low fat hypoallergenic food for senior cat with pancreatitis?

tansycat

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Would welcome any suggestions as I don't see any that fit both of these requirements... (?). Vet has said no fat. Allergens also hard on pancreas and she has skin flaking. She is overweight and has been a longterm diet food eater. She will eat wet or dry.  Thank you.
 

ldg

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What proteins have been in the food she was eating?

One thing that will reduce the stress on her body is feeding her wet food only. :nod: The moisture in the food "lubricates" her entire system, and makes digesting everything easier. http://www.catinfo.org

In fact, that website (catinfo.org - it is written by a vet) has a list of commercial cat foods, and lists the percentage of protein, fat, and carbohydrates on a dry matter basis (to find appropriate foods, you have to use the dry matter basis: that "removes" the water content from the food for analysis, so you're looking at "just" the nutrients, not how much water is in there). http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods

Unfortunately, most of the low fat foods are fish-based, and that's not healthy either - and definitely not hypoallergenic. :sigh:

But the list may help you identify low-fat foods - from there, you can check ingredients, and see what the protein source is.

Have you asked your vet why the low fat? I ask, because if it's due to the pancreatitis, that is appropriate advice for dogs, but it's not current at all for cats. Cats are not small dogs, and fat has been shown to be unrelated to pancreatitis in cats. If he's got another reason for it, fine. But my cat just went through a short bout of acute pancreatitis, and my vet didn't want her on a low fat diet, she just wanted her on a highly digestible diet.

This page has a number of links you may find helpful: http://www.ibdkitties.net/pancreatitis.html

From an article written by the Head of Internal Medicine for the IDEXX labs:

High-fat foods are not implicated in causing pancreatitis in cats; however, some internists avoid feeding high-fat diets when treating these cats.
Here is the link to the article: http://www.idexx.com/pubwebresource...ng-pancreatitis-and-concurrent-conditions.pdf

In fact, my vet had us continue the salmon oil supplement we normally feed our cat (500mg a day), because it has anti-inflammatory properties that can be healing in cases related to inflammation.

Vibes for you and your girl. :vibes: :vibes: :vibes:
 
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tansycat

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Thank you for all of these helpful suggestions!  That is really helpful. I will check the links.

I have greatly reduced dry food (I thought she might have a kidney problem because she was drinking a lot of water).  She was eating Go for Seniors dry food which is turkey, salmon, and duck (high protein). I was moistening it with water.  I switched her recently to Natural Choice for seniors, which is chicken and rice because I thought this might help with her skin allergy.  

Her wet food was predominantly chicken or turkey based but it was Fancy Feast, which I see is considered pretty junky. No more Fancy Feast... since sickness, she has tried different prescription diets from Hills and Medi-Cal and has gobbled up all of them (except for 2 days when she wouldn't eat anything at all except a couple of treats which I mixed an anti-nausea medication with).   I have also tried Wellness wet food because I read it had a good quality protein. I was trying to avoid fish because in the past she had crystals in her urine and somewhere I read that fish was not good for this. I guess I will maybe look for a hypoallergenic food that is based on something other than chicken, turkey, or fish.

I am not sure why the vet suggested low-fat except that a blood test revealed very high levels of something related to pancreatitis. (Normal value 3-5 and hers was 50.) 

Thank you so much.
 

ldg

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Well, I don't know what the fat content is off-hand, and while the Fancy Feast cans aren't the best out there, they are far from the worst. If you use the classic style (pate) stuff, it has no grains, no fruits, no veggies - it's low carb... it's actually better for cats than a lot of more expensive foods, IMO.
 

vball91

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Just to reiterate what LDG said, unlike humans or dogs, a high fat diet is not linked to pancreatitis in cats. There are some cats who do have an issue with high fat, but unless you know that or highly suspect it, I would not avoid higher fat foods just because of suspected pancreatitis. By the way, was it a separate blood test called fPL or spec fPL? Pancreatitis does not show up on normal blood tests.

Have you considered just a novel protein diet like venison or quail or duck or lamb, something your cat has not had before? Something with a very limited ingredient list to cut down on the possible allergens? The issue with a hypoallergenic food is that while the proteins are hydrolysed so that they most likely won't cause an inflammatory reaction, the rest of the food is not very good nutritionally being too high in carbs for a cat.
 
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