In mid-December one of my cats started vomiting every few hours. No hairballs, mostly bile. Went to the vet and he was treated for symptoms with metoclopramide for the vomiting and baytrill (sp?) as a general antibiotic. Worked, vomiting stopped.

Yesterday this same cat started vomiting bile every few hours again. I game him a dose of the left over metoclopramide which stopped the vomiting.

I have two questions. 1) Are there any other more natural treatments which would settle my cats stomach that I could use on an as needed basis?, and 2)  should I be looking more aggressively for underlying causes? The cat is male and appx 9 years.

Thanks.

This so made me tear up.

But why? What is the main difference between the Core wet and the grain free Wet? I went through the ingredients and nothing popped out at me.

Thanks!

[Chicken, Duck, and Shrimp flavor:]

Went in the buy the weekly load of kitty food and saw that Wellness has come out with some 3oz Cuts and Gravy pouches. I bought a few and man did the kitties lick them up

They are not grain free, and there is more gravy than cuts (1 pouch would maybe feed 2 cats as opposed to the 3.3oz can feeding all 4 cats), but it will be a nice treat every one in a while. I've emailed for the calories and manufacturer.

http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/wellness/cat_wellness_pouches_index.html

Ingredients look pretty good ... is there anything obvious that I'm missing?  There is rice flour, but at one point the Wellness site listed the ingredients that they sourced from outside the US and I don't remember rice flour (as opposed to rice protein) being one of them. However, I can no longer find that page on the Wellness site.

Chicken, Duck, and Shrimp flavor: Chicken Broth, Chicken, Duck, Chicken Liver, Shrimp, Egg Whites, Oat Fiber, Tapioca Starch, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Natural Flavor, Rice Flour, Guar Gum, Squash, Blueberries, Cranberries, Zucchini, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Carbonate, Taurine, Tricalcium Phosphate, Iron Proteinate (A Source Of Chelated Iron), Beta Carotene, Zinc Proteinate (A Source Of Chelated Zinc), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Proteinate (A Source Of Chelated Cobalt), Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate (A Source Of Chelated Copper), Folic Acid, Manganese Proteinate (A Source Of Chelated Manganese), Niacin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Biotin.
Wellness® uses Ethoxyquin-free protein sources.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein    min.    8.0%
Crude Fat    min.    4.0%
Crude Fiber    max.    1.0%
Moisture    max.    82.0%
Ash    max.    2.0%
Magnesium    max.    0.025%
Taurine    min.    0.10%

/Sharon

Complete Health and Core are roughly the same calories. So, you aren't reducing anything by mixing those two. (3845 kcal/kg for Core, 3950 for Complete Chicken, 3970 for Salmon.)

Yup ... I think I swapped a few numbers when I was creating a comparison spreadsheet during the recall. I received the same kcal numbers as Jenny so I guess I'll just have to cut down on kibbles.

Now off to eat my strawberry ice cream ... which has less calories than the chocolate I hear

/Sharon

Very good point. Keep in mind, I don't think the US insurance companies want us to live that long, though. Hurts profits............

Ouch! 

I've toyed with the idea of mixing Core and Complete.  I still might do that on down the line.

I'm doing that now. I'm mixing 1/2 Core and Salmon Complete. Funny thing is that the cats are picking through to find the Salmon kibbles. Now I'm thinking that I'll try to mix with Chicken Complete instead of Salmon. The whole purpose of mixing was to provide higher protein in their dry while trying to reduce calories ... but if they pick through for the Chicken kibbles then I'm just going 100% Complete Care.

Yes, I am my cats food slave

/Sharon

They both loved the canned chicken. They scarfed it down more vigorously than any of the previous brands and varieties of canned foods I have tried so far.

I rotate all of the grain free varieties as I don't want the kitties to become used to only one flavor ... tho the favs are 'Beef and Chicken' and 'Chicken and Herring'.

Now, I have to wrestle with the Menu issue. Do I stay with Merrick, or should I use the canned Wellness?

I tried both Merricks and Evangers in the beginning of the recall to avoid the Menu connection, but the cats didn't cooperate and wouldn't consistently eat either brand. They wouldn't even taste the Merricks ... one sniff and they were out of the kitchen. I've reconciled with the Menu/OMH connection, tho it doesn't make me happy. Had to feed the kitties something

BTW, what do you guys pay for Wellness? The small bag of Complete Health was $9.99, and the cans were .99 each.

In the Los Angeles area

Small boutique store:
2 lb Wellness Core $14
3.3 oz Wellness Canned $1.40

Midsize Chain:
3.3 oz Wellness Canned $1.20

Local company with several stores:
2 lb Wellness Core $10
5 lb Wellness Core $18
2 lb Wellness Salmon $10
5 lb Wellness Salmon $17
3.3 oz Wellness Canned $1
12.6 oz Wellness Canned $1.80


/Sharon

garypen ... good point.

That way when you need ice for an ice chest (or any other reason), you have several blocks waiting in your freezer. 

During the summer months I freeze water in a used milk carton and place in a corner of my bathroom ... it helps keep the tile cooler for the cats in the heat. I do wrap a lightweight dishtowel around the carton tho to keep the condensation from the floor.

/Sharon

I was talking to the owner of the pet supply store where I get my cat's food, and asked him if any of the recalled brands have rebounded in sales. He said that Nutro was still quite slow, but that sales of Natural Balance were doing nicely. (This was about a week ago before the botulism recall.)

I was shocked because Natural Balance was one of the manufacturers which had lost all credibility (at least with me) during the recall.

/Sharon

I'll try one or more of the Wellness dry formulas, and post my results. I am thinking of possibly mixing the Healthy Weight and Core formulas to get more protein than the Healthy Weight alone, but lower calories and fat than the Core alone. Or, maybe I'll just try the Indoor Health formula by itself.

That's what I finally ended up doing ... mixing 1/2 Wellness Core and 1/2 Wellness Salmon. Along with the canned grain-free Wellness that seems to be working.

/Sharon

I've always feed the cats canned and dry, but they prefer dry. I've moved over to Wellness grain-free canned and Wellness Core with the intention of eventually stopping the dry altogether.  It's that stopping the dry altogether part that the cats aren't exactly happy about.

Now, instead of free-feeding dry, I put out a cup of dry after they finish their am and pm canned meal, and try really hard to resist when they beg for more   But as much as I like grain-free kibble, the calories are just too high so for the moment I'm mixing with 1/2 Wellness Salmon with 1/2 Wellness Core, and may eventually move completely over to Wellness Salmon.

Sigh. I wish my kitties were more cooperative.

/Sharon

[Bush tackles scares over imports]

From the BBC ...

Bush tackles scares over imports
US President George W Bush has set up a panel to look at the safety of food and other products imported into the US.  The measure follows a series of scares in the US involving fish, seafood, toothpaste, toys and tyres from China.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6905372.stm


And if you're not convinced, the Chicago Daily Herald has an article with some tips for avoiding Chinese imports ...

It's not easy to avoid products from China
Products from China used to be associated with bargain prices. Now they're associated with health threats.
http://www.dailyherald.com/food/recipes.asp?id=2858&display=true

/Sharon

[Losing the taste for China's delicacies]

When an issue so critical to the government gets through the censored domestic news in China, the discontent is *huge* and growing.


Losing the taste for China's delicacies
In the week that China executed the man once responsible for ensuring the safety of China's food and drugs, Fuchsia Dunlop, an expert on Chinese cuisine, finds tainted food has blunted her appetite.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6897844.stm