PLEASE can you recommend a dry food for my cat who has gut irritation 🙏 💩

[JMSA]

Hi. I’ve had my rescue cat for 4 weeks now. She’s lovely and has settled well - and eats very well - but has diarrhoea. It has been like this for a while, so I gave a stool
sample to the vet. It came back today and it’s the all-clear 🤷‍♀️ I’m now going to try gradually introducing a different food. She’s on Burgess dry food (around 20% protein), which I’ve just continued from the rescue centre.
I don’t know if this is considered a decent food, but I feel I should find something that is gentler on her stomach. Possibly grain free? I’m no expert though, and look forward to hearing your recommendations.
Thank you.

I’ve just googled and Scrumbles sounds good. The rescue centre also recommended Wainright’s.

Hi @JMSA congratulations on adopting your cat. We rescued ours about a year ago and he’s just turned five. He used to have the same problem and very bad teeth for such a young cat, which mostly all had to come out, due to his previous diet. He’s very fit and healthy now and only eats Hills science plan for neutered cats and the same brand for sensitive stomachs plus the same brand chicken biscuits for young neutered. I gave him a little Scrumbles chicken in broth as a treat sometimes but only a little mixed in at a time.
Have a look at the cats protection website or pdsa for some free advice on diets also.

My rescue cat us on Hills because of she sensitive skin, its working well and she seems to like it too.

Having worked in the pet food industry for a number of years, I would definitely recommend sticking to a dry food only but a good quality one. Grain free can help but is usually more associated with skin problems. A chicken based dry food is best as chicken is the most gentle meat on the stomach.
My suggestions would be as follows (depending on your budget as some as more expensive than others):
Royal canine sensible
Arden grange sensitive (this one is white fish and potato)
Meowing heads chicken and rice

There are lots of others but these are always ones ive recommended and sold lots of. It will be a little bit of trial and error as what suits one cat will not necessarily suit another but once you try one, try it for a little while and give it time before changing again. Then just stick to that one food that suits when you find it but watch what treats etc you are giving on the side. If possible use treats by the same brand of food that you choose.
Hope that helps

My cat has the same and we're on Hills

My late girl was very sensitive and did really well on Amazon lifelong dry food. It massively helped her vomiting.

My cats have been on Royal Canin Gastrointestinal dry food since one of them had a very worrying (& expensive!) bout of pancreatitis earlier in the year, recommended by the vet. I buy it in bulk online, and only give exactly the measures on the pack guide. Actually works out cheaper than the Aldi basic tins of wet food that they were having before.

Hills prescription I/d has worked for Cat One. He had vomiting rather than the other end.

Our rescue cat had a bit of an iffy belly when we first adopted him.

We use this one. He likes it, and grazes on it between wet foods (which are Gourmet Perle or Sheba):

https://www.petsathome.com/product/james-wellbeloved-grain-free-adult-dry-cat-food-turkey-1-5kg/7154653P?purchaseType=easy-repeat&productId=7154653&size=1.5kg

We also sprinkle this onto his food every now and then, he LOVES it. You could do a sachet a day at first and see how she goes.

https://amzn.eu/d/7Sh3QyQ

Good luck! x

I’m so sorry, I said the wrong brand. We feed our cat the Purina Proplan products. I used to give Hills to our other little cat, who died a couple of years ago.

Thrive - 90% protein, grain free, affordable.

We use Purina One sensitive- it’s the only one that worked for my little guy

My sensitive cat was on Scrumbles and this helped. Think about the flavour as well, I think some cats can be allergic to chicken?

Thank you all very much! Really appreciate it.

Orijen six fish has worked well for BoyCat - the only cat I have ever heard audibly fart (before switching to this food!).

😄

Interesting. I thought they could only be on GI food for a matter of weeks, rather than permanently. I must have got that wrong though … still learning! And have only ever had bombproof pets until now 😁

Prescribed or just off the shelf?
Thanks.

Our cat actually farts when curled up asleep… either silent but deadly or a high pitched squeak which really took me by surprise.

Mine has thrive dry (grain free, very high meat content), encore dry or applaws dry(both same manufacturer) which are also grain free

Royal canin has very little meat and is full of all sorts of fillers and grains. It's expensive for what it is

I found a thread on here, and apparently Royal Canin Furball works absolute wonders on cats with runny poo.
It’s not even marketed as such! Just putting it out there in case there’s anyone else in my position (though I’ve already ordered Scrumbles and will try Hills if in due course that doesn’t work).

One thing to note, when switching to a new food you have to ease it in gradually because sudden changes in diet cause runny poo as well.

Yes, I realise that, but thanks 🙂

The excellent poster Thecatneuterer recommended royal canin hairball and it worked for us