11/20/14 Oz Feeding tips for when you're away from home.

[Ian & Oz]

Hello,
I'm wondering what tips you have for feeding when you can't be home.
I don't yet have an auto feeder so I have to just leave bowls of food out, for four kitties.
Today I was faced with this dilema when Oz tested at 57 at the time I needed to leave & he was just 3 1/2 hours into the cycle.
I put out several extra bowls of food, but first I put some high carb Gravy lovers food in with his regular low carb food, he gobbled up the gravy food & ate a little of the other. I wasn't far away & had to come back for something & checked him again at 1:25 pm, about an hour later, he was at 82. Not knowing how long he would stay there & possibly go back down I gave him a little more HC gravy food. When I came back at 3:00, an hour & a half later he was at 103. I truly didn't know what to expect, I sort of thought he might jump up much higher than he did.

Is this the general idea to keep their numbers from dropping?
If I couldn't have come back for a while I don't know where he would have been level wise if he didn't eat anything.
I'd appreciate any information you have about what to do in this situation.

Thank You
Ian

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

Re: 11/20/14 Oz Feeding tips for when you're away from home

you handled it all very well. I think the best you can do when you have to leave is to leave out plenty of food. It's a bit tricky when you've got 4 cats and can't be sure who will get what. Sometimes people put the diabetic cat in a bedroom with a litter box and the appropriate food. A timed feeder is really helpful because then you know it's going to dole the food out at intervals, rather than having the cat eat the food all at once and then have his/her bg's drop when the carbs wear off.

Some people freeze cat food either in ice cube trays or in muffin pans, then leave them out for the cat to eat as they thaw. You'd want to try this out while you're home to see if it works, or if Oz would eat a frozen ice cube of food instead. Mix a little water with the food before you freeze it. Some people do an assortment of frozen low carb and high carb foods and then leave out what they think they might need.

The basic idea of tight regulation is that if a cat is kept "tightly regulated," meaning between 50-120 on a human glucometer, their pancreas has the opportunity to heal. Not every cat's will, and not every cat will become diet-controlled, but newly diagnosed cats have the advantage, so we encourage people to make the most of the window of time after diagnosis in the hopes that the cat might heal.

If you're not going to be home, you really don't want your cat skating along just over 50, though. That's pretty close to needing intervention with carbs, so having him going along at 80-120 is much better.

You just do the best you can.

 

[Ian & Oz]

Re: 11/20/14 Oz Feeding tips for when you're away from home

Thanks Julie,
I appreciate the suggestions.
I'm trying to find ways to not be tied to the house all day, everyday & still do the best things for Oz.
It can seem very overwhelming at times, wondering how you can possibly leave him alone when his levels drop & fluctuate like they do.

Ian

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

Re: 11/20/14 Oz Feeding tips for when you're away from home

It's a balancing act, Ian - and sometimes it IS hard to know how to still be able to get out to do things.

I think you're getting a good handle on when you need to test again in a cycle and when you can stop testing until the next preshot.