British diabetic cat owners feeding Natural Instinct

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sweetcherrypie

Member Since 2010
Are there any British diabetic cat owners feeding Natural Instinct Raw Food successfully?
Can you please get in touch as I am having problems.
Many Thanks,
Carol and Carbonel
 
would you like to elaborate on what the problems are - we may be able to help. I see you have another post going explaining the issue - In order to avoid confusion, I would recommend you delete this post and change the subject of the other one and keep that conversation going -

did you see what sienne wrote about the correlation of high carb diet to low carb diet and insulin - and that you may not be giving enough insulin?
 
Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone who is feeding that particular food. Is this in relation to the post with regards to the high #s that you're experiencing? If so, you may want to considering changing the food to a good commercial brand food like Fancy Feast, Friskies, Wellness, etc. that has lower than 10% in carbohydrates. The lower the carbs, the better chance of seeing better #s.

If you decide to stick with the raw food, you may need to add minerals and vitamins to it so that your kitty will get the full health benefit. Good luck, and I hope someone on here is feeding that food to their cats, and can help you quickly.
 
Carol --

I don't know if there are any other members in the UK in the Lantus group at present. How about posting on the Health board, as well? I know there are a few people posting there who are in England.
 
sweetcherrypie said:
Are there any British diabetic cat owners feeding Natural Instinct Raw Food successfully?
Can you please get in touch as I am having problems.
Many Thanks,
Carol and Carbonel
Click to expand...

Hello Carol,

I feed Natural Instinct amongst other foods. (But I don't use Lantus, and am not sure why I came to the Lantus forum and found your post... Spooky! :shock: )

I looked at another of your posts just now: Is your concern that you think it may be raising your cat's BG levels? I know it contains bilberry extract (or something like that) and brewer's yeast. On another diabetic cat forum (DCC) it is suggested that this food 'might affect BG' levels'. I wasn't sure exactly what that meant and so I asked someone. The reply I got was that the brewer's yeast might possibly increase BG levels because of carb content.

I've not seen any difference in typical BG levels when feeding NI to Bertie, but it might be an ECID ('every cat is different' ) thing. In fact I've read quite a bit about the idea that brewer's yeast can actually be beneficial to diabetics, human and animal, by helping with BG levels.

I only use NI occasionally now. Some of the batches seemed quite variable. The raw that I mostly use now is minced whole wild rabbit from Woldsway. I add a few supplements to that to make it more of a complete food (rabbit is low in fat and bone-dense). And I don't feed just raw, I feed low carb canned as well (so it isn't so crucial that I get the nutrition of my raw absolutely right!)

Could there be any other reason for your cat having raised BG levels...?

Eliz
 
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the reply. I have put Carbonel back on the Natural Instinct for now. No real difference to the blood sugar readings, she is still high and looks really poorly. She looked like this when I tried this food before. She is now no longer stable on her feet.
I had full blood tests done in January ( which were good) and the vet said she was fine when she visited on Friday, although I thought she wasn't. I was told to stop stressing myself out by testing all the time!
I used to make my own food and broke a few mincers in the process. I have also purchased the rabbit from Woldsway before, but really need fresh ingredients in order to freeze in bulk.
Did I see that you have your cat on PZI? If yes, where do purchase yours and is it very expensive? Carbonel did really well on PZI before it was discontinued.
Thank you for the information with regards to the Brewers Yeast. Natural Instinct's carbs appear to be very low so it should not be a problem.
Kind regards,
Carol Buchanan
 
sweetcherrypie said:
Did I see that you have your cat on PZI? If yes, where do purchase yours and is it very expensive? Carbonel did really well on PZI before it was discontinued.
Carol Buchanan
Click to expand...
Hi Carol,

My cat is on Hypurin bovine PZI. There are a few UK folks here at FDMB using it. After the demise of Insuvet PZI I persuaded our vet to prescribe Hypurin for Bertie. (I considered Lantus and Levemir but couldn't sign up to the consistent 12/12 shooting schedule). My vet charges £80 a vial, but that can last many months before it sparks out. And there are folks who save a few quid by getting their vet to write a prescription and then getting the insulin from a pharmacy.

Hypurin has worked well for my cat; far better actually than the previous Insuvet PZI because Hypurin has a really long duration and works quite a bit on overlap. So you can get some nice long gentle curves with it. And his numbers used to be absolutely dreadful and now are not too bad at all! (Touch wood, anti-jinx!)

When you say that your cat is not stable on her feet, is that because of neuropathy?

Eliz
 
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for responding. How many months does the PZI last? It would make a huge difference to our lives not to shoot twice a day. I get my prescription from the vet as well. The Glargine costs about £65 and lasts about 7 months. Although I would like to get Carbonel's blood sugars into a normal range for a period before making any more changes.
Kind regards,
Carol and Carbonel
 
with all insulin types you will need to give it twice a day - so changing to another insulin won't prevent you from giving insulin twice a day - sorry to disappoint.
 
Hi Carol,

Yes, as Hilary says, for cats all insulins need to be given twice a day. But with PZI it's not so important that the shooting schedule is 12/12 (always 12 hours apart). It is much more 'forgiving' in that regard. It is also more amenable to dose alterations and 'sliding scale' dosing.

And in fact, some people on Hypurin PZI do find that - because of very long duration and overlap - they sometimes do end up giving one shot a day sometimes, because the blood glucose remains too low to warrant a shot. With regard to my own cat he currently has about 1 to 2 days every week where he goes 24 hours on one shot. But I can never predict when that will be!

As to how long Hypurin lasts, well I've had vials last between 3 months and 9 months before they lost potency. But I haven't thrown the old vials out because someone told me that they found that the old insulin seemed to regain potency after being left alone for time. I've not tried any of my older vials so I can't say that I have any experience of this.

Hypurin is not a 'typical' PZI. It has some of the flexibility of PZI but also a very long duration. And in this regard it has something in common with Lantus and Levemir.

If Lantus isn't working for your cat then it might be worth trying a switch to a different insulin. But before you consider that maybe get folks on the Lantus forum here to take a look at your cat's numbers and see if they can advise about the insulin dose: Maybe it is possible to get your cat into better numbers on Lantus...?

Best wishes,

Eliz
 
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