diabetic cat food

[Foley'sDad]

Hello, new to the forum and I have a really important question. Kind of an emergency. I just ran out of the diabetic cat food I got from my vet and it's too late to get more tonight and tomorrow they won't be open so I need to know what kind of diabetic food I can buy from Walmart, Smith's, etc. Or a recipe for something I can make for him. Please please please help!

 

[BJM]

The vet foods may still be higher carb. Changing to any over the counter low carb foods such as Friskies pates need to be accompanied by home glucose testing or a reduction in insulin dose because they may lower the glucose 100 mg/dL and the insulin requirement by as much as 2 units. Otherwise, you risk hypoglycemia.

 

[Foley'sDad]

Okay my cat is currently eating a dry food the vet gave us. But from what I'm reading he should be eating canned/wet food. He currently receives 5 units of Novolin N twice a day. So I need to know what kind of food I can feed him and what to do about the insulin if I give him new food.

 

[phlika29]

Hi

This seems to be one of the more definitive food lists. You are looking for low carbs. As a percentage you really want less than 8% of calories to come from carbs so this list does have some higher than that. Friskies pate and fancy feast seem to be popular ones in the us. However as BJM mentioned switching to. A low carb wet food can dramatically reduce the cats insulin need and so you need to do it slowly over several days and monitor blood glucose levels as well.

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

There is also a thread a little below yours that lists out a load of wet foods

 

[tylertheragdoll]

Hi, I hope it's not too late to post but if it helps, I just started using Fancy Feast Classic Pate - Turkey and Giblets. I also used a prescription canned food but turned out it was very high in carbs (35% vs. ~7% in Fancy Feast!) and if you can believe it or not, I think my cat is going into remission just based on this new diet change alone (just the last 24 hrs!). This was a dramatic decrease so rather than using .5 units, I did not use any insulin at all when this new food change was introduced...glucose readings are showing unbelievable numbers in the 100 range with flat consistency (no high jumps or downward spirals at all!!!).

The low supply of Rx canned food may be a serendipitous turns of events.