Thoughts on feeding an ex-diabetic cat higher-carb food

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Dana

Dana

Member Since 2012
Max has been otj for less than a year but more than half a year (I actually don't remember when I stopped giving insulin), but he has developed some kind of allergy that causes him to itch and pull all his hair out. I feed him canned wellness chicken formula, which is very low carb and grain free. The vet wants me to try Hill's hypoallergenic z/d canned because apparently they break down the proteins and many cats are allergic to a protein, but the food seems to be exceptionally high carb. (Wellness 4% carbs vs Z/D 34% carbs according to this chart: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf) My gut says nope nope nope, but my vet seems to think it's safe and he is the one who has coached me so helpfully through the diabetes in the first place. Does anyone have any experience with cats relapsing or being just fine with this kind of thing? My understanding is that low carb is appropriate for all cats, not just diabetics, and I'd hate to trade one heath problem for a worse one. Thoughts?
 
You might PM Wendy & Tiggy. She accidently gave high carb food to one of her diabetic cats, cat fell out of remission and has never been off insulin since.

I had a civie, Libby, on the Hill's Z/D. It did absolutely nothing for her constant itching and digging. She would chew her tail and back legs raw and pluck out the fur. Plus, it gave her constant diarrhea. Vet had me keep on that awful Z/D food for 6 weeks with no signs of improvement.

Allergy testing might be an idea for your cat. Find out what is causing the problem instead of hopeing that maybe a food switch will help but you chance a loss of diet controlled status. Not something anyone looks forward to, but if you need to switch the food or try steroids, then you have to do it. Kitty is not happy it sounds like and needs some relief.
 
That is so sad, and exactly what I am trying to avoid. And imagine that worst case scenario: Max is still itchy AND diabetic for the rest of his life. We are still working on a theory that it may be a flea allergy, so I'm getting really aggressive with the flea treatment, and fingers crossed that it's that. Seems a little reckless to be throwing him onto a new diet before I've 100% ruled out fleas anyway. Thanks for the doubly-enlightening post, Deb & Wink. So did you ever find relief for Libby's itching? Did you go have her tested for allergies?
 
If you feel you must switch food, try another low carb wet food like Fancy Feast or Friskies in pate form. Both my cats Dusty and Beni were on Nutro dry food all their lives. Dusty developed diabetes and Beni had been over-grooming his belly and his inside rear legs to the point of being hairless in those areas. Once Dusty was diagnosed with diabetes I changed both of them to Fancy Feast and soon after Dusty went OTJ after a week of insulin plus his new diet and Beni stopped over-grooming with most of his hair growing back. Max could well have a food allergy but don't risk his remission with a high carb diet, you have many low carb foods to experiment with.
 
Hi,
my Pudge had been OTJ for about a year when he came down with some bug - stopped eating, peeing, drinking, grooming. I syringed food for several days but became convinced that he wasn't getting enough nutrients. Vet found nothing. In desperation, I fed him a few grains of dry kitten food. My dry food addict :YMSIGH: ate the few pieces & looked for more. He got the dry food for a couple of days, at which time his BG was up to 250. I switched him back to Fancy Feast classics & started him on insulin. A few days later he was back in normal BGs :-D I was just lucky. I knew that he'd probably go off remission but I'd do that again if my choice was between a stomach tube or going off remission. I imagine high carbs will invariably lead to your cat going off remission.

Perhaps, you could try your kitty on a flavor your kitty had not had before to see if that would help? Like duck, rabbit or some venison?
Wishing you the best,
Sophie
 
@Dusty Bones I was feeding him fancy feast seafood and then non-seafood when he first started itching! I switched to wellness chicken because it seemed higher quality and better for allergies. What prompted the vet to suggest different food was that he recently developed a rodent-ulcer thing on his lip :( Forgot to mention that.
 
Have you tried feeding Evo instead? It is grain free and low carb/high protein. I used to have a dog that had food allergies and had a lot of success keeping it under control with the Natural Balance food. Their foods also have limited ingredients.
 
how about a raw food diet?

Even try STella & Chewy's freeze dried raw food for cats. It may be a good solution to the problem (assuming it is a food problem).

Maui's problem same as you are describing was caused by dry food. Not sure what it was in the dry food kibbles that caused it, once she stopped eating it, her problems cleared up.
 
I did find a partial solution for Libby's itching problem. She was allergic to grains, especially rice. And guess what? Rice is one of the main ingredients in the Z/D food. ohmygod_smile I switched her to a grain free dry food. That also cleared up her diarrhea. She never would eat much canned or raw, even though I tried at least 20 different kinds. She was a die hard dry food addict. I did get her to eat a little bit of the Fancy Feast pates, but never enough to maintain her weight with her hyperthyroidism.

I think the hyperthyroidism contributed to the itchiness. She was better once on medication, and I knew it was time for thyroid level testing if she started to dig more at herself. She was really borderline hyperthyroid, but being an older cat in the "gray zone" of the test ranges, we decided to start her on the methimazole and blood test regularly.

I think if I had been able to switch her over to a completely canned food diet, she would have been better off.

The vet also thought flea allergy for Libby, even though there was never a sign of any flea dirt on her, or my other cats, or any signs of fleas in the house. She absolutely loved, loved, loved being combed with the flea comb, so I'm sure I would have found signs of fleas if there had been any.

After the switch to the grain free and gluten free diet, she still chewed at herself and plucked her fur, but she did not chew herself raw. Her hair started to grow back.
 
RICE! In the hypoallergenic food! ohmygod_smile The pet food industry drives me bananas!

Anyway like I said, he is on a canned, grain free diet already, but I suppose there could be something in it that bugs him. I might give Evo a shot if the flea thing doesn't pan out, and raw after that. Anyone have success with Evo for a cat? If so specifically which type?

My boyfriend is convinced it's fleas, he insists he found one flea on him one time, and we do have a friend who comes over with his dog covered in fleas (I finally put my foot down about that!) but I've honestly never seen one on him myself. I'll vacuum the house very thoroughly, give it a few weeks, see where we're at.

In the meantime, does anyone know of anything soothing I could bathe him with/spray on him/do? I tried this spray in a black bottle that smelled like flowers that was "guaranteed!" to stop itching, but no luck. Has anyone tried the shampoo that goes with it? I tried feliway because why not and no help there. I even tried changed his litter, nada.

Thank you all for the informative posts :mrgreen:
 
Hello,
Vetericyn wound & skin care spray might be helpful. No prescription & can be bought over the internet. Can be licked by animals with no problem. I've used it & so has my daughter for cats, dogs, & horses. If you do buy it, please click the Amazon button at the top of this web page so this board gets some benefit from your purchase.
Best wishes,
Sophie
 
Sophie, thanks! I'll give it a try! Good to know about that link. Can I do that with everything I buy on Amazon?! Or only pet related stuff? I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon, I'd love to be able to give back to the site that way!
 
As long as your are signed on here and click on any of the shopping links at the top of the page, this site gets a little bit of money to keep it going. So for your Amazon purchases, sign on here first, and it's good for everything you buy, not just pet related.
 
DONT DO IT!! My Tiggy was in remission and I gave him 14% .. just 14%!!! wet food by mistake (due to a food allergy - the vet told me it was low carb!) for 4 weeks and he fell out of remission. That was 2 years ago now and I doubt he will ever go back in.

The wellness chicken contains : Chicken, Chicken Liver, Turkey, Chicken Broth So I would try and find a food like rabbit, fish, venison or duck that doesn't have chicken or turkey in it. Maybe the wellness beef and salmon and if the itching stops then introduce a food with either turkey or chicken and see. You need to test the food for a couple of weeks though to be sure.

My Bailey is allergic to chicken too and he is ok eating a mix of fancy feast chicken and fancy feast turkey but I can't give him freeze dried chicken at all or he starts to rub at his eyes and the fur comes out.

Wendy
 
Aaaah Wendy that's so sad, I'm sorry.
Really good suggestion, I just checked out the ingredients/calories and I'm going to switch to beef and salmon today. Until just now I thought it couldn't be chicken because when he first started the itching, he was eating Fancy Feast seafood flavors, and I switched him because I heard seafood could make cats itchy. Well I just revisited the ingredients for Fancy Feast seafood and what do I find? Meat by-products in all of them! I suppose that probably involves at least a little chicken. ohmygod_smile

Crossing my fingers.
 
Are you sure it's a food allergy? I've seen this with cats allergic to fleas....just one bite and they're itchy all over and pulling out their fur. Food may be a non issue....
 
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