Bobby is on prescription food.

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Jessica2085

Jessica2085

Member Since 2016
So my cat Bobby is on prescription diet food for diabetic cats. It's 65 per case. He needs 3 cases per mth. That is a lot of money. We adopted him and we're told that diabetic cats should be on this kind of food. He is only allowed to have 375 cals per day. What other kinds of food are okay for diabetic cats? Or should he stay on this food they told us he is to have a can of the wet food at 8 am when he gets his 5 units of insulin and 1/4 of a can at 5 pm as a snack then the rest of that can at 8 pm when he gets his last 5 units of the day. Just seems very weird to me. Any advice would be great
 
First of all, 5 units is a HUGE dose for a cat to be on unless they've been diagnosed with some very special conditions like acromegaly or IAA. Most of our cats are on less than 2 units every 12 hours.

What insulin are you on and how long has Bobby been diagnosed? How were dose adjustments made? In whole units?

Next, there's no such thing as a real "prescription" food....the word has no legal meaning. It's just a word that Hills trademarked so it sounds like their foods are somehow better than others.

Most of us feed plain old Friskies pates, Fancy Feast Classics or 9-Lives pates....what's important with diabetic cats is to feed a low carb, high moisture diet. Just like with human diabetics, carbs are the key

There's lots of great information on Dr. Lisa's website on Feline Nutrition...it's well worth the time to read!!

One BIG warning though.....before you consider dropping the carbs Bobby is eating, you need to be home testing. Dropping from a high carb food to a low carb one can drop the blood glucose as much as 200 points, so to keep him safe, you must learn to test at home and then gradually change the foods.
 
What prescription food is he on? Purina DM canned is the only RX food appropriate for a diabetic cat, but it is overpriced and you really don't need a prescription food. Diabetic cats just need low carb, canned foods that are less than 10% carbohydrates. There are a lot of commercial foods that meet those requirements! Bandit has been diabetic for 7 years, and he's never been on a prescription food.

If you check out catinfo.org, you can find a nutrition list of a ton of commercial canned foods. Anything under 10% carbs is OK to feed a diabetic cat.
http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

I am very concerned, however, that you are at 5 units of insulin right now. Most cats on a low carb, canned diet need much less than that. What insulin are you using?
 
I very much agree with Chris, 5 units is a very large starting dose (the max for cats is 2 units, and that's for very large framed cats like maine coons) and I fear for the safety of your cat. If you're not home testing, I would strongly encourage you to do so!
 
Okay. So the thing is I justhink have him as a foster for two weeks. They wanna see if I can manage this. But animal control where I live didn't tell me what insulin it is. They gave me the syringes insulin and food. I'll take a pic of it all and maybe u can help me that way. I don't have much of a history on Bobby. But I saw him and knew I needed to help him. Animal services can't keep there stories straight. Which has me concerned I actually thought about getting a second opinion from a vet I use for my bearded dragon's. And sorry we do test at home. Yesterday he was 7.3. They gave us a monitor but gave us these awful needle things to poke his ear with. We are buying a new machine all together tmrw. I feel as if he was not treated as great as he could have been
 
This is the food
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M/D is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat - it comes in at 14% of calories from carbs, where diabetic cats need to stay under 10% of calories from carbs. You'd really do better switching him to Friskies pates (they're significantly cheaper too). The insulin should have a label on it with the name - insulin shouldn't be repackaged at all. 7.3 isn't actually a bad number at all - it's not so far off being in the normal range. What needles have they given you for testing? Even the alternate site lancets for glucose meters aren't all that big...usually a 26 gauge is the biggest you'd use which is still a fairly small needle.
 
Wait till you're home testing and have some data about how your kitty is responding to the current dose before transitioning to a lower carb food. The transition to low carb can cause a significant drop in BG levels and the insulin dose may very well need to be reduced.

It will be really helpful when you post a pic of the insulin your kitty is receiving. (Different insulins have different characteristics and therefore suggestions from members need to be tailored to the specific insulin in use.)

Keep posting and we can help you with all of this. :)


Mogs
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The insulin vial has no label. Honest to God. They put a piece of paper on the bottle and put directions on it. There is no actual label on it. I'll take a pic in the morning when I go downstairs. It could be water for all I know. This is what the thing looks like that he prickly his ear with. Looks like the blue one.
 

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OK. That's not a lancet. That's the kind of needle you use to give sub-q fluids. And yes, they're evil things! If the insulin has no label, then it's been repackaged. It could be anything at all - and might be an insulin that's totally unsuitable for cats. You should be able to buy a lancing device and lancets without having to buy a whole new meter and strips - but you'll definitely want to buy the right thing instead of using those needles to try and test with.
 
Ya. My foster mom has diabetes. I've seen hers before. I'm gonna buy a whole not her monitor. They all come with lancets. When u buy the strips u get a free monitor and lancet. I'm gonna call a vet that we use for our dragons tmrw. They are a normal vet just the one vet specializes in reptiles
 
Jessica2085 said:
Ya. My foster mom has diabetes. I've seen hers before. I'm gonna buy a whole not her monitor. They all come with lancets. When u buy the strips u get a free monitor and lancet. I'm gonna call a vet that we use for our dragons tmrw. They are a normal vet just the one vet specializes in reptiles
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i would gather as much info as you can before talking to the vet tomorrow from this forum
 
I am really shocked at the animal shelter for doing this to you (and to poor Bobby), I think the first thing would be to find out what vet they use so that your vet can speak to them, get some more details on treatments/lab work and find out what insulin they are giving! Is he microchipped as sometimes you can trace which vet put the chip in which might help getting some more history. If you don't know whether he is or not then someone needs to find out.
 
Jessica2085 said:
Do u have any suggestions as to what I should bring up or say? Questions I should ask maybe?
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You'll want a vet who:


1) Supports home testing of blood glucose and is OK about using a human glucometer.


2) Supports feeding a low carbohydrate, over the counter, canned or raw cat food.


3) Is either up to date, or willing to do the homework to become up to date on feline diabetes and common comorbidities (pancreatitis, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), CRF (chronic renal failure), EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency), infection, etc.


4) If up to date, is familiar with the use of ProZinc, PZI, Lantus, and/or Levemir IN CATS; ask how they determine initial dosing and how often the dose is given. This may be based on lean body weight (verify it, if they say based on weight as some vets forget this, per Dr Pierson) or may start low at 0.5 units. Dosing should be twice a day at 12 hour intervals.


5) If currently treating diabetic cats, ask how long they usually survive (should be several years, barring other conditions)


6) Knows how long the current diabetic cats have survived since diagnosis and how many have gone into remission.


7) Has pricing you can live with - check office visit fee, vaccine fee, CBC and chemistry fee, etc. Ask how often they have you bring the diabetic cat in and for what reasons (if you are home testing, you can do curves and averages at home, and the cat doesn't get 'regulated' at the vet office where stress makes the numbers unreliable)



These topics were compiled from suggestions by members of the Feline Diabetes Message Board(FDMB).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BqrojKe9oBVAoexL59pUWidEd7viNmxSqW5l2IBTWjY/edit

i would also read this its fairly new http://jfm.sagepub.com/content/17/3/235.full.pdf html
also you dont want to just get the free blood glucose monitors because the strips could be more expensive and the monitor may not have a good rating. if u have walmart the relion brand meters are what a few members including myself use
 
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Jessica2085 said:
When u buy the strips u get a free monitor and lancet. I'm gonna call a vet that we use for our dragons tmrw. They are a normal vet just the one vet specializes in reptiles
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Definitely if you can get the 'buy the strips, get the meter free' deal, those are the best ones to go for as long as it's a good meter and the strips aren't going to be insanely expensive when you need to buy more. :) I think you're doing the right thing getting a second opinion from your own vet as it really does sound as though the supplies he's been sent to you with are far from ideal. Please keep us updated on what your own vet says - and ask as many questions here as you need to before you take Bobby to see them so you can go in armed with information and questions to ask them. The list above is a good start, but if there's anything else you need to know we're all here to help. :)
 
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