Cat has crystals and recently diagnosed with Triaditis

psnyder05

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Hello,
What would be the best water and food to give an older male cat that has a history of crystals/struvites but was just diagnosed with Triaditis? He’s been on Hills c/d urinary dry and quality grain-free wet food for years. Vet also had him on distilled water. This diet plus prednisolone was managing the crystals for a a few years until recently. Also, he’s an indoor cat but picked up a resistant ringworm at the vet almost a year ago. It wasn’t too problematic and seemed to be resolving itself until recently. So, vet put him on Itrafungol plus a sulphur lime dip. At the end of the third week of treatment (after 1 week off med) he just took a dive and became withdrawn and lethargic. So, I took him to the vet a few days ago and dr. diagnosed him with Triaditis. Vet said it was treatable but I’m looking into his water and diet options while he’s still there. He’s scheduled for a scan tomorrow. Bloodwork also showed slight anemia. Poor cat. He seems to have so much going on all at once. I appreciate any suggestions on a diet for his health issues. Thanks!!!
 

fionasmom

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Need Help With Feline Triaditis
Triaditis in Cats – A Common Syndrome in Our Feline Friends - CriticalCareDVM
FelinePancreatitisSupport groups.io Group

I have not personally faced triaditis and am so sorry that this is what brought you to The Cat Site. The first link contains a long discussion including a member who has a great deal of experience with intestinal issues with cats. I do want to warn you that the cat in question was also dxed with spleenic cancer and was not able to fight it. In no way am I suggesting that you will not have a better outcome.

The second link contains some information on food and supplements; however, make sure that you check any of this with your vet. I gather that there are various theories about nutrition for a cat with this condition.

The third is a support group, to which I do not belong as I have not had the occasion to join, which includes triaditis in their work. Many of these groups are highly knowledgeable and the members go out of their way to be helpful.
 

daftcat75

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Eliminating his dry food altogether would likely do wonders for both the crystals (though I have no experience with this) and the triaditis. Dry food is very dehydrating. Cats are descended from desert animals. They are meant to get their moisture from their food, not fountains. Even if you do have an avid drinker, he's still not going to get as much moisture from a fountain as he will from food.

Let's do some back of the napkin math to illustrate this.

A typical pate food might be 1.1 calories per gram at 78% moisture. Calories per gram can be found from the big ME number in Kcal/Kg divided by 1000.

A ten lbs indoor cat might need 200 calories (20 calories per lbs.)

That cat would need 182 grams of this food (200 calories divided by 1.1 calories per gram)

Of those 182 grams of food, at 78% moisture, he will consume 141 grams of moisture.

There are 240 grams of water in a cup of water. By simply getting all his nutrition from wet food, he will be consuming over half a cup of moisture (water plus broth.)

My Krista never drank this much in a day even when she was free-feeding nothing but dry food for most of her life. I didn't know the hazards of dry food until she too was diagnosed with 2/3 of the triad (IBD and pancreatitis.) She would later complete the hat trick when a broken tooth forced my hand into feeding her inflammatory food to keep her eating until her dentist appointment.

And that's the real issue with feeding dry food to a cat with IBD and pancreatitis. There are just too many unnecessary and potentially inflammatory ingredients in dry food to conduct proper food trials and trigger food eliminations.

If you're in the US or Canada, Rawz makes the best wet food for IBD kitties. Single protein and no nonsense ingredients like grains, starches, fruits, vegetables, gums, or thickeners. Krista did best on turkey, at first. And later, she had to switch to rabbit. Rawz will send you samples if you write them.
Where to Buy | RAWZ

Alternatively, many IBD kitties find relief from raw or homemade diets. If you go this route, please follow a vet-approved recipe like the ones found here:
Recipes
or
StackPath

Or use a premix supplement powder like EZ Complete, Alnutrin, TC Feline, Better in the Raw, and others. You can search or post to the Raw and Home-Cooked Cat Food Forums for more information on homemade diets.
 
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psnyder05

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Need Help With Feline Triaditis
Triaditis in Cats – A Common Syndrome in Our Feline Friends - CriticalCareDVM
FelinePancreatitisSupport groups.io Group

I have not personally faced triaditis and am so sorry that this is what brought you to The Cat Site. The first link contains a long discussion including a member who has a great deal of experience with intestinal issues with cats. I do want to warn you that the cat in question was also dxed with spleenic cancer and was not able to fight it. In no way am I suggesting that you will not have a better outcome.

The second link contains some information on food and supplements; however, make sure that you check any of this with your vet. I gather that there are various theories about nutrition for a cat with this condition.

The third is a support group, to which I do not belong as I have not had the occasion to join, which includes triaditis in their work. Many of these groups are highly knowledgeable and the members go out of their way to be helpful.
Thank you so much for the information! I will look at the links and threads. Yes, cancer was a concern on my end which is why I requested a scan. Hopefully that will pick it up if he has it too.
 

daftcat75

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Depending on how sick your cat is, he may need some IV fluids and inpatient care if his liver numbers need to be brought down.

He will almost certainly need medication to help him through pancreatitis. He will likely need an anti-nausea medication. He may also need an appetite stimulant. Though the prednisilone gives cats the munchies. Dry food is challenging for the pancreas. You will want to reduce or eliminate the dry food to help him through the pancreatitis. Dry food and pancreatitis are pretty much incompatible--like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

For IBD, the prednisilone is a good start. But you'll also want to keep a food journal and try to find which ingredients give him butt or gut distress. This is exceedingly difficult to do with dry food which often has more than one protein and too many carbs. Rawz pates are perfect for this. Once you subtract the protein from the recipe, there really isn't anything left for a cat to be reactive to. So then it's finding which protein works best with your guy.
 
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psnyder05

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Eliminating his dry food altogether would likely do wonders for both the crystals (though I have no experience with this) and the triaditis. Dry food is very dehydrating. Cats are descended from desert animals. They are meant to get their moisture from their food, not fountains. Even if you do have an avid drinker, he's still not going to get as much moisture from a fountain as he will from food.

Let's do some back of the napkin math to illustrate this.

A typical pate food might be 1.1 calories per gram at 78% moisture. Calories per gram can be found from the big ME number in Kcal/Kg divided by 1000.

A ten lbs indoor cat might need 200 calories (20 calories per lbs.)

That cat would need 182 grams of this food (200 calories divided by 1.1 calories per gram)

Of those 182 grams of food, at 78% moisture, he will consume 141 grams of moisture.

There are 240 grams of water in a cup of water. By simply getting all his nutrition from wet food, he will be consuming over half a cup of moisture (water plus broth.)

My Krista never drank this much in a day even when she was free-feeding nothing but dry food for most of her life. I didn't know the hazards of dry food until she too was diagnosed with 2/3 of the triad (IBD and pancreatitis.) She would later complete the hat trick when a broken tooth forced my hand into feeding her inflammatory food to keep her eating until her dentist appointment.

And that's the real issue with feeding dry food to a cat with IBD and pancreatitis. There are just too many unnecessary and potentially inflammatory ingredients in dry food to conduct proper food trials and trigger food eliminations.

If you're in the US or Canada, Rawz makes the best wet food for IBD kitties. Single protein and no nonsense ingredients like grains, starches, fruits, vegetables, gums, or thickeners. Krista did best on turkey, at first. And later, she had to switch to rabbit. Rawz will send you samples if you write them.
Where to Buy | RAWZ

Alternatively, many IBD kitties find relief from raw or homemade diets. If you go this right, please follow a vet-approved recipe like the ones found here:
Recipes
or
StackPath

Or use a premix supplement powder like EZ Complete, Alnutrin, TC Feline, Better in the Raw, and others. You can search or post to the Raw and Home-Cooked Cat Food Forums for more information on homemade diets.
Thank you! I’ve never been a fan of the prescription dry food because of all the fillers and grain. I was only giving it to him in the am then grain free wet novel protein from hounds and gatos or weruva, and natural balance in the pm with added water. He loves the rabbit. But with Triaditis, he could develop fatty liver with the high protein so just trying to find the right balance. Thank you for your reply.
 
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psnyder05

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Depending on how sick your cat is, he may need some IV fluids and inpatient care if his liver numbers need to be brought down.

He will almost certainly need medication to help him through pancreatitis. He will likely need an anti-nausea medication. He may also need an appetite stimulant. Though the prednisilone gives cats the munchies. Dry food is challenging for the pancreas. You will want to reduce or eliminate the dry food to help him through the pancreatitis alone.

For IBD, the prednisilone is a good start. But you'll also want to keep a food journal and try to find which ingredients give him butt or gut distress. This is exceedingly difficult to do with dry food which often has more than one protein and too many carbs. Rawz pates are perfect for this. Once you subtract the protein from the recipe, there really isn't anything left for a cat to be reactive to. So then it's finding which protein works best with your guy.
Thank you! Definitely cutting out the dry. Will look into Rawz as many have suggested.
 

daftcat75

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But with Triaditis, he could develop fatty liver with the high protein so just trying to find the right balance.
Where did you hear this? Cats don't need carbs and pancreatic cats would do well to avoid them. So that leaves fat and protein. I have heard of a low fat diet for pancreatitis. But this does not apply with cats. Fatty liver disease is brought on by an excessive amount of lipid (fat) metabolic byproducts in the liver. Usually this is the result of a cat burning their own body fat for energy because they aren't eating. But if you lower the protein, you will necessarily have to raise the fat. I'm no vet or scientist here. But it seems to me that a low protein diet might be harder on the liver than a higher protein diet. I have never heard of a cat getting fatty liver disease from their diet. It is most often not eating that causes it.
 
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