JJB,
I really wonder how important it is to avoid carageenan...?
If your guys will eat the NB Limited ingredient and they were/are doing well on it...I'm not sure I'd switch...

I'm not one of the "Foodie Specialists" here on the forum...
So I hope some of them chime in here for you!

 

JJB,
I really wonder how important it is to avoid carageenan...?

Yeah, I have been questioning that as well. I didn't realize how expensive it would be to avoid it. I know it is linked to digestive cancers....I would hate to be responsible for them getting sick. But they've already been eating it for most of their lives anyway, so who knows if damage has already been done. But I know tons of cats eat this stuff every day and never get sick.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will try some chicken canned food as a treat, and just take it slow to see if he seems to have any issues with it.

 

I would try it, but just a tablespoon or less at a time. Meaning maybe once or twice a day most. Maybe a lesser quality chicken food for awhile to see how he tolerates it. Try a pate or "classic". Missy used to projectile vomit after eating more than a tablespoon of wet food but over the course of a year she stopped. I never found out why that affected her so much. It's common for cats to go through a long bout of diarrhea, vomiting or other tummy/intestine ailment for awhile after coming home. Stress, change of foods and other factors can do that.

 

It's rare but they can. I would offer just a bit of chicken at one meal. You're feeding them NV, that's a raw diet correct? If so I know they have trail size bags, I would get one of them in chicken and see what they think. It could be they won't eat it anyways.

 

Side note. Don't mix the chicken and duck if you do decide to offer it. Do chicken on its own.

 

JJB, I don't know how familiar you are with our forum...
But keep checking back as other forum members show up at different times, depending on where they're from!!
I'm sure others will be looking at this and may well have some excellent input!
Hang in there!

 

JJB, how's your furry boy doing? Did you try the chicken yet?

 

So far so good, thx for asking! I have given him about a teaspoon of chicken canned food for dinner 2 nights in a row, and there have been no signs of distress. I would think if he still had a big issue with it he would have had diarrhea already. Maybe the problem was never chicken, but the quality of the food or some other ingredient in it...when I got away from chicken I changed brands as well.

 

That sounds very positive - glad to hear it! It's so hard to figure out what's going on sometimes, and chicken's a common culprit. But if he does ok with the chicken, it'll definitely open up your options!

 

Hmmm...I can't be sure, technically, but I've had this experience with ET. When I first got ET, he vomitted, get very soft stool and itched, immediately after he had chicken. So, I removed chicken for a whole year, then I started wondering if it was chicken or somethingelse. After 1 year, I put him on chicken of another brand, Avoderm, safe, no vomitting, soft stool or itch. Then put him back on the previous brand (fussie cat) of chicken again, oh...vomit/soft stool/itch again.

So, took out FC Chicken and for another couple months, he was on just Avoderm Chicken, one 5.5oz can per week. Then I started another brand of chicken from Thailand, ET loved it so much, no itching, soft stool and didn't vomit immediately and so I made that his staple which he gets every morning for some 2months or so. It was all the wrong move. He didn't react immediately, but he was vomitting badly and I didn't realise it was all a problem with chicken until I started studying my spreadsheet records of all his vomitting incidence and when he started having chicken. I traced back to more than a year ago when he first had his Avoderm Chicken.

While on Avoderm Chicken, he vomits twice a month and more if he ever gets roast/baked chicken that I was having. The vomitting episode increases since having chicken daily. So...that's it...chicken. Took away chicken recently (about 3months ago), his vomitting stops.

But chicken just isn't the only culprit, I have also found out, each time after having his fussie cat tuna for dinner, I found vomitus the following morning. So, what is in fussie cat canned food that he is allergic to and which I had been feeding for a long long time without realising? I have yet to know. Tuna? no...I tried other brands of tuna, he was perfectly fine. I compared ingredients...artificial coloring? guar gum? Vit K3? all of these are found in fussie cat tuna,but not in the other brands. So, that may just be it, I avoid artificial coloring/guar gum/synthetic vit K.

So, technically, I can't be sure they will outgrow that food intolerances, but it sure didn't, on ET, though the symptoms didn't appear immediately, and less severe (but still bad enough), so much so I didn't relate it to chicken initially.

 

Snowy you are so awesome for keeping the kind of records you do for ET!
To be able to track that kind of
info...just...WOW!
Sharon

 

Guess, ET being FIV+ makes me more proactive in many areas with regards to his well being. I marked what he ate in red and what remedy in green.

 

Snowy having such a ready reference for ET, is something that probably a few of us, could well use, with our kitties!
You are very organized! :thumbup::thumbup:
Sharon

 

Thanks for the input Snowy! I have 3 cats total, and I have to clean up vomit maybe 4-5 times a year. I consider myself very lucky! My boy was the only one with an issue, so I put the chicken in his bowl only and watched him eat the 1 tsp serving the first two times - no problem. Waited a few days, then gave a slightly larger serving, but they didn't eat immediately and I didn't see who ate the chicken. A few hours later there was vomit...I don't know who from. Waited another few days and finished off the can. No issues. But in the week since, he has not been eating his normal food well. I decided to just bag it. I found a cheaper duck brand, which of course they don't love, but I'm going to mix it half n'half with the "good" stuff and I doubt/hope they will notice much.

 

I hope the new food does the trick! Keep us posted!

 

I had a hard time finding food my cats would eat that wasn't fish without careegeenan. .. so now I wonder if its less important to avoid that ingredient than to feed something that's not fish... I feel like no matter what I feed my kitties are screwed... btw hound and gatos does not have careegeenan in it

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IME they can't be 'cured' of sensitivities or allergies...but it isn't black and white either.

In quite a few pets I know (including Jitzu) when they're quite ill and reacting their digestive system is so inflamed that it reacts to EVERYTHING. If you can get the system to settle down and heal itself a lot of those things the cat was reacting to can be re-introduced. Because they were sort of piggy backing on the ACTUAL allergy, and were only causing a reaction because of how over-sensitized the system was, many times they can be reintroduced after a period of time. Carefully of course.

For example, Jitzu used to get incredibly ill from pretty much any processed food. She was reacting to all grains, chicken, beef, and numerous other things.

After switching to raw and keeping her on that solidly a year later I was able to feed her some canned chicken flavoured food and she did ok. It will still make her sick sometimes, but she can keep it down about 1/2 the time. She still reacts to any grains though.