? Can lower-carb foods sometimes raise BG levels?

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FarmKitty

FarmKitty

Member Since 2020
Hi all. Dixie's BG levels have been so consistent until I made some changes for her new Hyperthyroid and CKD diagnoses.

As you can see from her spreadsheet, I started giving her a low dose of hyperthyroid medication a couple of weeks ago. I also switched her from Friskies Chicken/Turkey pates (8% carb) to the Weruva Steak Frites (5.5% carb) because of the low phosphorus content. Then suddenly she is reaching some yellow values that she hasn't seen in a very long time!

I was thinking either
  • The hyperthyroid medication is causing some reaction
  • The insulin is 7 months old so maybe it is wearing off? Although I would think that would happen more gradually
  • Maybe since she has been having chicken/turkey, she is allergic to the beef or the sweet potatoes in the new food and it is causing some allergic reaction and raises the BG levels? But also her BG levels were very high on a day that she barely ate... so I am just reaching for ideas here...
My plan is to keep her on the Friskies pate for a couple of days (which she eats very well) and see if her BG values are suddenly fine again. Then I was thinking about blending up the Steak Frites into a pate and seeing if she will eat it then. But I don't want to give it to her if is might actually raise her BG levels.

I was planning on potentially switching to lantus from ProZinc, but I don't want to do that if there are some other variables at play that are messing with her levels.

Anyone have any ideas on what I should try?
 
Oh yes, so many variables! Frustrating, isn't?

I think you have the right hypothesis, and I think the key is to test one at a time. I am not super experienced, but I have read about kitties not doing well on beef based food so I think your initial plan sounds good! It is also the most likely explanation (together with the medication, which you can't meddle with it), since is the latest change.

FWIW, hercs did brilliantly switching from pzi to lantus. BUT... every cat is different... and we don't change teams that are winning... and you have been winning on prozinc, so I wouldn't switch at the moment. I would try the food first.
 
Hi FK,

Thyroid meds can have an impact on BG levels. Also, sometimes cats may do better with slightly higher low carb foods than lower or ultra-low carb foods. I don't know of any particular rule of thumb for managing either of these. To the best of my knowledge one has to monitor the reaction of the individual kitty and there may be a bit of trial and error in working out how to improve things.


Mogs
.
 
PS:

Some cats may react to particular ingredients in their foods. As Karen mentions above, beef can spike some cats' BG. Eliz has mentioned here before that some cats get significant BG spikes if their food contains soy protein.


Mogs
.
 
Thank you both for the info. I have switched Dixie back to her Friskies food for 4 days now and she hasn't seen any yellow values since!

Tomorrow I will trying blending up the Weruva Steak Frites (to see if she eats that texture better) and give it one last go since the Steak Frites have such great nutritional values for both her diabetes and CKD. It will be very interesting if that spikes her levels up again... I tried to do some research on why beef can spike a cat's BG but all I have found are posts referencing that they heard it could happen without citing any source.

If that fails, I'm gonna give the Weruva Chicken Frick 'A Zee a try.
 
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