9-23 Olive AMPS "HI" after a night in the black/Anyone feeding raw? Have questions.

O

OlivesMom

Member Since 2020
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...so-high-after-a-lovely-previous-cycle.235740/

I bought some new Relion Syringes yesterday as I was totally fed up with the Walgreens ones I've used this whole time. Inaccurate stamping and air bubbles. During the transition I realized our caliper wasn't giving an accurate reading either and between my husband and myself we'd retested the numbers over and over again. Because the Walgreens syringes were so goofy we couldn't go by the half unit mark or the stamped zero line and relied mostly on the caliper. Only by switching to the Relion brand and purchasing a second caliper so that we wouldn't have to reset the other one, did we realize a startling fact...Olive hadn't been getting the IU we thought all this time. The new caliper was reading something closer to the half unit mark instead! I also did numerous side by side comparisons with the Walgreens brand to the Relion and further discovered just how insanely inaccurate the Walgreens syringes had been from one syringe to another by using the droplet test. At times she'd only be getting half the amount but it always looked filled up to the neck. We discovered this because we also purchased a jewelers magnifying glass so we could see everything crystal clear. So after doing some drop testing I decided to use the Relion for her PMPS, noting that it was slightly skinny compared to the "normal" dose using the Walgreens syringe. Imagine my horror when she went into the black and stayed there all night long. Was it because she was bouncing or had she not gotten enough insulin because of the brand switch? Whatever the case, I decided to go back to the Walgreens brand for the AMPS today until I can further putz around with the Relions to get the correct IU. I must say I really like the Relion's much better, it's just a matter of knowing the equivalent dose to the Walgreens brand. I don't want to mess up as I think I might have done with the PMPS. Anyone following Olive's SS I will list her IU as a half unit until we learn otherwise. But I'm going to leave the 0.01IU as it was.

Also, I'm disappointed because Olive's appointment with the holistic vet had to be cancelled due to unfortunate circumstances. So I'm left with the same issues of what to do about her diet. I really hate her being on the DM and I noticed yesterday that she simply prefers eating straight up raw. She eats that with some gusto. It's an excellent low carb food since it only contains 0.04% for the turkey she's eating. But to balance out the insulin she needs more carbs. So I was wondering if anyone on here has fed raw as a rule and if by switching her to the freeze dried raw if that would be a better alternative to the DM because I know freeze dried contains more carbs. I have to do some digging but I'm thinking freeze dried contains 3%. I left a message with the company for an exact answer. My next question is how many carbs is too little? And how much is too much? I actually had some freeze dried duck by Stella and Chewy on hand so I offered her a little nugget which I'd soaked in some warm water. At first she kept looking at the bowl and walking away. Four attempts later she actually sniffed it and then devoured the whole thing as if it were a Thanksgiving feast. Would the freeze dried diet be better for her than the DM? I'd like nothing more than to get her off those garbage ingredients full of bi-products. Gross! I'd greatly appreciate any help on this. Thanks!
 
I use dehydrated freeze dried raw for my civvie Tripper. I do add some water to make it a little wet. She is fuzzy about the texture. To wet she won't eat it. And she does like it totally dry sometimes. I use Vital Essentials Patties, she doesn't like the duck to much. Doesn't like rabbit at all. I also have the mini nibs which is dry kubble. None of my cats care to much for them.

Look at Ollie's ss on the food tab, Vital Essentials is listed. Freeze dried raw should be less carbs than wet food.
 
I use Small Batch and Primal frozen raw for my young ones. I add water to it. They are foodies so love it although one isn’t thrilled with rabbit she will eat it. They do contain some carbs.
 
Freeze dried raw is the same as the frozen. If you add water to the thawed frozen it looks like canned food. I think Primal has better ingredients than Stella’s Small Batch is even better but they only sell the frozen on the west coast. You can buy the freeze dried on line from Chewy or even Amazon. I’ve used all the proteins available from both companies (Small Batch and Primal).
 
Thank you both for the feeback. I called Small Batch and she told me that there will soon be a "lightly cooked" line coming out in a few months that will contain some carbs, but that as a whole their food contains such a teeny amount of carbs that it's too fractional to even list in the analysis. Stella's hasn't called me back yet. And it looks like I've been getting the wrong protein for Olive. Turkey is what she loved out of the shoot so I didn't try others, but it's the lowest carb content @ 0.04%. The Duck is 2.8%, the highest carb protein they have. Would this be enough carbs for her? The woman at Small Batch did offer one suggestion which I thought I might run past you all on here. She said one way to add carbs to the healthier foods for our cats is to add in a little sweet potato puree at meal time. She said only a teeny amount would work. She used it on her own cat adding 1/2 tsp at mealtimes and it did the trick. What's your thoughts on doing something similar? Everything in me wants to throw the DM in the garbage and get her back on raw food only. In fact, she's only got 5 cans of the DM left and I've been hesitant to buy more.
 
Left a message with Primal, but Stella & Chewy just called. They said all their raw foods contain less than 2% carbs. Their non-raw food boxed diets are the Marvelous Morsels which contain about 3% carbs. The pates are as follows: Chicken is 5.77% Chicken and Salmon is 5.6% and the turkey is 4.3%. I asked what the calorie content was for the turkey and it's 187 calories per box.
 
Primal is very responsive so you will hear back. If you look on their site you will see that one has a slightly lower % of protein so either higher carbs or fat. I think it’s the turkey.
 
You could also add a tiny smidge of pumpkin to the food for a bit of carbs and not as much carbs as the sweet potato. The bonus is that it's good as a prebiotic for digestion.

Your questions about turkey vs duck, duck is higher calorie, so if you are trying to put weight on Olive, it'll be a good option. I tended to rotate proteins so I didn't get boredom happening. Chicken, kangaroo, turkey and either lamb or venison depending if winter was the usual. Lamb is a warming meat, venison cooling. I can't help you with brands cause I got most of them locally. When I made my own, chicken, turkey, buffalo were common, and I purchased some of the other meats premanufactured. I tried Primal occasionally for variety and the cats grew tired of them after a bag or two. I also did Nature's Variety raw occasionally - it was a good option when travelling cause it was commonly available in destinations.

As for needing some carbs, it really does depend on the cat. Some cats need a few carbs, Neko did just fine on her raw, with was around 2-3% as fed %carbs. Note, some meats have carbs by themselves, kangaroo being a percent or two higher. That's without veggies added.

Sorry about the bounce.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
You could also add a tiny smidge of pumpkin to the food for a bit of carbs and not as much carbs as the sweet potato. The bonus is that it's good as a prebiotic for digestion.
Click to expand...
All very helpful suggestions. Thanks guys! I always keep pumpkin on hand for the girls so I've got some when needed. Plus, I just ran to the pet health food store and the owner is quite familiar with this site. I told her my situation and she was most helpful. For starters she said that the dry matter to wet food ratio was off on the above stated raw turkey to freeze dried ratio. As you said, they are they same so why the company confuses people with what they list on the website is beyond me. But anyways, she knows I want to get Olive off the DM but getting her enough carbs is the key for the insulin to work effectively. Plus she knows I have tons of Primal raw turkey on hand and Olive loves it so wanted to build on this. Here was her thoughts...https://primalpetfoods.com/products/market-mix-turkey
She did the math conversion (she was a vet tech in the past) to dry matter and it equaled roughly 13 carbs per serving for the Primal toppers. So this means all we have to do is ween her off the DM, increase her back to the all raw diet and add the toppers to her meals and it all should balance out with the proper amount of carbs by comparison to the DM, plus it's HEALTHY. I'm excited at the thought of getting her back to a healthy diet. It'll be trial and error until we figure out just how many carbs her body actually needs for the insulin to work properly, but I feel like we are finally heading down the right road now.
Wendy&Neko said:
Sorry about the bounce.
Click to expand...
All I can do is keep praying she comes down from the black SOON.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top