Fancy Feast wet transition for sensitive stomach

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Hello! I am thinking about switching our newish diagnosed boy from prescription Royal Canin dry (per vet) to Fancy Feast pate to see if less carbs helps. Waiting to see how vet check goes this week but he's still flooding catbox & lost weight.

I'm kind of nervous about switching him (even if I do it suuuuuuper slowly) b/c he has a sensitive stomach & has always been on dry food. (I know). How do sensitive stomach cats tend to react to that food overall + switching from dry to wet? Any flavor better than others for being easier to digest?

I'm afraid of diarrhea & him not feeling well. And I'll be real - afraid of soft stool sticking in his fur and him getting it everywhere. (has happened before & was not easy to clean the disaster).

New here & looked through past threads so I'm sorry if I missed a similar question. Thank you for any thoughts!
 
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Hi and welcome to the forum.
Is your kitty having any insulin yet? If so, what type and dose?
Royal canin dry is high carb and not suitable for diabetic cats. You need a low carb alternative….as I’m sure you know.
Here is a FOOD CHART. any low carb food is OK? It doesn’t have to be fancy feast. Weruva have a good variety.
Look for foods that are 10% or under carbs. Most of us use 4-7% carbs.
When you do any switch, you need to do it slowly. HERE is a link to transitioning from dry to wet food
Do you have a hypo box set up in case of low numbers?

Here is a link to more useful into including our spreadsheet and signature and hypo box. HELP US HELP YOU
Keep asking questions.
Bron
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi and welcome to the forum.
Is your kitty having any insulin yet? If so, what type and dose?
Royal canin dry is high carb and not suitable for diabetic cats. You need a low carb alternative….as I’m sure you know.
Here is a FOOD CHART. any low carb food is OK? It doesn’t have to be fancy feast. Weruva have a good variety.
Look for foods that are 10% or under carbs. Most of us use 4-7% carbs.
When you do any switch, you need to do it slowly. HERE is a link to transitioning from dry to wet food
Do you have a hypo box set up in case of low numbers?

Here is a link to more useful into including our spreadsheet and signature and hypo box. HELP US HELP YOU
Keep asking questions.
Bron
Click to expand...

Hello! I am still reading and learning and appreciate your reply! For about a month, he has been on Vetsulin 1 unit 2x a day + vet prescribed Royal Canin Glycobalance dry which I'm now seeing i too high carb. To be fair, they said I could get the dry or wet and we chose dry partly b/c that's what he was used to + b/c wet was more expensive & budget is already tight with the insulin/needles & all the retest visits. (as I know people here understand for sure!!) I kept seeing the Fancy Feast mentioned a lot on Reddit group & other resource recommendations too - partly from people referring people here but I'll look at the other list too now.

I just have the corn syrup for emergencies but I'll look into a better kit. He is still drinking/peeing a ton (that was his symptom that I knew to get him diagnosed). He is a slim boy & has lost over a pound since then. The vet had discouraged home testing but I think I want to start testing & definitely get him off dry food now that I'm reading more here.

I was trying to just follow their recommendations but I guess I am second guessing things b/c of worry. They did say that it can take awhile to find right dose etc & maybe that is what they were planning on tweaking next week.
 
I should add he got diagnosed when I was also having health issues so I was just following vet instructions, trying to get through some stuff, and am now in learning mode to make sure I'm doing the best I can for my buddy.
 
Also will add that I am feeding him 2x a day but am giving him a big plate of food and he just naturally stops around 20-25 grams each time so he is eating what he wants and I can't get him to eat more (re. the weight loss.)
 
Re the snacks, I would try offering him a teaspoon or two of food a couple of times during the first half of the cycles. Hopefully he will eat them.
There is nothing wrong with fancy feast. Lots of people use it here. I am just giving you options.
I’m sure any of those low carb foods would be cheaper than the prescription foods which are not really prescription at all.
Whatever food you use, do the changeover slowly and make sure you are monitoring the blood glucose because the number of carbs will be lower with the new food, and the blood glucose will most likely drop. So I would not increase the dose at all while you are doing any changeover of the food. Only do one thing at a time.

Please definitely hometest. It is the only way you can truly keep him safe. I just don’t understand why vets say there is no need to test.
And as Lantus dosing is based on how low the dose takes a kitty, that is the only way to correctly change a dose. Have a look at some of the spreadsheets of people using Lantus. You can see the spreadsheets by looking at the bottom of people’s posts and you will see the spreadsheet. You will see the blood glucose varies during every day and every day is not the same. That’s why using a spreadsheet and testing before and during each cycle will give you wonderful information.
Here are our TWO DOSING METHODS FOR LANTUS
We would be happy to help you with this:)
 
He LOVES the classic chicken. Since I'm switching him slowly to minimize stomach issues + want to see some more weight on him, I'm giving him his regular dry. Then a plate of a little canned - starting with one spoonful the first day. He has already looks better after starting that Friday. I'm up to 1/4 a can at meal already. So far so good but I don't want to jinx that.

He's my sensitive boy so doesn't like his ears touched at all - even if he's distracted by food or was resting. I'm starting with just getting him used to gently rubbing them. He won't let me near them with a warm sock or cloth. I can't get a reading yet.

But now he seems to be limping a bit on back leg. I thought I saw that last week then he looked okay and now it's back. I'm glad vet is coming tomorrow to look that over + do tests. I'll let them know I switched to this wet in case they would have given a dose change & want to wait on that.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Re the snacks, I would try offering him a teaspoon or two of food a couple of times during the first half of the cycles. Hopefully he will eat them.
There is nothing wrong with fancy feast. Lots of people use it here. I am just giving you options.
I’m sure any of those low carb foods would be cheaper than the prescription foods which are not really prescription at all.
Whatever food you use, do the changeover slowly and make sure you are monitoring the blood glucose because the number of carbs will be lower with the new food, and the blood glucose will most likely drop. So I would not increase the dose at all while you are doing any changeover of the food. Only do one thing at a time.

Please definitely hometest. It is the only way you can truly keep him safe. I just don’t understand why vets say there is no need to test.
And as Lantus dosing is based on how low the dose takes a kitty, that is the only way to correctly change a dose. Have a look at some of the spreadsheets of people using Lantus. You can see the spreadsheets by looking at the bottom of people’s posts and you will see the spreadsheet. You will see the blood glucose varies during every day and every day is not the same. That’s why using a spreadsheet and testing before and during each cycle will give you wonderful information.
Here are our TWO DOSING METHODS FOR LANTUS
We would be happy to help you with this:)
Click to expand...

And thank you!!!!

The vet said they don't recommend home testing b/c it hurts the relationship with so many needle sticks. Maybe they mean more nervous cats like mine that have one spot they allow to be touched and that's it (back & side of his head but not the ears lol). Insulin is already hard b/c he doesn't like any of the areas I have to touch to get the skin ready for the shot.
 
I’m glad the swapping with the food is going well.
I have to disagree with your vet completely when it comes to hometesting and the relationship with caregiver and cat. In every case I’ve known about, the relationship gets stronger. It’s a matter of going slowly if needed and always giving a reward.
My Sheba would come racing from the other side of the house when she heard me at the testing equipment.
 
Yes, definitely need to be keeping an eye on those numbers - transitioning Ember to Fancy Feast off of the Hill's Science m/d resulted in eventually lowering her BGs to the point that I've not given her insulin in over a week (no R word yet but all my digits are crossed).

Here is a post I made on another thread regarding another option, the Libre (which is a human continuous glucose monitoring device that does as described: continuously monitors BG, and all you have to do is scan it). There are pros and cons to using it, but if you are having difficulty getting the readings, I do recommend it while you work to establish that routine, especially when making a swap to a lower carb food.



The other post:
the libre can be a powerful tool if you are just starting out - it can also be extremely frustrating as Maria mentioned. It is not a guarantee that it will last the 14 days, it is not cheap (I was paying almost $50 per), and the vets will apply it by default using skin glue (which will tear up kitty's skin) but there are other options than skin glue and you can probably even apply it yourself without having to pay the vet another $50+ if you have someone to help you (check out this site here, they also have a facebook page https://360.articulate.com/review/content/2c3d778d-2d3c-4fc7-918a-d155f8538964/review ) and honestly the libre was amazing for me because it gives a continuous monitoring of BG, instead of only having snapshots in time with a normal meter, so you will always know exactly how low the dose is taking him.

I eventually got a ReliOn (because I am unemployed currently, and the price tag of the libre plus it being able to just quit on me whenever it wants was too much), but at the beginning, I never would have survived having to use it. It was stressful enough to get her to cooperate with the insulin shots, and then when she started dropping into the blues and greens (under 200) I would panic and I would have been pricking her ear constantly compared to how many times I scanned the libre. Definitely have the ReliOn (or other glucometer) as a backup/primary, but if it is too much all at once as you get started and you can afford the Libre, there are a lot of great tips in that link above to making sure it stays on and is not too annoying to kitty. The most important thing is knowing that he is safe when giving the insulin shots and throughout the cycle.

Another option is using the libre as you work to get him into the routine of ear pricks and shots and all that, just so you know he is safe (and definitely make sure he is getting a low-carb post-prick and post-shot treat! it took a little while, but after a couple of months, my girl started coming to me when I pulled out the insulin because she knew it meant more food).

It all can be wildly overwhelming at first, take it one day at a time, one shot and poke at a time, know that it WILL get easier once you and kitty get into the routine of it.
 
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