Recent event showed us the absolute importance of being careful and consistent with what you feed your cat!
Long story is below (sorry it turned into a novel), short summary here: Old cat, borderline diabetes brought into control by feeding very low carb (2%) food, good for years. Accidentally started feeding him medium carb food (12-14%) a couple weeks ago, and immediately started seeing symptoms of excessive drinking, peeing, muscle weakness. Realized mistake, switched him back to very low carb food, and all symptoms very quickly went away.
Read below for the full story:
We have one very old cat. He was found to be bordering on diabetes by bg and fructosamine tests) at the same time they diagnosed him as hyperthyroid, about 6 years ago. I immediately did my research, found this site, and switched him to very low carb canned food. His bg and glucosamine settled back to normal levels; guess we caught it just in time. They have remained so. Meanwhile, over these last bunch of years, my old guy has gone through hyperthyroidism which became severe so we treated with radioactive iodine, resulting in him becoming hypothyroid, for which he now gets pills. He's gone the rounds with bladder sludge/crystals/disease. He's lost all his teeth to FORL. He has arthritis and is on Solensia. He developed neuropathy early on in the thyroid/blood sugar issues, and shuffled on his flat feet for two months while we fed him the methylcobalamin and waited for him to recover. It also seems he has lost some cognitive ability in the last year. He is showing signs of kidney disease now. Pretty much, he's gone through everything, and is still hanging on. Discussion with the vet after last bloodwork is that, at this stage, we keep him happy until he fades out, as attempting anything beyond simple treatments (like his thyroid pills) would just be stressing him out for very little if any benefit.
So since the initial diabetes threat, he has been on Fancy Feast Classic Pates. As we have added younger cats over the last five years, and have two with allergy to chicken and one with allergy to fish (immediate stinky diarrhea), we just feed everyone the FF Turkey and Giblets Pate, so that it doesn't matter if they get into each other's food bowls (which, with 5 cats, they do). This is very low carb, about 2%, according to the chart.
When we took in our latest rescue at the end of the summer, she came with some FF Grilled in Gravy assortment, and a really horrible very high carb dry food. We quickly converted her to our FF Turkey Pate, dumped the dry food in the woods for the raccoons, and put the box of FF Gravy cans in the back of the cupboard.
When the other cats refuse a food (Tiny Tiger Turkey is also low carb, as is American Journey Turkey, and both nearly identical to the FF Turkey), we would feed it to The Old Guy, as he will eat anything, in great amounts and very quickly scarfs it down, so no chance someone else would get into his food. Sometimes we'd get him other FF classic pate very low carb flavors that we cannot let the younger cats eat. Because of this, we feed him shut in the laundry room, so he isn't disturbed or he eats too quickly and immediately barfs it right back up.
Last two weeks I see Old Guy drinking constantly through the day, and peeing like a racehorse frequently. His back legs were splaying outward and sinking halfway to flatfooted. Was feeling heartbroken that his kidneys were finally failing, or diabetes kicking up, or something else dire was starting, and this was the end for our Old Guy. Vet visits are so stressful on him, absolute terror-inducing, and with so much that has gone wrong with his health, it really is time to let him fade peacefully if that is what happens.
Then I hear hubby saying to him, "gee, what for dinner tonight? beef with gravy or chicken with gravy?" GRAVY?!! Why are you feeding ANYONE food with gravy? where did it come from??? (totally forgot about the food that came with new cat.) He says, it was in the cabinet, I figured since he can eat any flavor, I'd use it up on him. SOURCE OF HEALTH CHANGE SOLVED: THESE FOODS ARE 12-14% CARBS!!!
We threw out the last few cans of this stuff, got him back on his 2% carb Fancy Feast Turkey food. And within just a couple of days, he is no longer drinking and paddling in the water bowls all day, his peeing is back to normal, his ancient brain seems to be functioning better, and his walking posture is improving (also started giving him the last of the methylcobalamin we still had around).
Lesson learned: Don't EVER mess with the carb level of the food you feed your cat. Get it low, keep it low, don't vary it, ever.
Long story is below (sorry it turned into a novel), short summary here: Old cat, borderline diabetes brought into control by feeding very low carb (2%) food, good for years. Accidentally started feeding him medium carb food (12-14%) a couple weeks ago, and immediately started seeing symptoms of excessive drinking, peeing, muscle weakness. Realized mistake, switched him back to very low carb food, and all symptoms very quickly went away.
Read below for the full story:
We have one very old cat. He was found to be bordering on diabetes by bg and fructosamine tests) at the same time they diagnosed him as hyperthyroid, about 6 years ago. I immediately did my research, found this site, and switched him to very low carb canned food. His bg and glucosamine settled back to normal levels; guess we caught it just in time. They have remained so. Meanwhile, over these last bunch of years, my old guy has gone through hyperthyroidism which became severe so we treated with radioactive iodine, resulting in him becoming hypothyroid, for which he now gets pills. He's gone the rounds with bladder sludge/crystals/disease. He's lost all his teeth to FORL. He has arthritis and is on Solensia. He developed neuropathy early on in the thyroid/blood sugar issues, and shuffled on his flat feet for two months while we fed him the methylcobalamin and waited for him to recover. It also seems he has lost some cognitive ability in the last year. He is showing signs of kidney disease now. Pretty much, he's gone through everything, and is still hanging on. Discussion with the vet after last bloodwork is that, at this stage, we keep him happy until he fades out, as attempting anything beyond simple treatments (like his thyroid pills) would just be stressing him out for very little if any benefit.
So since the initial diabetes threat, he has been on Fancy Feast Classic Pates. As we have added younger cats over the last five years, and have two with allergy to chicken and one with allergy to fish (immediate stinky diarrhea), we just feed everyone the FF Turkey and Giblets Pate, so that it doesn't matter if they get into each other's food bowls (which, with 5 cats, they do). This is very low carb, about 2%, according to the chart.
When we took in our latest rescue at the end of the summer, she came with some FF Grilled in Gravy assortment, and a really horrible very high carb dry food. We quickly converted her to our FF Turkey Pate, dumped the dry food in the woods for the raccoons, and put the box of FF Gravy cans in the back of the cupboard.
When the other cats refuse a food (Tiny Tiger Turkey is also low carb, as is American Journey Turkey, and both nearly identical to the FF Turkey), we would feed it to The Old Guy, as he will eat anything, in great amounts and very quickly scarfs it down, so no chance someone else would get into his food. Sometimes we'd get him other FF classic pate very low carb flavors that we cannot let the younger cats eat. Because of this, we feed him shut in the laundry room, so he isn't disturbed or he eats too quickly and immediately barfs it right back up.
Last two weeks I see Old Guy drinking constantly through the day, and peeing like a racehorse frequently. His back legs were splaying outward and sinking halfway to flatfooted. Was feeling heartbroken that his kidneys were finally failing, or diabetes kicking up, or something else dire was starting, and this was the end for our Old Guy. Vet visits are so stressful on him, absolute terror-inducing, and with so much that has gone wrong with his health, it really is time to let him fade peacefully if that is what happens.
Then I hear hubby saying to him, "gee, what for dinner tonight? beef with gravy or chicken with gravy?" GRAVY?!! Why are you feeding ANYONE food with gravy? where did it come from??? (totally forgot about the food that came with new cat.) He says, it was in the cabinet, I figured since he can eat any flavor, I'd use it up on him. SOURCE OF HEALTH CHANGE SOLVED: THESE FOODS ARE 12-14% CARBS!!!
We threw out the last few cans of this stuff, got him back on his 2% carb Fancy Feast Turkey food. And within just a couple of days, he is no longer drinking and paddling in the water bowls all day, his peeing is back to normal, his ancient brain seems to be functioning better, and his walking posture is improving (also started giving him the last of the methylcobalamin we still had around).
Lesson learned: Don't EVER mess with the carb level of the food you feed your cat. Get it low, keep it low, don't vary it, ever.
