new member-undiagnosed kitty..

[MilliesMom]

My kitty is 3.5 years old. At one year she went from a normal sized kitty with a normal appetite, to suddenly starving all the time and overweight. About a year and a half ago our vet insisted we switch her food to a lower calorie kibble and it's been a nightmare since. First she has a lot of allergies, the main three are grasses, alfalfa, and flaxseed which is basically all but 4 or 5 different kibbles, and a larger selection of wet food. We have her set up with an electronic feeder (and the same for the other kitties). She has lost no weight but everything has gotten much worse. She's constipated. And she pees outside the box (next to it, we have pee pads for her and our sanity). But its a LOT of pee, and it has been ever since she suddenly gained weight.

The vet found crystals and wants us to switch to a special food for that, but they all have things she's allergic to. We've since tried every kibble we can find that is low calorie and without allergens. Nothing has changed. I regret ever switching it in the first place because now she's much worse. We tried going back to her original kibble which made her fat, but not constipated, but it didn't help so we're back to a lower calorie one. We give her the smallest amount of kibble the feeder will let us 1/8c. She sits by it and begs for food. She follows the other cats to their feeders and eats any crumbs she can find. We give her multiple meals of wet food with extra water (for hydration for the constipation which honestly doesn't help it), and never extra kibble.

Today she had a huge pee that was ph 5.5 which seems bad. And I know that diabetes can cause crystals in pee, constipation, constant hunger, and obesity... But how do I convince my vet? (we've actually had a few different ones since this started) I know she's young but to me it says diabetes.

I keep saying what about diabetes but they deny it's a possibility. As in they won't check her.

I have mecfs, and I've been severely ill for the last two years so I haven't been able to advocate for her as much as I want to. And I'm totally overwhelmed by trying to get her diagnosed because changing her food isn't the answer especially with the allergies. I actually am not overwhelmed by diabetes, I've had a cat with it before, and honestly once he had treatment things were so much easier.

I feel terrible for her and I don't have the energy (or money really) to keep taking her to vets who just tell me to give her a urinary diet when she's allergic to all of them, and also it doesn't explain all the other symptoms.

I'm also wondering if I should try to get pet insurance for her before I get a diagnosis.

Any advice is much appreciated... and if I'm totally wrong about my diabetes theory I'd be glad to know that too.

 

[Jessica & Indy]

I don't understand why your vet would refuse to test for diabetes. It is a simple blood test.....

Sounds like you need to find a different vet. If it was me, I would get a handheld meter and try to test her glucose myself.

I'm sorry I don't have any more advice outside of that.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Have you had a recent blood tests? Did the urinalysis show glucose in the urine? Can you post latest results ? Your cat is really young. Dry food is hard on kidneys if not getting enough hydration. Is her thyroid normal?

What allergic reactions does she get from foods? Sometimes a novel protein works. I was feeding raw but now cook food for my two cats as one has skin allergies and bird flu was making me nervous. I’m so sorry you have this with a young kitty.

I agree you need a different vet but let’s see if your labs give any clues. If you don’t have them ask your vet to email them to you. I get copies of all results now. I understand money is an issue. Vet foods are expensive and might not be needed especially if activating allergies.

For constipation psyllium husk powder can help a lot. Miralax also works.