Strictly Wellness

[TBOBINA]

Hi ya it is confusing, they just seem to be turning their noses up at it lately and I thought that if the fruits and vegies werent needed then should maybe find something else that didnt have it.  Is the phosphorous too  high in By nature?  I dont think anyone sells that brand where I am anyhow.  My one cat since she has been on Wellness has lost 2 lbs so she is 15 lbs now and my other cat has gained a pound so he is 15 lbs now too, then I read in that book that a cat that is that much weight should have 8 oz. of food a day,  I have been feeding them 6 oz but given them a bit more as they werent really satisfied with 6oz.  I just did the calculation for a bunch of food and the EVO and Felidae cat and kitten was the lowest in carbs in the 4 range on dry matter basis.

[jenny]

Yeah - probably another area where I found her book would be confusing.  The guideline that a cat should eat 8 oz.  Well, if my cats were eating 8 oz they would not have lost weight (they needed to).  I thnk it is really overly simplistic because it really depends on your cats metabolism and how many calories are in the canned food.  My two cats would probably like to eat more than 6 oz but they are not grumpy hungry - they were when they were still on dry food and I would try to reduce the amount.  You may find this link interesting - scroll down to "Molly's story" (although you may find all of it interesting): http://www.catnutrition.org/obesity.php

She lost weight eating 5.5 ounces each day of a good quality grainless canned food......Molly weighed over 20 pounds. Five and a half months later, Molly weighed around 16 pounds. A few months after that--under the loving eye of her new caregiver who stuck with the grain-free diet and has kept Molly away from all that fattening and dangerous dry food--Molly weighed in at under 15 pounds.

I talked to Dr Pierson once and I think she told me Molly ate Wellness, but not 100 % sure.


My cat Wilson has lost 20 oz and is now at 15 lb 2-5 oz (varies a bit).  At his last check up the vet said his weight was perfect (he is a big boned cat).  Bo has lost about 2 lb and has about 6 oz to go to get to 16 lb.  That would probably still be a little overweight but I think he would be really hungry if I fed him less so will probably just see where his weight settles in.  He is also big boned. 

My third cat, Cougar, was too skinny (he has IBD/pancreatitis).  Eating Wellness Core and Innova cat (red can) he has gained weight and weighs 9 lbs now - his high weigh before was about 8.5 lbs.  Cougar looks so good!  I would prefer if he wasnt eating dry food or a food with grain - but right now I think the Core is helping him put on weight and the grain in the canned food seems to be helping with his vomiting.

Phosphorous isn't too much of a concern if your cats don't have kidney issues.  I have one that is a little questionable.   My cats didn't like Felidae, but perhaps yours will - plus they had some quality control issues (you may want to search itchmo or here for some reports on that). For carbs, I look for something under 10 %.  I don't get too hung up if it is less than that.

Which flavors of Wellness have you tried?  One of my cats really does not like the chicken flavor.  They love turkey/salmon and chicken/herring but I try to balance that with turkey.

[catmom5]

CJ went for bloodwork which showed an elevated liver enzyme (but kidneys are functioning beautifully!) so they did an ultrasound.  Good news is that it looks identical to the one done before her surgery in May (with the exception of what is scar tissue from the surgery).  I have made a decision (and I'm sure my MSU vet is not going to be happy) to start the cats on Wellness Healthy Weight since it doesn't have all of the chemicals the Euk has and it has lower fat so that has to be easier on her liver.  We'll see if that makes a difference when we repeat the bloodwork.

I'm hoping that everyone here is still okay with Wellness ?

[eternaljester81]

As far as I know, my five kitties are still okay with Wellness (Indoor Health dry and various grain-free cans). I pray daily  that it stays that way.

[Geff]

As far as I know, my five kitties are still okay with Wellness (Indoor Health dry and various grain-free cans). I pray daily  that it stays that way.

When is this going to end?

[eternaljester81]

As far as I know, my five kitties are still okay with Wellness (Indoor Health dry and various grain-free cans). I pray daily  that it stays that way.

When is this going to end?

That's the million-dollar question. There's almost no limit to what I would give to feel 100% safe feeding my cats again.

[TBOBINA]

CJ went for bloodwork which showed an elevated liver enzyme (but kidneys are functioning beautifully!) so they did an ultrasound.  Good news is that it looks identical to the one done before her surgery in May (with the exception of what is scar tissue from the surgery).  I have made a decision (and I'm sure my MSU vet is not going to be happy) to start the cats on Wellness Healthy Weight since it doesn't have all of the chemicals the Euk has and it has lower fat so that has to be easier on her liver.  We'll see if that makes a difference when we repeat the bloodwork.

I'm hoping that everyone here is still okay with Wellness ?

My cats have been on it for a while now, and so far so good

[Geff]

I have a sample of Wellness Chicken Formula wet here that I will be trying soon.

[catmom5]

More head banging here!  CJ has started to do a lot of lip licking and grass eating which means the Wellness Healthy Weight is not settling well with her ~ I have put very little in with her regular food.  The only other food that has worked for her is the Cal Nat chicken and rice.  I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place here.  I don't like Eukanuba, but she seems to be doing well on it.  I don't trust Cal Nat, but she did well on that. Guess I'm off to return the bag of Wellness to the store. (Imagine the clerks at the store hate to see me coming . . .)

[eternaljester81]

catmom5,
CJ's the one with ARF and IBD, correct? I remember you saying you were going to try Eagle Pack in an earlier post. Did you try it and did it work out at all?

[catmom5]

Yep, she's the ARF/IBD girl.  I couldn't find the Eagle Pack around here so we're back to the Eukanuba Prescription.  We'll see if she gets to feeling better.  I know this has been a big deal (here at least) but when she gets sick she stops eating and we've had feeding tubes two different times and I don't even want to go there again.
Thanks for the response.

[eternaljester81]

catmom5,
Keep us posted on how CJ's doing.

[catmom5]

CJ has had a couple of rough days.  Her clinic vet has ordered another liver function test for Wednesday.  Don't know what's going on, but will need to see if she needs to have that addressed with a possible liver biopsy.  Apparently she had some inflammation when they did the biopsy during her abdominal surgery in May.  She also has bacteria in her urine so she starts an antibiotic tomorrow.  She tends to not do real well on antibiotics, so hope that this one works for her.  It's like this never ends and I cannot think about much else but CJ right now.  How do you folks with chronically ill pets cope with this over the long term?

[jenny]

Wow - I can certainly relate to the stress.  THis has been an awful year for our three cats.   We only have one chronic kitty - Cougar has IBD/pancreatitis.  But all three of them were sick at one point in time this year.

Bo had a dental ln January, and about 3-4 weeks later stopped eating right - food dropping out of his mouth.  The vet found nothing wrong in his mouth and suggested he may have gotten pancreatitis during his dental procedure (rare, but possible).  Also at about the same time, we started to change his dry food per the vet.  So, to this day, we don't know if he has pancreatitis or if his problem was food related.  He had a questionable flare up in June when another kitty was sick - not sure if it was nerves, or perhaps the food again.  And a third bout a month or so ago when I was stupid enough to give him a brand of food he wasn't used to (one single can of Merricks).  He has been getting injections of pepcid ever since.  I'm nervous about stopping them.  We tried once and the second day he vomited again - but again, as once before, it was a new case of food (same flavor of Wellness he has been eating for a while, different date lot).  So, has my kitty developed such a sensative tummy that he can detect even a change in dates for food - my vet suggested that this may be the case?  Or when we try to take him off again, will we find he does indeed have pancreatitis or IBD?  Or do we need to find a different food because maybe the food he ate so well since May is now making him sick since he at the Merrick?  He was so sick this last time - for 1.5 weeks plus another week with a virus.  He wouldn't eat and what he did eat he vomited.  Finally we were desperate and learned how to give him injections as he is too difficult to pill  and gave him fluids ourselves on the weekend.  The fluids worked like turning on a light switch - he walked into the next room and ate.  But still worried,  what happens when we take away the pepcid...

Then Cougar, our IBD/pancreatitis cat had a minor flare up in March (first once since 2005) and a major one in June.  I was changing him over from a very inappropriate prescription diet cat food (he is skinny so needed to change).  He had been eating Wellness for 6 weeks (about 1/3 of his food).  I had increased the quantity of Wellness and two days later he was extremely sick.  But, hummm - Bo was also a little out of it that week.  So, was Bo just upset at the vomit and mess Cougar was making and then stress of going to the vet for a weight check,  or were they both triggered by that change in date codes for the Wellness food?  Who knows....Bo recovered and went on to finish that case of food with no issue.  Cougar has not touched Wellness canned since - he is now eating Core and Innova canned.

And Wilson just had a dental.  He was sick with digestive issues too.  Would only eat in the a.m. and not the rest of the day.  Growled at us some too.  I'm on a business trip in India and I was so happy when I woke up the day of my trip and he was his old cheerful self and ate again. 

But my nerves are so shot.  Now any time one of them sleeps a lot or seems tired or doesn't eat the right amount, I'm thinking --- oh, now are they sick?  Yikes.  I'm looking forward to a few months with no vet visits.  On a bright note, Cougar now weighs more than he ever has since his switch to Core and Innova canned.  But, we still need to try backing down his prednisilone dose and hopefully pepcid too - one at a time, to see if we can get them down to his initial dose.  And with Wilson doing well now, Bo is my one worry. 

[himimom1254]

Jenny

I sure can understand the frustration of having an IBD kitty.  I've had two and it's tough enough when they're sick, but then having to worry if the food you're giving them is causing the flare-up because there's something wrong with it or is it stress from something else.

I hope your kitties continue to improve.