Carbs in food with hydrolyzed protein

[Alexis & Nikki (GA)]

Hi there,

I'm new to this world, my cat Nikki was just diagnosed with diabetes yesterday. We're going back to the vet tomorrow to get our insulin scrip and learn shots, etc. My main concern is that Nikki needs to stay on her Hill's z/d wet food, as she's dealing with something in the realm of IBD/food allergies/cancer. We got her digestive issues under control with pred and the hydrolyzed protein food, but she's unfortunately developed the diabetes after being on pred. I'm not sure how the carb load in this food will affect her sugar levels with insulin and I'm afraid to switch to a lower carb food as we've taken her off pred while we deal with the initial treatment for the diabetes. Any thoughts/advice??

Thanks in advance!

 

[Barb & Mr. Frog]

Hi there, and Welcome to FDMB!

I am new here also, but just wanted to point out that the food you are feeding may be contributing greatly to your kitty's diabetes... if you look at the table at Binky's Page , you can see it clocks in at a hefty 34% carbs, which is pretty high. For diabetic cats, you want to feed foods at least under 10% carbs, ideally under 5%

I am unclear how you should handle it if there are allergies and other issues with other foods, so I'll leave the experts to field that one.

 

[Deb & Wink]

she's dealing with something in the realm of IBD/food allergies/cancer. We got her digestive issues under control with pred and the hydrolyzed protein food, but she's unfortunately developed the diabetes after being on pred.

Well, sometimes you have to treat other diseases and work around the needs imposed by them with higher doses of insulin. That may mean staying on the higher carb food. That may mean using the prednisone again. You need to treat the whole cat.

Unfortunately, that food choice does make the treatment of the diabetes more challenging shall we say?

The IBD/food allergies/cancer needs to be narrowed down if possible.

When I adopted my cat Wink from the shelter, they had another cat there that had developed diabetes from steroid use, prednisone. They had her on the Z/D diet also because of intensive food allergies. Miss Marple would break out in a horrible rash if she had anything with grain in it. Shelter life was hard because the other cats were free fed high carb, grain loaded dry cat food. They would take up the dry food for a few hours to let Miss Marple out of her cage to roam.

I believe they eventually switched her to a raw diet, got her diabetes regulated, no more prednisone, no allergy/ibd issues. The raw diet may have been a novel protein, like buffalo or rabbit. I can check if you'd like.

Fish and beef are also common allergens in cats. A food trial might be something to cautiously consider.

Good luck with managing the diabetes in these challenging circumstances. I know it can be done because the shelter did it and a shelter environment is not an easy place to get a diabetic cat regulated.

 

[Alexis & Nikki (GA)]

she's dealing with something in the realm of IBD/food allergies/cancer. We got her digestive issues under control with pred and the hydrolyzed protein food, but she's unfortunately developed the diabetes after being on pred.

Well, sometimes you have to treat other diseases and work around the needs imposed by them with higher doses of insulin. That may mean staying on the higher carb food. That may mean using the prednisone again. You need to treat the whole cat.

Unfortunately, that food choice does make the treatment of the diabetes more challenging shall we say?

The IBD/food allergies/cancer needs to be narrowed down if possible.

When I adopted my cat Wink from the shelter, they had another cat there that had developed diabetes from steroid use, prednisone. They had her on the Z/D diet also because of intensive food allergies. Miss Marple would break out in a horrible rash if she had anything with grain in it. Shelter life was hard because the other cats were free fed high carb, grain loaded dry cat food. They would take up the dry food for a few hours to let Miss Marple out of her cage to roam.

I believe they eventually switched her to a raw diet, got her diabetes regulated, no more prednisone, no allergy/ibd issues. The raw diet may have been a novel protein, like buffalo or rabbit. I can check if you'd like.

Fish and beef are also common allergens in cats. A food trial might be something to cautiously consider.

Good luck with managing the diabetes in these challenging circumstances. I know it can be done because the shelter did it and a shelter environment is not an easy place to get a diabetic cat regulated.

Thanks. We've tried a variety of novel diets/proteins and it got to the point 2 weeks into the trial with pred that the poor cat had water coming out as fecal matter before things started improving. The vet really wants her off the pred as it's probably more likely contributing to the diabetes at this point. I'm hesitant to change her diet again because we've finally gotten her stable on the z/d. We have done ultrasound, but it came back inconclusive on the IBD/cancer front. That was about 5 months ago. Nikki's lost some weight and the vet did feel a small abdominal lump when I took her in for the bloodwork that diagnosed the diabetes this week. That could have just been fecal matter, it could be benign, or it could be lymphoma. Unfortunately at this point, I can't afford to have another inconclusive ultrasound done. We could go in and do an endoscopy/colonoscopy to determine what's going on, but I don't want to put her through that when we're dealing with so much already. Definitely feeling between a rock and a hard place here... :sad:

 

[Deb & Wink]

Yes, the prednisone can contribute to diabetes developing. That is what happened to the foster kitty I was telling you about. It took several months at the shelter but the switch to the raw diet in conjunction with PZI insulin was able to get this shelter cat into remission.

I'm hesitant to change her diet again because we've finally gotten her stable on the z/d.

Then I'd say, stick with this diet for now and control the diabetes with insulin. You'll need to work closely with your vet because of the multiple health issues.

In your user control panel, profile, edit signature, there is some information you can put in that free form text box. Whatever you put in there will show up at the bottom of each of your posts. You can see an example at the end of my post to you.

Some items that other members put in there are their name and their cats name, date of diagnosis, any other health issues, glucometer brand used, insulin type used, special diet restrictions due to other health issues.

Think of it as a quick and ready to hand method for those advising you to get some very basic information about your cat.

Another item I like to see is a location added to your profile. It can be as basic as the country you live in, maybe the state/province if you are willing to share that. We have members in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and other places. There may be someone close to you that can help you with this sugardance.

 

[Alexis & Nikki (GA)]

In your user control panel, profile, edit signature, there is some information you can put in that free form text box. Whatever you put in there will show up at the bottom of each of your posts. You can see an example at the end of my post to you.

Some items that other members put in there are their name and their cats name, date of diagnosis, any other health issues, glucometer brand used, insulin type used, special diet restrictions due to other health issues.

Think of it as a quick and ready to hand method for those advising you to get some very basic information about your cat.

Another item I like to see is a location added to your profile. It can be as basic as the country you live in, maybe the state/province if you are willing to share that. We have members in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and other places. There may be someone close to you that can help you with this sugardance.

Thanks for the info! I'm sure I'll be adding to this after our shot practice visit tomorrow. :smile:

It seems like right now the thing to do is try the z/d, insulin, no pred. If we can get things under control, that's a good start. Ideally, I'd love to get her off the insulin and on a low carb food, but then we might have to do low-carb food and pred (maybe not every day though). I'm not sure yet that adding the steroid back in is in her best interests medically though. It's all such a balancing act! Of course, this may all be moot if this lump ends up not being nothing :?