5 Yr Old Cat Newly Diagnosed With Diabetes

[DianaMartin429]

Hi! New to this forum, but am in desperate need of advice and guidance in this situation. My Male 5 yo cat Mac (picture of him)was just diagnosed with diabetes. The vets can't seem to figure out how to keep his sugar at a normal level after 4 vet appts, one of him having to stay there for a full day, and the rest being glucose tests. This past appointment his sugar was still 460 only 6 hours after his shot. He gets 3 units at 6:15 AM & 6:15 PM. He also only weighs around 7lbs and this past visit lost 2 more ounces.
His diet: Science Diet Urinary Tract Formula Purina, hes on this because his brother had a blockage and had to have surgery. Also every morning and night before we give Mac his shot we split a can of wet food between them to make sure he's eaten before we give him the insulin.
Now the vet told us to put the diabetic cat (Mac) on science diet DM for his diabetes, but him and his brother graze eat. And they share there food with one another. The vet had no comment or thought on what we should do about this situation. Told us its 'medically impossible to keep them out of each other's food' so what do I do?
Vets solution: Up him to 4 units of insulin, and maybe, maybe not change his food.
Definitely need help here! Thank you in advance ! From Me Mac n' Tosh (his brother) (:

 

[Tobermory]

Hi D DianaMartin429 ! Welcome! You can get advice here, but I’m going to recommend that you run, not walk, over to felinediabetes.com. I had a diabetic cat on Lantus and that website was so incredibly helpful. In addition to all of the information about feeding and care, there are discussion groups for each kind of insulin. There is an incredible amount of experience and advice available from people who have been dealing with diabetes in their fur babies for a long time, and it’s specific to the kind of insulin you’re administering. My heartfelt best wishes as you go through this experience with your little guy.

 

[LTS3]

You'll get a ton more experienced help from the FelineDiabetes.com message board

Diet: Low carb canned food for the diabetic cat. No dry at all if possible. Just like diet is important for Human diabetics, diet is important for a diabetic cat. If you must feed dry to the non-diabetic, feed one of the lower carb dry foods. The FDMB has a current list of suitable brands. There are members on the FDMB who have multiple cats and are able to either feed all the cats the same low carb caned food diet or are able to keep the diabetic cat out of the other cats' food. Prescription junk is not needed at all.

What insulin did the vet prescribe? Some are better than others. 4 units of insulin is a lot and not too many cats need that much insulin.

In-office blood glucose curves are inaccurate because a cat is so stressed out that the blood glucose levels just stay high. You can test your cat's blood glucose levels at home, even if the vet says you can't, causes harm to the cat, etc. Testing blood glucose levels daily is important just like it is for Human diabetics. The FDMB can give you more info on how to test your cat's blood glucose levels at home.

 

[josiegirl]

I agree with the posts above: Get him off dry food ASAP! Avoid any canned food that has grains and make sure the carb content is less than 3%. (let me know if you need the formula to figure out the carb %)

Stay away from the crap prescription food the vet almost always pushes on his patients. I'm sorry, but most vets just don't know **** about nutrition. Some cats, when put on a low carb, wet food diet have had success reversing the diabetes.

You really want a high ANIMAL protein diet that is low carb. A lot of wet food use plants for the protein content when cats really need meat, as they are carnivores. Look for pate food. The gravy/sauce kinds are higher in carbs. Also, for your other cat with UTI issues a wet food diet is best, along with placing lots of water bowls around the house to get your kitty to drink more.

I wish you luck with your kitty. I lost mine (see avatar pic) to a diabetic coma. Had I known then what I know now she may have been saved. I miss her every day!

ETA: LTS3 pointed out that dry food shouldn't be cut off immediately and I agree. That was a knee-jerk reaction on my part. Once it's safe, dry food can be slowly transitioned to wet. Thanks for correcting me, LTS3.

 

[josiegirl]

You'll get a ton more experienced help from the FelineDiabetes.com message board

Diet: Low carb canned food for the diabetic cat. No dry at all if possible. Just like diet is important for Human diabetics, diet is important for a diabetic cat. If you must feed dry to the non-diabetic, feed one of the lower carb dry foods. The FDMB has a current list of suitable brands. There are members on the FDMB who have multiple cats and are able to either feed all the cats the same low carb caned food diet or are able to keep the diabetic cat out of the other cats' food. Prescription junk is not needed at all.

What insulin did the vet prescribe? Some are better than others. 4 units of insulin is a lot and not too many cats need that much insulin.

In-office blood glucose curves are inaccurate because a cat is so stressed out that the blood glucose levels just stay high. You can test your cat's blood glucose levels at home, even if the vet says you can't, causes harm to the cat, etc. Testing blood glucose levels daily is important just like it is for Human diabetics. The FDMB can give you more info on how to test your cat's blood glucose levels at home.

Here are a couple of lower carb dry foods you can get at pet stores like PetSmart and Petco:

Natures Variety Instinct Chicken= 15% carbs
Wellness Core Original=15% carbs ( I contacted the company)
Wellness Core kitten= 14% carbs

I used Instinct raw boost as a topper on wet food when I couldn't get my picky (picky stink!) boy to eat his wet food.

 

[LTS3]

I agree with the posts above: Get him off dry food ASAP!

OP shouldn't change the diet right away, not while the cat is on a fairly high dose of insulin and OP is not home testing. Doing so will cause blood glucose levels to crash too low. A diet change has to be done slowly and with a careful monitoring of blood glucose levels daily. It would be best to drop the insulin dose to just one unit BID and learn how to home test before attempting to change the diet. The FDMB members can give the OP detailed help on that.

Those dry foods are still fairly high in carbs. Is NV Original 15% carbs now? It used to be 7% nearly 10 years ago. I briefly fed it to my then diabetic cat while I slowly got him into low carb canned. The Young Again dry food is supposedly zero carb but it's very expensive and sold only on the Young Again web site. This brand has been debated in the FDMB before on the carb content.

 

[josiegirl]

OP shouldn't change the diet right away, not while the cat is on a fairly high dose of insulin and OP is not home testing. Doing so will cause blood glucose levels to crash too low. A diet change has to be done slowly and with a careful monitoring of blood glucose levels daily. It would be best to drop the insulin dose to just one unit BID and learn how to home test before attempting to change the diet. The FDMB members can give the OP detailed help on that.

Those dry foods are still fairly high in carbs. Is NV Original 15% carbs now? It used to be 7% nearly 10 years ago. I briefly fed it to my then diabetic cat while I slowly got him into low carb canned. The Young Again dry food is supposedly zero carb but it's very expensive and sold only on the Young Again web site. This brand has been debated in the FDMB before on the carb content.

Yes, I agree. Sorry about that. I always get alarmed when I hear diabetic cats eating dry food. But a diabetic cat should transition off the dry food as soon as they can do it safely. Sugar-laden carbs will not help the cat at all.

Yes, NV is 15%. I used to read the charts online but now I contact the companies. Wellness Core used to be 11% but it's actually 14-15%. I wish the carb content was lower but it's low compared to other dry foods on the market, as most are between 25% to %50 carbs!! And don't let the "baked" dry foods fool you. Some are as high as 54%! As far as Young Again, I'm skeptical it's a no carb food. I did like Evo, but the company is going out of business. They had great wet food and their dry was lower carb, too.