? What about DOG food?

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Teo

Teo

Member Since 2020
Hello! We've been feeding our diabetic cat Viamo the best canned food we could find on sale im our city: Vitalcan Complete. We're from Argentina, and this being a local company, we found it ideal that they had this food which was low on carbs.

My question is simple. We found out there is a version of the same canned food marketed for dogs. Just that the nutritional information is exactly the same. (the only difference is on maximum calcium and phosphorus ammounts: they are slightly higher in the dog's version, but only by 0,3%, which seems a tiny ammount.)

Would it be ok to feed our cat with it?

There's an extra reason why this question is important for me. It turns out that the company that makes this pet food has actually stopped the production of this particular product. We've contacted the company itself and there are no signs that it will be produced again soon. The cans are still available at stores, and it doesn't seem to be a particularly popular product, so we'll have some more time to buy it, but we know sooner or later it will all run out. If we could count on the dogs version too, that would make a big difference for us.

So, it seems that our long-term solution to Viamo's food will be to cook our own, and we have already started experimenting with this, but for the time being we would prefer to depend on canned food.
 
Dog food does not usually have enough taurine for cats.
What is the taurine content of the Vitalcan dog food Teo?
 
In both products taurine is given an ingredient, but no specific amount is specified. So you are right, the one for dogs could easily have less taurine. I will check the website to see if there's more specific information but I really doubt it.
 
Taurine is an absolute essential for cats. I can't remember the specifics but there's something about protein levels in cat food that make it unsuitable for dogs, it's why cheese is a bad idea for dogs. That won't affect you but it gives you an idea about how quickly this can get complicated.
I don't know if Taurine can be added later, I've asked more than one vet and the answer is always "why would you need to do that?"
 
Taurine is available in pill form as well as a powder. Thanks for mentioning "add it later" Dickson.

Jogged my memory for me. One of my cats with hyperthyroidism and Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) was prescribed Taurine from the vet. For the IBD.

Teo, remember in your old thread. When Veronica & Babu-chiri were telling you about where to order supplements internationally?
She mentioned https://www.iherb.com/ and vitacost.com that ship internationally.
Taurine comes in a powder. It is also available in pill form.
You would want to look for unflavored, no sugars.

How much to give is the question. According to Dr. Lisa Pierson's homemade cat food recipe, each 3 pounds of meat needs 2000 mg of taurine.

Not sure how much the dog food cans weigh, so not sure how much taurine you should add to each can of dog food.

Veronica had said "That being said I'm home cooking my cat's food using Dr. Lisa's recepy this is the link https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/"

I looked at the Vitalcan website and the 2 dog foods that are listed in the Vitalcan Complete line. I did not see taurine listed for either of the dog foods. The label on the can you have may say "taurine".

Are you seeing that Teo?

I went to the Spanish language version of the Vitalcan website. Looks to me like they are discontinuing all their canned food products. For cats and dogs. For both the Vitalcan Complete and the Vitalcan Balanced, the website only lists the dry bagged foods now.

Only the English language version lists canned cat and dog foods in these 2 lines as being available.

Recommend ordering the vitamin and mineral supplements you need as soon as possible. Veronica said it takes more time for shipping than the companies tell you.
 
Teo, There is also a new Mexico & Argentina food list.
Unfortunately, the Vitalcan foods that are no longer available are on there.
We added them after you had joined the group.

But there may be more foods on this list that would be ok for Viamo to eat.
MEXICO AND ARGENTINA FOOD CHARTS data complied by Veronica & Babuchiri (Jan 25, 2020)

Any of the foods and flavors, highlighted in green in the % cals carbs column, are ok for a diabetic cat to eat.

This is another option for you, to find foods that are ok for Viamo.
 
Just about time for another dose increase.
From 3.5 Units to 4 Units.
After the AMPS cycle today, that will have been 6 cycles on this 3.5U dose.

Viamo has not had consistent nadirs <300 on this 3.5U dose.
He only had 1 cycle on 2/25/2020 where he dropped into the yellows for nadir.

You should increase to 4U with the PMPS cycle.
Unless Viamo gets some really low numbers in todays AM cycle.
 
Viamo got down into the blue range colors on the spreadsheet!
Yeah Viamo!!!!

You may want to hold this 3.5U dose for Viamo for another cycle or 2.
I'm not positive on that Teo and Ana.
Todays AMPS (morning dosing cycle) makes 6 cycles on this 3.5U dose.

Deb & Wink said:
You should increase to 4U with the PMPS cycle.
Unless Viamo gets some really low numbers in todays AM cycle.
Click to expand...
I did say this early today, back at post #7.

So, since Viamo did have some lower numbers today, you may want to hold the dose a little while longer.
 
Would you create a new thread for today, over in the Lantus ISG forum please.
Get some other more experienced people to look at Viamo's SS (spreadsheet).
 
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