Special diet recommended... what's better long-term?

[parsleysage]

I haven't looked at her charts in awhile, but I don't think they get updated regularly. Formulas change constantly it seems and it can be hard to determine just how much is carb content. I look at the types of carbs and where they are in the list.



Initially I didn't think the carb content in the Wellness was high, but have since changed my opinion of this based on the type of carb and where it is in the list of ingredients.

True, I guess, but I feel pretty good about the Wellness foods based on her list, which is only 1.5 years old. The ones I have been feeding are 4-5% from carbs by calorie and 8-9% by DMB. Now that they will be back on wet full-time, I will see if there are other brands that will meet our needs, or maybe I will finally take the plunge into raw.

 

[parsleysage]

I also want to suggest that you might want to stay away from the Wellness grain-free canned varieties that contain fish, or monitor your cat very carefully. My cat Tim ate dry food his entire life and never blocked or exhibited urinary crystals during routine urinalyses. After a terrible constipation episode, we transitioned him to wet food, mostly Wellness, and he was eating one of the varieties with fish every day. He did not block, but another routine urinalysis showed struvite crystals. We immediately stopped the fish varieties, and two subsequent urinalyses showed no crystals. Dr. Pierson mentions fish as possibly problematic, and it seems to have been true for Tim.

I don't feed fish at all. Of the normal grain-free line I feed Chicken, Turkey, and Beef & Chicken, and in the CORE line I feed Chicken/Turkey/Chicken Liver formula and Turkey/Duck formula. The Chicken/Turkey/Chicken Liver has salmon oil in it but that's the only fishy ingredient overall.

 

[Willowy]

I'm told that Friskies Special Diet canned food works for a lot of cats, if prescription food is not an option. I think the only non-fish flavor is Turkey and Giblets though :/.

 

[potters]

Originally Posted by parsleysage

Garfunkel's at the e-vet again, for bloody urine. We were dumping the boxes and cleaning them out - brought them back in and he jumped in immediately without waiting for new litter. Thank goodness, because I was able to notice two dark red urine spots with overall orangeish color in most of the urine.

Good thing is he's still peeing - last year (June or July I think) I didn't notice until he was going in and out of the box multiple times without peeing.

We haven't seen the doctor yet but the tech told us we need to talk to the vet about a special diet. I think it's usually Hills that is recommended, correct? I'm worried about the overall quality of the food e.g. corn, wheat, etc. I think Hills is pretty gross when it comes to that stuff. They are still eating dry grain-free mostly. frown.gif They do get wet occasionally. I've been meaning to transition them back over to wet for awhile.

Obviously his urinary health is of utmost importance and I know rx foods are effective but I'm worried about long term especially with weight - Garfunkel is the least fat of my fatties, but all of them need to lose a bit of weight according to their regular vet. Any insight or suggestions?

Potters was really sick not with the same symptoms as ur guy I switched to solid gold katz and flocken it is for all stages of their life now he won't eat anything else and for cats with possible kidney problems it is suppose to be low in phosphorous which is something they need to have is low phosphorus potters has mouth sores he is 16 and just recently started getting these I had a full blood panel done and everything came back good so I switched his food and ordered some herbal drops and he is much better

 

[oneandahalfcats]

 

 
I haven't looked at her charts in awhile, but I don't think they get updated regularly. Formulas change constantly it seems and it can be hard to determine just how much is carb content. I look at the types of carbs and where they are in the list.

Initially I didn't think the carb content in the Wellness was high, but have since changed my opinion of this based on the type of carb and where it is in the list of ingredients.

True, I guess, but I feel pretty good about the Wellness foods based on her list, which is only 1.5 years old.

And this is totally okay 

  Wellness is a decent food. I just brought up the carb comment as something to keep in mind.

 

[potters]

Yes wellness is a very good food I'm still learning as my cat potters as we call him is 16 and has never been sick I also have an 18yr. Old female who also has never been sick and out of no where potters got sick I don't want to blame cat food but in reading online and anything else I can find I'm learning it can be as easy as the food I switched to solid gold after first buying the solid gold vitamins and minerals and noticing my 18yr. Old stopped shedding like crazy and reading that the solid gold has low phosphorus just in case potters might be going into kidney problems even though his blood work showed he was fine I also read that stomatitis can be an early sign of kidney problems so am I driving myself crazy? Lol sounds like it.every cat and human is unique in their own way, what works for one won't work for the other

 

[42cattier]

Homemade food (catinfo.org) and Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease for general helpful information, even if cat has no CKD (helped me when my cat stopped eating and started to lose muscle mass).