First Day of Lantus - Is it too soon to switch food

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judy

Member Since 2011
Hi,
My kitty Annie was just diagnosed yesterday with Diabetes, she was in the hospital for 2 1/2 days, She had ketones. We picked her up and the aide told us to let her eat whatever diet she was on and to give her 1 unit of Lantus in the morning after she ate. We did that this morning, but I have been giving her wet food she has had some fancy feast and wellness and not hard food. She has been eating it. I did order my newbie kit so I can start to do home monitoring, but should I go back to the hard food (EVO) until I get the kit?? I am so confused I do not understand diabetes at all, I have been trying to do reading on the board here. I am sure glad that I found this website, I feel so guilty that my Annie has this illness because I gave her hard food not knowing all the bad things it will do to a cat. I have switched all my other cats today to wet food. What do I do keep giving her the hard food until the kit arrives or just give her the wet food and do the 1 unit of lantus, she goes back to the vet in 2 weeks for a curve test.
 
Hi Judy and welcome to Lantus Land.

I'm gonna let the experts address your question. You are in good hands here and folks will help guide you and Annie through this.

Try to ease up a bit on yourself Judy. Most of us fed our kitties the kibble...I had been giving mine the "low calorie" kibble which was very high in carbs.

Good job on getting her diagnosed and starting the treatment. The folks here can also help guide you with home testing. God only knows how they held my hand while I learned to test Curry.

My only advice for ya is to remember to breathe and feel free to ask your questions here. We are here for you.
 
Welcome, Judy and Annie! I'm glad you found this board. There are many wonderful people here who have all felt the same things you are feeling now. It can be overwhelming at first, but read as much as you can (esp the Stickies at the top of this page) and ask lots of questions.

It's wonderful that you've made the food switch. Oftentimes, that alone will have a great effect on blood glucose (BG) levels. Make sure the food is low carb, as there are some high carb wet foods out there. Here's a link to some of the carb values by brand/flavor: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html. I think most people here feed 10% carb or less. We've found Johnny to be best at 2-3%, but every cat is different.

Take a deep breath. We're all here to support you. Others will chime in with other helpful tips (i.e, how to set up a spreadsheet to track BG numbers, etc.).

Welcome!
 
Judy --

I'm not positive about the answer to your question, so I will leave it to someone wiser. There are many here who do know. My guess is that you need to get some test results before switching entirely, because the change in food can cause a good drop from high BGs. You want to know what's going on. But let's let others weigh in.

It's great that your kitty is willing to eat the wet food. Many of us had to wean our cats away from dry.

While we wait for them to show up, let me just say welcome to Lantus Land -- and please don't feel guilty. The entire pet food industry should have told us all about the carb content of these foods, and veterinary medicine is woefully short on nutrition information for kitties. A decade from now, cat owners will have this knowledge. We're left to cope as best we can.

Being here, at FDMB, in Lantus Land, is the very best thing you can do. This site saved my Kitty's life, and many others. It's overwhelming at first, and there's a learning curve. But you've made a great start. It gets easier!
 
Janice & Johnny said:
Welcome, Judy and Annie! I'm glad you found this board. There are many wonderful people here who have all felt the same things you are feeling now. It can be overwhelming at first, but read as much as you can (esp the Stickies at the top of this page) and ask lots of questions.

It's wonderful that you've made the food switch. Oftentimes, that alone will have a great effect on blood glucose (BG) levels. Make sure the food is low carb, as there are some high carb wet foods out there. Here's a link to some of the carb values by brand/flavor: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html. I think most people here feed 10% carb or less. We've found Johnny to be best at 2-3%, but every cat is different.

Take a deep breath. We're all here to support you. Others will chime in with other helpful tips (i.e, how to set up a spreadsheet to track BG numbers, etc.).

Welcome!
Click to expand...

Seeing others' responses, I realize I may have jumped the gun with my second paragraph. I wasn't thinking about you not home testing yet. You're doing great, but someone more experienced should be along to comment on food transition/dose. Sorry for any confusion.
 
If you live anywhere near a Walmart, their store brand, Relion, meter, strips, and syringes are among the most inexpensive around. That will get you started. Most of us have more than one meter -- one serves as a backup in case a battery dies or some other aspect of Murphy's Law exerts itself. I would be hesitant to have you make a complete switch to low carb food (LC) if you're not ready to test. The switch to LC food can have a dramatic effect on numbers.

At this stage of the game, it's completely normal to feel overwhelmed. You didn't cause Annie's diabetes by feeding dry food. If that were true, every cat who has eaten a diet of dry would have FD. In fact, any human that ate a carb laden diet would have diabetes. There are any number of factors that cause diabetes. The most likely scenario is that Annie was predisposed to the problem and something tipped the balance for her to develop FD. Food may have been one factor. If she had DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis -- the condition which caused her to be hospitalized), there was probably an infection that effected her pancreas and caused the beta cells in the pancreas to stop putting out all of the insulin her body needs. So, blaming yourself really isn't going to do much good and isn't warranted. The pet food industry doesn't help and they produce "prescription" foods for diabetics that are woefully high in carbs. And, vets don't get trained in nutrition.

So....deep breaths. If you have questions, this is a great place to get answers. The people here are very generous with their knowledge and their time. We've all been standing in your shoes and know what it's like. Unless you are an endocrinologist, most of this information is new. Being at the front end of the learning curve is never fun. We'll help you get up to speed.
 
Hi Judy and Annie and welcome to Lantus Land.
The low carb wet food will be what you will want to feed when you get organized and can test regularly. But the dry EVO has the fewest carbs of any dry food (7%), so continuing to feed it until you get a meter and learn how to home test will be fine. Once you can test Annie's glucose at home, you'll be able to start moving her away from the dry to a low-carb wet food (see Janet & Binky's food charts that are mentioned above).
Sienne's advice to get a ReliOn meter and strips at Walmart tomorrow (if you live near a Walmart) is excellent. When you get your newbie kit you can use it as a backup. I would suggest that you buy either the ReliOn Micro or the ReliOn Confirm (and the strips that go with them--sold separately from the meter). Don't buy the ReliOn Ultima meter, because there has been an issue with unreliable test strips for it and not all Walmart stores have pulled the defective strips off their shelves, even though they have been recalled.

Welcome again. You've come to the right place!

Ella & Rusty
 
We use the Relion Micro and have been really happy with it. The meter is $9. Test strips are 50 for $20, which is about the best you can find.
 
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