Info Feeding Lowest/Zero Carb vs Higher Lower Carb Foods

[Jill & Alex (GA)]

Feeding foods with the lowest percentage of carbs in them? It's not necessarily the best route to take for YOUR cat.

Contrary to what one may think, some cats do better (produce lower BG numbers) when fed a moderate amount of carbs in their food (less than 10%, but more than 0-1%). This is an important point that's overlooked all too often while attempting to regulate your diabetic cat.

Here's a link to a very interesting, maybe even an eye-opening, discussion for some from Anne & French Fry's FD Library:

Low Carb vs Lower Carb

Blanket statements rarely apply to cats. Every cat is different (ECID) remains true when we're talking about sensitivity to carbohydrates. Don't be afraid to experiment to find what works for your cat.

 

[Marje and Gracie]

I’m glad you were able to resurrect this post from the old board, Jill. It’s what got me thinking that the 0-1% carb foods were not working for Gracie.

Thanks for sharing with newer members!

 

[Justin & Sebastian]

Hmm, I wonder if maybe Sebastian needs some carbs. His BG hasn't really responded that well lately since we switched to the raw food, to that point that we're getting high on the blood ketone meter. On the flip side though, everything else has seen a lot of improvement. It's been a couple of weeks since any vomit, weight is going up, he's more energetic, poops are really good. Of course we also did the fecal matter transplant so the improvements may be more related to that than the food. We're getting blood work today so that'll give me a better idea. If we find something off in the blood we can follow that thread. If everything looks normal maybe I'll give the raw a rest for a little, or see if I can add some carbs to it somehow, and see what happens.

 

[Tomlin]

So happy you are sharing this again !

 

[Jill & Alex (GA)]

I’m glad you were able to resurrect this post from the old board, Jill. It’s what got me thinking that the 0-1% carb foods were not working for Gracie.

Thanks for sharing with newer members!

You're welcome!

I wanted to re-post because it's natural to think feeding the lowest or *zero* carb food is best/what you should do when treating a diabetic cat. That's fine for some, but all too often it results in reductions taken (as a result of a drop to low numbers) while BG numbers remain high on either side of the reduction earning number (nadir).

I've seen cats come all the way down the dosing schedule as the result of earned reductions only to struggle to pull the rest of the numbers down. If the cat is newly diagnosed (within the first few months of diagnosis) we might assume it's not as big a deal because there's probably not as much damage done to those islet cells.

For the rest of us, if we can give the insulin something to work with (a little higher carb food, but less than 10%), we're able to get more insulin into the cat without kitty bottoming out. The ability to give more insulin should result in bringing down BG numbers over the entire cycle.

An example: Alex was an extremely carb-sensitive kitty. A small piece of freeze-dried chicken could raise her BG numbers by up to 50 points, depending on when it was fed during the cycle. That's more carb-sensitive than most, and yet I found she did very well with foods with 4 - 5% carbs, rather than 0 - 1%.

I took the process one step further by Using Food to Manipulate the Curve (not to be confused with feeding low numbers). Basically, this helped prop up the low numbers in the curve which resulted in a slightly higher flat curve. This could end up being a complicated process involving feeding multiple mini-meals prior to nadir or as simple as feeding at shot time and then again right before nadir. Bottom line, feeding a little higher carb food (remember Alex was very carb-sensitive) allowed me to administer a higher dose of insulin. This gave me a better chance of pulling the entire curve down

There's definitely a learning process that involves a lot of trial and error... and each cat's journey will be different. One can't expect results overnight!

 

[Marje and Gracie]

Bump…important for new members to read.