Lovely post - cat anal gland issues!

[MagicMelon]

One of my bengals had impacted anal glands last year which the vet had to put her under anaesthetic to deal with. Shes showing signs of the problem again tonight so will book her into the vet tomorrow. My concern is this is going to be a regular thing and onviously its never nice putting her under anaesthetic very often (but shes not a cat you can do much with without her killing you).

Im wondering if theres a food I can give her to try and avoid this happening again? She has to have dry food which she helps herself to because if I give her a meal (even a tiny bit of tuna or half sachet of wet food) then she throws up. Shes on bloody expensive food already which is for "delicate" tummies. Is there something else that may be better? Will ask vet but think I did last time and they said no...

 

[Mrs B]

Hmm. Don't have the answer but just a couple of questions/thoughts:

First of all; does the vet have any idea why she would throw up after 'wet' food?

Fwiw, if my bengals are at all upset in the tum department, I find that plain roast chicken settles them - most supermarkets do packs which work out cheaper than many more expensive wet foods.

And have you tried her on raw food? Natural Instinct are a company we've used, although you have to buy frozen trays and defrost as you need it ... the cats thrived on it and a good side effect was even though one was still being litter trained, her poop had hardly any smell at all.

As far as I understand, more 'bulk' in the gut helps anal glands work normally, so maybe if you could introduce some kind of meat as well as the dry in her diet, it'd help?

Be interested to hear what your vet says, though ...

 

[MotherOfChickens]

my cats and dogs get raw chicken feet (get them frozen in 1kg bags)-minimal meat, lots of bone?

 

[rara007]

Anything high fiber.

 

[MagicMelon]

Thanks all, I took her to the vet and actually vet found it wasnt her anal glands but she looks to have been bitten or fallen on something sharp and basically pierced herself very near to an anal gland so the little hole created had got infected - poor girl! Antibiotics have cleared it up very quickly and shes back to her normal self, got another check with vet tomorrow.

Thats interesting though about the raw diet but I just dont think it'd work for her. Ive been having to hide her antibiotic pills in literally a teaspoon of roast chicken - I must have given her slightly more than that yesterday as she threw it back up 10 mins later. This is what has always happened with her, its so weird. Anything more than say a teaspoon of anything (tuna, chicken, ham, prawns, wet cat food etc.) and she throws it back up. The only thing Ive found works for her is feeding her expensive "delicate" dry food which I leave out for her at all times so she literally snacks whenever she feels like it. Ive never had a cat like it but I dont think raw would work for her