Question about diet for cat

[Rasrk00]

My cat Rascal (14 yrs old) is a borderline diabetic. He's not on any insulin or anything, just a high protein and low carb diet. He gets glucose support diabetic food but he barely eats it and needs to gain weight. I was wondering if there were any foods that weren't specifically diabetic food but still safe for him to eat? (like Fancy Feast pates or Sheba foods)

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
When you say Rascal is borderline diabetic, what tests did the vet do to say this?
Do you have any tests you can share with us?
How often is he being monitored to check his blood glucose to see if it is either going back to normal with the food change or is going up?
Do you know what his blood glucose has been when checked?
If he is losing weight dispite being fed a low carb high protein diet, I do wonder if he in fact needs insulin.
Untreated Diabetic cats cannot absorb all the nutrients in the food and they are frequently hungry and thin.

What is glucose support diabetic food? Do you mean the Hills MD? And is it wet or dry?
We recommend you feed a low carb high protein wet diet. There is no need to feed a prescription food as they are all too high in carbs and cats often won’t eat them.
Here is a food list for you. Look for foods that are 10% carbs or less. Fancy feast pates are fine.
However I would urge you to find out more about what the vet thinks is ‘borderline diabetes’
From our experience, that can mean the cat actually needs insulin. And it is not safe to leave a cat who needs insulin without it. They will sooner or later develop ketones and can become very sick.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

What country do you live in? That might help us with some food suggestions.

The "glucose support diabetic food", which brand are you giving? A lot of them are actually higher carb and/or not great ingredients and the kitty grows tired of them. This food list Bron linked has a lot of the North American foods, you want something under 10% carbs. Most of the Fancy Feast pate food fits that requirement.

 

[Rasrk00]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
When you say Rascal is borderline diabetic, what tests did the vet do to say this?
Do you have any tests you can share with us?
How often is he being monitored to check his blood glucose to see if it is either going back to normal with the food change or is going up?
Do you know what his blood glucose has been when checked?
If he is losing weight dispite being fed a low carb high protein diet, I do wonder if he in fact needs insulin.
Untreated Diabetic cats cannot absorb all the nutrients in the food and they are frequently hungry and thin.

What is glucose support diabetic food? Do you mean the Hills MD? And is it wet or dry?
We recommend you feed a low carb high protein wet diet. There is no need to feed a prescription food as they are all too high in carbs and cats often won’t eat them.
Here is a food list for you. Look for foods that are 10% carbs or less. Fancy feast pates are fine.
However I would urge you to find out more about what the vet thinks is ‘borderline diabetes’
From our experience, that can mean the cat actually needs insulin. And it is not safe to leave a cat who needs insulin without it. They will sooner or later develop ketones and can become very sick.

I’m not sure what tests they did, Rascal was taken to the vet at the end of February because he kept throwing up every few hours for a couple days straight and tumbling over. He stayed at the vet overnight and they called the next day and said he is at the borderline of being diabetic and that he had an infection. We picked him up two days later and they didn’t really tell us much of anything. The vet said borderline diabetes because it was just slightly over the normal range (it was 190). He was put on glipizide which is a pill to lower his blood sugar but they took him off of it because his sugar went too low (it went down to 65). He was checked 2 weeks after then 4 weeks after being taken off of the glipizide and it was within the normal range. Also for what I said about his weight he isn’t losing weight now, he lost the weight a few months ago when he kept getting sick. He just isn’t really gaining weight now since he won’t eat the prescription food much.(the vets didn’t say anything about his weight, he is 8.4 lbs now and used to be 14, so I guess he’s not really considered underweight just really thin now.) He was last checked May 5th which is when he was last at the vet because he had an allergy to fleas, and his blood sugar was 90 then. The vets haven’t made any new appointments to check his blood sugar since then. He has Hills MD dry food and wet food, Royal Canin gluco support wet food, and Purina diabetic management wet food. He’s been fine recently, he does vomit sometimes not often and is just fine right after he does it. Also the vets told us that his Asthma shot Depo-Medrol is likely what caused him to have diabetes in the first place since it’s a steroid. We just gave him his shot the day before yesterday because we do it at home and he did get sick from it.

 

[Rasrk00]

What country do you live in? That might help us with some food suggestions.

The "glucose support diabetic food", which brand are you giving? A lot of them are actually higher carb and/or not great ingredients and the kitty grows tired of them. This food list Bron linked has a lot of the North American foods, you want something under 10% carbs. Most of the Fancy Feast pate food fits that requirement.

I’m from USA(Maryland) Rascal has Hills MD dry food and wet food, Royal Canin gluco support wet food, and Purina diabetic management wet food. Do you recommend giving him Fancy Feast pates rather than the prescription foods?

 

[Rasrk00]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
When you say Rascal is borderline diabetic, what tests did the vet do to say this?
Do you have any tests you can share with us?
How often is he being monitored to check his blood glucose to see if it is either going back to normal with the food change or is going up?
Do you know what his blood glucose has been when checked?
If he is losing weight dispite being fed a low carb high protein diet, I do wonder if he in fact needs insulin.
Untreated Diabetic cats cannot absorb all the nutrients in the food and they are frequently hungry and thin.

What is glucose support diabetic food? Do you mean the Hills MD? And is it wet or dry?
We recommend you feed a low carb high protein wet diet. There is no need to feed a prescription food as they are all too high in carbs and cats often won’t eat them.
Here is a food list for you. Look for foods that are 10% carbs or less. Fancy feast pates are fine.
However I would urge you to find out more about what the vet thinks is ‘borderline diabetes’
From our experience, that can mean the cat actually needs insulin. And it is not safe to leave a cat who needs insulin without it. They will sooner or later develop ketones and can become very sick.

I also have another question, what is the normal range for blood sugar after a cat eats. We recently got a AlphaTrak 3 to try and monitor Rascals blood sugar at home and we’re not really sure what’s considered a good range. What’s considered too high?

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

and wet food, Royal Canin gluco support wet food, and Purina diabetic management wet food. Do you recommend giving him Fancy Feast pates rather than the prescription foods?

Yes, ditch all the prescription foods and give canned fancy feast pates or similar. All those prescription foods are high carb and nothing special about them.

I also have another question, what is the normal range for blood sugar after a cat eats. We recently got a AlphaTrak 3 to try and monitor Rascals blood sugar at home and we’re not really sure what’s considered a good range. What’s considered too high?

For an alphatrak meter the normal range is approx 68-150
You can either take a test before food or wait for 3 hours after food You should get results within that range if all is ok.
I’ll send you a link to suitable foods. Look for food 10% or less carbs

 

[Rasrk00]

Yes, ditch all the prescription foods and give canned fancy feast pates or similar. All those prescription foods are high carb and nothing special about them.

For an alphatrak meter the normal range is approx 68-150
You can either take a test before food or wait for 3 hours after food You should get results within that range if all is ok.
I’ll send you a link to suitable foods. Look for food 10% or less carbs

Thank you!

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Thank you!

Here is a food list for you.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Of the list of foods you wrote above, only the Purina DM wet food is in the correct carb range. However, the ingredients aren't the best and often kitties will get tired of it. You should be able to return the food to the vet and get your money back. You can say he didn't like it, which seems like what was happening.

How long was he on the glipizide? Hopefully not long. If on it too long, it can overwork the pancreas and make remission harder. It's not a recommended treatment any more.

 

[Rasrk00]

Of the list of foods you wrote above, only the Purina DM wet food is in the correct carb range. However, the ingredients aren't the best and often kitties will get tired of it. You should be able to return the food to the vet and get your money back. You can say he didn't like it, which seems like what was happening.

How long was he on the glipizide? Hopefully not long. If on it too long, it can overwork the pancreas and make remission harder. It's not a recommended treatment any more.

He was on glipizide for about a month and a half. I’ll keep the Purina DM for him since he eats it sometimes and also give him Fancy Feast pates. I won’t give him the others. Thank you for the help!