food questions newly diagnosed mom

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Meowski

Member Since 2014
Hi,
where do I look in the forum about
what wet foods do I need to buy?
what manufacturers are safe?
how do I know that they are "low carb" or not (as they do not list anything useful on the label)
Can I buy from department store (fancy feast seems popular here, why is that?)
Hills Diet WD wet is only about $1 per can ($24.99 for 24 cans)
Can I give him home made baby/cat food, using canned chicken, rice & veggies like avocado, spinach etc? (I made this before and the dogs and cats ate it up, not worrying about the chemical that commercial pet food has in it, garbage food)

I am getting him back in the morning and do not know what to think, what they will say at the ER for discharge plan, what the vet will say when I go there afterwards, what I will take home for supplies, and what they will say "you cannot do homecare. . .. .. you need to pay US for . . . .. " etc. Can you see my worry?

thank you for your moral support and sharing your experience and knowledge so far. This is a wonderful place!
~Meowski~
 
Cat Info Lots of info and a terrific food chart for North America linked in the right hand column of the page.

Friskies pates are < 10% calories from carbohydrates and inexpensive
Fancy Feast Classic pates are also < 10% calories from carbohydrates and inexpensive
 
The recommendation is to keep wet food under 10% carbs. Here is a master list of foods (commercial, prescription and raw) done by Dr. Lisa Pierson. She personally called all the companies and the ones that would cooperate gave her the As Fed values. Look at the third column (Column C).

Master Wet Food List

Now here is a list of the foods from that list that are under 10%. Sometimes its easier to see just the recommended foods instead of trying to go through the entire list.

Wet Food under 10%
 
Can I give him home made baby/cat food, using canned chicken, rice & veggies like avocado, spinach etc?
Click to expand...
Feeding your own homemade food is ok to do, but please leave out the rice and veggies as they will add unnecessary carbs. You'll want to add a supplement with the needed vitamins and minerals if you make your own cat food.

Dr. Lisa Pierson has this info on making your own food. Here is a link to her recipe.

Can I buy from department store ?
Click to expand...
You can buy from any store where you can find these low carb foods.

(fancy feast seems popular here, why is that?
Click to expand...
Fancy Feast classic pates are popular here because they are readily available in many different stores, available across the country, they are low priced, they have many different flavors available so you can find something your cat will eat, they are low carb <6% for the most part.

Hills Diet WD wet is only about $1 per can ($24.99 for 24 cans)
Click to expand...
Yes, but the canned W/d is 25% carbs and several scientific studies have shown that lower carb is best for diabetic kitties.
 
Ok,
I had no idea the Hills has 25% "from" carb which is higher than the store bought. At the vet they charge 2.50 a can lol. or so. But, online it's not bad. I want to keep things as they are for the first week, and get a good "curve" If I do something different like changing the food, and he has a drop or peak, I wont know if it's because of something else or if it's partly due to the food.
thank you for your help., I am anxious to get started reading over those lists info that you left for me :)
~Meowski~
 
FOOD CRISIS
I am going to run out of food now. I was thought that 2 cans would last me till tomorrow and it's not!
I am up to get my child on the bus first thing in the morning and then I am off to school myself.
I have canned white meat chicken that says no carb. But it has FOOD STARCH in it. sodium is So, now I have to figure out what's gonna happen if I feed him that. I also cooked up ground turkey. I wont have time to read through all of the literature tonight about food, unfortunately, as I have an essay to write and a research outline to have done by tonight also. It's already tonight. lol by MIDNIGHT.

Canned chicken,
sodium 210
cholest. 40
total fat 7
sat fat 2
carb less than 1 g
sugars 0
calories 100 fat cal's 70
Any thoughts on feeding him cooked chicken ground turkey?????
~Meowski~
 
The ground turkey looks like your best bet. One meal isn't a problem in a pinch.
 
The canned cooked chicken and or the cooked ground turkey would be ok for a meal or 2. You don't wan to feed them long term, because they don't have the needed vitamins and minerals a cat needs in their diet.

Plus, if you find he likes either one, you could use that as a treat during home testing.
 
Hi
Thank you BJM & Deb :)
I will go ahead and do the ground turkey. He is acting still like he starving. Keeps coming into the kitchen begging for food. I am unsure if I feed him as much as he wants what will happen.

sodium and cholesterol in the canned chicken I found to be a concern.
So, there ARE some nutrients in the canned cat food then it sounds like you are saying. I wish we could get manufacturers to label more stuff!

I hope I can get through this night! first night home, shot is at midnight. Vet appointment for "curve" drop off is gonna be either next Monday or Wednesday. In the meantime I have much to read up on here still. :? I am trying to hold it together.
~Meowski~
 
Unregulated diabetic cats can not process the food they eat properly, so they are often ravenous or starving. You may need to feed up to 50% more than a normal cat eats. As the diabetes becomes more regulated and his BG (blood glucose) levels get lower, he'll need less and less food.

For example, my diabetic cat Wink was eating 11-13 ounces of canned food when I first brought him home from the shelter. Now, he eats about 6 ounces of canned food a day.

It can be helpful to spread out the food into multiple meals or free feed if that works for you. Be sure that he eats before he gets the insulin.
 
Deb,
Ok good thank you! <3
I had no idea if it was ok to feed him. I thought 2 cans in a day is really not enough. so, once he gets better, his appetite will adjust ok, got it.

phew! :D ha ha ok, I had not read your reply yet, when I came home. but, I ended up doing smaller portions, but spread out more. maybe we will be ok.
~Meowkski~
 
A curve is taking glucose tests every 2 hours from pre-shot to either nadir or pre-shot.

You can save yourself quite a bit if you do the testing youself.
 
hi,
I expressed interest in doing our own curve at home, but the doc/vet seems to think the first one should be done by them, at an expense of about $97 (which didn't seem like all that much money to him) I am hurting right now.

I bought some F.F. cans of 3 oz. for about $1.00, but I can order the Hills WD 5 oz for the same price, so, thinking I want to go ahead and buy the bigger cans of the HD WD.

the house has been loud, shouting and stuff here. the cat will not come out, I have searched everywhere and cannot find him. His med needs to be done RIGHT NOW. He needs to eat and get his shot, but I don't know where he is.

I am freaking out here now. :o :shock:
~Meowski~
 
Unless your vet is going to do it for free, tell him directly you don't have the budget for doing a curve in his office and it will have to wait until you can put it in your budget. Then do it at home yourself. Alternatively, you can randomly test throughout the cycle at different times on different days and get a decent picture of how he's doing that way. No magic in having the vet do the curve.

Stick with the F. F. or even use Friskies pates for low carb food. the W.D. is worse for your cat.

The more agitation there is in the house, the more the cat is likely to take cover. Look for a quiet place and sit down to wait. He'll come to you
 
BJM,
I think sometimes they just don't realize how expensive they really are to the consumer and the patient hurts in the long run because of it. My vet happens to be one of the most expensive ones in town. Mostly because any vet who uses care credit, has to pay an over the top fee to c.c. in order to carry the program for their patients. That in turn, causes the docs to dump the added cost onto the patient. They don't take the cut. literally

One vet explained it to me that way one day. That's why he does not do the c.c. card because he wants to try to keep his prices low, and has kept them lower than most of the vets around here. I just cannot come up with that kind of $ cash like that.

I found his hiding spot, and coaxed him out with his new food. I didn't have food in his belly when I did the shot though. I ended up having to feed him a few minutes later. I hope it's ok. He seems ok right now. He has lost so much weight. I expect that will improve according to what folks have said so far.

thank you for you kindness
~Meowski~
 
I've shot first, then fed within a few minutes. As long as the food is kept down, he'll be fine. If there are ever problems with diarrhea, vomiting, or inappetance (lack of appetite) then you want to be sure food is on board and stays down.

I had a problem with that for Spitzer, my first diabetic. If I shot and he vomited, he could hypo. It was a nightmare.
 
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