Day 2… not great

MonkeysMom

MonkeysMom

Member Since 2026
Today was our second day of our new diabetic reality with our cat Monkey. We did ok with morning shot but tonight was not so good. Monkey is a very nervous kitty… especially since I had to start pilling him… he is often wary. So he would not eat tonight. We didn’t know what to do so this is what we did:
We gave him about two spoons of his “old” food, Fancy Feast gravy lovers and some cooked chicken. I also gave him 6 temptation treats which he’s technically not supposed to have anymore. We were desperate to get him to eat so we could give him his evening jab. He didn’t eat very much of any of that so we decided to reduce his insulin from 3 down to 1. So I’m wondering how bad did we mess up? Was reducing the insulin ok? Was giving him some higher carb old favorites the right thing to do? We switched him yesterday… his first day home with us as diabetic… we switched him to Fancy Feast pate and for a few treats DrElseys Clean Protein kibble.

Also… are diabetic cats expected to go the whole 12 hour day with nothing to eat?? Monkey was used to free feeding dry food between his canned meals. Do we need to make these changes slower and not all at once. We are so stressed out. 😰
 
Welcome to the forum! And welcome to feline diabetes, which, as you said, is a new reality (sadly). Hopefully, you'll find a lot of helpful resources here.

Did you gradually switch him to the new food? Sometimes it's best to do that for a couple of reasons: 1) to avoid tummy upsets and 2) so that their blood glucose doesn't drop too much, suddenly, when introduced to a lower carb food. Some cats actually go into remission with simply a food change to lower carb. I guess I could add a third reason: gradually introducing new food by mixing it with the old can sometimes help with the adjustment.

Typically, it's best to feed diabetic cats several smaller meals throughout the cycle, with the exception that you want to withhold food at least two hours prior to their a.m./p.m. preshot tests.

Please help us to know a bit more about Monkey by completing your signature. The instructions for completing the signature are located here: Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!.

What insulin is he on?

Are you home testing? And are you keeping a spreadsheet on Monkey? The link above offers instructions for setting up a spreadsheet--if you have any problems, let us know and we'll be glad to help. You'll want to keep track of Monkey's blood glucose numbers and his dosing on the spreadsheet. When folks step in to offer guidance, they'll need to see that information.
 
Mary provided a lot of great information above! The only thing I'd add is that there are a lot of LC carb options (below 10% carbs) so you may want to keep experimenting with Monkey's food if he doesn't like his new LC one.

This is a good list - www.bizave.com/foodlists/Main%20List.pdf

Moonie was a previous Meow Mix / FF gravy fiend and I used to really struggle to get her to accept LC food. We started out with 0-3% carb food (Tiki Cat, FF pates) - a lot of cats like them, but Moonie really struggled with the texture, and we ended up going to a 7.5% carb mousse food, which she loves. 7.5% is on the high end of LC but still a lot better than her old diet and it's been working well for us.
 
Another good topper that is low carb is freeze dried all meat treats. Many cats go nuts for crumbled freeze dried chicken, Purebites is one such brand,

3 units is a large dose of insulin to start, we typically start with 1 unit (depending on diet), unless there are medical issues like ketones or DKA at diagnosis.
 
Mary & Jude said:
Welcome to the forum! And welcome to feline diabetes, which, as you said, is a new reality (sadly). Hopefully, you'll find a lot of helpful resources here.

Did you gradually switch him to the new food? Sometimes it's best to do that for a couple of reasons: 1) to avoid tummy upsets and 2) so that their blood glucose doesn't drop too much, suddenly, when introduced to a lower carb food. Some cats actually go into remission with simply a food change to lower carb. I guess I could add a third reason: gradually introducing new food by mixing it with the old can sometimes help with the adjustment.

Typically, it's best to feed diabetic cats several smaller meals throughout the cycle, with the exception that you want to withhold food at least two hours prior to their a.m./p.m. preshot tests.

Please help us to know a bit more about Monkey by completing your signature. The instructions for completing the signature are located here: Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!.

What insulin is he on?

Are you home testing? And are you keeping a spreadsheet on Monkey? The link above offers instructions for setting up a spreadsheet--if you have any problems, let us know and we'll be glad to help. You'll want to keep track of Monkey's blood glucose numbers and his dosing on the spreadsheet. When folks step in to offer guidance, they'll need to see that information.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you everyone for your replies. It really helps. Your advice is so helpful. Our vet started Monkey on an appetite enhancer. He said another day and Monkey would have to come in to be tube fed. Thankfully it worked like a miracle. He’s been eating much better. Enough so we’ve been able to give him his 3 units 2x a day. Vet said for now just keep him on the FF gravy and now we’re gonna try mixing some pate in it to see if he’ll eat that. We switched from Purina reg high card kibble to Dr Elseys high protein and thankfully he likes that. I also give him freeze dried chicken livers for treats mixed with a few temptations. So we’re making progress.

My biggest problem now is the pilling. He HATES it. Today he got his last steroid so now we’ll be down to two pills. I wanted to ask… has anyone tried crushing the pills and putting them into a gelatin capsule?? That would b only 1 pill a day. I’m just wondering tho if there is a risk of him choking on that. Please let me know if you have any info on that. Thanks again all. This advice board is priceless!! ❤️😽
 
Putting meds into gelatin capsules is a trick very common here. Especially the bitter ones like Cerenia. Size 3, 4, and 5 work for cats. The smaller the number the larger the capsule If large enough, you might not even have to crush the pill. Make sure you squirt some water (or Churu) first, then the capsule, then more water (or Churu). Some people put a little butter on the capsule to help it slide down. One of my kitties was on a steroid for life, so I got it compounded into a chew treat, made it much easier for me and the petsitter to give.

Are you home testing his blood sugars yet? Moving to low carb kibble can make a huge difference in his insulin needs. 3 units may be too much.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I ordered my size 4 capsules to be delivered tomorrow so hopefully that will go ok. We are going to test tomorrow. We have only been testing once a week. The vet told us to just make getting Monkey to eat priority one. How often do you blood test?? Also when is the best time to test?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top