Low Glucose Food for Diabetic Cat?!

maybeitsmallory

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Hello!  My cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes and has been put on insulin and a special diet.  She's on the Hills Diet M/D wet and dry food. I have to purchase the food with a prescription and my local Pet Smart.  The closest one to me is over 40 minutes away!  

My question: Does anyone know if there is a low glucose food I can purchase without a Rx or possibly recommend somewhere I can purchase online that's less expensive?  Any help would be much appreciated! 
 

LTS3

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Hello!  My cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes and has been put on insulin and a special diet.  She's on the Hills Diet M/D wet and dry food. I have to purchase the food with a prescription and my local Pet Smart.  The closest one to me is over 40 minutes away!  

My question: Does anyone know if there is a low glucose food I can purchase without a Rx or possibly recommend somewhere I can purchase online that's less expensive?  Any help would be much appreciated! 
Low carb canned foods are best tor diabetics
By "low carb" I mean under 10% carbs. There are many commerical brands you can feed: Fancy Feast Classic / Gourmet, the original Nature's Variety Instinct, Merrick, Friskies.... Not all varieties / flavors in a brand are low carb enough for a diabetic. Here is a list of low carb Fancy Feast: http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm Check this chart for other brands: http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf Both lists are a few years old so for the most current list of acceptable low carb foods to feed, ask on the FelineDiabetes.com message board.

Gravy based foods are too high in carbs (all that starch to thicken the gravy) but good to have on hand in case you need to raise a low blood glucose level.

No dry food at all if you can do that. Dry food is one reason why many cats end up diabetic in the first place. In diabetic cats, dry food keeps blood glucose levels too high and the insulin from working well. A large insulin dose may be needed to work against all the dryfood carbs. Remove the dry food from the diet and blood glucose levels will drop and less insulin will be needed. Prescription dry food has nothing magical in the ingredients that helps a diabetic cat. There are ways to afford an all canned food diet and to leave canned food out during the day for a diabetic cat to eat as needed to maintain blood glucose levels. The FDMB board can help you with all that.

A raw diet is also low carb for diabetics but it's definitely not something many people are willing to feed and there is a bit of reading and learning on how to do a raw diet correctly if you prefer not to feed commerical raw pet food.

Make sure treats are low carb, too. Freeze dried 100% meat or fish treats such as PureBites or Halo Liv A Littles are good. A little plain poached chicken or other meat is also good.
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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All of the above information is correct, but if you want to keep feeding the M/D, then just google Hills M/D to find who sells it for the best price on-line.  You will probably need to send whoever it is a copy of your prescription the first time you buy (not sure how that works), then you should be good to go.

Hopefully the low carb food will really help your girl.  Are you also monitoring her blood sugar daily and giving insulin as appropriate?
 

LTS3

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Minior correction:

While feeding dry food is not recommended at all, there are diabetic cat owners who have to feed only dry for one reason or another, like having multiple cats and feeding once diet is easiest. The FDMB board can recommend an ideal low carb commerical brand of dry food to feed and how to better manage the diabetes with the dry food. If you can feed at least some canned food, that would be helpful.

Feeding freeze dried or air dried raw food instead of regular dry food may be an option to consider.  Both are healthier choices than dry food and lower in carbs.If left dry (most are supposed to be rehydrated before serving), these are almost as crunchy just like dry food.
 
The M/D from hills canned have 15.7% carbs as dry matter, thats still quite high. I am leaving a link to Dr. Piersons blog about cat nutrition, it is quite eye-opening.

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes
Dr.Lisa help create the M/D recipie and she no longer recommends the food because Hills has changed the formulation and ingredients to the point where now it's basically "junk".
 
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