Dx diet change. Is control possible on high carb food?

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ShadowsMom

ShadowsMom

Member Since 2014
Shadow just had his veterinary nutritional consult and he's been prescribed Hills z/d for his IBD. It's 34% carb, according to the Pierson chart. Does anyone have suggestions on how to handle this transition? I will be gradually changing his food over the next week or so, but between that and the budesonide, I have no idea of how to approach his dosing. I've made some mistakes lately, because I let the higher numbers scare me, but I think I may need to get used to those for a while. I'll be resuming regular condos tomorrow morning, so I can get some eyes on his situation, but I would really appreciate any input you have to offer. My poor little man has so much going on right now (declining kidney function, IBD, arthritis and FD) that I'm just feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. Help?
 
My first thought is that perhaps arranging a phone consultation with Dr. Pierson might not be a bad option.

Regulation is certainly possible. If a cat needs to be on high carb food, it's no different that if a cat needs to be taking steroids or anything that will raise BG. You adjust the insulin dose to offset whatever it is that is raising the numbers. It may take a while to find the right dose and you'll need to systematically increase the insulin dose but you can get Shadow into decent numbers.
 
You might want to PM Molly/Skooter. Skooter has been diagnosed with IBD and is taking budesonide regularly. I like Sienne's idea of a consult with Dr. Pierson.
 
I will PM Molly/Skooter and will definitely keep that consult in mind if we can't get him controlled. Shadow is such a complicated case and our main concern is to try to keep him happy for the time he has left. His numbers skyrocketed tonight after his two vet trips today... we saw a PMPS 531. I'm also ramping up his food amount slowly to give his stomach a chance to adjust to the new volume. He'll need a little more of the new food at each feeding in order to make sure he gets enough calories over the course of the day. I do have a question about the nadir, however. Currently, his nadir is falling at around +3. As I squeeze in his full number of feedings (mostly) prior to that +3 and his numbers stay higher at that time, if he should go lower at +5 or 6, does that qualify as a new nadir? Or is a nadir determined by the point of peak insulin activity?
 
The nadir is whatever time the number is the lowest in each cycle...Usually cats will develop a pattern of "Usually" nadir'ing about the same time, but the nadir can very much be a moving target
 
Greetings....I did respond to your PM and hope that the info is helpful. If you take a look at Skooter's spreadsheet for 2014, you will see he started 1U and by the time we got here, his vet, over the course of several weeks got him up to 5U BID. I believe it was the first week of July when we started the transition and finished the second week of July.

As you can see that made a HUGE difference and was really the turning point for him. Have you started the transition yet? If not, I would maybe do a little research into changing to a better quality wet food. My vet didn't think Skooter could handle non prescription food specifically designed for his IBD, but now she is a believer! To date, Skooter has only had the Nature's Variety Chicken. It looks like you have some limited ingredient duck in his diet, perhaps a change to a different protein?

I do know some cats, no matter what, have to have the specialized diet. That will work, it just may mean higher doses of insulin and it may take a little longer to get regulated, but with the amazing support system here, you can't go wrong! Again, I would also suggest the Raw Feeding for IBD Cats group on Facebook, even if you are not feeding raw, they are a wealth of information on the IBD side of things.
 
Thanks for the advice, Molly. I really do appreciate it. I'm not pleased with the choice of food either, but the challenge is in finding a novel protein food that's low in phosphorus since he also has kidney disease. Shadow turns 21 in May and has had just about every kind of meat known to kitties over the course of his lifetime... very little is novel at this point. That's why we are trying the hydrolyzed diet. If he doesn't accept this stuff, or does poorly on it, there's the option of a home cooked diet that includes Tilapia, of all things. Thank you for the heads up on the FB Raw Feeding for IBD group. I'll check them out as soon as I get a chance.
 
@ShadowsMom I replied to your other thread, but what I didn't mention is that when my other cat Mickey had IBD we didn't change the food we just added the supplements. Before added the supplements Mickey would have bouts of diarrhea for days, but once we got him on the supplements things settled down a bit. There were still times when he would get into stuff like Tortilla chips and he would have problems again but only when he ate something that wasn't cat food. Oh, I almost forgot we also gave Mickey a B-12 shot once a month. I can't remember if that had to do with another problem that he had or if it was all related. It might be something to talk to your vet about.
 
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