diet question for Terra

[KarenAmelia]

Does anyone know if it could be detrimental to give cooked chicken in meal-sized portions to a diabetic cat? My cat Terra has been receiving Lantus for 1.5 weeks now, and at the start I thought she immediately took to the canned food. Now, though, she turns her nose up at anything other than the cooked chicken which I've been giving her as treats after BG testing. She positively runs over when she hears the zippered bag opening for the ear prick. I am willing to give her substantial amounts of this chicken, until she regains some of the weight that she lost in the last few months. However, the chicken is pretty fatty and I wonder if that could be detrimental to her condition. I've read the various articles on kitty nutrition but a high fat diet is only mentioned with regard to other health problems, not diabetes. I think, but am not sure, that fat causes problems for human diabetics. Any advice? Maybe I've created a monster by giving her such tasty treats. Now she just picks at her regular food and lurks in the kitchen waiting for the chicken to come out of the fridge.

 

[MommaOfMuse]

The problem with just plain cooked chicken as meals for any cat is that it isn't nutritionally complete. Cats need other things in their diet besides just straight protein, which they would normally get from their prey by eating things like bone and organs. If you have ever watched a barn cat eat a mouse the only thing that is left of that mouse when they are done is the tail. :shock:

Now one solution would be to make your own raw diet, assuming that she will also eat the chicken raw as well as cooked...Dr. Lisa has an excellent recipe for making your own raw diet on her website.

The other might be adding a few small chunks of the cooked chicken into her regular canned food and stirring them in so she has to eat the canned to find the tasty treasures.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

i do what mel is suggesting - add the chicken to punkin's regular canned food.

just fyi - i was surprised when someone told me that a post-poking treat of chicken should be 1/4"x1/2" - punkin is a moose and to him, that's like nothing. but i dropped the volume back and that keeps it a treat. it is important to have a treat for the pokey that isn't an ordinary thing so that they will continue to tolerate the poking.

some cats like new food fairly regularly so you might want to try other brands of low carb canned foods with terra. there are a lot - if you look at the http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139 sticky you'll find the food lists with carb counts and lots of other good information.

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

oh, and karen, i took a peek at terra's spreadsheet - those high numbers are a bounce going on. when terra got that 77 on 1/8, her liver let loose a flood of glucose and hormones which sent her BG soaring. that can take up to 3 days to clear, and when it does you will likely see numbers in that same range under 100 again. whatever you do, don't increase the dose in the meantime because if you do, it may be too much when terra's body has cleared the bounce.

when you do change doses on lantus, adjust by only .25units so you don't miss a good dose.

 

[KarenAmelia]

I'm going to pick up some Fancy Feast today : Terra absolutely won't eat the EVO that I bought. She ate it for a couple of days then changed her mind. I'm also going to try and make the "liver shake" that Dr. Lisa mentions; Terra nees some nutrition QUICK! She ate some of her old IAMS dry food with gusto just now - I feel I've got to get something into her, as she's lost the weight she started putting back on.

If this is a bounce, it could be an extended bounce. I will do BGs around her nadir time today to see what's going on, and I also, to be safe, cut back her dose slightly. For whatever reason the insulin is provoking high numbers. See latest chart.