Cat needs hefty diet chage- need some advice (gallstones, potential diabetes?)

Hey everyone! Let me give a bit of background to my question here... long story short, I need to get my cat from free-feeding kibble (he only gets a 1/2-3/4 cup daily) into hopefully raw or another appropriate diet. Because of my work schedule I'm not always home at exactly the same time, so I'm just not sure how to go about switching to timed meals or how much I should be feeding at each meal in general whether dry or wet (or both, while transitioning).

So about a week and a half ago, my cat Shylo vomited four or five times in the morning before I left for work. I had recently within the last couple weeks opened a new bag of Blue Buffalo (he's been on that kibble for about two and a half years now), so I chalked it up to perhaps there being something off with that particular bag. I went to work and when I got home that evening, Shylo did not come running to greet me at the door, but was just sort of laying in the window. He felt weak/limp so I rushed him over to the emergency vet. They did some blood work and saw some raised values in his liver, and once they ran x-rays we discovered that his gallbladder was filled with gallstones. The vet had me come back the following morning for an ultrasound, and they confirmed that the stones were obstructing the gallbladder and that had been the cause of his sudden vomiting and behavior change. He went in for surgery that day and they successfully removed all of the stones and got everything put back the right way without complication. They put him on a couple medications post-op while we waited for results from the tissue culture they took, and he's actually been doing really well since then.

We went back today for a recheck, and while the culture was negative for anything and we were able to stop antibiotics, she recommended we keep him on ursodiol long-term to help dissolve any gallstones that could form and keep the bile more liquid. She also had suggested previously that a lower cholesterol diet might be good, to which I agreed.

The thing that worried the vet is that Shylo's glucose level from his blood work last week and today was slightly raised; she did say that it's possible it's just from the stress of being there at the vet, but suggested I go get some blood sugar test strips to look myself while he's calm at home. Those I'm going to pick up tonight or tomorrow so I don't know for certain yet, but the vet was concerned that after all of this it's possible he's become diabetic (or that he was already on his way and this whole scenario aggravated it). She also noted that he has a grade 3 heart murmur and recommended we get it checked out as soon as I could... although I have to pay off some of this massive vet bill from his surgery before I can do that.

I've been working on getting him to eat wet food first since I know that's the first stepping stone to getting into a raw diet, but I wanted to know if anyone had any experience with a situation similar to this (I've been told by a lot of people that gallstones are very, very uncommon in cats). I'm going to be grabbing a bag of grain-free kibble when I go to work tomorrow to at least begin to cut back on how much of that he has to digest, but long term my goal will definitely be to feed him raw (or mostly raw). Is this an appropriate diet for a cat that could potentially have diabetes? From what I've heard you want a low carb/high protein diet so it seemed like an ideal thing to shoot for.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

A raw diet can be fed to diabetic cats Just be sure to read up on how to do a raw diet properly. The raw food forum on this website is a great place to start.

Instead of the dry food, start your cat on low carb canned food instead. Canned food is easier to digest than dry food and also good for diabetics. There are many brands of canned food you can feed to a diabetic. Here's a list of Fancy Feast: http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm I fed my diabetic Nature's Variety Instinct.

Use a programmable timed feeder to give your cat multiple meals throughout the day. This won't work for raw food but is great for canned food. I've used the PetSafe 5 compartment feeder in the past.

I've never had a cat with gallstones so I can't say what diet would be best.

How high was the blood glucose level when the vet tested it? Normal levels for a cat runs about 60 to 150 md/gl. It can be higher due to stress. Have you tested your cat's levels at home yet?

Thank you for the reply! I've been trying to get him onto wet food for the last week with mixed success... I think part of it is a texture thing? He didn't seem to go for Nature's Variety instinct when I first offered it, but I have gotten him to eat some of their Pride line (still grain free, at least) which is flaked instead of a pate... that's definitely a brand that I was considering though since my ferrets are on their instinct kibble and have done very well on it. Shylo is a kibble junkie though, I've been trying to offer less kibble and more wet but he's being stubborn, haha.

I don't have the glucose levels on my discharge notes, but I'm going to drop by the pharmacy after work tomorrow to get the test strips and see... might call in the morning to get the actual numbers from the vet's office as well.

There is a zero carb dry food that you can use while you try to transition to wet food.  The wet food transition can be a long process.  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/261487/zero-carb-young-again-cat-food   This food is expensive and I think it still has to be ordered online  https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/10browse.asp?category=cats

I had a cat that was a kibble junky and was finicky with canned food.  Turned out she LOVED raw when I started her on Radcat then switched to homemade.   I did have to initially entice her to the raw by sprinkling crumbled freeze-dried chicken treats on it.   But once she licked the juices of the raw turkey she was hooked.    So it isnt always necessary to go to canned food  first before raw.

My recent rescue kitty (Freckles) was finicky about canned, so I went from Kit N Kaboodle dry kibble which is pure junk to homemade raw.  Because he is so thin and eats slowly, I separate him for meals onto my sun porch.  I have a wild schedule too as a nurse, so sometimes they get fed at 5:30 in the morning if I have to be at work early in the day, and dinner is around 7:30 pm.  My normal schedule is nights, so Dinner may be 5:30 pm and breakfast at 7:30 am.  Or it may be my day off and breakfast was at noon today.  I know that's not ideal, but it's the best I can do and I need to sleep especially on my days off.  They're fine and Freckles is still gaining a little weight/energy.

Thanks everyone for the advice, and apologies for my slow reply!

Last Saturday I ended up bringing Shylo back to the vet as I hadn't been able to get a good urine sample to test his glucose level and he was beginning to lose interest in eating. Poor guy lost a whole kilogram in the week and a half from our first visit until then. The vet was able to do a urinalysis and confirmed that he had indeed developed diabetes. ): Vet is hopeful that it was mostly from his digestive system being under stress with the gallstone problem and surgery and that will good treatment we can get it to go into remission.

That being said, Shylo is now on insulin twice daily and we basically have had to jump right into timed meals in order to make sure he eats before he gets his injection. So far so good; if I'm home mid-day I've been giving him a very small snack just to ease the transition. The vet was recommending waiting to start a raw diet until we sorted out the diabetes because he was concerned about pathogens in the food (mentioned something about diabetic cats being sort of immuno-suppressed)... but naturally his other options were either Royal Canin or Purina prescription foods, which I'm totally not fond of as I'm trying to get away from kibble. I have a friend who works as a rep for Nature's Variety and she explained the whole process they go through for processing and testing their frozen raw before it's even shipped to stores, so as long as proper handling and feeding are followed I'm not sure why the vet would have a cause for concern over that?

For the moment I've been mixing the Royal Canin sample they gave me in with his kibble just to use it up... he does seem to like it (typical, lol) at least, and I guess him eating something consistently is good as well. Shylo is going Thursday to get his first glucose curve done and I'm hoping that everything looks good so we don't have to mess with it too much more.

@Denice I really like the look of that food, but my only concern is the high fat percentage. Because of the gallstones he developed I've been recommended to stay away from kibble and canned foods that have a really high fat level. (Supposedly if the liver is processing all of that it puts more stress on the gallbladder, I'd have to look over the discharge papers I have someplace)

@zoneout I might try that! Shylo does go bananas for freeze dried treats so that sounds like a really good motivator to use.

@peaches08 I actually spoke with my boss at work and told him I was going to need either all opening shifts or all closing shifts and he said that he'd be able to accommodate that for me, so luckily I'll be able to have a mostly concrete feeding schedule for now at least, haha. Now that he's confirmed to be diabetic I have to be good about timing so that his insulin injections are evenly spaced, unfortunately... but it's good to know your kitties are doing fine even with weird times (hopefully Shylo will go into remission and then it won't be such a big deal!)

Phew, that was a novel of a post, whoops! Thanks again so far for everyone's advice.

tl;dr --> Vet recommended against raw right now because Shylo is now diabetic (which sounds counter-intuitive)... anything to worry about? Should I go with the prescription kibble for the time being while we sort out his insulin dosage or just try to make the switch anyway?

Also, for those of you with diabetic cats; the vet suggested that I could save myself some money by getting a glucose meter and testing it myself at home. One of the tech told me which one to get and said that I had to get one specifically for animal use. Is this true, or will a human one work just the same?

I can't help you on the glucose monitors khayr , but the Feline Diabetes Message Board can: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/

They are big proponents of tight regulation, home testing, and using the shorter-acting insulin.

I haven't read the article in a while, but you may find this helpful: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes

And this is the site by one of the country's leading experts on Feline Diabetes, Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins. I think there's a forum there too, I don't know if it's active: http://www.yourdiabeticcat.com/


I third going straight from kibble to raw. I don't know any vets with a clue that recommend the Rx diabetic food - especially not kibble. He needs high protein - high quality protein - and no carbs. Go for a one of the high protein, lo or no carb kibbles recommended earlier in the thread. (And feed those ferrets raw, too!!!! http://mustelamania.com/ ). But yes, you do need to get him on timed meals. It's OK that your schedule varies - the point is that meal times be established by a call, in a certain place, and he's given a certain amount of time to eat. You can leave the free-feeding food out for half the day, and feed meals the other half until he starts eating more at meals - that's the main thing, starting with as many small meals as you can, and then pulling the kibble, and then dropping the "extra" meals and increasing the amount at the meals you keep. I'd be putting a dollop of raw in each dish of kibble at meal time, coated with something he loves. Have you ever tried pure freeze dried meat treats (or liver) with him?

We do have a transition guide that can help: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

I used the ReliOn glucometer and strips from WalMart when I had a diabetic kitty.  It's important to learn how to test at home especially if you're going to do a food switch.  When I move Grey (RIP) to a high protein and low carb food, it turned out that she didn't need insulin at all.

Thank you both for the replies! So far I've actually had good luck with jumping right into meals with him; he was a little confused at first but now he sits next to where he's fed as it gets fairly close to mealtime. (Not counting 5am this morning when he decided he was hungry then, of course haha.) Depending on how cooperative he is I do occasionally need to give him an extra snack in the evening so that he has food in his belly when he gets the ursodiol (oral medication for gallstones) since it needs to be taken with food... but all in all we're mostly doing meals now. I grabbed a bag of the Instinct kibble just to at least get him off kibble with grains in it while we work on the transition into raw. I'd love to order the Young Again since that obviously is one of the more highly recommended ones I've been seeing but since I shelled out $300 for his insulin at the pharmacy I'm sort of stuck until I go clean tanks for one of my side-job clients next week (and as much as I would gladly spend my money on his food and not mine I do unfortunately need to eat as well hahaha).

I did pick up some of the frozen raw from Nature's Variety today and after some coaxing (he does like freeze dried treats quite a bit so they work as bribery) he did eat a whole piece- not bad for a first try. I dug around locally and there's a smaller chain pet store nearby that carries three other brands of raw so once I get him eating more of it I'll definitely be getting some of that, too. (They had Rad Cat, Primal (I think), and one other that I forget the name of). He even decided that he felt well enough to play today which is a huge step up from the last three weeks.

@peaches08 He's going Tuesday to get a glucose curve done but after that I'll be getting the meter myself as the vet even recommended doing it at home if I was comfortable with it (which I definitely am). With all of the expenses so far I've been really strapped for cash so it's just a matter of waiting to get paid from work, hahaha.

All things considered I feel considerably better about this than when it all first started! I'm going to take some time and look over the sites that you linked, @LDG, thank you so much for those.

As for the ferrets, once I have everything with Shylo squared away and under control I'm going to take up the idea with my roommate, since they are joint-owned... I definitely agree with the raw being best for them, but have only ever avoided it because he's not quite as comfortable with the idea as I am. They deserve it, though!

Phew, I feel like every time I reply I write a novel for you guys, I apologize for that lol.

I've used the AccuChek Aviva for my diabetic cat. It worked well but test strips are pricey. Definitely check out the FelineDiabetes.com message board for tips on how to save money on diabetic supplies.

Be sure to read the label on the raw foods. Some brands are not complete diets. NV Instinct Raw Bites (not the medallions or patties unless you can find the old formula) and Primal Pet formulas are complete diets. Stella and Chewy's new morsels are complete diets. Typically the rolls / chubs of frozen raw are not complete diets so avoid those unless you plan on using them to make your own raw diet from scratch.

Ok so quick update! I've been mixing raw (I got the NV raw bites since I can get it at work) in with the canned food and giving that to him before offering any kibble at all, and so far we've had good results! This morning was half raw and half canned (usually I've been giving him rabbit but today he was extra good so I allowed him to have the tuna flavor for once lol) and he actually cleared every last morsel from the bowl and licked it clean instead of leaving a few little bits like usual. I've also got him completely off his old kibble and onto the NV grain-free (the turkey/duck raw boost) and I'm aiming to have him off of kibble by the time this bag is all gone.

I can already feel that he's gained some weight back (he lost almost two and a half pounds during that whole ordeal) and he seems to have more energy in the last few days. Definitely good news! Will keep everyone posted after he gets his glucose curve done on Tuesday. My mom is able to get me a meter through the fire department in my home town (she's on the EMT squad) so I should have that in a few days so I can do everything at home.

All in all feeling really good about this right now! Thanks again everyone for all of your suggestions and info.

Great to hear!  I probably -missed it, but is he on insulin at the moment? 

@peaches08 He's been on insulin since last Saturday (about 8 days), although right now he's just getting one unit despite his larger size. I'm hoping that when he goes for his curve Tuesday that they say he doesn't need a higher dosage, he seems to be doing so much better already just from getting him onto wet/raw alone and I'd hate to mess with anything, haha. Fingers crossed, though!

OK, I ask because you may need to stop progressing any further with any diet changes until you and the vet know what his baseline is while on insulin.  Switching to a lower carb food and taking insulin can sometimes drop a cat's blood sugar too far.  I had that happen with my dear Grey once, she dropped to a blood sugar of 25 (normal is about 70 to 100).  Definitely read up at the FDMB and print off their hypoglycemia protocol and put it on your fridge.  Make sure to have some honey of some other sugary-something to rub onto their gums in case if you need it.  Honey saved my Grey's life when her blood sugar dropped too low.

Ok cool, thanks for the heads up on that one (I'm about to dig into that site right now, I just got in from work). Tomorrow he'll get the curve done at the vet, although my own meter is in the mail right now so I'll be able to do it at home in the future. I did read the hypoglycemia protocol last night, but definitely will print it out so it's right where I need it just in case!

I do have to say that yesterday and today he's been at his best since before he fell sick, that's for certain!

$300 for insulin? What kind and how much? I pay $120 for a box of 5 x 10ml vials of lantus, and that lasts me for months.

@cocheezie I ended up with lantus, the vial says100ml? I had to get it at cvs because I needed it that day and didn't have time to shop around for a better price, unfortunately. Where do you get yours from? I definitely don't want to keep spending that much on it when I know I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Instead of the 100 ml bottle of Lantus, ask the vet for a prescription for the Lantus SoloStar pens. There are five 3 ml pens in a box which is at least a 5 month supply you will have on hand. The bottle lasts maybe a month before it lstarts to lose effectiveness so yu're always throw away a barely used bottle. You use the SoloStar pens the same way as the bottle: insert insulin syringe needle into the rubber end and draw up insulin. The Levemir FlexPens are used the same way.

Have you checked out the FelineDiabetes.com web site yet? There are tips there on how to save money on insulin. I know some people buy their cat's Lantus insulin from online Canadian pharmacies for pretty cheap.