Bandit is a gobbler and will gnaw at frozen food until it's gone, so I put his frozen food in an auto feeder and set it to go off every 6 hours that I'm not there to feed him.
I have this feeder and it works very well (it's sturdy; Bandit is like a raccoon and can't rip this one apart), but many people have
This feeder and like it a lot.
You're right, changing the diet can reduce overall blood glucose levels 100-300 points, and even cause spontaneous remission in about 25% of cats (meaning they no longer need any insulin). That's why it's not safe to change the diet without hometesting--even if you lower the dose to 1u, if that 1u turns out to be much your cat is still in danger of a dangerous hypoglycemic episode. If your cat is one of the lucky 25% that goes into remission from the diet change alone, he could have a dangerous hypo incident if you're not home monitoring him. 3u is a high dose of insulin for a cat--I would be surprised if the dose wasn't already too high. Most cats on a low carb canned diet do not need more than 1u of insulin, but they could need less than that--many cats only need .75u, or .5u, or .25u. The only way you can determine the correct dose is with daily testing. Without data, you're shooting blind--it's like trying to hit a bullseye blindfolded. Only every time you miss this bullseye, your cat has a greater and more serious risk of dying. Dose adjustment via home testing is like shooting with your eyes open--it takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it you become really good at it, and if you hit that bullseye area enough, your cat no longer needs insulin.
May I ask why you don't want to home test? Are you afraid, or do you think your cat won't accept it? Cats have very few nerve endings in their ears, so testing does not hurt them AT ALL. What they don't like in the beginning is being restrained, having something new done to them that's not in their routine, and sensing that their human is scared and nervous. Testing seems difficult at first, but even the most difficult cats accept it just fine after a few weeks of it being done routinely, and if you reward each test with a low carb treat. When Bandit was diagnosed, my vet told me that I HAD NO CHOICE but to home test if I wanted him to get better--vet testing is unreliable and inaccurate because the numbers are inflated due to stress. This often leads to overdosing and the cat suffers for it. I was in tears the first week because he fought me tooth and nail. But I stuck with it, made it routine, rewarded each test, and I
calmed myself down. That was the most important part--accepting that I was in charge of this cat and the only way I was going to keep him safe and get him better was to suck it up and just do it. I had to wrap him in a blanket and test him in a basket to keep him from scratching/biting me. After two weeks, he let me do it without fighting me. Today, Bandit hears the meter beep on, runs and jumps into his testing basket, lies down and starts purring. This is not uncommon! He has been in remission for over 2 years (which is incredibly unlikely for someone who isn't hometesting to reach; alternately, cats on a low carb canned diet, a long acting insulin and dose adjustments based of daily home testing have an 84+% remission rate).
If the time and work is an issue, I treated Bandit's diabetes testing 4 times a day working 2 jobs and going to grad school. Testing only takes a few seconds once you learn, and it saves you LOADS of work and worry in the long run. A human diabetic would never dream of injecting insulin without testing, and cats are no different. In fact, because cats are more likely to need very small, fine dose adjustments, it's even more dangerous not to test. It's more comparable to a baby or toddler with diabetes--and never in a million years would anyone injecting insulin blindly into a child.
I'm sorry that I'm saying what you don't want to hear, but unfortunately it's the truth. But what you don't realize is that testing is not only better for your cat, it's better for YOU. If you're testing daily, risk of a deadly hypoglycemic incident is slim to none. If you're adjusting the dose properly based off daily data (which is the only way to properly adjust the dose), then you will be able to control his blood sugar and which allows his pancreas to heal and him to go into remission. I've never met anyone who didn't home test their cat where the cat did nothing but get progressively worse and/or suffer a dangerous hypo incident (after which the person started home testing). You have to look at it in terms of what's going to improve YOUR life--a progressively sick cat, or a cat that's healing and eventually no longer needs insulin? The current feline diabetes veterinary treatment guidelines (which strongly advocate home testing) work very well, and I would strongly advise going that route with Sasha's treatment. The sooner you do, the better Sasha's chances of remission. There is a window on remission, so you don't want to wait. I'm not sure if your vet has discussed these with you--some vets are not aware of the current guidelines because they just came out in 2009-2010.
