My baby boy is home!

[laurief]

I am utterly dismayed (but not at all surprised) that the vet sent him home with DRY food. UGH! A cat who has constipated should be on an exclusively CANNED diet. Why deliberately dehydrate him and set him up for another constipation by feeding kibble that does nothing but absorb essential moisture out of the digestive tract? Even if the vet wanted him on prescription food (the value of which I am not even slightly convinced), there's no excuse for prescribing the dry formula instead of the canned.

Shenanigans, you mentioned in one of your other threads that Apollo drinks a lot of water. In my experience with my own cats, they only drink large amounts of water when they are dehydrated and trying to make up the fluid deficits in their bodies. Cats on kibble diets tend to drink a LOT more than cats on canned or homemade diets. That's because kibble only contains about 8% moisture, while canned or homemade diets contain about 80% moisture. So, cats on kibble automatically suffer a moisture deficit that they have to try to make up by drinking. Unfortunately, cats generally have a low thirst drive, so they often don't drink enough to make up that deficit, leaving them chronically dehydrated. Chronic, long-term dehydration can have devastating effects on the body systems over time.

Your instincts are correct to ditch the kibble and switch Apollo to an exclusively canned diet. Better yet, feed him canned food soup (canned food mixed with warm water to make it a soupier consistency) to increase his daily fluid intake.

I'm so glad he's home and doing better. His body went through a lot of pain and trauma. It'll take some time for him to fully recover, but it sure sounds like he's on the healing road now.

Laurie

[Shenanigans]

She's made a point in telling me to feed him a can of food a day, which I'm doing, and I'm also adding in some warm water as I was doing when this all started. He's pooping fine right now, and I'm not too fond of the fact that I'm still feeding him his other food - however, I can't just switch him over like that without gradually doing it over time. Along with the can a day with the water in it, he's been drinking from his water bowl and the tub, and out of his bottles, so I know he's getting enough water. This has been the worst experience ever and I just want to eliminate all of it today. Bah. Over time.. Over time.

Aside from my own worries and all, I'm incredibly happy to see him back to himself again. I wonder how his tummy will react if I go grab some good quality canned food and start adding that in with his other foods. I mean, that's 3 different types of food, 2 of which would be new to his system. I might just wait a few weeks actually for his body to recover before I do that. As of now, I'm still feeding him the junky cans I was before, which I'm not fond of, but again, don't want to mess up his stomach again.

[SomeRandomChick]

Glad he is back to himself! I wonder if this experience and him learning he can rely on you to help him feel better will work to mellow some of his aggression. Sometimes cats which have been through a bad illness really bond even more strongly with their owners, as though they know we helped them get better.

As far as the food goes, definitely don't switch the wet and dry at the same time. Sudden diet change can upset healthy cats, so don't risk it with Apollo since he still needs some time to heal. In addition to that, you only want to try one new food at a time, so that if he reacts badly (vomit, diarrhea, etc), you will know which food was the likely culprit. If you are giving him two kinds of dry and two kinds of wet, it will be very hard to tell which one is troublesome should trouble arise.

Since the Hill's is dry and you don't want to permanently feed it, I wouldn't bother using it at all. I had assumed it was the wet food, which made a little more sense if the vet wants a special diet. Personally, I'd recommend looking for good quality, limited ingredient wet foods, and focus on switching the wet now. He's getting the most nutritional benefit from the wet, not the dry (good that she stressed the importance of the canned). I think getting him on to a good quality wet would be more beneficial at this point in his treatment than switching his dry. I'd focus on finding a wet that he tolerates well and once you find something he likes and his digestive system handles well and he has gotten a clean bill of health, then you can gradually switch out his dry to something better quality.

Personally, I think there's really very little point in gradually switching to a dry food you don't want to permanently feed. If your target is 4-6 weeks, consider that it would probably take about 4 weeks combined to switch to and from the Hill's so it isn't really practical or worth it when it's not your ultimate goal, and also not the most beneficial part of his diet.

[laurief]

Switching foods gradually is important when you are changing from one type of food to another, such as changing from an exclusively dry diet to a diet that includes canned food, or switching from an exclusively canned diet to one that includes kibble. If Apollo's body is already accustomed to eating both dry and canned foods, there shouldn't be any problem eliminating the kibble when you're ready to do that, because you won't be adding a new type of food. Cats also generally don't have a digestive problem switching from one canned food to another (unless they have an allergy or intolerance to specific food ingredients). I feed five different brands of canned food and as many different flavors as I can get my hands on, and my cats have no problem eating a different canned food every day. In fact, they insist on the variety.

The Flortiflora you are giving Apollo will also help his digestive tract accommodate any dietary changes you may make.

Laurie

[Sinatra-Butters]

No offense to anyone on here, and everyone will now attack me because nutrition is such a touchy subject on here, but I would not take advice you got over the internet to decide not to feed a food your vet just told you to feed. If it is only for 4-6 weeks or months or whatever, it isn't going to do anything bad to Apollo. You wouldn't go on the internet and get some information and then go against what your doctor said would you? I would really hate for Apollo to get sicker because you listened to us. If Apollo gets worse from the vet's advice you can do something about it. If he gets sicker from our advice you can't do anything, because we are essentially words on a screen with no faces. If your vet (who despite what some might think, is very educated and probably knows what she is talking about) thinks that this food is going to help your cat then please listen to her.