Best dry food for elderly cat?

[Horsemad]

She's a 12yr old Birman, currently on RC Hairball which she likes.

She has a few digestion problems, in as much as she frequently vomits her biscuits back (think she eats too fast) and is sometimes a bit constipated. Also suffers with hairballs.
We've tried laxative paste which we couldn't get her to take, so need a food that will accommodate the constipation issues too.

She is not interested in our other cat's wet food even though she apparently had wet food as a kitten (we've only had her a few years).

She's lost a bit of weight since the start of the year & vet suggested trying her on a 'senior' food to try and get a bit of weight back on her.

Can anyone recommend a good senior food for her to try please? The intention is to half and half with the hairball food as vet thinks she'd be worse for hairballs without that.

Mines on royal canine gastrointestinal food. It comes in a wet and dry one. He's 14. They also do a royal canine senior one too in dry food. The Cattery he's just been too had about half a bag spare that I said he could have as long as they didn't make him sick. I forgot to ask how he got on with them though. Just be warned though the bag is flaming massive so if she doesn't like them it's a bit of a waste. Mine just eats his under duress when he's run out of wet food

Thanks Hoping, can I ask please, what gastro issues your has that you feed him the gastrointestinal food?

Wonder if I can buy sample sizes anywhere? 🤔

My 14-y-o Maine Coon sometimes vomits up her dry food, and also suffers with hairballs. She doesn't have any other gastrointestinal issues though.

We feed her a mixture of Royal Canin Indoor, Maine Coon and Ageing 12+ Sterilized, because I'm not sure what's best! Royal Canin also do an Indoor 7+ and an Indoor Long hair, but I haven't been able to get small bags of those lately. I tend to buy from Zooplus, and get the small (200g I think?) bags.

When it's hairball season I do manage to get some malt/chicken paste blend into her by putting it on my finger and manhandling her a bit! Not fun but it does help.

Also, have you tried a raised/angled food bowl? It's supposed to help cats prone to vomiting up their dinner.

When I had an elderly cat vet recommended go cat senior with a bit of water added she had kidney disease too so it is low sodium seemed to help her poop.

My 10 year old long haired cat used to vomit hair balls daily. Always in my one carpeted room. Tried paste, vets visits daily brushing . Nothing helped. Even bought a carpet cleaner.

I ended up buying tilted raised bowls. No more vomit or hair balls. Apparently it helps with digestion

Thanks for the replies. I was considering an angled food bowl, will have a look at those

I might get a box of Go Cat & see if that helps her @Mrsjayy, thanks.

Stuffed his food down in about 5 seconds flat. I don't even think he chewed it just inhaled it and then he'd sick it back up not long after in nice fully formed chunks. At first we started giving him just half a sachet of normal food and the other half a few hours later which worked for a while. I think a lot of his tummy issues were stress when I moved out because he was being sick pretty much all the time. The Vet recommended the gastrointestinal food for him partly for that reason and also partly because he was overweight. When I left he lost loads of weight but my exH was only giving him one sachet a day. He came to me back in October and I've gradually increased his food again. He still has occasional days when he's sicky but that's usually when he's eaten something he shouldn't have ie pinching something off my plate 😼 I did try him back on whiskers biscuits a while back and thought they were ok but they came back up a few hours later so at least I know normal Cat food is too rich for him now

Thanks Hoping. I've just been looking at RC Senior and it's actually lower in protein and fibre than the Hairball stuff she's already on!

The vet said the senior food will be higher protein and good as we want her to gain a bit of weight if possible.

I'll have to check other dried senior food and see how they compare to what she has now...

Our old man is on the Hills Science Plan 11+ dry food. The biscuits are smaller and softer than the normal ones, which suit him well as his teeth and gums aren't great.

One of our Cats has some digestive issues where they vomited a lot of foods back up. Our vet having checked him time & again says it's allergy/intolerance related. He's also had a UTI once

We use James Wellbeloved Turkey with cranberry & both cats love it & it's much gentler on their stomachs & protects kidneys etc too. No kidney trouble since & no vomiting on it. Bitiba have some great deals on the large sacks of it too

Oh & he's nearly 11

@SingingInTheShithouse, I was looking at that earlier. The fibre content is much lower than the RC Hairball though and as she can get constipated easily, I'm worried about feeding a food with reduced fibre content. I think she needs higher protein and fat, to increase her weight.

I am completely overwhelmed at the choice out there! Lots to plough through.

I'm guessing I could just feed her fresh chicken or fish every other day to try and get her extra protein that way?