? Switched from high carb food

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TreeburnerCT

TreeburnerCT

Member Since 2018
Amber has always been around 16 pounds, she's a big girl and even with two bad front legs (she broke both when she was little and has bone spurs on both elbows that prevent her from straightening her elbows completely) she has always moved around well and always maintained a consistent weight. However, she's always been inconsistent in her eating, mostly based on how active she's been but sometimes she'll just randomly eat more or less than usual.

Now that she's down to 13 lbs. and has been diagnosed with diabetes I've switched her diet pretty drastically and I'm looking for some advice. Previously Amber would get half a 6oz. can of Friskies or 9Lives Beef, Chicken or Turkey in gravy twice a day plus maybe a 1/2 cup of high carb dry food to graze on throughout the day. As I mentioned she's always been inconsistent, but on average she probably ate 2/3 of her wet and dry food on average.

I switched her to low carb wet food only, but she doesn't want to eat more than 2-3oz or so twice a day. We've been feeding her a 3oz can at 7:30am, insulin at 8:30am, then the same at 7:30p and 8:30p.

She's currently at 2 units of Humulin-N twice a day, but is only getting to around 130 at the peak so she's probably going to need a little more to get her closer to there throughout the day and then will need to eat at noon and midnight to keep her sugar high enough at the peak.

All of this leads to a few questions.

Should she really be eating 1oz per pound of weight? She has never eaten this much, but what she was eating was high carb food before and she was eating wet and dry. She doesn't seem to want more than 4-6oz of wet a day.

Also, how much does she need to be eating at the peak to keep her from dropping too low once we start going higher? She generally eats a bit at a time and not a lot in one go. I was thinking of giving an additional 1.5oz of a different flavor low carb wet at noon and midnight to encourage her to eat at the insulin peak, but I can't force her to eat it and if she hasn't finished her full can it seems like a waste of expensive food if she doesn't eat it. Will she start eating more as she becomes accustomed to the all wet food diet? Is she going to starve only eating 6oz of low carb a day, or is it alright to be eating approximately the same amount of low carb wet as she was the high carb wet + dry?

Thanks for any comments and suggestions, she's making great progress but I want to be sure this switch to low carb wet food only goes well.

Thanks,
Joe
 
at 13lbs she needs around 260 calories (that's using quick math if 20-25 calories per lb, lower end if not active)
you have to check the calories for each canned food you feed since the calories can vary greatly from flavor and brand.
like for the fancy feast poulty pate flavors, a 3oz can is about 95 calories so feeding only 6oz of that would not be enough calories for a 13lb cat.

my cats ate very little when first switched to only wet, within a week most were eating more and more of it. If you are worried she is not eating enough wet and is still losing weight, there are good high calorie low carb dry foods like Young Again zero carb formula that you can use if you are worried about not enough calories intake. i made it a point to feed mine low carb dry for months along with wet to get his weight back on quicker and to also make sure he always had enough food in him so he didn't go too low on me..
 
I searched Chewy.com for another low carb dry food but even the Grain-Free formulations are listing carbs around 30% so I ordered the Young Again Zero Mature at $8/lb. Are there any cheaper options for low carb dry food?

Thanks,
Joe
 
you can get the Wysong Epigen 90 for cats & dogs (has to be the one that says 90), it is 5% carb and around $25 or lower for 5lbs.
https://www.chewy.com/wysong-epigen-90-starch-free-formula/dp/103307

There's dr. elseys clean protein chicken or salmon dry that is right under 5% my cats are doing best digestive/etc wise with that dry but, it is usually around $42-47 for 6.6lbs however right now till 28th it is 37% off. https://www.chewy.com/dr-elseys-cleanprotein-chicken/dp/146270

still on my first mug of coffee so not thinking great but, i think that is it other than the Young Again low carb varieties.
 
Thanks so much for the links, I was looking through the dry food at chewy.com but it's hard when they don't list the carb content unless someone asks.

Going to add a bag of the Dr. Elsey's to my cart of wet food and freeze dried chicken, already ordered the Young Again but Amber can be picky with her dry food so hopefully she'll go for at least one of them.

Thanks,
Joe
 
Just monitor because from what I have read that when you switch a cat from a high carb food to a low or no carb food, not as much insulin is needed. I learned that the hard way yesterday when my Booger went hypo and I was having trouble getting him back up to a safe number. Please don't take my word for it but do some research. I think I read that here on Dr Lisa Pierson's article able switching from dry to wet food.
 

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Poor Booger, looking at your spreadsheet makes me feel better about Amber's AMPS and PMPS as I've never caught her over 500.

Amber's BG has been getting better - on 2 units NPH she's getting into the mid to low blue range at peak and even her AMPS and PMPS are getting lower. However, she's never eaten enough for her size and now that she's switched foods and is on insulin I'm even more concerned about the amount she eats. She's definitely going to need a dose increase eventually but I want to get her settled on a low carb diet before I start working on improving the longevity of the insulin response and balance with food at peak.

Since we can't force her to eat the wet food I bought some Young Again Zero Carb Mature hoping that dry food will help to increase her calorie intake and eventually help her to start putting some weight back on. She used to love having her butt scratched just above her tail but now she's so bony it hurts her :(

Thanks,
Joe
 
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TreeburnerCT said:
Poor Booger, looking at your spreadsheet makes me feel better about Amber's AMPS and PMPS as I've never caught her over 500.

Amber's BG has been getting better - on 2 units NPH she's getting into the mid to low blue range at peak and even her AMPS and PMPS are getting lower. However, she's never eaten enough for her size and now that she's switched foods and is on insulin I'm even more concerned about the amount she eats. She's definitely going to need a dose increase eventually but I want to get her settled on a low carb diet before I start working on improving the longevity of the insulin response and balance with food at peak.

Since we can't force her to eat the wet food I bought some Young Again Zero Carb Mature hoping that dry food will help to increase her calorie intake and eventually help her to start putting some weight back on. She used to love having her butt scratched just above her tail but now she's so bony it hurts her :(

Thanks,
Joe
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Aww poor baby! Has the vet done any other tests?
 
They ran liver and kidney tests but said they were pretty good, the Vet thought she might have cancer or something because she said the diabetes should not have caused her to lose 3 lbs. in 3 months and since its onset was so quick. However, Amber did have a bad infection from a bite on her neck before all this and with her age I think that set off the diabetes. If she has cancer I guess things will get worse instead of better, but she seems to be doing better since we started the insulin and low carb diet.

She's very shy about using the bathroom and goes outside as long as she's feeling well so it's been tough to catch her going to test for ketones. However, she's showing good signs of recovery so I'm hopeful despite the Vet's grim outlook.

Thanks,
Joe
 
Amber is not taking to the switch to low carb food well and still hasn't been eating enough. I've started CBD oil to stimulate her appetite but taking the dosing slow so don't know how quickly or if at all it will help but I'm hopeful. In the meantime, should I switch back to the high carb wet food she's always eaten to at least get her eating, and then work on switching her over by mixing it together then slowly reducing the high carb? She's been getting a small amount of high carb dry each day because she hasn't been eating the low carb wet, I have low carb dry food coming tomorrow (Young Again Zero Mature) but not sure if she'll eat that either and we really need to get her eating more.

I haven't been checking her blood sugar as often lately, she's responding well to the insulin with 120-130 on the AT2 meter around +6 and is eating just enough that I feel comfortable giving her her current 2 units of insulin twice a day, but right now we definitely can't work towards getting her on the right dose because she's not eating enough, especially in the morning and during the day, to offset the low BG at the peak.

Thanks,
Joe
 
Thanks, that's what I figured and was kind of hoping to hear. I hate to give her food that isn't good for her but she ate it for 16 years so she's very set in her ways. She seemed willing to give some of the low carb wet foods a shot, but she just isn't eating enough overall and especially in the morning. Hopefully she will eat the Young Again dry food, if she turns her nose up at that I'll be very disappointed.

Thanks,
Joe
 
So yesterday I asked my mom to give Amber her old high carb wet food if she hadn't eaten the low carb by noon. I got back from work at 5:15pm and she hadn't touched either food, so I was getting really worried. I went in the bathroom and came out about 10 minutes later and she had eaten the entire 3oz of high carb food, then two hours later she ate the other 3oz for dinner.

I'm very happy she's eating and just didn't like her low carb wet food, but was hoping we could get her eating healthier. The Young Again Zero Mature dry food arrived today so I gave her her first bowl, about 1/2 cup, and she literally jumped up from her bed to go over and gobble it up, eating half within the first minute it was out. What a relief, she likes it!

-Joe
 
TreeburnerCT said:
So yesterday I asked my mom to give Amber her old high carb wet food if she hadn't eaten the low carb by noon. I got back from work at 5:15pm and she hadn't touched either food, so I was getting really worried. I went in the bathroom and came out about 10 minutes later and she had eaten the entire 3oz of high carb food, then two hours later she ate the other 3oz for dinner.

I'm very happy she's eating and just didn't like her low carb wet food, but was hoping we could get her eating healthier. The Young Again Zero Mature dry food arrived today so I gave her her first bowl, about 1/2 cup, and she literally jumped up from her bed to go over and gobble it up, eating half within the first minute it was out. What a relief, she likes it!

-Joe
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That’s great! Watch for possible diarrhea - it’s been known to cause it in some kitties, especially at the beginning.
 
Fortunately Amber uses the gardens outside as her litter box, occasionally overnight she'll pee in the litter but NEVER poops there, but I will keep an eye out for a dirty backside.

Speaking of pee, she peed in her litter box overnight last night and it was a normal-sized pee and not sticky at all! Definitely a good sign!

Thanks,
Joe

UPDATE: Figures things were going well today, so of course this would be the time I give her a fur shot! I've been doing so good since the repeated fur shots at the beginning of all this, guess it happens but man is it frustrating!
 
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