2/8 Leo - AMPS 453 - PMPS 203 - need some advice on food intake

[Javier and Leo]

Last post: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...n-about-high-numbers-on-higher-dosage.242712/

Thank you all for your continued support.

We officially switched to the ReliOn meter. All the numbers you see on the spreadsheet from 2/5 are from the ReliOn.

Leo tested 203 for PMPS today. Should we be worried about the night and a possible drop to hypo? We haven't seen this low a number in a while. He got 1U tonight.

Question about food intake:

Leo is eating almost a 6.5 oz can of Ziwi Peak per day, yet he never seems satiated. He's always hungry and looking for food. Do you have any recommendations about how much food a kitty like Leo should be taking? Is it the diabetes and high glucose numbers that make him feel hungry all the time? He's 5.5 kilograms.

Thank you!

 

[Hercule's mum]

Hi Leo,

I had a quick look at your SS, and I think the easiest way to annotate it with a line of a different colour across the SS, and bold writing saying SWITCH TO HUMAN GLUCOMETER

About how much food.... I hear that cats get much hungrier when their BG values are high. Hercs definetly got ridiculous at some point before being diagnosed. He is much better now, and eats like a gentleman....

Even though they eat a lot, cats with high BG they may not use a lot of it because of their insulin situation. This is to say that how much to eat is an empirical problem. Is he at a good size, under or overweight? You can search on google for cat body condition for guidance of what is considered over or underweight. If he is underweight, by all means give him more food! and keep an eye on the body condition chart. If he is overweight, than give him lots of petting.....

Once you know which way you want to go with his weight, you can monitor if the amount of food you are giving him currently is keeping his weight, increasing or decreasing. I usually jump on the scale with hercs and without about once a week to look at the trend. You can then try to increase or decrease as needed and see what it does. Sorry I cannot provide a more specific answer.

 

[Bandit's Mom]

Hi Javier, I have sent you a PM for edit access to your SS to make the changes to your SS for the meter switch.

Did you get any more tests in the PM cycle?

Karen is right, unregulated cats do not process their food properly and are therefore always hungry. It should become better once Leo sees better numbers.

Here are a couple of stickies on the topic:
Discussion: "Feed kitty as much as they want?"
How much should I feed?

 

[Katherine&Ruby]

My Ruby weighs a little less than your Leo and when she was unregulated I fed her as much as she wanted to eat because she was slightly underweight after her DKA. She was eating 1.5-2 5.5 oz cans of Purina DM. Now that she is regulated she eats about 6-7 ounces and between 180-200 calories, so a bit less than before but I am feeding her Weruva now which is lower in calories. I portion out all of her meals using a digital kitchen scale so I know how many calories she gets in a day. I also administer subQ fluids to Ruby now so it's very important that I track her weight in case of fluid retention so I bought a baby scale to weigh her. Only after I got that scale did I know for sure if the food she was eating was enough.

I just looked up Ziwipeak and their lamb formula is 37 calories per ounce, which is pretty high for cat food.

Oh, and if you are concerned about low numbers, you should get definitely more night tests and more tests generally once kitty starts seeing more normal numbers.