Diabetes and Food Allergies - Looking for advice/input

Hello all,

My cat Rain was recently diagnosed with diabetes (I suspect steroid induced - she received a steroid shot for her asthma 3 weeks prior to my recognizing the signs of diabetes; that was only the second time she's ever received steroids). She is currently eating Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Protein dry for a food allergy. She had chronic vomiting of partially digested food for years, along with dry scaly skin on her ears. She was on Wellness Core, then I/D, then the hydrolyzed protein diet. The hydrolyzed protein diet has had by far the results for her (she does still have occasional vomiting, but I think that's related to her habit of chewing/ingesting foreign bodies and hairballs, not the food). However, the hydrolyzed protein diet is obviously not a great choice for her diabetes.

Does anyone here have any suggestions of diabetes friendly food to try for a cat with a food allergy? Unfortunately, I don't know what she's allergic too. I've also never gotten her to eat wet food, but that will be a challenge by itself. I did see on Dr. Lisa Pierson's food chart that Addiction has several novel protein canned foods that would be appropriate for a diabetic.

 

Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient canned foods are all low carb and diabetic safe: http://www.instinctpetfood.com/instinct-limited-canned-natural-healthy-foods-pets. The most common food intolerances for cats are typically grains (rice, wheat, soy, corn) and fish, but beef can also cause issues for some cats. And I know this sounds weird, but if you're giving food or water in plastic dishes, you might want to switch to ceramic--that can also cause issues with some sensitive cats.

 

Some other brands to check out are Hound & Gatos and Ziwipeak - they have some novel proteins and are low in carbs, per Dr. Pierson's food chart.

Merrick also does a line of limited ingredient diets, but you would have to contact them to get the stats on the flavours you're interested in. There is some information in this post from yesterday - http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/merrick-nas.156595/#post-1658197

It's worth noting that Natural Balance also makes a line of limited ingredient diets, but they too high in carbs for a diabetic.

Hope that helps some. I'm currently in a similar situation - Squeak has a possible food allergy, but we're yet to narrow down what it is (or if it's a food allergy at all). She also has occasional vomiting. Right now she's eating Hill's Prescription d/d venison, but it's too high in carbs to continue. I've ordered some Tiki Cat Puka Puka Luau (ingredients are basically chicken, some oil, and vitamins) to try as an experiment - with the simplicity of the ingredient list, we should be able to figure out if she has a problem with chicken or not (at least that's my theory).

 

As well as the most common causes of allergy that Julia listed above, chicken, dairy and egg can also cause problems for some cats. And we had a cat here a while back who was allergic to duck.
As regards fish, some cats are OK with some fishes but not others. Salmon is a problem for some cats (so these cats may also have a problem with insulins like prozinc and PZI that utilise salmon protamine in their manufacture.)`

Some folks here have found that 'novel' meats like rabbit, venison, and kangaroo have been helpful for kitties with allergies/intolerances. And cats that can't eat chicken (or duck) may still be able to eat turkey...

Eliz

 

I'm hesitant to recommend Merrick's to anyone anymore. They've had several formula changes over the past few years, and a lot of flavors that were formerly ok to feed suddenly had high carb levels and high phosphorus counts. There was also a huge downturn in the quality of their ingredients. They used to be very free with releasing their as-fed values, but it's been like pulling teeth the past few years to get the newer values, and even then I don't trust some of them. That said, there probably are some of their foods that are ok to feed based on the ingredients, but all of this history makes me very nervous, and it's why I don't recommend their foods anymore.

It's such a shame, because their old formulas were so perfect for diabetic (and early stage kidney) cats in terms of nutritional content and reasonably priced. I think I'm paying twice as much for Weruva and Wellness just to get the same nutritional content I got with their old foods.

 

Thanks for pointing that out - I haven't had any firsthand experience with their limited ingredient diets as I can't purchase any of them locally (and don't want to order in a whole case if the princess can't eat it!), but mentioned them as it seems there are only a few options when it comes to novel proteins and low carbs. It's really unfortunate that they've gone downhill.

It's also too bad that they're not more open about sharing the values on their foods, but now that I see Purina owns them, it's not a surprise. I tried to get some calorie information on some flavours in one of Purina's other lines - I asked about six or seven flavours and they only gave me the values for three. I don't know what the big secret is, but it's their loss - I just bought another brand that provided the information I wanted.

Of the others, Nature's Variety was good to give some values to me over the phone when I called them, and Ziwipeak lists typical analysis values right on their website, so they might be easier options to start out with.

 

This list shows a lot of the canned foods available in North America. You want something under 10% carbs for a diabetic cat. I have one diabetic and one with allergies (IDB). Natures Variety and Ziwipeak are what allergy boy gets when he does canned food. He's on steriods (pills), so I'm keeping him on low carb. There are a lot more options out there if you do raw food. Some kitties will take to raw but not wet food.

 

Thanks for all the responses! I love the wealth of information! I've got a list of different options - I'll see about ordering some and go from there.

I'm wondering it she's allergic to chicken or fish or both. I don't think beef was in at least one of the foods she had vomiting in, but chicken and fish were. Actually, I think chicken has been in all of the diets she's been on.

My house is a ceramic bowl only zone One of my previous cats would get feline acne from the plastic bowls so I've stuck with ceramic ever since.

I actually used to feed my other sugar cat Jason Merrick, but changed to a different brand after they changed their formula and the carb content shot up (and I had difficultly getting values on the new formulas when I contacted them). I don't think I'd try them again at this point; certainly not without trying all the other options first at the least.