Finding a food for a Pancreatitis and Diabetic cat.

[jen]

Background:

Kinks) 14 year old cat started losing weight and had some diarrhea. Ran some tests and she has Pancreatitis. She is on Prednisolone, cerenia, famotidine and metronidizole. About 4 days in. This is the second round of cerenia and metro. All the rest of her blood work, thyroid, diabetes, etc tests are perfect.

Eos) Boyfriends cat, 12 years old, diagnosed diabetic 3 years ago. About 6 months ago I started the process of weaning her off the diabetic food. First I switched her from the dry Purina diabetic management diet to a high protein dry and wet combo. Did great so after a few months I did a glucose curve and started weaning her off insulin. She was on 3 units twice a day once upon a time, and is now at 1.5 units once a day. Each time I lower it I do a curve and her numbers are great.

So what I am hoping for are some thoughts as to a happy healthy food that could be appropriate for a diabetic cat long term that isn't prescription. The pancreatitis cat will eat anything but of course I want to find something appropriate for her health.

honestly they both will pretty much eat anything I give them. Any thoughts? Brands? Raw? Anything will help here. I firmly believe many cats health issues relate to their diets and that most of the mainstream food is garbage for carniverous cats. Kinks has always been on grain fee diets and I know figuring out what caused Pancreatitis is very hard in cats. Eos has been on garbage food her whole life which I am sure didn't help with her diabetes. 

Thanks in advance!!

 

[LTS3]

Have you looked around the FelineDiabetes.com board for food suggestions that are diabetic and pancreatitis friendly? That would be the best place to look if you haven't already done so. I did a quick search and found several threads from the past few years on the topic. Raw and homecooked are definitely options if that is something you are interested in. The raw recipie at Catinfo.org is popular.

 

[lisamarie12]

Sorry you are dealing with these health issues Jen, regarding your cat and your boyfriend's kitty. It does sound like you are slowly making some progress, however, and that is good news.

My humble recommendations regarding appropriate foods for both the kitty with pancreatitis and the one with diabetes would also be LTS3's suggestions: raw or home cooked, properly supplemented, would be fine options. A commercial raw diet, either frozen or freeze dried is another possibility or a low carb canned food diet.

Pancreatitis kitties do better on lower fat foods, generally. Diabetic cats, low carb for sure (cats generally don't require carby diets, they don't produce enough amylase to digest those carbs).

Remember that grain free in no way means starch free. Also keep in mind that dry food, even if it's Rx, has to go through an extrusion process and carbohydrates are the binders that hold together / make those little pellets, that's a fact. (You can Google how kibble is made.)

While some kibble may be lower in carbs than others, dry kibble still has more carbs than what obligate carnivores need.

The canned foods lower in fat / carbs, as well as the quality of meat that I would feel comfortable feeding or have fed my own cats:

Feline Natural, Tiki Cat (avoid their fish formulas or keep to a minimum), TC's Succulent Chicken, Chick/Egg, TC's Gourmet Carnivore line, Weruva's Quick n' Quirky chick/turk. Nature's Variety LID canned rabbit, only (the others are on the fatty side).

Frozen raw: Rad Cat, Primal, Nature's Variety Instinct. There are a few others that are newer and getting good reviews but I can't remember the names now and they are available via mail order only through company web sites instead of stores, the latter assuming it's more convenient.

Freeze dried raw (must be rehydrated): Feline Natural, Primal, Fresh Is Best.

Homemade raw (meats from Hare Today, specifically for raw feeders) or home cooked premixes, either EZ Complete for boneless raw meats and home cooked boneless, Alnutrin for homemade raw for both raw with meat / organ / bone; also available for boneless.

Hope this helps, good luck to you.