Purina Pro-Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach for Cats

[beowulf]

What is the magickal ingredient in this cat food??!

I usually feed my old lady cat Orijen or Instinct dry kibble in the AM, and Weruva wet food at night. About a month ago, the local pet-store was out of both brands. I bought the Purina Pro-Plan Sensitive Skin/Stomach to tide her over because it was on sale and I figured I could order Orijen on Chewy when I got home. Unfortunately it only came in a large bag, so I figured I’d feed it to her until she was out and then go back to Orijen.

This cat has a lifetime of what the vets refer to as occasional flare-ups of “idiopathic dermatitis”. We’ve brought her to dermatologists, we’ve done months of elimination diets ($$), months of hydrolized protein diets, allergen tests, litter swaps, etc - with no improvement or answer. Vets chalked up her dermatitis (usually under chin, behind ears, and rump) as a possible allergen to pet or human dander and advised us treating topically when it flares up. I think part of it may even be obsessive grooming or stress, so we manage with lots of Feliway around the house and she gets ‘calming’ chews during flare ups.

Well, whatever is in this food has completely turned her around. I brush her out daily because she’s a long-haired cat, and I’ve noticed a change for the better. She still is grooming often, but the dermatitis is completely gone.

I’m coming to COTH for some answers, because when I called my vet they said “glad she’s doing well but we have no idea!”.

[Mosey_2003]

My guess would be that it lacks something that irritates her system. Pro Plan is about the best food you can buy, in many’s opinion, I’d just stick with it

[chestnutmarebeware]

I don’t know, but I think I’m going to try it for Ella after reading these comments!

She had an IBS flare on my bed on Thanksgiving morning and I spent a good portion of the holiday at the laundromat washing my comforter.

[OnAMission]

Yep, based on this I’m adding it to my chewy order for my itchy cat. I’ve never been able to figure out what bothers her but that is one food I haven’t tried for her.

[3PonyFarm]

I got it for one of my cats because the regular stuff bothered her stomach. Another one of my cats can’t eat it because this brand bothers his stomach. They have to eat in separate rooms now.

[ZuzusPetals]

Loved this food but my three kitties became major chunkers in no time on it, so I’m mixing with another to cut the calories.

Re the dermatitis, I recently spent $1,000 to learn that one cat isn’t merely sensitive to fleas – she’s majorly allergic. Unfortunately there’s no desensitizing treatment (in the allergy-shots sense, for this particular trigger) so prevention is the only key. And I have a major, major hang-up about parasites in general and fleas in particular, so I can’t imagine trying to contain the things – on indoor cats, no less – any more than I am. (Monthly back-of-the-neck drops, Capstar for when a kitty abruptly starts scratching, bombs every six months, Precor premises spray if I even SUSPECT a flea is lurking.)

The allergist gave us Rx Atopica, administered orally with a syringe. While it works, there are two issues: She HATES the taste and it’s quite expensive (although less so via Chewy.) Prior to the diagnosis, we were on a three- or four-times-a-year cycle of oral steroids and a long-term injected antibiotic, to treat the skin lesions. That combo worked real well, but that amounted to about $1,200 annually. I love her beyond reason but this freaking cat.

[Sandysmom]

Try the Seresto collars. I have a big chonk of a cat that is a flea magnet. I put one of the collars on him and voila, no fleas. I have another cat that has a floofy, cottony coat. The topicals don’t work well on him because it’s hard to get them directly on his skin. The collar works great on him.

[beowulf]

@ZuzusPetals It’s funny you mention the weight gain because the other day I picked up Franklin and was like hm, you feel very dense. Hes gained one pound So he is back to being transitioned over to the old food, lol.

Flea allergies are just awful. For a while we all thought that’s what it was even though I only have indoor cats, but the vets never found fleas or flea dirt on any of our cats. As they shouldn’t – I spent an absolute fortune on flea control. I swear by Revolution and Seresto, but yes, they are very expensive. That was the only stuff that worked with the dogs I’d foster that came with fleas.

@Mosey_2003 That was my first guess, but still scratching my head on this because wouldn’t the assumed elimination diets also show improvement? She was on three different elimination diets for a whole year. The first was a LID elimination diet, the second was a hydrolized protein diet in case it was proteins she was allergic to, and then we put her on an entirely home-made single ingredient diet (chicken) for 3 months without improvement. I wish I had answers!!

@chestnutmarebeware I hope it works for Ella as well as it’s worked for my old lady!! I’m sorry to hear about your comforter… that’s just awful.

@OnAMission Let me know how your itchy cat likes it! I hope it works.

@3PonyFarm Did you see improvement for the kitty that had stomach issues? Sorry you have to feed them separate… I feel that. I have six cats, and four of them are on specific foods. You know what makes a great cat-safe food container? The 30lb Tidy Cat buckets.

[OnAMission]

Funny you say that about the Tidy Cat bucket, just yesterday I put a new bag of cat food into the Cat Food Tidy Cat Bucket as opposed to the Rabbit Food Tidy Cat Bucket or the Chicken Food Tidy Cat Bucket (or the camping ones, or all the other various) and I was thinking to myself that the bucket was probably more valuable to us than the actual cat litter! I am back to using wood pellets as cat litter so I only buy Tidy Cat when we need another bucket!

We just got our Chewy last night so excited to offer this up to Suzie the Old Itchy Cat.

[3PonyFarm]

I did see some improvement. I have been having some problems finding the food now. I’m going to have to go online to find more. Good tip about the buckets, I have a lot of those.

[Rackonteur]

I’m glad you posted about this. I’m going to try the canned variety of this Pro Plan for my girl. Amazon has a sample pack at a good price (lower than Chewy’s).
Thank you for sharing about this.

[Djones]

I have a grumpy older Siamese whose tummy will go ‘full Brazilian wax’ on any other food than this. Once I realized what I was doing wrong, by occasionally getting a different bag of Purina dry cat food, or Iams, etc, and settled into always getting this kind, Pheeble is now…fully bushy in the belly.