but it is true that recently it has probably been more Whiskers than the other brands, just because that was what was left. It hadn't really occurred to me until just now, but perhaps that is the issue?

Do you think if I just increased the quality of her food back up to the normal mixed variety but good quality diet she had before, things might improve?

I have thought about raw (and have even done homemade!) but I have an immunodeficiency so I am little wary of too much raw meat and fish lying around. Maybe that's daft.

Look at the ingredients.

Whiskas: CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, GROUND YELLOW CORN, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, WHEAT, SOYBEAN MEAL, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH MIXED TOCOPHEROLS), PORK MEAT & BONE MEAL, NATURAL FLAVOUR, CHICKEN, POWDERED CELLULOSE, DRIED BEET PULP, WHEAT FLOUR, BREWERS RICE, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, CARAMEL, VITAMINS (CHOLINE CHLORIDE, VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT, NIACIN, VITAMIN B12 SUPPLEMENT, RIBOFLAVIN SUPPLEMENT [VITAMIN B2], THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], D-CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, BIOTIN, FOLIC ACID, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE [VITAMIN B6]), TAURINE, DL-METHIONINE, DRIED PEAS AND CARROTS, SALT, TRACE MINERALS (ZINC SULPHATE, COPPER SULPHATE, MANGANESE SULPHATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE), CALCIUM CARBONATE, BHA, BHT.

Bozita e.g. chicken flavour: Chicken (92% in chunks), pork, beef, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

@AllTheOtherCats : just been checking out Purrform. Definitely interesting (although see concerns above), but I suspect my carers would absolutely refuse if I asked them to feed the cats this: www.purrform.co.uk/product/1-day-old-chick/

Carnivores are not designed to eat corn, ground corn meal, wheat, soybean meal etc. Its cheap filler and not their natural diet.

Yes I would suspect Whiskas is the issue. Go back to high quality, high meat content brands, and I bet the problem will resolve.

@KingaRoo : I know, and that's why j usually bought the nice stuff (have had Bozita before but they weren't keen - tried most Zooplus brands) but I just panicked when the shelves seemed empty, knowing that I would be dependent on others getting what my cats needed. I had horrible visions of trying To explain to the cats why their bowls were bare...

I have always prioritised my cats' food (probably above my own, in honesty), hence being concerned about being told to switch to Hills or Royal Canin. I don't want to spend a lot of money on lower quality, particularly they won't eat it after a time.

I clearly made a mistake with the Whiskas, and I recognise now that may have contributed. I just want to help my cat get well fastest but I feel somewhat uneasy about the vet's advice.

And here is a snap I took this evening, haut to help you visualise her!

So cute! And yet also majestic

Hope she gets better soon x

Mine go hot and cold with Bozita too.
James Wellbeloved or Purizon dry food for my younger cats, although they do eat the older cats preferred IAMS.
They have wet food too, mostly nature's menu, encore or Applaws. Sneak in a bit of Sheba too which they all hoover up ( suspect it's like the occasional human equivalent of a bag of chips or takeaway!)
Mine have tried both Hills and Canin but went off it.

The vet said n the home is following WSAVA guidelines as recent evidence has shown that certain boutique foods do not actually provide the nutritional values they claim or that they are using substandard meat - the commercial raw diet that gave U.K. cats TB and worldwide issue that grain free diets are low in taurine leading to an increased incidence in heart disease.
These are the guidelines one of the requirements in the guidelines is that food company used a PhD level nutritionist to help formulate their food and do feeding trials to check that it's nutrients are bioavailable to the pet. All the companies listed by the vet do this.
Vets do not receive kick backs from these food companies, their practices make a tiny amount of profit on the food in exactly the same way as the pet store does. The kick back is a myth that has been around for years, but has no truth to it.

The Royal Canin Sensitive Chicken and Rice has always done a “reset” on our cat when he’s caught in a cycle of vomiting...

Well I have bought a mixture of Royal Canin sensitive sachets, and a couple of others from Zooplus, either the sensitive or just 70% chicken or whatever. Hopefully that will help her.

I won't buy whiskers again. They were like kids at McDonald's initially when the Whiskers arrived (I think I would be a muesli mum!) and now they avoid it unless there is really nothing else so they have made clear preferences! Shame my budget doesn't always support it!

One of mine was always vomiting on royal canin. I've never seen anything like it. I swapped her to Iams Vitailty. And it's improved hugely. We've gone from 2/3 huge vomits a day. To possibly 2 a month. I also give meat sticks instead of dreemies as they were also a culprit.

Both my long haired Persians did really well on Royal canin Persian, and I wish Snorg was still on it as it was great for her coat.