My cat has diarrhea on hydrolyzed food. What's best for IBD?

I'm sorry that Prince has been having problems with diarrhea! I personally am not a fan at all of Blue Buffalo for a number of reasons, and many of my colleagues have seen dogs with GI problems from being fed Blue Buffalo. There are a couple of brands of dog food that I typically recommend which have canned food options such as Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. I hope this helps :-)

Frankly, I do not care for Blue Buffalo products because they have a history of lying about their ingredients in their diets. Hills and Royal Canin are my preferred brands. There are other limited protein food brands out there, such as Natural Balance, which has formulas with a single protein source and a single carbohydrate source, making it less likely for your cat to develop an allergy.

Many times cats will respond to a prescription diet using hydrolyzed protein. Both Hill's and Royal Canin carry these types, which you can discuss with your vet. If you are looking for a cat food that isn't a prescription food, you will have to do a food trial to attempt to find a diet that Junior's colon will respond to: "Another approach is the use of the novel protein diets. The idea here is that the patient cannot have an immunological reaction to a protein source it has never experienced. (It takes long-term exposure to a protein before the immune system will respond against it, so a new protein should be safe.) This means using an unusual protein such as rabbit, venison, fish (for dogs) or duck, so long as the patient has not been fed these foods before. Again, it takes about a month to see a good response." There are many great brands of cat food that you can find with these types of ingredients at the pet store. A homecooked diet is also an option, but it needs to be formulated by a veterinary nutritionist to make sure it is completely balanced with everything that Junior needs. Also, don't forget to talk to your vet about supplementing B12, if needed in Junior's case. Here is info on IBD: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=598 And here is information on a food trial (it says dogs but the same concept applies for cats!): http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2499

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Yes, the protein content or the TYPE of protein may be causing an upset stomach. I would change food brands or change to a different protein, for example if the current food is chicken based change to an all fish or venison or duck or beef. I would not feed a food that is causing diarrhea. Ask your Vet for a prescription gastro-intestinal food to feed until their stool is normal then purchase a different food to start once their stools are normal. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best!

This last decade has brought an incredible amount of new products to the shelves and I know it must be daunting and very confusing to consumers. Unfortunately, most information about these foods comes from the pet store employee or an equally unqualified source on the internet. It's very wise of you to ask an expert. The truth about most of these foods is that their claims usually amount to nothing more than that of a fad diet (i.e. paleo or atkins) and are not supported by sufficient evidence (even though they will make it sound like it is). As scientifically trained practitioners, us vets prefer to offer evidenced based treatment and the same goes for feeding suggestions. Wet food will encourage water intake and may make the stools more soft, but does not cause diarrhea. Lightly cooked, grain-free, natural, etc. are really just marketing gimmicks meant to increase sales. They mean essentially nothing and normally do not have any good evidence to back their claims. The most important thing on that bag is a tiny bit of writing under the guaranteed analysis called the AAFCO statement. This statement tells you what actual research went into making the product. Below is a link to an article that will help explain this more and give some other info about feeding your cats: https://www.petcoach.co/article/what-to-look-for-when-choosing-your-pet-s-food/ High protein is nice and all of the foods with an AAFCO statement have the minimum necessary amount of protein (around 30%) in the diet. More importantly, they will have ensured the necessary amino acids are in the correct quantity. I know the answer may still be somewhat vague, but if you stick to the basic principles of choosing the right food, then you should be successful in feeding a good and nutritious food to your cats. Below is a link to another helpful resource with good information about pet foods. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/ucm047113.htm I hope that helps and all is well for your cats.

Hello and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! By IBS I am assuming you may mean inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as this is common in older cats. Some prescription diets like Royal Canin Gastrointestinal canned or dry or hydrolyzed diets. The Science diet limited ingredient diets (d/d) can also be helpful. If you are looking for an over the counter diet I have had some success with Natural balance limited ingredient canned food. Canned diets are always preferred in cats so if you can feed Simon an all canned diet that would be better.

I'm sorry Hulk has been having problems with soft stool! It could be that his diet was causing the diarrhea, but it could also be that he had a GI illness or ate something rotten. It's good that the bland diet has helped clear it up, and I would find another food to feed him besides Blue Buffalo. I am not a fan at all of it, there are many cases of dogs having GI issues on it. It also have very poor quality control over how it is made, and they have had a number of recalls. Brands of food I recommend include Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. You can get his used to one of these new brands by slowly adding it to the bland diet, and over time, increasing the amount of the new food and decreasing the bland diet until he is eating the bland diet only. Good luck, I hope this helps!