Food Question…

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rsnyder03

rsnyder03

Member Since 2021
My 11 year old diabetic cat is on hills science ID canned and dry mixed for her awful bowel issues. She has frequent pancreatitis, pancreatic insufficiency (she takes pancreatic enzymes for this), and of course Diabetes. I’ve been reading through this forum and realized that, not only is what we are feeding draining me financially, it sounds like it’s terrible for her diabetes. Yet I’m terrified to switch because the last time we tried a new food, she pooped straight orange OIL for a week.

Her diabetes is poorly managed even with her insulin because I never know when she will just spend the day drinking and peeing everywhere. Just when I think we are making headway, we have a huge setback.

I asked our vet about a glucose monitor and she said I could do that if I want. I don’t know the first thing about checking her glucose and between everything I have spent in the multiple thousands of dollars in the last month or so. I’m so defeated and stressed.
 
rsnyder03 said:
My 11 year old diabetic cat is on hills science ID canned and dry mixed for her awful bowel issues. She has frequent pancreatitis, pancreatic insufficiency (she takes pancreatic enzymes for this), and of course Diabetes. I’ve been reading through this forum and realized that, not only is what we are feeding draining me financially, it sounds like it’s terrible for her diabetes. Yet I’m terrified to switch because the last time we tried a new food, she pooped straight orange OIL for a week.

Her diabetes is poorly managed even with her insulin because I never know when she will just spend the day drinking and peeing everywhere. Just when I think we are making headway, we have a huge setback.

I asked our vet about a glucose monitor and she said I could do that if I want. I don’t know the first thing about checking her glucose and between everything I have spent in the multiple thousands of dollars in the last month or so. I’m so defeated and stressed.
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Welcome. I'm sorry to hear you are struggling. We may be able to help a bit.

A diabetic cat ideally eats foods under 10 percent carb.
Hills I/d dry is 40% carb.
Hills I/D wet food (the pate) is 23%
The stew version is 24%
So you can see why the food is having a bad impact on the diabetes.
I've never had a cat with the kind of digestive issues your cat does so I can't say what you should really do there or what you've tried in the past ( Are you giving him daily probiotic? Have you eliminated the possibilities of a food allergy and tried a novel protien like rabbit?)
But at the very least, please eliminate the dry food and serve only the pate. I'd also add a little extra water to the food.


Testing at home is really very important and doesn't have to be expensive. If there's a Walmart by you, many use the Walmart Relion Prime meter. 100 test strips is about $17. I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.

Can you tell us which insulin is she on and what is her current dose? Not all insulins are created equally.
 
JanetNJ said:
Welcome. I'm sorry to hear you are struggling. We may be able to help a bit.

A diabetic cat ideally eats foods under 10 percent carb.
Hills I/d dry is 40% carb.
Hills I/D wet food (the pate) is 23%
The stew version is 24%
So you can see why the food is having a bad impact on the diabetes.
I've never had a cat with the kind of digestive issues your cat does so I can't say what you should really do there or what you've tried in the past ( Are you giving him daily probiotic? Have you eliminated the possibilities of a food allergy and tried a novel protien like rabbit?)
But at the very least, please eliminate the dry food and serve only the pate. I'd also add a little extra water to the food.


Testing at home is really very important and doesn't have to be expensive. If there's a Walmart by you, many use the Walmart Relion Prime meter. 100 test strips is about $17. I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.

Can you tell us which insulin is she on and what is her current dose? Not all insulins are created equally.
Click to expand...

She is on Vetsulin, 1 unit twice a day. It is all my vet offers :(
 
rsnyder03 said:
She is on Vetsulin, 1 unit twice a day. It is all my vet offers :(
Click to expand...
Well see how she does on the vetsulin, but if it's not a good fit and your vet refuses, a change of vets might be in order. That being said, my own cat did good on vetsulin and even went into remission after 4 months for a year before coming out of remission. I tried vetsulin again but had to switch because she had acromegaly which required a high dose and the vetsulin stung her at high doses. So my point is your cat may do ok on it... Well have to see. 1 unit is a good starting dose but it sounds like she may need an increase. If testing at home shows she's running high, we can help you with dosing! :)
 
Hello, I'm so sorry you are still struggling with your cat's GI issues. Have you ever tried putting her on a bland diet? Poach chicken breast in water, chop it up small enough for her to eat and mix in the water you used for poaching. Don't add anything more to it. It's not nutritionally balanced but it is low carb and low fat, and can be fed for a week or two until you can get her system under some control. You would have to start home glucose testing though while you are doing this food experiment and giving her insulin to make sure that her glucose levels stay in a safe range because right now, as Janet pointed out, the food you are feeding her is very high carb and the Vetsulin is counteracting the effect of the carbs.

Here is a link to a page on diarrhea from a site devoted to kitties suffering from IBD but it gives some really good tips: https://www.foodfurlife.com/my-cat-has-diarrhea---what-do-i-do.html#/.
 
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