Food questions~newly diagnosed

[Airway]

My 12 y/o domestic shorthair was diagnosed yesterday with DM. As an EMT I'm very familiar with how blood sugar works, how to test it, symptoms of it being too low, and so on. I've been doing a lot of research over the past day, and diet is where I'm confused.

Triton eats a combination of dry and canned food. Yesterday I went over the foods and nutritional content with our vet and he said both are great choices. He put a lot of emphasis on protein conten (dry is 44%). The vet did not recommend any diet change. I've lost count of how many times I've been told don't feed dry food and that carbs are what matter. The vet said nothing negative and dry food and was most interested in protein. The dry food is 18% carbs and the canned is 2.5% carbs.

Triton has been prescribed Glipizide for 2 weeks at which point we will contact the vet with his glucose readings and discuss whether to continue or what to do next.

This is my first experience with a diabetic cat, and I'm confused about diet. I have a vet telling me I've already chosen great food options and everything else telling me maybe I haven't. :?:

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Unfortunately your vet may be a little out of date with feline diabetes. The American Animal Hospital Association published diabetes treatment guidelines in 2010.you may want to print and share these with your vet :
http://www.felinediabetes.com/AAHADiabetesGuidelines.pdf

We have lots of data to show that the ideal diet for cat is under 10% calories from carbs - http://www.catinfo.org - especially if you are looking for remission - which is common in cats with a diet change to low carb food! We recommend friskies pates, fancy feast classic pates or wellness grain free canned.

Also glipzide isnt good at all !!! - it is pressuring his pancreas to make insulin.. which is stressing this already damaged organ!!! This will make regulation hard and remission probably impossible. Call your vet and ask for a prescription for insulin - you want Lantus, Levemir or Prozinc which work best in cats. We have studies that show that as many as 84% of cats can achieve remission with a low carb diet, a good insulin like lantus and home blood testing - within the first 6 months. After that time the odds drop off so your window is tight. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19592286



Wendy

 

[BJM]

Most vets' nutrition training is provided by the very manufacturers who make the Rx products. Sad to say, it is often biased in favor of the company. Additionally, if it is a prescription product that only the vet sells, there is a tendancy to prescribe that to make sales. Buyer beware.

We do not go by the weight % on the labels; we go by the % of calories from carbohydrates. Select foods with under 10% calories from carbohydrates as regular food. Choose gravvied high carb food to have on hand in the event of risky low glucose numbers.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Hi Triton's caregiver and extra sweet kitty Triton and welcome to the FDMB.

Would you tell us your name please?

I switched my foster cat Wink from the vet recommended high carb foods, to low carb canned Fancy Feast classic pates and Friskies pates. He had been an unregulated diabetic for about 4 months before he came to live with me. With the food change, Wink needed less and less insulin and went OTJ in about 6 weeks. It would have been sooner, except he was a dry food addict and it took 3 weeks of dedication and hard work to get him switched over to a low carb canned food diet. He also got another UTI from the dry food and lack of water in his diet, which bumped his BG (blood glucose) numbers up. I decided he needed a tiny bit of support and put him on a little dose of insulin for a bit longer. He passed his 2nd OTJ trial with flying colors and has been OTJ (off-the-juice, insulin being the juice), in remission, a diet-controlled diabetic for more than 5 months now.

My very personal experience is that the high protein diet is not as important as the low carb diet for diabetic cats. Wink is living proof of that. I highly recommend the low carb diet, and you can do that inexpensively with Fancy Feast classic pates, Friskies pates, Special Kitty or Wellness.