Do Cat Foods For Sensitive Stomachs Really Help?
Dr Bruce Kornreich explains why going this route isn’t always the answer
Hairballs. Vomit. Diarrhoea. Is this hell? Nope, it’s just a cat with digestive issues – which, to be fair, is kind of like hell. When a cat has chronic tummy troubles, it’s not pleasant for anyone involved (unless you happen to love scrubbing cat sick out of the carpet). Understandable, then, that you would want to help your cat feel better as soon as possible.
But how do you do that? You may be tempted to switch your cat’s food as a first step, for example to a sensitive stomach diet. After all, isn’t that the point of sensitive stomach cat food? But doing that would be skipping over necessary steps to determine the cause of your cat’s discomfort. A change in diet may ultimately prove beneficial to your cat, but you can only be certain after figuring out what’s really going on with your kitty through the process of elimination.
What to do if your cat is having issues with digestion
First, according to Dr Bruce Kornreich, the director of the Cornell Feline Health Centeropens in new tab, you want to narrow down the cause of your cat’s digestive issues. That means taking your cat to your vet, who will do blood tests and urinalysis, alongside the physical examination included in your consultation.
Ultimately, ‘sensitive stomach’ is not a medical term, but a marketing one. It typically refers to a cat who’s experiencing chronic vomiting and/or diarrhoea. “The important thing to realise here is there are many other things that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea,” says Dr Kornreich.
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While the cause may be a food sensitivity, it could also be the result of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), lymphoma, parasites, liver disease, hyperthyroidism, gastrointestinal obstruction... the list goes on. Treating an obstruction or cancer with a change in diet wouldn’t be very helpful to the cat, so let your vet narrow down what the cause of these issues are.
How to figure out if your cat has a food sensitivity
Starting with what creates the least risk, your vet will likely want to find out if your cat is allergic to something in their diet (usually a type of protein), which is best assessed by putting your cat on to an hydrolysed/elimination diet, typically by switching proteins (such as changing from chicken to a hydrolysed version, or another protein such as salmon). If you go the elimination diet route, your cat would be eating their new food for a minimum of eight to 10 weeks, with no other food of any kind for that entire period. If your cat responds, the vomiting and/or diarrhoea stops, then “that suggests that a particular component of the old diet was the problem”, says Dr Kornreich.
In some cases, you may be able to cook for your cat with the guidance of a veterinary nutritionist. If a change in diet works, then your cat will most likely be diagnosed with food responsive enteropathy, and you’ll be keeping them on their new diet, or a protein which they do not ‘flare’ to, in order to improve their quality of life.
How to distinguish between inflammatory bowel disease and cancer
Things may get scary before you know your cat’s diagnosis. “A huge problem in cats right now is that it’s virtually impossible to distinguish inflammatory bowel disease from lymphoma without a biopsy,” says Dr Kornreich. But obtaining a biopsy would mean putting your cat under general anaesthetic, which is more invasive and does carry more risks than a food trial.
Whatever the prognosis, it’s important that you take your cat to see a vet to help determine the cause of their digestive. No one wants to see their pet in pain, and by taking these steps to understand their physical cues, you’ll ultimately come up with a plan to help their ailments.
