Food allergies & diabetes.... help!

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Anyname

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Hello, We are still plodding along with Little Boy - pretty much taking it day by day. I've given up trying to get him into remission as his numbers seem to be reactive to his skin allergies. He's now on 4 units of lantus twice daily and is fairly well regulated on that. I test every day but not as much as I used to. I haven't written up his numbers on the spread sheet for ages. I asked the vet to put him to sleep a few weeks ago when my husband was ill in hospital but the vet talked me out of it. I was in a state of high anxiety and not thinking very clearly - husband sick and cat sick.... OMG! Vet keeps giving him long acting antibiotic injection which seem to make him better - vet doesn't seem to know why this helps or what is wrong with him that he stops eating and seems very miserable.

We are going away to England next month and have to put LB in a cattery. I've been researching the best place for him and have had to see a new vet on the request of the cattery. The new vet is very keen for me to get a better diet sorted out. I've found a place that imports tinned food from the US so I thought I would ask how well these brands are regarded on FDMB. The thing is that even though they might suit LB's skin problems they might upset his diabetes - but if I can get the skin problems sorted his numbers will improve. I can buy:

Holistic Select brand.
Eagle Pack Quality Brand and
Artemis Brand.
I went to the warehouse today but the manager was out. These brands seem to have vegetables or grains in them. The one I am chasing up is Ziwipeak venison (from New Zealand). I tried LB on Evo prevously but he wouldn't eat it. He has been eating ground rabbit for some time - it has too much bone basically - I water it down but he's become very bored with eating it. He seems to be a bit strange in that sometimes his numbers go up from eating too little. I have been giving him a sprinkling of dry food. I only give him a tiny amount to fool him in to eating the rabbit.

I've also discovered the essential oil drops for the back of his neck which I hope will help with his coat.

I think we've been doing quite a good job with our kitty. He's happy most of the time and living a good life. He never drinks water and holds on to his pee for 12 - 14 hours most nights!
marilyn
 
Hi Marilyn,

It sounds like you have done an amazing job with your Little Boy, who is not making it an easy task! :-D

I have no experience with any of the foods mentioned, The only thing I have read from other posters is that sometimes raw can really help with allergies. I can't remember if you can get any brands of premade raw in Australia. I know Feline's Pride ships frozen, but I don't know if they ship outside the US. It is a complete raw food so you don't have to add anything. You might check out their website: https://www.felinespride.com/ Of course, you can make your own raw with the recipe on Dr. Lisa's site (www.catinfo.org) but that can be quite a production, particularly if you are leaving the country soon.

I hope others dealing with allergies will jump in with advice

Sue
 
I don't have to deal with active diabetes, but I do have two (definite civvies) with food allergies. One of them does beautifully on Wellness Chicken (no other flavor). The other does beautifully on Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie (which is a chicken flavor), but has problems on Wellness Chicken. Of course they wouldn't both do well on the same food!

The one that does well on Wellness Chicken decidedly did NOT do well on Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea. I fed it to him for a while precisely because it was a limited ingredient food, but it made his allergic problem worse.

In both of these cases, the allergic problem is asthma, not a skin problem. From all I read and from what my vet says, it is quite rare for asthma to result from a food allergy, but even the vet agrees that this is what is going on with my two.

The take-away lesson here is that different cats do well on different foods. What is an allergy trigger for one isn't necessarily an allergy trigger for another. In my case, both cats showed a tremendous eagerness to get the food that turned out to work best for them. (In each instance, I was feeding the food to another cat, and the asthma cat kept snitching it.)
 
Anyname said:
I've also discovered the essential oil drops for the back of his neck which I hope will help with his coat.

If indeed it is essential oils that you are using on Little Boy, please read this article (or do an internet search on "essential oils and cats" http://cats.about.com/od/housekeeping/a/aromatherapy.htm
 
The Essential oils is Dermoscent Animal Dermo-Care. http://www.paw4pets.com/products/essential-6-for-cats I was told about it by the cattery. I saw another cattery yesterday, run by a vet, and she said her friend's allergenic dog had a bad reaction to it. Previously I've linked LB's periods of unwellness to oral evening primrose oil (prescribed by derm vet). Fish oil makes him very itchy - and generally he doesn't do well on oral oils. I think his bg's have gone up since I put it on him the other day.

His diet is extremely limited due to his skin reaction and also his diabetes. It's horrible seeing him tearing at his skin. And to make matters worse I found a flea on him recently. Shock horror!!! Flea bite is really bad for his type of skin allergy. However the new vet thinks food allergy is his biggest problem.

He is on raw, ground rabbit (minus organs) plus bone. But he goes thru periods where he won't eat it (is in one at the moment) - I give him chicken when that happens. The reason I'm after a tinned food is to give him a more balanced diet - I really do want the convenience of being able to open a tin and feel that I'm giving him a nutritious meal.

I could probably get the tinned brand you mentioned sent from the US but our customs would not allow imported frozen food for pets - we have extremely strict rules on importing food to Australia.

We will battle on. I'm absolutely dreading leaving him for nearly 4 weeks but our daughter has been living in the UK for 18 months. Her husband's parents have been to visit 3 times already and we haven't gone because of LB. I try to tell myself he's just a cat but the reality is that we look after him like he's a child.

Marilyn
 
Off topic post removed

Please stay on cat health and the topic. Other posts belong in the community forum.

_Thanks,
Rebecca
 
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