Novel Proteins: Any Better Than Others For Ibd/pancreatic Cat?

[daftcat75]

Since switching Krista to raw and avoiding chicken, she's been doing awesome and I look forward to trying new proteins with her. Right now, turkey is her home base. I introduced duck but I think it's too rich/fatty for her. That got me thinking. Are some proteins better than others for the formerly pancreatic cat with well-managed IBD? Earlier this summer, she had an fPLI of 35(!), a measure of pancreatic enzyme leakage as happens in pancreatits. It's down to 2. Well within normal range now. But often times she still looks rough after eating--like "who's eating who?" kind of rough. She still resets in two or three hours and wants to eat again. No vomiting, normal stools, just this rough hour. I know cats aren't people but low fat is recommended for humans with pancreatitis. I don't see any similar recommendation for cats. Should I look for leaner proteins? Besides turkey and duck, I also have vension, elk, and lamb for her in my freezer to try and I can source bison and wild boar fairly easily. Would venison or wild boar be the leaner of those?

 

[kittyluv387]

Have you tried rabbit? It's quite lean.

 

[Wile]

I was thinking rabbit too. It's the leanest that I know of.

 

[daftcat75]

She loves rabbit! It is harder to source though. I can probably work it out with the local raw food coop when I finally become a member. The game meats I can pick up at Sprouts.

 

[daftcat75]

But is leaner really necessary for pancreatic cats or is that just another misguided extrapolation of human physiology to felines?

 

[Wile]

She loves rabbit! It is harder to source though. I can probably work it out with the local raw food coop when I finally become a member. The game meats I can pick up at Sprouts.

It must just be a difference of what's available in your area. Most of the grocery stores around me are carrying fresh and frozen rabbit these days. Seems like eating rabbit is fashionable.

 

[Wile]

But is leaner really necessary for pancreatic cats or is that just another misguided extrapolation of human physiology to felines?

I've read somewhere that cats in general do very well with lean diets (and have trouble with fats? but that seems suspicious to me...), but I can't recall a source. No idea about pancreatitis, sorry.

 

[kittyluv387]

But is leaner really necessary for pancreatic cats or is that just another misguided extrapolation of human physiology to felines?

1 bruce 1 Can you provide any input for the above question? I remember you mentioning something about high fats and pancreatic issue.

 

[daftcat75]

It must just be a difference of what's available in your area. Most of the grocery stores around me are carrying fresh and frozen rabbit these days. Seems like eating rabbit is fashionable.

I could probably find whole dressed rabbit at the market. But Krista doesn't do well with bone and I don't have a grinder. And I don't trust any meat in the refrigerated section because they often do shady stuff to make old meat last longer. So yeah. Not likely to find a boneless grind of rabbit at Sprouts or Whole Foods. Unless rabbit burgers become a popular thing.

 

[kittyluv387]

I've read somewhere that cats in general do very well with lean diets (and have trouble with fats? but that seems suspicious to me...), but I can't recall a source. No idea about pancreatitis, sorry.

Cats actually need a decent amount of fat. But it is possible to go overboard.

 

[mschauer]

This might help:

http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/managing-pancreatitis-cats-proceedings?pageID=2

The diet chosen should be highly digestible and palatable, but the concept of low fat diet to reduce stimulation of pancreatic secretions is not recognized as an important aspect of therapy (as it is in dogs) due to the different causes and histologic type (LP) pancreatitis

 

[1 bruce 1]

This might help:

http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/managing-pancreatitis-cats-proceedings?pageID=2

kittyluv387 this makes sense to me now.
If I had a cat develop pancreatitis I would want to know what the cause was and if it's a one time deal from eating something really bad, or if it's a chronic problem that will take more long term care. I'd probably start out low fat just to give the pancreas a rest (after an attack) for a week or two and gradually add fattier foods and see how they do with each one.
Our cats like duck, but none of them do well on duck or lamb on a long term basis fed over a long time period. A friend of mine has a cat with IBD, she was giving 3 proteins and one was duck. Anytime she fed duck, the cat had really sloppy looking poop.

 

[mschauer]

For what it's worth, my vet did not recommend a special diet for my cat with pancreatitis but she did recommend a raw diet for my ibd kitty.

 

[daftcat75]

Anytime she fed duck, the cat had really sloppy looking poop.

I might be seeing some of this. I was thinking it was because I have been inconsistent with the proportion and composition of her diet and that over the next few more days, I’ll reassess. She’s eating a balanced duck again with Better In the Raw as of yesterday. Before that she was eating just the naked duck for a couple of days because EZ Complete wasn’t working out for her. I figure this is only 1/4 of her meals. This batch will last us a couple weeks to see how duck and the Better In the Raw really treats her when things aren’t changing every couple of days.

 

[1 bruce 1]

I might be seeing some of this. I was thinking it was because I have been inconsistent with the proportion and composition of her diet and that over the next few more days, I’ll reassess. She’s eating a balanced duck again with Better In the Raw as of yesterday. Before that she was eating just the naked duck for a couple of days because EZ Complete wasn’t working out for her. I figure this is only 1/4 of her meals. This batch will last us a couple weeks to see how duck and the Better In the Raw really treats her when things aren’t changing every couple of days.

Good plan!

When Baby Girl was little she'd throw up rabbit, so we stopped giving it to her.
Then I got into a rush and fed everyone one night, and fed all the cats rabbit, realized what I'd done and got the clean up supplies ready. For some reason, she was fine, and has been fine since then.
One of our male cats will throw up (and usually projectile ) on beef or anything related to beef (bison, elk, etc.) as an entire meal. If he gets nothing but beef or elk or whatever he puts his stomach on reverse. But for whatever weird reason, if his meal is mostly something else with a bit of it on the side, he's 100% perfect.

 

[daftcat75]

Good plan!

When Baby Girl was little she'd throw up rabbit, so we stopped giving it to her.
Then I got into a rush and fed everyone one night, and fed all the cats rabbit, realized what I'd done and got the clean up supplies ready. For some reason, she was fine, and has been fine since then.
One of our male cats will throw up (and usually projectile ) on beef or anything related to beef (bison, elk, etc.) as an entire meal. If he gets nothing but beef or elk or whatever he puts his stomach on reverse. But for whatever weird reason, if his meal is mostly something else with a bit of it on the side, he's 100% perfect.

Tough critics our cats are.

I finally thawed a 5# chub of turkey enough to slice it in 1# chunks which I will turn into her Rad Cat replacement: Better In The Raw. I kind of wanted to test it with her on duck because I couldn’t take that kind of rejection if I pit it against Rad Cat and she refused it. But now that I see she’ll eat the duck with the mix just the same as without, that’s a go to start the transition. Once we’re good on the new food I can try the game meats. Or rabbit. But I already know she loves rabbit. She doesn’t like pate anymore but she will eat most of a portion if it’s the Rawz rabbit. I put it in the rotation for the sitter but now she’s had enough of it. I’m sure she’ll be happy to get raw rabbit again. She briefly had Rawr, a local raw grind brand but that’s not Rawz. She loved it but the bone bunged her up.

She’s had a few bites of pan-fried beef when I tried to get her eating during pancreatic flare-up. It was one of the few foods she ate. But I haven’t tried Rawz or raw (or Rawr but we’re done with that brand.). When we do try red meat again, it will be 7 g at a time as a tweener (between meals meal.). If she does okay with that, I can increase to half an ounce, and add 1/4 oz every couple of days if the returns are positive until she’s up to her 2 oz limit. That’s the size of her stomach. It’s taken me far too long and far too many messes to learn that.

 

[Tillybug]

My ibd/gastro nightmare Bengal I rotate between rabbit, quail, pork, turkey and duck.

Rabbit is by far his #1. I’m lucky I’ve sourced a local lady that breeds meat rabbits and I get them fresh, ground in about a days notice.

I offset the cost of the rabbit and quail with inexpensive pork and turkey. I can buy whole ducks here for about $15.

He definitely can’t have chicken but does fine with egg and chicken liver which I use when grocery store stuff is missing organs.

I’d suggest joining a raw feeding local fb page. That’s how I found all my suppliers.

I’ve also discovered that certain food distributors he won’t eat.

I generally give him a different protein every meal to keep him interested.