10/11/13 Jerry AMPS 212 +5 88 + 7 111

[HappyCat]

I have a question about appetite for my diabetic handsome little man. As I've mentioned before he has NO issue whatsoever with his wet food pate diet. He seems to wonder why he's so wonderful to get to have it all the time. I've been kind of winging it as to how much he eats. He gets fed at least 3 if not 4 times per day. Well the last couple days he's just been absolutely starving so he says. He's been getting fed 6 times a day and would probably be more if not for getting some rest. I tried to do some research on it and my findings claimed that his diabetes is out of control and that's why it's happening. This does perplex me a bit as I was concerned over having to save him last night as he hit a 61 but did come back up probably from all of his feedings. So he doesn't really seem uncontrolled to me so not sure what the cause of this is but I would certainly appreciate any input. Especially being as how when he did hit his low of 40 on the 27th his first reaction was to save himself with food and happily accepted my offer of honey wet food. Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Diabetic cats can have the "munchies" for two reasons. The first is what you've been reading -- their diabetes isn't yet regulated. Usually, this is in the initial phase of treatment before you're getting close to a good dose. Once the insulin is doing it's job, more glucose is getting into the cells to provide nourishment (vs. floating around in the blood stream). Until that happens, nutrition isn't getting where it's supposed to go.

The other reason a kitty can be hungry is if numbers are dropping. When numbers are dropping into lower ranges, Jerry is doing exactly what any creature would do when experiencing lower BG levels -- we all eat! It's a natural instinct to search out food when BG numbers drop , especially into those lower green ranges.

Unless you want a particularly "fluffy" kitty, you may need to divide food up so you don't overdo it on the calories.