New diabetic cat owner

Welcome "over here" at TCS!

Let me try again for you......

First, read this article by a noted feline Veterinarian and Nutritionist. Dr. Lisa Pierson.

Then, to get the best advice from the real "experts" (those others who have already years of experience in managing their diabetic cats' health and nutrition) join this Yahoo support group.

Another group of caregivers (actually, the original, I believe) can be found here.

Hi and welcome
First realize that diabetes is not a death sentence, no life span needs to be lost and your cat can live a long full life. That said, this is a proactive disease and your cat needs you to take control.
I am noit a vet but I have my own diabetics, have worked with over 100 diabetic cat owners on a 1 to 1 basis and have seen many mnay examples over a 5t year period of what happens with diabetic cats.
Lower carbs can reduce insulin needs. Dry food is the probable reason the cat got diabetes in the first place. canned foods under 10% carbs are best. This list gioves the breakdown
http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/CanFoodOld.html

http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/CanFoodNew.html

Food should be changed over a period of time by replacing some of the old with the new each day. As i said. lower carbs can reduce insulin needs. If you change the food, you need to lower the dose before the change. I strongly suggest that you lower the dose to 1 unit bid (2x a day) Theses are my opinions from my experiences and the board is not responsible for what I write here
Hometesting is the only way to know if it is safe to give insulin as well as giving you the info needed to treat this disease correctly. I can teach you how.
I have sent you a private message

Please find a qualified VET ... advise by peers is great but double check it ... ie unless someone can provide credentials in a given area ( other than having a cat with issue which is a great resource) double check all advise thru a vet ... I know my vet treats diabetesvia holistic means and a grain free diet ... I believe BLAISE has a link to a number of holistic practioners you may want to look into ... Other holistic practioners can often be found by word of mouth or conventional vets often will refer if asked ...

http://www.thecatsite.com/Health/83/...-Diabetes.html

Please do not just randomly buy on-line products to "treat" your cat. Diabetes is serious and should only be treated by a vet. I could create a website and say anything I wanted to but that doesn't make it true.

Please, as Sharky said above, use information you obtain from other members here when speaking with your vet. NONE of us here are vets - just folks with "some" experience in different areas. Even then, what worked for our cat(s) may not work for yours. Some folks get upset that we recommend seeing a vet so often at this site, but we honestly feel that we aren't qualified to diagnose your cat via computer and that the safest thing for the health of your cat is your real, live vet who can actually touch and see your cat and run any necessary tests.

Anybody, including a vet that would diagnose based on information someone provided on-line is not someone who's advice should be trusted.

Hello Victoria,

I just joined this site to post something of my own but immediately saw your post and it caught my attention! I live in your neck of the woods, and I too have a diabetic cat. Taco's been diabetic for 5.5 years now; he is very well regulated, I test his blood sugar myself, faithfully, twice a day - even though his sugar levels are very very good. I feed him a low carb diet, twice a day. He's over 15 yrs old and I've had him since a kitten. I'm a registered nurse so I know a lot about diabetes in humans but when he was diagnosed, although there's a lot of similarities, I still had a lot to learn about diabetes in cats.

First off, I encourage you to find yourself a good Vet who can work with you. I would definitely NOT advise you to go making any big diet changes without first learning about feline diabetes because if you suddenly switch to a low carb food (like canned food) and you don't change the amount of insulin you're giving, you could have a disaster on your hands; meaning, your kitty's blood sugar could drop gravely low (to the point of it being a life-threatening matter).

I learned so much from the Feline Diabetes Message Board and I encourage you to join up there, read all you can, ask lots of questions. In all honesty, the folks there know more about feline diabetes than most Vets (I speak from experience). Thanks to the information and support I received there, my big old cat Taco's diabetes is very very nicely regulated (my current Vet is astonished, he always compliments us, says he's never seen a cat so well regulated)....he receives 1.5 units of Levemir insulin twice a day and gets canned food twice a day. I check his blood sugar myself (most feline diabetic owners do, it's very very easy to learn, I'd be happy to teach you if you were interested!) prior to his insulin shot.

Please, whatever you do - do not try any products on the internet that claim to treat feline diabetes naturally; they are all crap.

Learn all you can from this site and mail me if you ever have any questions or need any help:

here is the address to the main page of the site:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/

here is the address to the actual message boards:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/list.php?8

Bless your heart for adopting this kitty,

Lisa and crew

These supplements on the net are usually all ripoffs and cannot replace the need for insulin. I tried to see the ingrediants in the product but the site would not allow it. Usually, they sell a chromium based product for diabetes. Chromium is THOUGHT to help with the absorbtion of insulin and that can be bought by itself for so much cheaper then this product is selling for