Food Recommendation..Previous Crystal Blockage new Diabetic

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to get a few food recommendations. Like I have put in previous posts two years ago when Dillan have a blockage due to crystals we switched him to Hill's C/D DRY food and now that he was just diagnosed with Diabetes we have switched him to Hill's M/D DRY. I know from reading around that I should switch him over to canned food and I've seen the chart with all of them but does anyone have a recommendation for Dillan who previously had crystals and now has diabetes? Do I even have to worry about crystals on a wet food? Should I add water to wet food? Thanks for all of the responses in advance.

 

Actually, dry food of any kind is the worst for a cat who has has crystals in his bladder. If you switch Dillan to a wet food that is low carb for the diabetes and add water to the food it will be much better for his urinary tract issues.

My civvie Bo was nearly blocked a year ago. We is a former stray that I was feeding and then adopted so he had been on a combo diet of dry and canned due to weather concerns. I continued to feed both when he came in. After a trip to the ER where the crystals were found I put him on a prescription canned diet for a couple of weeks. On advice from Dr Lisa here on this board I eliminated the prescription food and put him on regular wet food with water added. To date he has had no further urinary tract problems.

 

Hi Dillan,

Right off the bat I don't know specifically if there is one particular wet food for crystals. But any low carb wet food would be a welcome change.
Hoping someone can give u a bit more guidance with that.

Have u read Dr Lisa's web site on Feline Nutrition? (sorry to sound like a broken record - see your thread in Lantus forum)
She also discusses the importance of adding water to their wet food.
But Dr Lisa covers a lot of these issues in her main page, plus in the Feline Urinary Tract Health link.
http://catinfo.org/
http://catinfo.org/feline_urinary_tract_health.htm

Please DO READ this link on changing over to wet food safely while on insulin. VERY IMPORTANT.
http://catinfo.org/felinediabetes.htm

 

thanks, Ronnie. I usually don't forget to add that about safely switching to wet while on insulin. Thanks for catching that :smile:

 

A cat with crystals needs water, water, water and dry food is robbing the cat of water. Please reat www.catinfo.org for more information on the beneficial way to feed for renal and diabetic health.

 

Thank you everyone I will be trying to find a good wet food for Dillan soon. I checked for EVO at Wal-Mart but I could not find it here in Canada. I just found a place in my city that sells the EVO so I will have to go check into this. The vet told us that when Dillan got a blockage from crystals that it was caused by ash in the food that he ate and the treats. Therefore we stopped giving him any treats at all and switched him to the Hill's CD. Was anybody else told that crystals were caused by the ash in the food? Thanks

 

You can find EVO at Global Ryan Pet Foods in Canada, at least in Ontario.

If you're going with EVO you'll want EVO 95%, the label will say on it 95%.


EDIT TO ADD: I was told that about crystals years ago when Luna had it. Of course back then I was clueless about dry food, and hopped around different types of dry.

 

Does anyone even worry about ash content anymore then in their treats or not? Dillan loved his treats so I would love to give them back to him if I can especially with all of the increased poking I will be doing.

 

My recommendations and what most people here give is freeze dried treats, the concern is mainly the carb content and excess ingredients that are not needed.. like Halo's Liv-a-Littles:
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/en_US/im ... 013_Xl.jpg

And PureBites (most pet stores carry this brand)
http://www.petco.com/Assets/product_ima ... 01038C.jpg

Or Pure Snacks (a bit less $$ at Walmarts & Zellers in Canada, same company by the way)
http://goshopping.thestar.com/ss/media/ ... 397804.jpg
(even thou there is a dog pic on the packaging, it is still all 100% pure meat, both brands do carry cat packaging as well)

Your best bet is to stick with a very low carb or just 100% meat treat.

 

Did your vet tell what type of crystals? Were they struvite? If so, you can feed Friskies Special Diet. If your vet insists on Rx food, Royal Canin Urinary SO has much better ingredients than Hill's m/d.

 

Hi Mike,

You have read Dr. Lisa's site by now and you know we disagree with many vets on the subject of the so-called 'prescription' foods. The word prescription is a lie, there are no pharmaceutical ingredients in these foods. You already know these foods are made with poor ingredients and that selling this junk is a profit center for vets; in some practices that makes up 20 percent of the annual profit for the practice!

You may not have heard that vets receive no training in nutrition except for sales calls from the reps. I suspect the "ash" explanation came originally from the food manufactureres.

The diagnosis of "crystals" is also suspect. Crystals will form in most urine when it dries out. I have seen this happen with my own eyes using urine from my perfectly healthy cat so I am always suspicious.

By all means, switch Dillan to wet food and add water to it. I usually rinse the can with warm water, then spoon water from there until I get the consistency my cats like, some like it soupier than others.

I hope this helps explain some of the gaps in information you are seeing.