Can Raw Cause Sugar In Urine And Raise Ph?

sabrinah

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I got a confusing voicemail from the vet about my cat's urinalysis. He said there's nothing abnormal, yet there's some sugar in the urine and the pH is a bit basic. Because she's not showing symptoms of anything and her bloodwork was great he's saying it's due to her food being left in the refrigerator for "quite some time." This vet doesn't know raw is half her diet, and her food is only in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It takes 12 hours just for it to thaw out most of the way.

Can raw feeding cause sugar in the urine and raise pH? Maybe the food is in the freezer too long? I make one month of food at a time, but I can cut it back to 2 weeks of food at a time.
 

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I got a confusing voicemail from the vet about my cat's urinalysis. He said there's nothing abnormal, yet there's some sugar in the urine and the pH is a bit basic. Because she's not showing symptoms of anything and her bloodwork was great he's saying it's due to her food being left in the refrigerator for "quite some time." This vet doesn't know raw is half her diet, and her food is only in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It takes 12 hours just for it to thaw out most of the way.

Can raw feeding cause sugar in the urine and raise pH? Maybe the food is in the freezer too long? I make one month of food at a time, but I can cut it back to 2 weeks of food at a time.
That's very strange. I've never heard of it doing that, and if the food was in the fridge for "quite some time" I would expect most cats to refuse it if it's starting to go a little off.
What's her other half diet?
 
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sabrinah

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The other half is just American Journey dry. I'm going to call and ask them to email me copies of the reports and have the vet explain what the heck all that means.

I looked up the sugar thing and one website, vetsulin, says "Although it is common for non-diabetic cats to develop transient hyperglycemia in times of stress, such as during blood sample collection, the urine glucose should be negative in a non-diabetic cat"

She doesn't have any symptoms of diabetes which is why the vet isn't concerned about the sugar. She isn't drinking or urinating more, she's not hungrier than usual, and she's actually gained half a pound since her last vet visit. I expect the extra half a pound to come off when the weather is nice enough to take her on short walks in the yard. She also ate 2 hours before the appointment so maybe that affected something?
 
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sabrinah

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Oh, and he didn't mention high glucose in her blood test, so that makes things even weirder.

Vetsulin says "To conserve glucose within the body, the kidneys do not filter glucose out of the blood stream into the urine until an excessive level is reached. This means that cats with normal blood glucose levels will not have glucose in the urine. Diabetic cats, however, have excessive amounts of glucose in the blood, so it spills into the urine."

If she doesn't have high blood glucose but she still has it in her urine, my only guess is a combination of stress and eating before her test (which they said she could do).
 

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Someone out there has to know more about this than I do :(
I think I read once that crystals in cat urine is normal, but I don't know where the sugar comes into this.
The only science training I have is building a baking soda/vinegar volcano in the sink to clean the garbage disposal so I'm no help here, but I would think sugar = carbs (unless there's diabetes) and I'd wonder about the dry food too.
Would @Furballsmom know anyone who might have some input?
 
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sabrinah

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I just got off the phone from the vet and I have a few answers.

When he was talking about the length of time the food was in the refrigerator, he misspoke and meant the urine sample. Her appointment was early in the day (8 am) so it was in the refrigerator until around 3 pm when the samples are picked up and taken to the lab (don't know transit time, but since this is a rural area it's probably a decently long drive). He said the urea can break down throughout the day and cause a rise in pH, as can eating before the sample was taken. The blood sugar in the urine is probably due to stress. The protein was a little high but that was expected because her sample was extremely concentrated. Should I be proud of her super concentrated urine? Yay for water conservation, I suppose. She has no crystals and no bacteria.

So for future reference, spending too much time in storage before testing can cause an erroneously high pH level in cat urine, and stress can cause glucose in the urine.

I really miss our old vet that had a full lab. All samples were done immediately so nothing ever had a chance to break down.

I'm still waiting for the results to be emailed to me so I know exactly how high the pH was. If they don't get them to me by the time they close I'm calling the second they open in the morning.
 
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