? Diet: Prescription vs OTC vs Raw

Hello! New to the boards and also new to feline diabetes. My kitty was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago. As of now, I've been able to gain control of his numbers & have been able to give him increasingly lower doses of insulin. Hoping that possible remission is in his future.

As soon as kitty was diagnosed, I immediately (cold turkey) changed his diet from 100% dry food (Halo's Spots Stew Sensitive ) to 100% wet food (Hill's Prescription W/D wet canned $$$). A risky move, I know as I was simultaneously beginning insulin. However, with home BG testing it felt right to make a drastic change.

I am very pleased with the direction kitty's health is going in and don't plan on changing his diet again until he is completely stable. Thinking long-term however, I obviously want the best diet for him that I can afford. The Hills W/D he is on now is pricey and I'm not sure it's the best quality food.

What are everyone's thoughts on Prescription vs OTC (Fancy Feast Classics) vs a raw/homemade diet for a diabetic cat?

Some say raw/homemade diets are surprisingly cost effective. Does anyone have experience with this they would be willing to share?

I have heard mixed things regarding all three diets but I wanted to pose this question to a family of diabetic cat parents.

A big thank you to this website and all of the people who contribute to these boards. Your words have empowered, enlightened and comforted me.

 

W/D is really NOT low carb....it's 25% carbs and we want them eating diets under 10%...it's also garbage....one of it's ingredients is "powdered cellulose"...that's a nice way of saying "sawdust"

Fancy Feast Classics, Friskie Pate's and 9Lives pates are all low carb and actually better (ingredient wise) than W/D

HERE'S a list that's been provided by a veterinarian that has a keen interest in feline diabetes and feline nutrition that lists most foods and their carb content. (column C)

Also, there's a good raw diet recipe on her website Feeding Your Cat....along with a LOT of other great information on feline nutrition

Raw is the most perfect food for a cat since it's most like they'd naturally eat, but not all of them will eat it. It can take a lot of time to get some cats to transition onto it, so before I'd go and try to make my own, I'd try one of the commercially available ones like Natures Variety, RadCat or Primal....they have frozen raw food available you can keep frozen until you're ready to feed

 

The W/D had been recommended to me by two vets. I don't think I will be repurchasing for the reason you mentioned (bad ingredients) & $$$.

Thank you for the info & links! I have some homework to do.

 

Vets get very little education during schooling on nutrition (less than 1 day) and what continuing education on nutrition they do get, they get from Hills salesmen....they also have a profit motive to push that stuff.

Here's a great article on "The truth behind prescription foods" to add to your reading

 

I feed Fancy Feast Classic mixed with Nature's Variety Raw. I never thought my cats would eat raw but I was pleasantly surprised; however, I'm not sure they would eat it by itself.

 

China eats Natures Variety Frozen Raw chicken medallions at Pre-shot meals and then gets 4% Fancy Feast for her mid-cycle snacks

 

What's up with that?! Human medical doctors also do not receive a significant amount of training in nutrition. As consumers/patients become more educated on the correlation of diet and wellness, I hope we will see a shift in the way ALL medical professionals are trained.

Thank you for sharing that article. It's no surprise the prescription food's operate with vets much like the drug industry and our doctors. Sigh.

Honestly, now I feel like immediately returning all of the w/d I have and at the very least going out to buy some canned Fancy Feast Classic until I can create a more ideal diet for kitty. Fancy Feast has such a negative connotation in my mind, it's odd to think it's better than the prescription food. That's marketing for ya!

 

We suggest just that to pretty much everyone!! The W/D has a "guarantee" so you can take it back....just say your cat refuses to continue eating it and use the money you get back to buy extra strips for your meter, another type of food or a new toy for your baby!

HOWEVER, if you do reduce the carbs, it's important to be testing (as you know!) We've seen cats drop up to 200 points just by dropping high carb food

You say you're home testing....We have a great spreadsheet we use here that helps us to help you that we'd love for you to use. Here are Instructions on setting up the FDMB spreadsheet

Our spreadsheet is a very valuable tool that we all use so we can help each other make good decisions when it comes to dose changes.

Could you also add some information to your signature? Most of us have a lot of basic information in our signatures that answer the questions we'd all need to ask any time you asked for our help/opinions. It should include your name/cats name, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of meter, type of food, any other health problems and a general location of where you live......the link to your spreadsheet would also go into the signature box.

 

That's exactly what I did, just told the vet my kitty didn't like it. I didn't have any problems returning it.

 

Thank you for the tip. I have updated my signature with info & spreadsheet. I have a spreadsheet I had created on my own...a little bit of a different format but I think pretty easy to understand.

I will go out today to return his food and get some FFC. I always check BG before shooting and if possible during insulin peak. Fingers crossed that I will be able to heal him with tight regulation and proper diet change.

He has been eating 1 can of the w/d per day (1/2 in the AM and 1/2 in the PM). Does anyone have any idea about quantity with the FFC?

 

How much does Bacio weigh?? And is he overweight, underweight or about right?

One 5.5oz can of W/D is only 127 calories, which is VERY low (especially for most Maine Coon's) There's a general formula you can use to start with on calories per day and then weigh him once/week and adjust as needed to get the results you want. The formula is [weight in lbs X 13.5] + 70, so for a 12lb cat, that would be 232 calories. On the food chart I linked above, the calories per can are listed to the far right. Depending on the flavor of FF, they run in the 80-90 calorie per can range

It'd be better if you'd go ahead and use our spreadsheet.....If you look at China's, you'll see it's color coded...that REALLY helps when we are looking at spreadsheets to look for "patterns" that are important to watch for. The other members here are also used to using ours, so it'll save time...and if there's a crisis, you don't want people spending extra time trying to learn something different.

Another thing I want to just mention....I see you're using Novolin...We really don't recommend that for cats because it's very harsh, hits hard and fast and usually wears off before 12 hours. The best insulins are Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc which are very gentle and long lasting. Now we have had a few success stories with Novolin, but almost all of the time, when people have changed, their cats have done MUCH better on the longer lasting and gentler insulins.

Keep asking questions! The people here are great about sharing their time and experiences!

 

Bacio weighs 13.7lbs. The vet has said he does not think he is overweight for his build.

I had printed out feeding guidelines from Hill's website as I was shocked the recommended feeding was 2+ cans a day (seemed like a ton of food)! I took it to my vet who told me to just feed him one can...I had an instinctive feeling knowing this is a weight-management/diet food that it would not be as calorie dense and that is why I was asking but I went along with what the vet said...Your thoughts have confirmed again the need to switch to something different. Thank you!

I will look into the community charts. Thanks again!