Hello new user here :)

[Alfred]

Hello!

New user here! To give a bit of background; I married a cat allergic person and therefore had to leave my kitties with my parents. Alfred (12 years old now) developed diabetes. He has always been a bit overweight, something I have always tried to work on while he was in my care.

He has a history of urinary crystals and UTI. He has been partially blocked twice. He has been on Hills C/D for ~8+ years (currently on a mix of Whiskers wet pouches and C/D wet and dry food). He was diagnosed with diabetes ~1 year ago (maybe a little under a year). He has suffered some neuropathy which has since mostly resolved since his levels have been somewhat stabilized.

He is not in my care so I am asking questions on his behalf in order to pass along the information to my mom who is caring for Alfred for me.

I have suggested home testing, unfortunately the vet Alfred is taken to was not very supportive of this so he is currently not being home tested.

The last time I heard he was being given 1 unit of insulin twice a day, unfortunately I do not know the type/brand of insulin he is on.

My question is, what would be a good wet food for him that would address his need for low carbs as well as the urinary crystals?

I have looked over the charts, unfortunately I am not a numbers person so I got a bit confused.

I know that the Fancy Feast Classics are ok for diabetic cats, but are they also ok for the cats prone to urinary crystals?

Alfred has his glucose levels checked at the vet about once a month, I realize that changing his diet would require more frequent testing. I am asking mainly because I am hoping to be able to bring him to live with me again (depending on if I can convince hubby to take allergy pills) so I can begin home testing him and switching him to a proper diet etc. to hopefully get him in a more stable place.

So my questions are all for the (hopefully *fingers crossed*) future in which I will be caring for Alfred again and therefore will be able to home test etc.

Thank you so much for this wonderful resource! I have been learning so much and am so grateful to all of you who put in so much time to educate kitty guardians on how to better care for diabetic kitties.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Hello Alfred's caregiver and Alfred kitty and welcome to the message board. Would you share your first name with us Please?

One of the most important factors for a cat with urinary tract issues, is the amount of water in the diet. Dry food provides so little water that UTI's are more common. In my experience with my cat Wink, the switch to only wet food resulted in him never having another UTI. He was getting them about once a month.

You might want to read this vet's take on Urinary Tract Health.

I feed my Wink the Fancy Feast classic pates, Friskies pates, and Friskies Special Diet pates.

 

[BJM]

Welcome to FDMB.

Some other tactics for allergy management include:
damp mopping and brushing the cat daily to remove loose fur and dander and saliva from the fur
having the bedroom be off-limits to the cat
HEPA filters on the furnace/AC
a room HEPA air cleaner for the bedroom
frequent laundering of bedding
replacing carpets with smooth flooring such as tile, wood, laminate, or vinyl
saline nasal irrigation to rinse out allergen
allergy shots

 

[Alfred]

Hello!

Thank you both for your replies!

My name is Clare, it's wonderful to meet you all!

Thank you for the information about the food as well as the suggestions about allergy management. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get everyone on board with my plan, but ultimately it will come down to what's best for Alfred. Getting him here with me would mean moving him half way across the country so I'm also debating whether that would be fair on him or not; lots of things to consider!

He is a very special cat to me and has always been there for me, so I feel I owe it to him to give him the best possible care he can get during the remainder of his time here. I miss him so very much and it breaks my heart knowing that he developed diabetes, I wish I had known more about the dangers of high carb foods when he was in my care. It's disheartening learning about these prescription foods and how awful they actually are for cats.

Hindsight is 20/20, as they say, so all I can do is move forward with better information and try my best.

 

[Lyndsey & Mittens]

Hi there & welcome! My mittens also has a history of UTIs & crystals (2 partial blockages & 1 complete blockage in which he had to be hospitalized overnight for). Just like your cat, he was placed on the Hills C/D diet. After being on the Hills for 3-4 years, he was diagnosed with diabetes. I'm not sure if the Hills alone caused the diabetes, but it certainly contributed to it. Like you, I was concerned about switching his food from the c/d when he was diagnosed with diabetes, which was this past August. I switched Mittens to the Fancy Feast Classics when he was diagnosed, and have not had any issues w/urinary blockages since. I also add extra water to his food to increase the moisture content. In fact, I had a urinalysis done on him 2 months ago & it came out better than it did when he was on the c/d. Hopefully this helps alleviate any worries you might have-I had the same feelings when Mittens was diagnosed :smile: