My Tia (14 months old) has been dealing with a sensitive stomach. Diarrhoea, or loose stools, sometimes with blood. We switched her from Royal Canin to Canagan wet and it all went away. She was doing fine for almost 6 months, then a few weeks ago the diarrhoea was back. No blood this time. The vet kept her for tests, pancreatitis, TF, everything under the sun, all was negative. She suggested putting her on a gastrointestinal wet food, she said purina is pretty good. Tia is loving it, actually can't get enough of it, considering she won't touch the Canagan now. She hasn't had diarrhoea or even a loose stools since eating it. My worry is if purina gastrointestinal wet will be good for her long term. The vet said not to worry, her own bengal is on this food and is thriving.
I guess my question is, have any of you had any experience with purina gastrointestinal wet? Is it as good as the vet says? Can any of you recommend other gastrointestinal wet food? Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy Tia is no longer having diarrhoea, I'm just thinking for long term. Thank you!

I am sorry Tia is having this issue. My 11-year old bengal has mushy stools and at times, they are completely liquid. We are seeing a vet specialist to deal with this. He also had an issue with vomiting several times a week. The vet has him on Hills Science i/d which he loves (dry and canned). This has stopped the vomiting, but the stools, even with the FlortiFlora are still not right.

Diarrhea means there is something amiss in the digestive tract. Inflammatory bowel syndrome is quite common in cats. We have done two ultrasounds which showed thickening of the small intestinal wall. It is good that Tia's problems have stopped with this food.

Many food manufacturers make food specifically for sensitive stomachs and digestive issues. Please look for products that do not have By Products of any kind. By Products mean they've used leftover "stuff" from dead animals and it can contain chicken feet, as an example. Chewy.com has basically every food and you can find the ingredients listed for the product. I would try to use a high-quality food and see if you vet might recommend a prescription diet. That food it not cheap, but it definitely does help.

Just to add to this, Purina is the largest manufacturer of pet food and they are currently trying to buy several more smaller food manufacturers. If you do any googling on Purina's food problems, hundred, maybe thousands of pets are being sickened by their food. The FDA does not deeply regulate the industry. So, proceed with caution. Many vets are not aware of this issue and millions of pet owners feed their pets Purina products. I was one as well. Just read the ingredients and make sure you are comfortable giving your cat that food.

I live in Uk, so have no idea about chewy.com... I know that Putina doesn't have the best of reputation that's the reason I am having doubts about feeding it long term. I am really torn, do I change her food and risk the possibility of another episode of diarrhoea (when she also absolutely refuses to eat and I have to feed her with a syringe) or keep feeding her ?... the ither thing is that she is refusing to eat anything else! We tried Canagan wet ( which she absolutely adored for more than 6 months), Royal Canin gastrointestinal... the purina is the only one that she eats, actually I might say devours! She's also having probiotic daily (fortiflora) and I don't plan on stopping it... Quite a difficult situation really...

So, there certainly is something to be said for selecting a food that your cat really likes, and that seems to benefit your cat in terms of managing symptoms. And that probably shouldn't be underestimated. That said though...

The first 6 ingredients of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EN Gastroenteric Formula Canned Cat Food:

Poultry By-Products, Liver, Water Sufficient for Processing, Turkey, Rice, Oat Fiber, Calcium Gluconate

So yea, owch, it's mostly by-products, which is the lowest grade "meat" you can get, not good. Legit companies really don't use by-products in their formulations, certainly not the first ingredient!

Recommendations? I haven't faced this before, so nothing from experience, but I think in general Science Diet is going to be better than Purina, and Royal Canin is going to be better than Science Diet, in terms of the brands that I'm familiar with, that have a pretty big amount of offerings in the perscription food market.

That's in the US though, I realize there are different (and typically less variety) in the UK.

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The little monsters 3

I would definitely not go for the Royal canin, that's what started all this, that's a big no no for me. Same for science plan, she had a horrible reaction to it, diarrhoea vomiting lethargy, so that's again a big no no. She was on Canagan, which is high quality wet, 80% meat, grain free, no artificial anything but she won't eat it any more. Before that we tried meowing heads, she didn't touch it. I am also weary of changing her food yet again, the vet specifically said not to change food frequently, find one that works for her and stick with it. But again, purina is definitely not the best food out there...

Oh and by the way, I double checked the can, and I realised that you might be talking about another kind of purina, or maybe it's slightly different in us. In uk it's purina veterinary diets gastrointestinal wet food, and the ingredients are not the one that you quoted

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The little monsters 3

I'm not home at the moment, so this is what I remember: meat, meat derivates, liver, turkey, rice flower, probiotic, taurine. I did compare it, I mean the Rc had an ingredient list as long as my arm, compared to the purina gastrointestinal which only has a few. We'll go to the vet again in about 3 weeks for her booster and I'll have another chat about this. But honestly I think I'll stick with this for the moment, just to give her a bit of time to gain some weight and we'll see then what we'll do. It's so complicated, so many kinds of food, confusing ingredients... just wish there would be a simple answer

Here is the information on derivatives:

"Meat and animal derivatives are legally defined in the Animal Feed Regulations 2010. PFMA members use by-products of the human food industry that come from animals slaughtered under veterinary supervision eg. heart, lung, or muscle meat, which may not be traditionally eaten by people in this country."

Notice the word BY-PRODUCTS. Do you want your baby to eat this? Thus, the ingredients are very important. But it is VERY important that you find a food your kitty likes and helps the stool. Geez, mine did a runny poop this morning and is eating the Hills i/d diet. (There may be no hope for him). My cat does not have an issue with changing his food. He has gotten less particular as the years go by.

In the US, most vets have a supply of cat food and will sell you a can of this and a can of that. My only problem is you can't read the ingredients without a huge magnifying glass! Millions of cats in the US eat Friskies, which is a very inexpensive food and mostly by-products. You need to decide what quality of food you want to feed and read the ingredients carefully. As I said, there are countless foods out there for digestive issues, so take you time and read them. Most have website as well with nutritional information and ingredients. You will just have to do your research. You will find most have turkey or chicken and those need to be the first ingredient listed.