10/10 Charlie Diet Change

Sarah & Charlie-cat

Sarah & Charlie-cat

Member Since 2022
Charlie had his follow-up bloodwork and another blood test that points to his body's inability to process fat and apparently he's also making his own fat, creating other health risks for him. So, low-fat prescription food it is. Of course, it is not low-carb. I found the Purina Pro weight management on Chewy. Only the chicken flavor doesn't have fish in it, which is frustrating. I'm not willing to risk trying fish again. The other option was the Hills Prescription W/D, which I couldn't find on Chewy, at least not the wet. We're also adding fish oil/Omega 3s. And the vet wants us to add chitosan, but I could only find it made from shrimp shells. Not thrilled since I'm not sure shrimp is back on his menu.

He hasn't held his last reduction well, we haven't had any good days recently (our spreadsheet isn't up to date, I need to get to that this evening) but I'm not going to get to another curve until we get the diet change and off the pred completely at the end of this week. This weekend. Between grading and course prep. Sigh.

I'm not best pleased but his regular vet explained it so much better than the IM vet.
 
Chylomicron test was Monday.

Last week just a regular blood test. Hopefully, you can see those labs here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BKLyFeSM_AG8fdLGZYg4UqNCd6rxTZrY/view?usp=drivesdk

His triglycerides were about half the last one, but of course, they're still crazy high.

He's been eating a cooked rabbit that's 15% fat by dry matter and home cooked turkey breast and chicken breast with EZ complete. The chicken breast is skinless. All zero carb.

I mean sure we can give him more insulin but won't he just be like a yoyo with a higher carb food? He's already a bouncy boi
 
Reducing the fat in his diet doesn't mean you have to increase his carbs by as much as some of those so called "prescription" foods. A higher protein food can have lower fat. Maybe you can find a diet with more carbs but still LC. Anything up to 10% carb is still considered LC.
 
I’ve been told cholesterol is not accurate unless fasted. I dint recall how many hours minimum. I have never heard of testing Chylomicron in cats. Maybe Wendy or Marje knows more about this. Did you see a cardiologist?
 
I don't think any of our typical lower carb foods are low fat though.

His blood work was fasted almost 12 hours. Close as we could get it between insulin doses. The other one was less fasted, he has breakfast but didn't have all his overnight meals or anything else after.

I absolutely cannot afford another specialist visit. I have a little money saved in case he has another pancreatitis attack but once that's gone, if he has another bad one like he did in May that's it. And my other cat who has had multiple surgeries on a wound that won't heal is walking around the house leaving a trail of blood so I just feel super stressed I'm going to have to choose between them. That's an impossible situation
 
What is the maximum %fat you want to feed? I used the Catinfo sortable food chart and tried it with max carb 10%, max fat 20% and min protein 50% and got three hits. One Soulistic and two Tikicat, unfortunately one of those has fish but the other doesn't. For reference, WD canned is 38% fat (and 25% carbs:eek:). Using the sortable chart and upping the fat to 30%, I got quite a few hits.
 
20% fat is more than the 15%-18% he was eating previously. Below is the nutrition info from Chewy for the Purina Pro Plan OM Chicken (the only one without fish). I can't find the dry matter analysis on it, which obviously would be necessary to really compare. I don't see the Purina Pro Plan OM on the sortable list. In the PDF version, if it is the metabolism one, then it looks like it is 12% fat, which in my mind is not that much less than 15%.

Crude Protein 9.0% min
Crude Fat 1.7% min
Crude Fat 5.0% max
Crude Fiber 3.0% max
Moisture 82.0% max
Ash 3.0% max
Calcium (Ca) 0.11% min
Phosphorous 0.10% min

He weirdly does not like Tiki cat chicken. He liked some of the ones that have been discontinued. He does like some of the Weuvra cans and pouches, but I'm not seeing any that are really low fat.

Personally, I think we probably could have gone with adding an Omega 3 and the chitosan (which I found googling, should not be taken together, so rotating between meals) to start and not switching his food given that he's been doing well on it.
 
What you've listed is the guaranteed analysis, meaning they have at least the minimums or maximums listed. The numbers could be much higher. I found this quoted in the comments below the listing on Chewy, provided I got the right OM one:
The carbohydrate level in the OM Savory Selects Chicken is 18.22% on a dry matter basis.
Click to expand...
Side note, the product contains meat by products, which can occasionally contain fish. I have a kitty who vomits whenever she gets a food with fish, so I have experience that particular issue. :rolleyes:

You want to compare either as fed basis (which is what I was getting from the catinfo calculator) or dry matter basis. If you look at the Soulistic Autumn Bounty, which was the third option from the sortable list, it's guaranteed analysis is 1.4% for crude fat (min), vs. 1.7% of the OM. But no max is listed. But on the catinfo list, the As Fed %fat is 17% for the Soulistic. For the OM products (regular and savory selects) the As Fed %fat is 30 and 33%. I couldn't find them on the sortable list, but on the large PDF document.
 
We had a pretty blue number (134!) at about 3:30/+8. He was asking me for food around 4:30/+9 and I gave him about half the OM and half his rabbit and will test him at 5:30/+10 and see how far that spiked him. Usually, his 0-carb rabbit or chicken bumps him about 30 points. Although, could be hard to tell since he is likely to bounce since he was at 371 this morning and he didn't get to eat until I came home between noon and 1. So he might already be on his way back up.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Maybe Marje could comment on the lab results @Marje and Gracie
Click to expand...
I don’t know that much about hyperlipidemia. It’s not that common. It can be caused by FD although I can’t remember another cat here who had that diagnosis. It can also be caused by chronic pancreatitis but there are other reasons for it as well. While there can be a hereditary component, that is more rare.

I think for something like this, Sarah will need to rely on her vets’ expertise. On groups.io, there is a feline pancreatitis support group….maybe they’ve seen this?

Did this just show up since he was diagnosed with FD and had pancreatitis?
 
From what I've read, both diabetes and pancreatitis can lead to high triglycerides. As can steroids. His regular vet seems to be chalking it up to diabetes. It could also have a genetic component from what I've read. I mean his triglycerides are like bonkers high and were twice as high in August! So all of the above ‍♀️

Prior to the last few months, no one has said anything about his triglycerides. I don't have blood work from his previous vet who mistakenly diagnosed him with a blood clotting disorder and started him on the prednisolone.

I've seen the Facebook pancreatitis page but haven't really engaged much there. Not sure what groups.io is...

It would be nice to find out comparable numbers on fat in the OM and what he was eating, which I think I have the guaranteed analysis and dry matter. I know the dry the IM vet wanted to feed was like 7% fat. But like 37% carbs and the ingredients look like complete garbage.

He did like the food. I mixed it with his rabbit and he ate around the rabbit, leaving few chunks that Tiny Cat was happy to clean up. He's done pretty well with food changes, shockingly enough. But still going to go slowly because it freaks me out to cause any kind of stomach upset.

He definitely bounced again. 317 PMPS and +2 307. He's not screaming at me for food right now, which seems worrying but he might just be waiting for me to go to bed because that's more fun, scream at mom until she gets back up cursing and then try to trip her down the stairs
 
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