Food Transisition Question ??

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dalexander

Member Since 2013
So, I switched Beatrice over to wet food Friday and she immediately ate it and loved it. She also ate it on Saturday. I have already seen an improvement in her water intake and urinating, and her normal behavior seems to be returning. Unfortunately on Sunday and this morning, she has decided NOT to eat wet food. What the heck? If she accepted it so quickly and eagerly on Friday, why has she now changed her mind? Is this normal?
Of course her little sister, will have no part of the wet food. Have they been conspiring behind my back? :lol:

Also, is it okay to sprinkle cat nip over wet food to entice them to eat it? Just wondering if that is okay, and if anyone has been successful with it.

Thanks,
Dee



Beatrice is a 12 yr old female Calico. I have always fed her dry cat food, which now I'm finding out has been a very bad thing. She has always been a healthy cat. Over the past month I noticed increased drinking of water and urination. I took her to the vet two days ago. He had to sedate her to take urine and blood for lab tests. A lot of tests were run, actually $900 worth. I got the test results yesterday and was told everything is fine except she is considered borderline diabetic and she has a mild urinary infection. Her level was 5 points below the norm on the high end. The vet prescribed insulin pills and a prescribed DRY cat food, and antibiotics. So, I have just completed two hours of reading on this subject matter and learn that cats should NOT be eating dry food, yet the vet sold me dry cat food and put her on insulin pills. Why would he not tell me should be changed to wet food, and he prescribed insulin also. Based on what I read this could be bad also, because the food change may in fact fix her problem. What should I do? I was thinking of just changing to wet food and not give her the insulin pills. Obviously, I need to start seeing a new vet. Am I entitled to receive a copy of all of the lab results so that I can take them to a new vet?

Please someone enlighten me.

Dee
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

Yes you are entitled to all your kitties records.

Your Vet just doesnt know enough about feline diabetes,. Doesnt make him/her a bad Vet just an uninformed Vet.

If your Vet insist on you going with their protocal, in other words, *its his way. or your gonna kill your cat*. Then I suggest you find a new Vet pronto. An infection can raise a kitties blood glucose numbers to pre diabetic...

These are just my opinions. There will be others posting with more experience.

In any case you have found the BEST place to learn to help your kitty,
WELCOME,
jeanne
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

Hi there,
I'm a newbie my cat got diagnosed in January. I changed her to wet food and she briefly needed insulin shots and now she is considered diet controlled.
Couple of things...you need to change to wet food. Fancy feast classics pate type being the most popular here..they are low carb. You can also find a list of good wet food on http://www.catinfo.org
Insulin pills...Insulin is a hormone only available as an injection. The acid in the stomach deactivates it. Your vet means an oral drug ( oral hypoglycemic) most likely called Glipizide. The research shows that cats do not respond to this type of medication well and can cause some liver isuues. Cats respond well to insulin shots and can go into remission after being on insulin.
There will be more experienced people on this board soon and they can help you navigate through this. All I can say is please change to wet food ASAP, and if you feel confident get some hometesting equipment which you can easily find in walmart and maybe after a couple of days of wet food check your kittys blood glucose yourself. This will be more accurate as the cat won't have to be stressed with a vet visit (stree increases the blood glucose). If it is high like over 200 taljk to your vet again, but in the meantime read everything you can on this website. They save cats lives here!
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

With "borderline": diabetes and an infection, I'm going to guess the glucose may be elevated by the infection and vet stress, possibly totally, possibly in part. To me this suggests that treating the infection and switching to a low carbohydrate canned or raw diet may reduce the high glucose substantially. Time will tell.

The pills don't work well in cats; I'd be inclined to ditch them.

Pop over to Cat Info for good information on feline nutrition, plus an up to date list of nutritional information for a variety of cat foods. There's also a pdf file of the website information you can print off for your vet and clinic staff, if you think he'd read it.

Also, here are AAHA guidelines for treating feline diabetes, since it seems your vet may be out of date. Read them over, and share with the vet clinic.
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

If your cat was so close to the high on the reference range, that is not a huge number. I would not be starting the pills-which as stated already-are not the best for FD. Most labs reference ranges for glucose are under 200-dk if yours are, on this board we generally dont advise shooting insulin under 200 (unless you know your cats response to insulin very well and know what you are doing)
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

OH my gosh! THANKS A MILLION TO ALL OF YOU! What a wonderful site this is, I am so glad I found it!

I feel great relief already for the replies I received.

Wow! This is incredible.

Thanks again,
Dee
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

dalexander said:
OH my gosh! THANKS A MILLION TO ALL OF YOU! What a wonderful site this is, I am so glad I found it!

I feel great relief already for the replies I received.

Wow! This is incredible.

Thanks again,
Dee
You are very welcome. This site literally saved my sweet girl :-D
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

Hello there

Its good you caught this early. I agree with everyone else

1. no dry food.. ever. not even treats. Move to a low carb canned like fancy feast classic pates, friskies pates or wellness grain free. Freeze dried chicken treats
2. Treat the infection with antibiotics
3 start home testing to keep an eye on him -thats blood testing and urine testing for ketones

Dont start the pills yet until you have done the above and we can look at his blood levels. here is more info on home testing etc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rd6sMfsrNB41yQVEqpyjlHrJsDIbGEhbRIWR4QAwu3c/pub

Wendy
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

Just wanted to add this if the pills your vet gave you was glipizide.


Diabetes is very treatable in cats but not with glipizide. Glipizide can cause nausea and inappetance and can also lead to the progression of pancreatic destruction due to increasing the secretion of other proteins in the pancreas.


You've already got some great starting points of how to help Beatrice.
 
Re: Boarder line diabetes? Help Me!

I agree with all the other replies: Dry food + URI + vet stress = prediabetic

To figure out if Beatrice is really diabetic, I would try switching to canned food, treating her URI with antibiotics, and checking her glucose with home testing.
 
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