Diabtec cat and possible kidney failure

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Benshuman

Benshuman

Member Since 2015
Hi,

I have been posting on the new forum as I just found my kitty Ben last Saturday. The vet said he is in his teens maybe 13 to 17 years old. I was wondering what are people feeding their diabetic cats with kidney disease. His first bloodwork showed his glucose and kidneys off the charts. I am getting him retested for his kidneys to see if the dehydration was hopefully the cause. He is on Novalin insulin right now at 0.01 once a day. I am feeding K/D wet food and am having to mix in a little friskies wet until he adapts to the new food and doesn't get sick. I feed him every two or three hours and sometimes he eats a lot but sometimes just a little. His first two meals of the day he eats lite but the third meal he eats a lot more.

Thanks,

Bens Human
 
Benshuman said:
Hi,

I have been posting on the new forum as I just found my kitty Ben last Saturday. The vet said he is in his teens maybe 13 to 17 years old. I was wondering what are people feeding their diabetic cats with kidney disease. His first bloodwork showed his glucose and kidneys off the charts. I am getting him retested for his kidneys to see if the dehydration was hopefully the cause. He is on Novalin insulin right now at 0.01 once a day. I am feeding K/D wet food and am having to mix in a little friskies wet until he adapts to the new food and doesn't get sick. I feed him every two or three hours and sometimes he eats a lot but sometimes just a little. His first two meals of the day he eats lite but the third meal he eats a lot more.

Thanks,

Bens Human
Click to expand...

Hi Ben's Human! Kudos to you for rescuing Ben. He's so lucky!

I'm pretty new to having a diabetic cat (3 weeks in). I can't speak to the kidney issues but everyone here is so helpful, I'm sure someone will be able to help out.

On the diabetic side, I will say that a food low in carbs is very important, ideally less than 10%. So far that has made a huge change for my kitty. I was feeding hills W/D as recommended by the vet, but users here recommended Fancy Feast Classics wet food and that really made a great difference.

I know phosphorus and magnesium are related to kidney functions...their content % would be something to note in a food choice.

My kitty is also on Novolin N, which is one of the "harsher" insulins aka requires very gentle dosing. I really hope you have a human glucometer on hand for testing Ben before his insulin shots. The worst thing that can happen to a diabetic cat in the short term is an insulin OD which leads to hypoglycemia and if not treated immediately, can easily kill.

Glad you landed on FDMB. You're in the right place! You may have already gotten a lot of this info in the new section, so sorry if this is repetitive!

Good luck! :bighug:
 
Hi,

I have also checked out Tanya's website and that is how I originally found out about this website. everyone here is very knowledgeable which is really great. I am looking into getting a human glucometer. How do you like the one you use? I was told that many use the one from Walmart called Relio I think. I was looking into getting an Alphatrak and using freestyle lit test strips on it as I see many others do as well. I have honey and kyro syrup on hand and need to pick up the gravy that was mentioned in case he has issues. I need to go back and re read some of the messages with the information. Ben's recovery is going very well, if I can post pictures on here from when I first found him and today you can see the changes in him.

Thanks
 
Benshuman said:
Hi,

I have also checked out Tanya's website and that is how I originally found out about this website. everyone here is very knowledgeable which is really great. I am looking into getting a human glucometer. How do you like the one you use? I was told that many use the one from Walmart called Relio I think. I was looking into getting an Alphatrak and using freestyle lit test strips on it as I see many others do as well. I have honey and kyro syrup on hand and need to pick up the gravy that was mentioned in case he has issues. I need to go back and re read some of the messages with the information. Ben's recovery is going very well, if I can post pictures on here from when I first found him and today you can see the changes in him.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I use a TrueResult glucometer--simply because it was the cheapest I could find (free, came with a mail-in rebate). I order my test strips/lancets on Amazon.

I have heard the glucometers designed exclusively for pets are more expensive and no better--you can get perfectly accurate results from a human glucometer.

You could really drive yourself crazy with the accuracy of meters, but I think at some point you have to just trust the process.

Good luck!
 
Welcome to the FDMB! The best place you never wanted to be!!

The meter a lot of us use here is the Relion Confirm or Micro from WalMart because the strips are affordable and it takes the tiniest blood sample. The meter is about $15 and the strips are $35.88 per 100.

If you can afford the AlphaTrak, it's a fine meter, but the replacement strips can cost more than $1 each. While some people do use the Freestyle strips, they're not really cheap either and we really don't recommend using strips that aren't for the meter they're designed for.

Testing at home is vital...Always before each shot to make sure they're high enough to get insulin at all, and then at least a mid-cycle test on the AM cycle and a "before bed" test on the PM cycle....as you can see, that's 4 tests minimum per day, so if you're paying $1 each for strips, that runs into a lot of money.

As far as the kidney issues go, you want to be careful to watch out for phosphorus...unfortunately, that means the Fancy Feasts are really out of the running. They're all pretty high in phosphorus. If you look at THIS SPREADSHEET, along the top is a tab for LC/low phos (low carb/low phosphorus) that one of our members has put together.

The K/D is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat (it's 27% carbs and you need to stay under 10%) so you're better off trying to find a food that's both low carb and low phosphorus. There's nothing "magic" in those prescription foods anyway other than the need to have money that grows off of trees to pay for it.

Novolin really isn't a great insulin for cats, although a few do OK on it. It tends to be harsh, bringing their blood glucose down fast and then wearing off before the next shot. The longer acting, more gentle insulins are Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc but they are pretty pricey. (although a lot of us are getting our Lantus/Levemir from Canada now because it's 1/3rd the cost compared to here in the states)

If you continue on the Novolin, it's important to always check the blood glucose before shooting, as well as making sure he eats a pretty good meal about 20-30 minutes before shooting.

Keep posting and keep asking questions! The people here are great about sharing their knowledge and experience!
 
Chris & China said:
Welcome to the FDMB! The best place you never wanted to be!!

The meter a lot of us use here is the Relion Confirm or Micro from WalMart because the strips are affordable and it takes the tiniest blood sample. The meter is about $15 and the strips are $35.88 per 100.

If you can afford the AlphaTrak, it's a fine meter, but the replacement strips can cost more than $1 each. While some people do use the Freestyle strips, they're not really cheap either and we really don't recommend using strips that aren't for the meter they're designed for.

Testing at home is vital...Always before each shot to make sure they're high enough to get insulin at all, and then at least a mid-cycle test on the AM cycle and a "before bed" test on the PM cycle....as you can see, that's 4 tests minimum per day, so if you're paying $1 each for strips, that runs into a lot of money.

As far as the kidney issues go, you want to be careful to watch out for phosphorus...unfortunately, that means the Fancy Feasts are really out of the running. They're all pretty high in phosphorus. If you look at THIS SPREADSHEET, along the top is a tab for LC/low phos (low carb/low phosphorus) that one of our members has put together.

The K/D is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat (it's 27% carbs and you need to stay under 10%) so you're better off trying to find a food that's both low carb and low phosphorus. There's nothing "magic" in those prescription foods anyway other than the need to have money that grows off of trees to pay for it.

Novolin really isn't a great insulin for cats, although a few do OK on it. It tends to be harsh, bringing their blood glucose down fast and then wearing off before the next shot. The longer acting, more gentle insulins are Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc but they are pretty pricey. (although a lot of us are getting our Lantus/Levemir from Canada now because it's 1/3rd the cost compared to here in the states)

If you continue on the Novolin, it's important to always check the blood glucose before shooting, as well as making sure he eats a pretty good meal about 20-30 minutes before shooting.

Keep posting and keep asking questions! The people here are great about sharing their knowledge and experience!
Click to expand...

Oh my goodness, I didn't realize how cheap my TrueResult test strips were...$16 for 100 on Amazon.
 
Weruva Truluxe Steak Frites has lower phosphorus and high protein. I think Meow me a River does too (but I would not recommend feeding too much fish). I think some people use phosphorus binders so that the phos content is of a little less concern?
 
I am having trouble with my alphatrak 2. I didn't realize I had to change the code to match the new test strips. when I did change it The results were very inconsistent. I used the control solution and it didn't register at all. second time I got error code 3, I called Abbot, got another number to call. The second # gave me a recording that eventually said There are no agents to help you. Call back later. Pretty poor customer support. I'm very frustrated and worried that I cant trust this meter/strips. I cant really afford a new meter, and I've used up a lot of $$$Test strips.
 
I'm an Alpha Trac user. Make sure the meter has been off for a few minutes before using it again. The code on your strip bottle should = the meter when it first turn on. If not it's easy to adjust. Normally the code is either 37 or 38. Then try the control strip. If that's okay let meter go off for a couple of minutes before testing.

What I do when I test is put strip in halfway. The meter remains off until I actually get sample. Once I get blood showing I push strip in all the way and get test. If meter is on and no blood sample it will time out. Unless you wait a minute it will read error. Make sure you have blood BEFORE putting strip in all the way.
 
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