? About High Carb Wet for Hypo Kit

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Michele & Gracie

Michele & Gracie

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Hi All-

I have almost finished putting together my Hypo kit, but was wondering what to use for a high carb wet food. We still have dry CD for those I am in the process of switching to canned food.

At what point is a food considered High Carb?

Update on Gracie-

She is doing well. Mostly yellows and pinks, and I am still trying to figure out a pattern.

We have an appointment with a feline specialist next week. After emailing back and forth and speaking with her office staff, I really think will be a good fit for us. Testing is getting easier on both of us, and I am finally calming down. ;)

Again, thanks to all!

Michele
 
What brand of food do you usually feed? That will help me suggest some HC foods too. I can think of many -- but do not want to steer you to a type of food you are not interested in feeding. Typically anything with Gravy is HC.
 
While you can use dry food. It's typically recommended to use wet food as it will work faster than dry.

Also, if you don't want to purchase karo syrup, you can use any simple sugar that you may already have, including syrup, honey, jelly or jam, prepared icing (decorating tubes and tubs) even table sugar melted in water.
 
I have started feeding FF based on Janet & Binky's List and the Wheaten/Gluten Free List. I am also still offering the Purina DM because it starts her appetite.

The other 8 are being switched from the C/D to the same wet diet as Gracie.

Was trying to figure out at what % food goes from low to medium to high carb. After looking over Janet & Binky's list, I am thinking anything over 20% would be good? (for a high carb for the hypo kit, not for regular feeding)

Thanks for the suggestions for the simple sugars. I have found individual packs of pancake syrup in the work cafeteria, so I bought a bunch of those. I have always had Karo in the cupboard, but will also grab some icing gel...I love that those have an opening/tip similar to a syringe! :)

Again, thanks!
 
Based on the food chart - I think they say that anything over 10 is HC - I could be corrected if I am not right. Baby is carb sensitive - so I stay under 5 on the food chart & only introduce a 6 or 7 if I absolutely have to. But ECID (every cat is different) on their carb sensitivity. I feed Raw & Wellness.. if you are feeding FF - I think they say to go for the grilled or gravy ones for HC.
 
Since one of the symptoms of hypoglycemia can be problems with coordination, I prefer foods that are easy to eat. So, if I was choosing a food that of the chunks 'n gravy type, I'd opt for one with lots of gravy. If I was choosing a pate food, I'd choose one that was less densely packed and easy to lap up (I like the consistency of A/D for this).

Basicly (for me, anyway), anything that's very easy to lap up and doesn't require the cat trying to identify and lift a chunk with her tongue, or trying to break off pieces with her tongue. If my cats hypos, I'm going to be semi-panicking; I want something that I can rip out of the can / pouch, dump in a dish and present, without having to remember, "Oh, yeah, I need to break this up with a fork and add some water to it."

Definite bonus points for something that's easily syringeable if necessary; again, for me, that's something with a lot of gravy or any pate food that has the consistency of A/D.

Since one of the other symptoms can be confusion, I also prefer foods that have a strong smell, to help orient the cat if necessary.


Finally, regardless of what food you choose, I'd suggest running a taste test on the cat beforehand, because I'd want a food that the cat would actually be interested in eating, not something that they might consider eating. This is actually something that we did when we switched Gwyn's base food: we bought lots of different types of food and had her taste test them. We noted which ones she liked and how much, and whether her interest in food dropped off after it'd been out of the can / pouch for a couple hours.

Then we took the three foods she liked the most, bought a bunch of cans and shoved them in a closet for emergency use only, and refused to feed them to her for everyday food. Because when it's an emergency, if she's hypoing or not eating or whatever, you want a food that she'll definitely be interested in eating, not something she gets every day. I mean, you love pizza, but if you eat it every day, it's just not that special, and therefore much less tempting.

-- Jean and her Gwyn
 
IMO, anything over 15% carbs is considered "high carb".

Fancy Feast varieties in gravy (the grilled or sliced ones, I think) are 18% carbs and are good to use for a hypo. That's what most people use. A "junky" brand like Science Diet canned is also good to use because they are like 26% carbs from all the junk quality ingredients. Use the canned food charts to find high carb foods and keep a few cans stocked at home to use just in case.
 
As squee said - I look at 10% and less as low carb - then 11 - 16% medium carb and over 16% as getting into high carb.

These are just my guesstimates and depending on what you are feeding - for example, I'm using foods that are on average 5% or less in carbs - then for me, a medium carb could be say 8% - 12% and high carb anything above that.

So, look at the carb levels you are currently out and then decide.

JJ's point of easy to eat is an excellent one. I had in my kit kibbles and gravy flavors - what I did was spoon the gravy out, so Maui wouldn't have to eat the pieces and either feed her gravy or put the gravy on top of the low carb food.

Oh and just for your own safety may I also suggest that you clearly label the cans as HC, this way if you do reach for it in error, you will see it before you pop the top.

The idea is to feed the hypo or potential hypo and be prepared so that you won't panic if it happens to you. And you don't do what I did, when I came home one day and found Maui at 36!

I tested a second time to be sure and then I tried to feed her kibbles, nope she didn't want them, I offered the gravy, nope didn't want that, I then thought NO, she must eat, so I did the silliest thing ever - I put kibbles in the blender, added gravy and water and turned it on. I ended up with a disgusting mess!

I finally calmed myself down long enough to think and took out my tiny spoons and spooned gravy into her mouth. Then when her numbers rose to a comfortable amount, I cleaned up the mess.
 
Since a lot of people say dry is high-carb and a lot of dry food is in the 30% range I would say high carb is above say 25%. For a hypo, there may be two stages. If you see symptoms of a hypo you want to raise the glucose level quickly and that is why a syrup is usually recommended. However, the syrup has a relatively short duration. Thus, you also want to administer a long-duration food. I would always go for a dry just for added assurance to prevent/overcoming the hypo.
 
I use under 10% for LC, up to 15% for MC, my HC are the 18% FF. I think it will vary between cats a little on what you want to use, the 15% will usually bring mine up quite nicely. If Smokey tests on the lower side of good, I will use 7-10% for her meal, if she tests on the high side of good I use 0-4%. If she gets to the 50s I will feed 13-15%, into the 40s she gets 15% or 18% depending on her recent trends. Some cats may need the 18% or even karo to get them to rise. I agree that testing before you actually need it is a good idea.
 
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