Bet dry food for diabetic cats?

[concrete]

Zoe went off the juice in September and has been fine since then. I feed him high protein wet food only.
I am going out of town from Monday till Thursday so i need to find some dry food to leave out that won't send his numbers to the sky. I don't live around family or anyone I would trust going into my home while out of town so that isn't an option. I don't want to stress him by putting him in a vet hotel.

I'm prepared for the fact that his numbers are going to go up for a few days but I want t limit it as much as possible. Do you know of any dry foods are higher in protein and don't have much carbs/sugars? I was thinking dry foods for overweight cats. Other than that I think they all are pretty balanced. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[MelanieP and Ninja]

I am new here myself so not an expert, but I bought some Evo Turkey and Chicken Formula dry. It says "lowest carbohydrate" and I believe it is supposed to be something like 7%. I am only using it to transition my cat from Hills dry to a lower carb dry, as I understand that long term, canned or wet is best. Perhaps others on the forum can speak to the Evo low carb option for short term feeding.

 

[concrete]

Thank you for your reply.

Just a little unsolicited advice, if I were you I would just switch him over immediately. Your cat may refuse and not eat for a few days and that can be frustrating, I know I've been there, but your prolonging the inevitable. Cats are survivalists by nature so he will eat the wet food before he starves but they are also stubborn by nature and will try to refuse for a while. He'll be alright. Just watch out if he is on insulin, you don't want his sugar to be low from him holding out and make him hypo. I would probably withhold the insulin for a few days until he starts eating again and do a curve before i started him back on it to make sure Im not giving him too much. He will probably need less when he is on wet food exclusively.
Just my .02, unsolicited, I know. :lol:

 

[Aly & Sparky]

When Sparky was diagnosed years ago, he was ADDICTED to dry food. And after all he was going through the most heartbreaking part for me was taking away his favorite food. I tried other dry foods, I tried switching slowly and giving half wet and half dry. He simply refused to eat the wet food. And the softy I am I kept letting him have dry. Finally after not being able to regulate him I broke down and switched him cold turkey to wet food (he protested a few days then began eating it). But softy me gave him maybe 6-10 pieces of dry with each shot, as a reward for sitting and letting me take BGs and shoot. After a year of this and soaring numbers I finally caved and stopped all his dry food. Within 3 months, he went off the insulin and into a remission. I suggest learning from my mistakes and switching your cat to wet food asap, no looking back. I know it's hard emotionally, but your cat's health is much more important.

 

[Lori&Scout]

Hey Concrete,

I got a petsitter from a local agency. Same company that does dog walking. The petsitter they hooked me up with is awesome with the cats. He played with them and sent me pics of them and gave them their canned food and all was well. I had him come twice a day but with freezing food ahead of time I think they would have been fine with once a day. It was a little pricey but a heck of a lot less than going back on the insulin or a vet bill!

Another cautionary tale, after a couple months of canned food only, I put my civvie back on dry food while I traveled with my diabetic. I'll spare you the details, but her tummy was NOT AT ALL HAPPY about the abrupt switch and I came home to a disaster.

Best of luck and safe travels.

Lori

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

If you are going to be away for several days, what are you doing about the litter box? It's going to get dirty very quickly.

do you have any local pet sitters or boarding places near you that you could interview and see if they will come to your house? How about your vet's office - maybe a vet tech looking to make some extra $$. How about another FDMB member who may be nearby?

Where do you live? Maybe if you post your location and that you need pet sitting help, someone on this board may be able to assist.

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

EVO Cat and Kitten is the low EVO line, the others are still higher than 10%, Welless Core is also a lower carb. My cats that eat the hard take to the EVO better, but my diabetic doesn't want anything to do with the hard food at all so you want to test and make sure that your kitty is actually going to eat it before you leave. You can find the link to Janet and Binky's charts on the site or just Google them, she has 2 charts for wet and 1 for dry, and look for the few under 10%

Avoid foods for overweight cats. Those are what got many of us here in the first place. They are loaded with carbs.

 

[concrete]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I ended up looking for the lowest carb dry food I could find and ended up with iams, I will have to look to see which kind, I forget.
Zoe's blood was high when I got back and he was showing that he was not feeling well. I've returned him to his regular wet food + a bunch of water and he is doing better. Insulin wasn't necessary.
The box was dirty when I got home but it wasn't too bad. I don't want strangers coming into the house when I am gone and zoe hates going to the vet or anywhere outside of the house for that matter so I would rather not stress him out. He just had to deal with the litter box being full for a few days but he's fine.

Thanks everyone!