Spike on urinary SO food & newly diabetes diagnosed

[spike_kitty]

hi , my cat spike was diagnosed 2 days ago with diabetes. He is on half dry & half wet royal canine urinary SO food b/c he has a history of urinary crystals. Any advice- should i get him onto ONLY wet urinary SO food or should i move him to a diabetes wet food? Could he get crystals if i move him to the diabetes food? Thanks for your advice. Spike's mom.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Hi Spike's mom!! (we'd love to have your name!)

Actually, to combat both the diabetes and the crystals, the best thing you can do is get Spike onto a low carb canned or raw diet ONLY and get off the dry completely.

The key to keeping crystals at bay is lots of water, and dry food (besides being very high carb) keeps the cat continually in a state of dehydration..

It's important to feed a low carb diet that's less than 10% carbs. A lot of us here feed plain Friskies pates, Fancy Feast Classics or 9-lives pates. The pates are under 10% carbs. With crystals, you'll want to add extra water to the food too and make a "gravy"...the more water you can get into him, the better!

 

[Critter Mom]

Hello, and welcome to you and Spike.

I've come across a number of members here since I joined who were feeding Royal Canin Urinary s/o before our cats developed diabetes and other issues. Also, several of my cats developed urinary tract problems because I was feeding them dry (on veterinary advice). You might want to research alternative ways to manage Spike's urinary crystal issues (obviously in consultation with your vet). A great place to start is catinfo.org - a superb vet-authored site about healthy cat nutrition:

http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

Six years ago Saoirse had to have surgery to remove calcium oxalate uroliths from her bladder. Since following Dr. Pierson's advice Saoirse thus far has not had issues with either struvite or oxalate uroliths (anti-jinx).

How I wish I had found Dr. Pierson's site sooner. I lost Tara - one A-mazing cat - just after her sixth birthday ( ) due to FLUTD and a carp vet. A few months later I nearly lost her brother to a urinary tract blockage. The switch I made to a so-called urinary protection commercial diet resulted first in Saoirse developing oxalate uroliths and then, after she was switched to RC Urinary s/o she developed issues which her then vets utterly failed to identify as an allergic reaction to the prescription diets. I can't prove it but I am firmly convinced that Saoirse's development of chronic pancreatitis and subsequently feline diabetes was directly caused by the RC foods prescribed by the vet treating her at the time. (Evidence: Saoirse's tummy ended up bald on the RC foods and she started gaining weight. (Saoirse is not a greedy cat; never has been). On one of them she got really ill and her coat was in absolute tatters after only a couple of weeks on it. As soon as I switched Saoirse to a species-appropriate wet food diet all the fur on her tummy started growing back immediately.)

I hope the above link helps you to help Spike.


Mogs
.

 

[spike_kitty]

Thank you both for your replies. I will check out dr. peirson's site, but I am curious, what food did you wind up changing to?
Thanks, Spike's mom

 

[Critter Mom]

I'm in the UK so some of the foods I tried probably won't be relevant. Saoirse has chronic pancreatitis and it took me the best part of a year after Dx to find a food that she could tolerate OK, namely Sheba Fine Flakes in Jelly Poultry Selection (and then only the chicken and turkey varieties). Saoirse liked a lot of the other wet, low carb foods we trialled but unfortunately they didn't like her back. Her BG levels were fine but they made her queasy and uncomfortable. It's really annoying because some of the German wet cat foods have much better quality ingredients than the Sheba but in Saoirse's case it has been very much a case of the right food being the one she can actually eat.

In essence I aimed for high protein, moderate fat, low carb choices. WRT ingredients, I went for grain-free foods that were as simple as possible - meat, a little fibre, and containing the necessary vitamins and minerals to make them a complete food. I also add a little water to each of Saoirse's meals (8-10 small meals per day). I always leave out fresh water for Saoirse but she doesn't drink from her bowl any more.


Mogs
.

 

[manxcat419]

I've come across a number of members here since I joined who were feeding Royal Canin Urinary s/o before our cats developed diabetes and other issues. Also, several of my cats developed urinary tract problems because I was feeding them dry (on veterinary advice).

Oh yes - I'm one of those! Urinary S/O seems to be one of those foods that vets recommend often but that really can make a cat prone to diabetes later on. I too am convinced that this food played a major part in Rosa developing diabetes.

Six years ago Saoirse had to have surgery to remove calcium oxalate uroliths from her bladder. Since following Dr. Pierson's advice Saoirse thus far has not had issues with either struvite or oxalate uroliths (anti-jinx).

My Rosa had the same surgery almost 9 years ago now. Like Mogs, we haven't seen any issues with either struvite or oxalates since moving Rosa to a low-carb canned food diet. Initially for Rosa when it was only diabetes we were dealing with (she's since been diagnosed CKD as well, but we think that is because some of the oxalates formed in her kidneys as there is evidence of scarring from previous stones and one stone still in one of her kidneys) we switched to Friskies classic pates - they're not expensive and fit the needs of a diabetic cat very well. All the flavors apart from Mixed Grill which has 11% carbs are fine for a diabetic cat.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

I just wanted to add that there are also some good premium canned foods out there if your budget allows--I'm not sure how old Spike is, but these can be a better choice for senior kitties whose kidneys may not be as functional as younger cats. They tend to have higher quality protein sources and lower phosphorus levels than the grocery brands. They are also a bit more expensive than the grocery brands, but still not as expensive as prescription foods! Wellness and Weruva are the two current winners at my house, but there are a lot of other good choices out there, too. Here's a link to the cat food nutrition charts on Dr. Pierson's website: http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Any food less than 10% carbs (but preferably less than 8%) is good to feed a diabetic. If you have an older kitty (12+), you might also want to avoid high phosphorus foods. As the others mentioned, the key to urinary tract health is getting as much moisture in your cat as you can, which means completely ditching the dry. If you can sneak a little extra water in his canned food without him minding, that helps, too!

 

[CaseyBee]

Hello, and welcome to you and Spike.

I've come across a number of members here since I joined who were feeding Royal Canin Urinary s/o before our cats developed diabetes and other issues. Also, several of my cats developed urinary tract problems because I was feeding them dry (on veterinary advice). You might want to research alternative ways to manage Spike's urinary crystal issues (obviously in consultation with your vet). A great place to start is catinfo.org - a superb vet-authored site about healthy cat nutrition:


.

I was feeding my cat Boudreau Urinary s/o (on vet's orders) when he was first diagnosed with diabetes and after reading information on this site, and on catinfo.org, I stopped feeding him the dry food entirely, eventually switched to Tiki Cat and Almo Naturals and his blood sugar dropped into the 5.5 - 8.0 range for a few months (I check him a few times a week). I found the Tiki/Almo really expensive though and went back to the s/o wet, and Boo's BG rose to 12.0 in one day!

I went back to the catinfo.org site and read that the s/o wet is also very high in carbs, so I've now switched to Friskies pates. His BG is falling again, 6.0-8.0 for the most part.

Entirely anecdotal, but I am convinced it was the Urinary s/o that caused the spikes in Boo's BG.

The catinfo.org site is really great and very informative regarding what cats should be eating.

 

[Cinderelly's Gus Gus]

All my cats are on the Royal Canin Urinary S/O because of urinary issues with 3 of them, and the difficulty of keeping the food separate for the ones that don't actually need it. I just recently switched my Gus to the Royal Canin Glucose diet on my vet's orders (recently diagnosed). I told my veterinarian that I wanted to change foods because I'm afraid they will all get diabetes on Royal Canin, but she wasn't happy with my decision. I'm going to change over soon, anyway. I have a variety of cans that I'm trying, but have to do it so slowly because they get diarrhea so easily on the high meat canned foods. The Royal Canin foods are so high in carbs. I was considering making food for them with the raw food recipe on the links found on this website, but when I got to the grocery store, I was afraid to buy chicken that was sitting in the refrigerator cases for an indeterminate amount of time and feeding it to my cats raw (based on the recipe, not just the raw chicken). I'm also vegan and my husband is vegetarian, and he was not happy at the thought of having fresh meat in the kitchen. If I make my own, is it really safe to use the chicken and liver from the grocery store, or do I have to buy it frozen from the suppliers on the website links? I'm also not sure if there are enough hearts in the package of gizzards with hearts at the store. It's mostly gizzards, but might be cheaper than buying the hearts through the mail when shipping is added to the cost for the frozen meats and organs. My dogs would love the extra gizzards, I'm sure.