Background: Alison "paragon" re-homed one of her cats with us about six years ago. The cat is now twelve years old. She (the cat) had eaten nothing but dry food all her life.

Couple weeks ago, it was clear that the cat was not well. My wife called our regular vet just at the close of office hours and was told to take the cat to the 24-hour emergency vet clinic.

Abdominal prodding (is that the correct word?) and X-rays revealed that the cat was severely constipated and de-hydrated. Admitted to cat hospital, enemas and IV hydration administered, etc. (don't even ask about the cost).

Vet advised that this is not an uncommon problem with older cats that eat dried food, and suggested changing to moist canned food.

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Question: For those of you who feed canned food to adult cats, and for our vets, how much of this stuff do you feed? This cat is about 12, maybe 12.5 lbs, and not fat.

Common with male cats as well. Small urethra is what I was told compared to females. My non veterinarian education says that cats don’t drink enough water basically. So wet food goes a long way to solve the issue. I have read as well that encouraging a cat to drink more water helps. My “research” indicates cats don’t like stagnant water, ie a water bowl so my wife found a water dish that you plug in and it is basically a small pump and dish that gurgles water like a stream. It was cheap on Amazon like 15 bucks. They do seem to drink more based on my very non scientific amount of refilling the basin.

To answer your direct question we feed each cat roughly one can a day split over two feeds, am and pm. 5.5 oz can.

Dunno. I’ve owned numerous cats and fed them dry cat food exclusively. Usually Purina. My last cat, a tuxedo walk-up, was 21+ when she expired. None of them had any constipation problems.

Good luck persuading the cat to change her diet at this stage of her life

We divide one of the small cans (3 oz.) between three adult cats twice a day. They have dried food out most of the day.

You're probably going to buy several different brands and types of wet cat food before you find the ones she'll eat. Then, about the time you buy a case of something, she'll decide she doesn't like it anymore

The good news is pet stores will often take back unused, unopened cat food for exchange. They know how it can be with cats. My wife just told me they don't, anymore

Also need to make certain there's fresh water available at all times. We have an active fountain and a water bowl. The water bowl is emptied and re-filled twice a day.

Oh, and, the portions above suggest 2/3 of a can/day for your one cat. Just seal up the remainder and use it the next day, right? Maybe not. Most of the cats we've had over the years have refused to eat wet food that hasn't been freshly-opened.

My wife says also try a teaspoon of canned pumpkin twice-a-day if things don't appear to be moving. The good news is cats usually love it for some reason. N.B.: Canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.

Our older 'mutt' cat, ~17 y/o, gets stopped up at times. My wife will often give him water, sometimes with unflavored MiraLAX, with a syringe to help keep him hydrated and 'flowing', especially if we don't see him drinking much.

quote:

You're probably going to buy several different brands and types [flavors] of wet cat food before you find the ones she'll eat. Then, about the time you buy a case of something, she'll decide she doesn't like it anymore. Also need to make certain there's fresh water available at all times.

^^^^^ THIS!

^^^ This. I don't think she'll have a problem eating the wet food but start with a little and always have the dry food available.

FWIW, the cat of the house gets a half a can of Fancy Feast (non-seafood/fish, stuff makes her fart something horrible) every day, and has a bowl of kibble out to eat on as she likes. The unused half a can gets re-closed with shrinkwrap and put in the fridge until the next day.

Second the comments about fresh water - mine gets the Drinkwell washed out (warm water, no soap) and refilled once a week, but the aeration from the fountain seems to make a big difference.

For emergency purposes, Similac may be helpful. As they get older, cats often seem to develop a taste for broiled chicken breast even when they won't eat anything else. OTOH, 12 years old may or may not be "old" depending on the breed.

My 4 indoor cats get dry food available all the time, but I give them 1 can of wet food once a day. They are ages 13 and 15. So far, so good. They also share a "Temptations" once a day.

flashguy

One of our rescue kitties, also around 12 years old, has had severe constipation issues for a number of years.

After going through a bunch of different foods and lots of testing at the vets, we wound up feeding her Royal Canin Feline Gastrointestinal Fiber Response.

Link to Royal Canin site. https://www.royalcanin.com/us/...iber-response-312129

She has been on it for probably 5 or 6 years now.

This is a prescription diet and for us this has really worked well. No more struggling to poo and she is very regular now.

It is not cheap, but it is the only food that really worked for her.

My ex-roommate's cat got constipated once and went to the vet. They did an enema and also suggested adding more wet food to her diet. I wanted to ask how the hell you go about giving a can an enema, but didn't (the only way I can think of is to tranq it first, but the bill wasn't high enough to cover that, so I dunno). Anyway, she started getting a can of Friskies every day (small tuna can size) to go with the dry. Never had any more problems, except that my dogs started raiding the cat's food bowl so we had to put it up out of their reach. That led to the cat jumping up onto the kitchen counter to eat, and we never really did find a good solution for that.

I go dry food. And I keep water bowls in both the upstairs bathroom and kitchen. Water is very important and more so for male cats. Currently my cat craps excellently but if I see a problem, I will add wet food to his diet.
I hate the stink and mess of wet food though.

My wife has demonstrated skill in extending the lives of cats. When I met her, she had two, Tasha and Chester. Tasha lived- IIRC-to age twenty and my boy Chester made it to twenty-three.

Our cat Ava is about thirteen and going strong. If Ava had it her way, she would have only dry food, but each day, the kitteh starts off with a bowl of canned (wet) food. Any kibble left in her dish- which is what she gets for dinner- is taken up and put away until mid-day or so, when she has eaten some of her wet food, and the dry food is then put back down for her to snack on through the day.


Chester back in 2008. I miss the old guy.

I would drop the dry food-at your cat’s age she is clearly showing that’s not suitable for her anymore. Wet (or moistened) food is typically best for cats since they don’t naturally drink a lot of water- being true carnivores, they get it through the food they catch. At the vet seminars I’ve been to, they say anything that flies is best…so chicken duck turkey etc..
Did your vet have any recommendations? If they ran chemistries they know what shape the kidneys liver etc. are in and what might be best suited.
I did have a cat that lived for 22 years on a dry diet- the cat I currently have is on wet food only since she went into kidney failure, and she has been quite good with the wet food. $$$ compared to dry, but she acts like a normal kitty, not one operating on 10% of her kidneys. Best of luck.

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Originally posted by parabellum:

Chester back in 2008. I miss the old guy.

He's a nice looking cat.

I have never really been fond of cats. Not a hater, I could just take them or leave them, no strong feelings either way. Until the late paragon asked me to take Shadow into our home.

Shadow arrived, my wife unzipped the carrier, and Shadow streaked into the closet, not to be seen for a month and a half except when sneaking out for food, water, or litter box.

She slowly realized that we were friends, not threats, and she became very close to my wife, with me as an acceptable substitute if my wife was not home. She (the cat) has trained me to understand cats a bit more, and I have grown to like them.

As far as food and water go, Shadow drinks a LOT of water. She stopped drinking when she got the severe case of constipation, thus the dehydration. She prefers dry food but a year or two ago the vet extracted infected molars, so she doesn't chew it very well, which contributed to the constipation and frequent throwing up. My wife experimented, trying to find a moist food that Shadow would eat, and stumbled across a Winn-Dixie house brand, that has chicken, tuna, sweet potato, chicken liver, that Shadow decided was acceptable, so that's what she's eating now.

It looks like the "which food" question is settled, now we're trying to figure "how much" is right, with no dry food added. This stuff comes in 3 oz. cans.

Momma Kiki gets mostly dry food. I have some wet food on hand as a treat but she doesn't eat it properly. She just licks the gravy off it and leaves the rest.

I do keep at least two bowls of water, one on each floor, and she always seems to have plenty of urine soaked litter in her box when I dig through it.

One thing I read is that cats like their water and food separate, as in two different locations. Not sure if true.

As she is a former feral, I usually give her a little leftover chicken from dinner that week. She loves bird.

i changed over to purina one-sensitive skin/stomach from meow-mix for paycheck a few years ago!!

he's 17+!!

Jesse only had (wet) canned 97.3% of the time but did enjoy kibble every now and then. Cheap treat.

Maybe that he loved the sink had something to do with his preference.

My vet recommends two brands…Purina Pro Plan and Hill’s Science Diet. I had my girls on Hill’s, but it is costly. He did tell me he did approve Blue Buffalo Tastefuls ONLY IF my kitties didn’t have vomiting issues with it. Apparently there’s an ingredient in Blue that may cause vomiting; that ingredient isn’t in Hill’s or Purina Pro. Tried Purina Pro and the girls turned up their noses at it.

Mine are about 10 and 12 lbs. and I split a 5.5 oz. can for them morning and night. So essentially they have a can each per day, and I supplement that with some dry. Never had constipation issues with either one.

Good luck!

I hate to be "that guy," but talk with your vet a bit more about this. You could probably call and leave a message for a tech to get the vet to calculate the pet's caloric needs for you.

I'd guess your kitty needs around 300 kcal per day, give or take, but that's just a WAG. Unfortunately pet food companies are keen to tell us the percentage of protein in pet foods, but not the caloric content. That makes it hard to figure the amount of food to feed for your cat, so I advise choosing your food first and then looking on the internet or calling the manufacturer to get calories per can, then do the math.

Since I didn't see her chemistries, I don't know about concerns for phos, etc. Did they get an SDMA done? BUN? Creat? All of those matter on older cats. I generally tell my cat clients that cats are looking for a way to die of kidney disease, just like horses are always looking for a way to kill themselves. But if you don't have those numbers on those values, ask and be informed, it can really help.

Some of the OTC brand canned cat foods aren't terrible for cats, if you find that they are otherwise healthy. For my older cats as a general rule, I use k/d food since I know it's kidney safe (prescription food from Science Diet). May or may not be something you need, hence the advice to talk to the vet.