Update on Rico and question about homemade diet and how much to feed..

[ricosuave]

Hi everyone!

Thanks to all who gave advice when I last posted of our poor Rico's digestive troubles. Here's the update:

He tested negative for Tri trichomonas. Positive for corona virus and Giardia. So he is back on Metrodiazanole for the Giardia. We got a second opinion at a new vet who is cautiously optomistic about his issues. The trouble has been constant diaherea since we got him. He is approaching 6 months old now.

So we are currently giving him boiled chicken breast and white rice. The day we switched him from dry food (he has been on Royal Canin, Orijen, then Chicken Soup for cat lovers soul) to the chicken and rice, his poo immediately firmed up and we got tootsie rolls. The vet said we could only keep him on this diet for 3 weeks, then we need to figure something else out. It's been a little over 1 week now into the chicken/rice diet and the poo is still firm and not smelly. I'm so worried about what to do next, though. Obviously, this diet isn't providing him with enough vitamins and minerals etc. But what can we do to prevent the diharhea from returning? Does anyone have any experience with this? We are perfectly willing to continue cooking or preparing his food daily, we just want a healthy kitty and arent sure what to add to make the food nutrious enough for his growing body.

I went on a website the vet recommended called Balance It, but it won't let me buy a recipe since Rico is still a kitten. I understand that commercial cat food is a balanced diet for kittens, however, it's not alright for him to have dehydration and diherrhea constantly from it either.

I would welcome any suggestions! Oh, one more thing. He weighs about 5 lbs, and the vet told me to feed him 1/4 - 1/3 cup food twice daily. He seems starving when I do this. Do Sphynx need more food than the average cat? I thought they did, but am not sure if I should just feed him more or listen to the vet. Thanks again for the help!

 

[Mews2much]

Sphynx eat way more then other cats.
Many vets do not know that.
Let him eat all the food he wants.
My boy eats the chicken soup and he does fine on it.

 

[NightSpidy]

During my diarrhea dilemma with Rupert, I found it helpful to add a tablespoon of canned pumpkin to his wet food, but you want the actual pumpkin not the kind that has the spices and stuff added to it for pies. My vet said you can also use baby food, such as butternut squash, as it wouldn't have any additives in it either. I used this for a few weeks when I couldn't find the plain pumpkin. But really though, the pumpkin is just a band-aid until you figure out what is causing the diarrhea. As soon as I stopped using the pumpkin and butternut squash, the diarrhea was instantly back.

For Rupert, it ended up that he likely has an allergy to turkey and we ended up putting him on Medi-Cal Hypoallergenic dry and wet food a week ago, and after 8 weeks of diarrhea I am so happy that since he has been on this food, he has had normal poops. I was reluctant at first to put him on this food as it wasn't as "hollistic" as I wanted, but I am so glad that we did. Did the vet suggest any type of food to try? Like the "gastro" medi-cal? That might help.

Have you thought about raw food? I have heard very good things about raw food feeding and that may help with diarrhea.

If you want to make you own cat food, I would go ahead and buy the recipes and just add the nutrients that he would need, I'm sure there is a supplement out there you can add to the food.

As for how much to feed, I use a simple rule. If they look skinny, add more food. If they look fat, decrease the amount of food. And yes, they do require more food than the average cat breed because of their high metabolisms.

Hope this helps!

 

[lawgrl]

I've never thought about this for cooked food, but I add a premix to Choppy's raw food (it's called TCfeline, but there are lots of other brands out there) to supplement the meat. Something like a premix added to the chicken and rice you're feeding him now might work for a long term solution.

Anybody else have have any thoughts about premix added to the cooked chicken and rice?