Re: Lucy-- refusing raw food now

[Nina]

Hi Michelle, As with Lucy, the only thing that helped Gypsy regain formed stools was a raw diet.  When Lucy was having elimination problems, I was going to suggest switching from TC Instincts to adding your own sups, that way you have more control monitoring whatever may be causing the constipation/vomiting problem.  One of the ladies on the IBD list also encountered vomiting problems when she added bone meal to her cat's diet.  You just don't know what's going to cause problems, until the problems start. As far as her refusing raw...  I was close to panic stricken when Gypsy had a relapse and then refused her raw food.  Since it was the only thing that seemed to help her in the past, I worried that she would once again wither away.  I don't think there is a cat that is picker, or has more issues with food than Gypsy, (she now refuses to eat unless someone is petting her).  When I started her on raw, the only thing she would eat was raw salmon, then raw duck.  Finally I was able to mix duck and salmon together.  She lasted a couple of months on that diet and then one day refused to eat either of them.  What I have found with her is that if she has even a slight GI problem, whatever she has been eating is crossed off her list, she just won't touch it again, sometimes for months.  She will also refuse ground cooked/raw turkey, but will hungrily eat oven roasted turkey breast.  White meat is okay, but dark meat is too rich.  There have been times that she would only eat grocery store bbq chicken.  There was one frightening week where all I could get her to consume was warmed goats milk.  Salmon used to be her very favorite food on earth, (I tamed her with the help of salmon fillet!), after one of her relapses, she wouldn't even eat anything with minute amounts of salmon oil mixed in.  It took her months to enjoy salmon fillet again.  EVO made her violently ill the first time she ate a couple of morsels, she can now eat it without a problem as long as it doesn't constitute more than 5, or 10% of her intake.  I've sent you the cooked turkey diet that Gypsy is currently having success on.  If she has any problems, or the food is more than a couple days in the fridge, she'll refuse to eat it.  When that happens, I'll give her plain cooked turkey, (I'm talking oven roasted, not ground and sauteed).  The fresher the better.  Straight out of the oven, still warm, is her favorite.  I'll also supplement her with gm and turkey baby food.  After a day, or two, she'll go back to her fully supplemented turkey diet.  She'd probably eat raw again at this point, but as long as I have a diet that's working, (and that she'll eat!), I'm not going to mess with success.  While I understand why you've chosen to fast Lucy, however, I would never attempt it with Gypsy.  Food and eating is not a priority with her and if she stops eating for a day, it's so much harder to get her started again.  Offer Lucy her favorite non processed food, warmed is best.  Don't worry about "balancing" the diet until she has begun eating, then slowly reintroduce supplements, beginning with those sups that have the least amount of taste/texture and those that you have deemed most important to her health.  Because it is a priority that Gypsy eat anything, rather than nothing, I have also had the opportunity to see that her stools will firm once her she has eaten a consistent diet, (the same protein), for more than a few days.  I've learned not to panic, as long as she continues to eat. I do think that if Lucy were going to have a reaction to the EVO/canned food, it would have been almost immediate.  I have found that keeping the diet simple and consistent is the most important factor in controlling Gypsy's IBD.  If Lucy's eating the canned, and it's a good quality canned, I'd keep her on that and avoid the EVO.  Of course, if she seems to be doing okay on both the EVO and the canned, then I don't see any reason to restrict her intake by denying it.  I would follow her lead.  If she wants to eat one thing over another, (as long as it's not toxic to her system), I'd let her have what she wants.  So far, and my opinion keeps changing, the most important thing is to get Gypsy eating the same diet long enough for her system to adjust to it. Believe me, I know what a heart wrenching trial it can be to dote on a finicky cat with GI problems.  Hang in there, trust her instincts, as well as your own and give whatever diet she's on a long enough chance for her system to stabilize. With support and sympathy, Nina   [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Lucy had loose stool for over 2 months, which was helped by pred but only went away completely on a raw diet. She then got constipated this week, about 3 or 4 weeks into the raw diet.  I gave her olive oil, which helped. But now she is refusing to eat her turkey diet, raw or cooked.  She seems disgusted by it.  I was a little surprised she ate it to begin with, as she always used to refuse canned food or cooked chicken and only wanted dry food.  But she liked it at first. Now she is sick of it and will not touch it. Since it is the only thing that controlled her diarrhea, I am a little worried about her not eating it. I tried not giving her anything else and she did not eat for almost a day.  I finally gave her a little bit of canned turkey and rice cat food (no other grains, but has some vegetables-- avoiding chicken because she did not do well on it before), and she ate it yesterday morning, and a little more later in the day.  She ate a handful of EVO dry (no grains, but vegetables) as well and wanted more, but I was afraid to give it to her.  At night she had a normal bowel movement, and none so far today.  So I gave her a little more of the canned food (after trying futilely to get her to eat her raw diet-- she refused to even look at it).   My question is this: Do you think that if she were going to get diarrhea from the canned food and/or the EVO, do you think it would have happened already?  Do you think it is safe to offer her more of it?  Any other suggestions?  I already fasted her for a day last week to get rid of vomiting and she hardly ate day before yesterday because we were battling over the turkey diet, so I do not really want to just not feed her in the hope she will give in and eat it. But I also do not want to start another round of loose stool.  Any suggestions or thoughts are welcome.   I started her on nux vomica last night also.   Thanks, Michelle