Advice -13 year old diabetic cat

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Ciara

Ciara

Member Since 2021
Hi everyone,

I have a 13 year old diabetic cat who was diagnosed just over a year ago with diabetes.

a year into it, she is still on 10 units of Lantus a day, she’s a very small cat, 4.5kg and with 10 units a day she is still not doing great, her levels are still on the high side. I feel like with 10 units a day this should not be the case.

We have been feeding her Royal Canin diabetes wet and dry food as recommended by her vet. Could the food be the issue? Does anyone have any suggestions of food to change to that you can get in Ireland or possibly order from the Uk?

Thanks!
 
Hi--

10U is a very high dose. Has your kitty been tested for high-dose conditions such as acromegaly or IAA? Tagging @Wendy&Neko for help with this.

As for food, yes, the Royal Canin could be contributing, there are lower-carb options out there. However: for safety, we do not recommend changing to low-carb while on insulin (particularly such a high dose of insulin) without home-testing blood glucose. Are you home-testing now? If not, would you be willing to give it a try?

It would also be very helpful if you could share any BG numbers you have now, whether from home-testing or at the vet. You say that her levels are "on the high side", but sometimes high numbers can result from too much insulin (the cat spends most of her time rebounding or "bouncing" from occasional lows). Even if your/the vet's tests haven't caught a lot of lows, sometimes we can look at the overall pattern and infer that they are there. We use a common template spreadsheet to record BG numbers (HOW TO CREATE A SPREADSHEET).

I hope we can help get your kitty on track. There is a wealth of information and experience with feline diabetes here, glad you've found us!
 
Nan & Amber (GA) said:
Hi--

10U is a very high dose. Has your kitty been tested for high-dose conditions such as acromegaly or IAA? Tagging @Wendy&Neko for help with this.

As for food, yes, the Royal Canin could be contributing, there are lower-carb options out there. However: for safety, we do not recommend changing to low-carb while on insulin (particularly such a high dose of insulin) without home-testing blood glucose. Are you home-testing now? If not, would you be willing to give it a try?

It would also be very helpful if you could share any BG numbers you have now, whether from home-testing or at the vet. You say that her levels are "on the high side", but sometimes high numbers can result from too much insulin (the cat spends most of her time rebounding or "bouncing" from occasional lows). Even if your/the vet's tests haven't caught a lot of lows, sometimes we can look at the overall pattern and infer that they are there. We use a common template spreadsheet to record BG numbers (HOW TO CREATE A SPREADSHEET).

I hope we can help get your kitty on track. There is a wealth of information and experience with feline diabetes here, glad you've found us!
Click to expand...

Hi! Thank you very much for your reply.

At the moment I don’t have any numbers from previous tests, however she will be in the vet soon for one and I will ask for the BG numbers from her previous tests, she has had many, at one point we were testing weekly for a number of months with her vet. I would be open to home testing yes! I also think the high numbers are being caused by the very large amount of insulin she is being given and also the food.

We have recently (this week) started to replace the Royal Canin food with a grain free food. I didn’t know until your response that it’s advised not to while on such a high dose of insulin, she does however seem ok but new test will confirm.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Which insulin are you using? You might be interested in these two posts from our Health Links forum:
Click to expand...
Hi! We are using Lantus insulin, previously she has been on caninsulin but it had no effect on her BG levels. She has been on 10 units of Lantus a day for nearly a year now.

Thank you very much for the link to the testing monitor and food! I have bought grain free food and will get a home testing monitor
 
Just a quick FYI - grain free doesn't necessarily mean the food is low in carbohydrates. You need to look at the ingredients. There are also cat food carbohydrate calculators that are on the web. They are not 100% accurate since the manufacturers typically publish only the guaranteed analysis (i.e., minimum and maximum values) versus the "as fed" values. The list that Wendy provided are the "as fed" values.

I would suggest that you make a slow transition from the high carb food you're using to the lower carb food. Given how high the food is -- especially the dry food -- and the amount of insulin you're giving, you want to be careful that numbers don't drop dangerously low. Getting a glucometer (and a human glucometer is fine) and learning how to home test will save you a lot of worry and you won't have to pay your vet to do a curve. Everyone here does their own testing. This is a link to our post on home testing.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Just a quick FYI - grain free doesn't necessarily mean the food is low in carbohydrates. You need to look at the ingredients. There are also cat food carbohydrate calculators that are on the web. They are not 100% accurate since the manufacturers typically publish only the guaranteed analysis (i.e., minimum and maximum values) versus the "as fed" values. The list that Wendy provided are the "as fed" values.

I would suggest that you make a slow transition from the high carb food you're using to the lower carb food. Given how high the food is -- especially the dry food -- and the amount of insulin you're giving, you want to be careful that numbers don't drop dangerously low. Getting a glucometer (and a human glucometer is fine) and learning how to home test will save you a lot of worry and you won't have to pay your vet to do a curve. Everyone here does their own testing. This is a link to our post on home testing.
Click to expand...

Hi, yea I understand that grain free doesn’t necessarily mean it’s low carb. The food I have started to introduce is a brand called Real Nature. Not too sure if available in other countries but using the carb calculator it appears to be very low carb.

I will be getting a monitor within the next couple of days to be able to test at home :) so far with the food transition her behaviour has certainly improved
 
I think the food you're using is only available in the UK. I tried googling to look at the nutritional values. I can't even find a complete list of ingredients on their website but they do mention a variety of things that are higher in carbs. The amounts may be limited and it could be fine. Without any nutritional info, I'm at a loss to be helpful!
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
I think the food you're using is only available in the UK. I tried googling to look at the nutritional values. I can't even find a complete list of ingredients on their website but they do mention a variety of things that are higher in carbs. The amounts may be limited and it could be fine. Without any nutritional info, I'm at a loss to be helpful!
Click to expand...
Hi, yes I’m in Ireland not the UK so not too sure where else it would be available. here is an image of what’s on the tin in regards to nutritional info. Not sure if it’s any way helpful however
 
Hi Ciara!

Welcome to the forum!

Royal Canine Diabetic has lots of carbs, Kabosu's BG numbers spike after eating that. We are feeding him Country Hunter with chicken (a bit pricey), and Whiskas in Jelly, both <5% carbs, and also boil chicken breast for him.

Where in Ireland are you?

I'd recommend home testing to get a better idea of how high/low your kitty's BG gets, and how different foods affect it. It may seem a bit hard at first, but both you and Pebbles will get used to it! Kabosu used to be stressed about it in the beginning, and now when I call him for a check, he comes and sits next to the BG meter, patiently waiting. :)
 
Dasha and Kabosu said:
Hi Ciara!

Welcome to the forum!

Royal Canine Diabetic has lots of carbs, Kabosu's BG numbers spike after eating that. We are feeding him Country Hunter with chicken (a bit pricey), and Whiskas in Jelly, both <5% carbs, and also boil chicken breast for him.

Where in Ireland are you?

I'd recommend home testing to get a better idea of how high/low your kitty's BG gets, and how different foods affect it. It may seem a bit hard at first, but both you and Pebbles will get used to it! Kabosu used to be stressed about it in the beginning, and now when I call him for a check, he comes and sits next to the BG meter, patiently waiting. :)
Click to expand...

Hi! Thank you so much for reaching out :)

I will look into country hunter, I am currently feeding Real Nature foods that I get from Maxi Zoo and is <2% carbs and Pebbles is loving it, I also boil chicken breast.

I'm in Dublin! I've been attempting to home test since Sunday but like you said about Kabosu, Pebbles is extremely stressed by it haha lots of biting and growling when I do it, it surprised me because I have never had any issues injecting insulin so I expected her to be okay with testing. I have only managed to get one more reading since Sunday because of this...
 
Ciara said:
Hi! Thank you so much for reaching out :)

I will look into country hunter, I am currently feeding Real Nature foods that I get from Maxi Zoo and is <2% carbs and Pebbles is loving it, I also boil chicken breast.

I'm in Dublin! I've been attempting to home test since Sunday but like you said about Kabosu, Pebbles is extremely stressed by it haha lots of biting and growling when I do it, it surprised me because I have never had any issues injecting insulin so I expected her to be okay with testing. I have only managed to get one more reading since Sunday because of this...
Click to expand...

Nice that you're in Dublin too! We are in Dun Laoghaire!

For home testing, I'd suggest you to give him something he really loves after you poke him. In the beginning, I was giving Kabosu a little bit of tuna right after pricking his ear. At first he was really stressed, but then understood that it is not painful at all and he gets something very tasty afterwards!

About the foods, if yours is low-carb and Pebbles likes it, no need to change!
 
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