? for friend with cat that has crystals and diabetes

I'm trying to get some advice for a friend. Her cat (Chubbs - and yes he is chubby :smile: ) is currently eating hills cd dry i beleive, he was put on that for crystals a while back. Just recently he was dxd with diabetes also, actually it was 2 days before Harry. He was put on 2u Prozinc bid but he just went in for a curve and they upped his dose to 3u bid. I'm hoping since she has seen the success I have had with Harry I will be able to convince he to change his diet but wanted some input first as I don't know alot about crystals. I see that Friskies has canned called Special Diet for Urinary Health, would that be a good reccomendation for her? Also if I can convice her to change diet and home test what would be the best way to do that, would you just stop insulin for a day or so to see what happens or just lower the dose, maybe 1u? Since Harry had such quick success with the diet change I never learned alot about when to change dose etc. Btw this is day 7 with no shot

Thanks
Sharon

 

Hi Sharon...I don't have any advice- I am anxious to see what advice you are given as I am traveling a similar path myseld with Judah. I do have him on all wet RX for the bladder.

I know you will get some guidance from these guys to help your friend out. I am thinking it is best to get him off dry completely according to what I am reading about diabetes as well as crystals.

 

Look here:
http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

 

Definitely check out the link that Larry posted--ANY canned food will help the UT problems better than a dry UT diet will. The main cause of UT issues is that cats are constantly dehydrated from the lack of moisture in their food on a dry diet.

The Friskies Special Diet flavors are great to feed a cat with UT issues--but not because they really do anything to alter the urinary pH--rather they allow enough moisture in the system to prevent blockages, and they are low in carbohydrates so they will benefit the cat in that regard as well.

 

Thanks. Thats what I was thinking also but wanted to confirm it before I start to pester her about diet change :lol:

 

A fun fact about Friskie's Special Diet pates--since these are pretty much the only cheaper canned foods lower in phosphorus, I was concerned about feeding them to my cat with renal insufficiency (cats with kidney disease should not have acidified foods), so I called Purina and asked how much the food affected urine pH--and they told me their Special Diet foods are formulated to maintain a pH of 6.3, which is about what most commercial canned cat foods are formulated to maintain (and which is acceptable for a cat with kidney disease).

 

I found this interesting on Dr. Lisa's web site: Many 'urinary tract' diets - including some of the prescription diets - overly acidify the diet past what would be normal for a cat eating a species-appropriate diet. These diets can dissolve struvite stones but will lead to other problems, such as calcium oxylate stones, if they are fed past the therapeutic time frame

Any regular canned food with extra water added to it will do just fine for most cats :smile:

 

It continues to baffle me why some vets RX dry food for any urinary system problem, when common sense says "flush the system - frequently". How does dehydrating the cat help flush the system? Fluids... water, canned or raw food, etc. is the only way to go. How often have you ever heard of a human with a bladder infection or kidney infection being told to drink less and switch their diet to include only dried fruit and beef jerky ? Sheeeesh!

 

My cat that was diagnosed with diabetes over a year ago was eating Hill's CD mostly dry but with a can every now and then. I was giving all four of my cats this food because one of his siblings had stones and had PU surgery to enlarge the opening so he could pass the calcium oxalate stones. I wanted all of them to eat that so none of the others would have stones. But my large cat was then diagnosed with diabetes and needed to eat more protein. My diabetic got off insulin after he began eating a high protein diet. (he also had a hypo event because of the high dose and the diet change so watch out for that). Anyway, my crystal kitty is doing fine now eating the same canned food (Wellness Turkey only) as my OTJ kitty. I add a lot of water to the canned food so that he gets plenty of fluid. Because of the PU surgery which enlarged the opening, he had a lot of E. Coli infections. We now have him on a Cranberry Extract daily and it seems to help. The Cranberry Extract is one that does not have glusomine in it in case my OTJ grabs a cranberry treat. The ones we use are really for dogs. they are Potassium Citrate Plus Cranberry Chewable tablets from Pala-Tech. Both the OTJ kitty and the crystal kitty are doing really good right now. Hope it continues. Good luck to your friend.

 

Thanks for all the advice. She is definetly thinking about it - she would have to use the friskies or 9lives because she has 9 other cats that she would have to switch over and the more expensive ones would just be to expensive. I will be sure to mention about adding water to the food...

 

What about the higher quality foods that come in the large 13 oz cans? Wellness and Innova EVO are two that I know of. The larger cans are suitable for a multi-cat household.

But there's nothing wrong with Friskies or any other lesser expensive brand :smile: Whatever canned food brand the cat will eat to keep the urinary tract healthy is all that matters :smile: