dustyboy4
Member Since 2010
Back within the first year after Dusty was diagnosed with Diabetes is when he began having the bouts of soft serve, cow patty bowel movements. I brought this subject up with and discussed it, at length, with Vet C. She brought up the possibility of Cushings and researched Cushings Disease in cats and found that there really isn’t much out there regarding Cushings in cats except that it’ uncommon. If Cushings is found, there isn’t much offered in successful treatment. That was a couple of years ago and it seems that this research still stands. We also discussed how Dusty’s pancreas may not be producing sufficient digestive enzymes. She decided that it wouldn’t hurt to put him on supplemental digestive enzymes and prescribed “Pancrea”. We used this for around 6 months. It is a powder that you mix a very small amount with their food. You have to let the food sit for 15 – 30 minutes before letting your cat feed off of it. (This was a very hard feat to accomplish at the time because Dusty was sooooo hungry). After around 6 months using this powder we just quit giving it to him because he never showed any improvement. Dusty was still not gaining weight and still had bouts of diarrhea. It was a very expensive supplement. I was using container #2 of the Pancrea when we quit using it. It was around $50 per container. The most it did for Dusty was torture him in having to wait to eat. I usually had to close him off in another room and make him wait. He would scratch at the door (he doesn’t have front claws) and cry the whole time and once released from that room he would tare across the room to get to his food bowl.BJM said:
When I ran across the article I read regarding gluten intolerance with felines, I felt I could have finally found the problem. That’s when I switched him to the Fancy Feast Classic Chicken Feast. I thought it was worth a try. I made this switch on my own without fist confering with his vets because every time I questioned them about “could it be the food (Purina DM pate’) you are having me give him?” they would say no and move on. The Fancy Feast was OK except for seeing the change in color of the stool, the mucus-y exterior and foul smell. He never had a bout of diarrhea while eating it. When he started eating the Hill’s w/d (chicken) is when he had the best stools. It’s just that being a diet food it made him lose weight (which I was asked to watch for because that was not the intention of giving it to him it was the high fiber content). That’s when he was put back on the Purina DM pate’ and I was told I could keep giving him the Hill’s as 1 of the 3 cans of food he eats daily. By recently finding out that Hill’s is 28% carbs, (which I have to say, I freaked out about) Hill’s, even with the high fiber content is just not worth giving to Dusty. Lowering his BG is my main concern right now.
In all parts of Dusty’s life, even when he was a kitten, he has only eaten food with chicken in it. So I have given some thought about the possibility of Dusty having developed an intolerance to Chicken. I’m just not sure how this is proven and if found what I would instead give Dusty to eat. I’ve thought about how it is known that a strictly fish diet isn’t appropriate. I’ve also given some thought to providing a raw food diet, but everything I’ve read about is made with Chicken.
Since $$$ also factors into how far I can go with treatment for Dusty, I try to consider everything on an importance scale. (Insulin, testing, treatment, food) Right now I pay $32.40 per case for the Purina DM pate’. That’s $1.35 per can. Because Dusty’s BG isn’t under control, he’s always hungry, doesn’t gain weight and eats 3 (5.5 oz.) cans a day – 1 case lasts 8 days. I believe his vets sell the DM to me at cost –or- really close to cost, because I haven’t found where I can purchase a case for less than that anywhere else.
Since Dusty hasn’t had a bout of diarrhea in several month and the one thing that the Hill’s contained that the Purina DM pate’ doesn’t contain is a greater amount of fiber, I’m going to trying mixing in a little pumpkin today, but if this doesn’t work, I would be willing to try (if there is such) a different meat ingredient in a canned cat food, just to see if it is a chicken intolerance. The possibility of chicken intolerance has to be last on my importance list because it just doesn’t seem logical to me. Especially since all the types of food he has had throughout his life has contained chicken in one form or another. I also think that he would always have diarrhea if it were such. I do have to take into consideration that everything concerning Dusty has to be thought about, so to speak, on a thinking outside of the box aspect. Hey, he’s a Cat right?
Any suggestions on a different type of food if the squash doesn’t work?
Maybe I can stop by there this weekend after I get paid and see how much they are selling it for.