Food advice

Hi everyone!

I’m new to the site. We have an 8 year old tabby, Joey, who was diagnosed with diabetes 4.5 months ago. He’s been difficult to consistently regulate which the vet thinks may be attributable to pancreatitis or possibly owner error in giving insulin injections.
Joey currently is on 2units of Lantus every 12 hrs and eats Royal Canin Diabetic Management wet food (morsels and gravy).

We monitor Joey’s BG through a freestyle libre glucometer.

We’re thinking about switching his food to something that is lower carb and we’re originally thinking either Royal Canin Urinary SO pate wet food or Purina DM wet food. But thought I would get the thoughts of this group given all of the experience here!

We want to get Joey as regulated as we can. We’re starting to see what we think are early signs of neuropathy in his back legs and have started him on B12 injections. Any experience with this would also be helpful.

thanks!
Brittany

 

I believe the Royal Canin is still fairly high carb somewhere around 14%. So what we classify as medium carb and something most diabetic cats should only be fed if you are purposely trying to increase the blood sugar for some reason, such as if the blood sugar was low or dropping.

Purina DM wet is 5%. You have to be very careful when switching food to lower carb though as it can suddenly mean he needs less insulin. If you are going to remove the royal canin you'll want to really watch his numbers closely as he may need his insulin amount reduced.

For lower-carb options, lots of people feed Fancy Feast pates but these are also high in phosphorus so you may want to look for alternatives.

This database is great and you can filter on lower carb, lower phos, brand, etc:

https://catinfo.org/chart/index.php


Right now we feed a lot of weruva and tiki, some homemade food with EZ Complete, some Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried RAW morsels.

 

Welcome to FDMB!

Kyle's suggestion is on point. If you're feeding your kitty a food that's higher in carbs, it's going to be more of a challenge to get your cat regulated. He's provided a good resource. One word about the prescription foods, though. Most of those foods do not use quality ingredients despite the premium price tag. There are far better quality foods available that are low carb. If cost is a factor, many of the members here feed their cats Fancy Feast or Friskies pate-style food.

We also suggest that if new members want to take full advantage of FDMB, you take a look at this post on helping us to help you. There are instructions on how to add information to your signature so be have some of the basics about your cat (so we don't keep asking you the same questions) and how to set up a spreadsheet so we can follow along with Joey's progress and offer suggestions based on his blood glucose data.

 

Thanks to you both. We are looking through the website provided - it’s very helpful. One additional thing we have to consider is it needs to have an SO index as Joey had a urinary crystals issue at 2 years old. Prior to being diabetic he was on the Urinary SO royal canin pate. Is this only available in prescription foods?

We will get started on a signature and spreadsheet!

Brittany

 

We give Methyl B-12 for neuropathy it's tasteless ,just sprinkle it on the wet food and add water to it. Give one per day
https://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-vitamin-b-12-methylcobalamin-5000-mcg-100-capsules-6

Since it’s water soluble, any excess is just pee’d out anyway.

Do you have the U-100 syringes with the half unit markings?
We adjust the dose by 0.25 units at a time.
The dose is based on how low they are dropping not the pre shot

You might want to read about Lantus all the yellow stickys especially the 2 dosing methods to follow with lantus.
Whichever one you choose to follow will tell you when to decrease or increase the dose

 

Thanks, our vet had said she didn’t think it mattered what kind of b12 he was getting to help with neuropathy but in my reading I saw methyl b12 and Methylcobalamin. The B12 injections he’s currently getting are neither of these.

has anyone used Zobalin? (pill form of methylcobalamin)

Are there any side effects from the methyl b12 or methylcobalamin that your cats have experienced?

thanks!
Brittany

 

I've been using Zobaline for my boy for 9mons now, no side effects. In fact within a month he was not only jumping on counter tops but he was also on top of the refrigerator I call it his super kitty medicine. I either give it to him in a pill pocket or crush it & mix in with his wet food that I also add water too.

 

I gave you the link above for the Methyl-B. This brand is much cheaper, another member told me about this years ago. the Zobaline is 34.00 for 60 pills
The one I gave you is 14.49 for 100 capsules.
Just open it up and sprinkle it on the wet food and add water.
A lot of members now use the Vitacost brand.
Tyler had neuropathy and now jumps onto things, runs around etc

 

I am interested in the link for the methyl-B 12 please. Also, dose? Thank you.

 

I gave one a day
Methyl B-12 for neuropathy it's tasteless ,just sprinkle it on the wet food and add water to it. Give one per day
https://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-vitamin-b-12-methylcobalamin-5000-mcg-100-capsules-6
14.49 for 100 capsules

Since it’s water soluble, any excess is just pee’d out anyway.


If you want to spend 34.00 for the Zobaline Brand for 60 piils just Google Zobaline
Here you can get it on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/LifeLinks-Zobaline-Felines-3mg-Tablets/dp/B008G3LI2M

 

Thanks so much! I ordered the methyl B 12 from Vitacost, and it should be arriving in the next day or two. It was very reasonable. Hopefully it helps my Jasper's neuropathy.

 

Hi Lori , Tyler had neuropathy , I started to see a small improvement probably about every 2 weeks or so, after 2 months he was back to walking normal, jumping up on things again ,etc but you also have to get Jaspers numbers better regulated, we don't know what his numbers are .
If you would like to set up your signature and spreadsheet where we track our cats BG numbers that would be great in case you need help with dosing or anything else
Let me know and I will give you the links on how to do this
@Lori Taylor

 

Ok, thank you.

My vet applied a Freestyle libre 14 day sensor to my cat and after the fact I found out the app is not compatible with my phone. Now I can't find a reader anywhere! I wonder if anyone on this site who may have used one in the past, and no longer needs it, would be willing to sell it to me?

 

You can post and ask and see if anyone has one
You would tap in this blue link and to the right it says post new thread tap on that
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-welcome-main-forum.28/

Do you want to set up your signature and spreadsheet I can ask one of our members to do it for you? I just didn't know when you said OK thank you if you meant you wanted to
Let me know, who has been checking your cats BG numbers

 

Thanks for the link. I will see if anyone has a meter. I think I will hold off on the spread sheet for now. I actually really like the vet we have now (we changed because the previous one was very blasé and not managing him well at all. Wouldn't even change his doses when sugar remained 600-700!); and she is trying everything to help get Jasper's sugar under control. The reason for the Libre is to determine if he is insulin resistant. After much research, using Dr. Pierson's website, I have him on 0-5% carb wet food. We have done curves at home and at the veterinary hospital; his sugars are all over the place. For about 3 weeks he was very sick, vomiting all the time, but he didn't have pancreatitis. He was on Famotadine, Zofran, gabapentin, Cerenia, and was only able to keep down canned chicken -- like people would eat. He was losing weight, and we thought we were going to lose him. X-ray and labs were unremarkable, except for trace ketones and elevated blood glucose. We had him set up for an US at another facility that was more experienced in reading feline US--looking for a pancreatic or adrenal mass. Dr. was out sick and the US got delayed. In the meantime, he recovered! We opted to hold off the US as he is back to his usual state of health other than DM. While he was sick his sugars were sometimes in a normal range. I'd give his 5 units of Semglee in the AM for a sugar if 600+, and by night he would be 69-113; so I wouldn't want to give the insulin. Then, by morning he'd be 300-600. Now that he is feeling better, his sugar has been running 300s-600s while receiving 5 units Semglee twice daily. The Semglee was ordered by the previous vet and is a depot insulin similar to Lantus. We may switch if we can't get him controlled with Semglee. Anyway, I appreciate the offer for help with the spreadsheet; I may take you up on your offer if we can't figure this out soon. I do read many of the posts on this site and have found good info from others' experiences. That is how I found Dr. Pierson--the feline vet nutritionist.

 

Thanks for this. We’ve gone the Zobaline route (it just came in the mail today). What dosage do you use?

 

You give one a day. I give my boy his every morning at approximately the same time which would be 3hrs after his am insulin(24hrs apart) You can crush it up & mix it in with wet food or you can give to him by mouth. I put my boys in a pill pocket most of the time. It has no taste to it so you can mix it in your kitty's food if you prefer. I put 3 tablespoons of water in my boys food because he doesn't drink water.

 

Great, thanks so much! We’re starting it this morning and hoping it will help. We’re going to give it one hour after insulin - assuming it doesn’t matter how long after insulin?

 

No it doesn't matter when you give it, I just try to give it to him at the same time everyday.

 

Wanted to follow up on your question about side effects.

We just started using the b-12 on Sept 14. I was sprinkling only 1/2 of a pill on her food for a week then switched to full pill on Sept 19. So she has been taking it for a month now and this is what has been discovered.
Our cat has been taking it for just a little over a month we noticed at night on our security footage that she has been sleeping by her water bowl and getting up to drink every little bit. She was anxious and restless and drinking all this water but it only occurred at night not during the day which is so odd. I could not figure out why she had all this strange behavior all of a sudden crop up. Why the restlessness and increased water consumption. I then assumed she had a UTI so I took a urine sample to the vet to check for infection. The vet calls and says that there is NO signs of infection nothing at all on the UA. He said her urine was perfect and there is still no sugar in her urine, which there has not been sugar in the urine for several months now so this is no surprise to us. I was like how can that be. She has all the signs of an infection this just is not right but the vet reassured me there was no infection to worry about. HUMMMM.....

Then I noticed that this behavior stopped abruptly. She was not sleeping by the water bowl and not drinking every little bit and does not seem anxious either. So I started to wonder why has this water bowl and anxiety behavior all of a sudden just stop. Got to thinking about what we had changed with her. The only thing that is different is, I stopped giving the cat B-12.

Come to find out that B-12 since it is water soluble, meaning it gets eliminated by urination therefore increasing the need for water which leads to more water consumption and urine output of those that take B-12. B-12 also can cause anxiety as well. I am like BINGO that must be what is going on with our cat. When I gave it to her the behavior started and when I stopped giving b-12 the behavior stopped. Then I decided I gave her B-12 again, just to see if the behavior of sleeping by the water bowl and drinking a lot would start again and it did. Then when I stopped giving the B-12 for the second time, the behavior of sleeping by the water bowl and drinking a lot at night stopped again.

So this is something to be on the lookout for if you are using B-12.