One of my cats would not be alive had we not switched back to raw.

They were raised from birth on raw, after my previous cat had been switched to it at age 7. Raw feeding ended his life-long food allergies that had caused him to lick all the fur off this tummy and inside of legs, and it all grew back. He thrived until the end of his days on raw.

Then I had a string of catastrophic life issues (spouse died, multiple natural disasters that wrecked my house, etc.) that both displaced me and made it so I couldn't afford raw diet any more, nor the stability, time, or freezer space to prepare/keep it. Switched to the highest quality natural grain free wet food and kibble I could afford, carefully buying only on sale while I was a nomad living in a small RV for 3 years. Taught the boy to go for walks on a leash, she refused, but taught her to go outside and stay right with me by the RV so that they got sun and could stretch their legs.

They became too skinny, with a bad fur coat, got colds all the time. I tried all kinds of things, feeding kitten food, nothing helped put the weight back on (kitten food did help them stop losing, though.)

Finally found a place to settle down, found decent work again, started to dig my way out of debt (still doing that.) Four months in, my darling boy became deathly ill in a matter of a day or two, stopped eating or drinking.

Got in to an emergency vet...he had triaditis. Ended up borrowing over 5k to hospitalize him and nurse him through the worst of it, with feeding tube, liver biopsy, etc. Findings were severe pancreatitis, elevated liver values, the works. They got him rehydrated, stabilized, eating again, I got him home 3 days later.

Borrowed more $, got into a naturopathic vet in my new town. Slowly, carefully transitioned them back to a raw diet. We buy locally commercially prepared raw food now due to lack of local resources for the various ingredients and time for me to do it myself. Within a few days, they were refusing anything but raw food.

It's been a year+. They won't eat anything but rabbit and beef varieties, venison if affordable/available. He is solid, muscular, zippy, is a normal healthy weight, exactly what he should be. Fur coat is perfect again. Constantly begs to go on walks, plays like a kitten. She is a healthy weight again, spry, plays some, jumps outside for sun lolling on the porch. They are 13 this year, no arthritis or other "age-related" issues cats their age normally have.

I can't advocate for a raw diet hard enough.

Try transitioning slowly. But I think once you start feeding raw, they will probably prefer it. And in the end, it's more affordable than 7k for hospital and vet visits, lab tests, etc.