Hello from Kristen and Oliver!

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Kris10S

Kris10S

Member Since 2017
Hello! My name is Kristen and I am about to be a human mom for the 1st time in October! Being very pregnant you can imagine my stress level (EMOTIONS) 3 weeks ago when the Vet told me my baby, Oliver (12 years old, Orange Tabby) was diabetic. For 3 weeks now he has been switched to a dry, diabetic management food and his sugar went from 385 to 320 something (i think). Our Vet (which I love) said it wasn't a big enough drop and since he is still drinking A LOT and just lying around we needed to start insulin. I have asked several time about switching him to wet food, but she said what he is on is good for him (I am still up in the air about this). ANYWAY, tonight we are meeting with her to choose an insulin, and learn the process. I feel like I am on information overload and just want to do what is BEST for my Oliver. He is a grazer so I know getting him on a feeding schedule is going to be difficult, limiting his food has already proved a challenge.

Any words of advice and wisdom will be appreciated. I don't know anyone around me that has been through this transition so I am hoping I can get the info and support I am seeking here.
 
Welcome Kristen and Oliver! :bighug: Congratulations on your pregnancy and sorry that you had to be hit with the diagnosis during this time. (It's never a good time though.) When my cat was first diagnosed, the vet sent me home with one of the 'prescription' dry foods. I came home and started researching. I called her the next day and told her what I had learned regarding wet food being so much better for them. The day after that, she called me and apologized for giving me bad info. She had done some research of her own and had to agree that wet food is better. Unfortunately, just because someone is a vet does not mean they have much training in feline nutrition. In case you have not already come across it, here is a link to a site dedicated to feline nutrition, CatInfo.org. It has an awesome cat food database that is VERY helpful when you are trying to figure out what to feed.

My cats were always on dry food only, so the food switch has not been easy. I now feed them a wet food meal as the shot meal each morning and evening. I do not have them on only wet at this point though. I give them dry food to graze on during mid-day and night. I give them Young Again Zero Mature. Any dry food is not as good as wet, but at least this kind does not have the carbs.

This is a great place, and you will get lots of support here. Please be sure to post any questions you have on the Main Health Forum. You will get more responses there since this is the introduction forum.
 
Welcome! We can help. :) Yes to low carb wet food only. It can be left out if your kitty likes to graze. There's a tendency for many vets to start a kitty on too high a dose of insulin. A good starting dose is 1 unit twice a day. There's also a tendency for vets to raise the dose too quickly and by too much creating the problem of too high a dose looking like too little insulin because of a phenomenon called bouncing. We're also big advocates of testing blood glucose at home. Post all your questions over on the main health forum. It gets more traffic.

Congratulations on the impending arrival of your baby!
 
Hi Kristen and welcome, newbie here myself....great people around. In order to avoid the stress I choose the "start low, go slow" method (with long lasting insulin Lantus) instead of a more aggressive one - I'm not the right person to watch and poke the tomcat's ear every 15 minutes during the night trying to keep him out of hypoglycaemia - and Toronto's not the tomcat to accept the poking so often anyway.......I'll go slow at least until I understand cat's reaction to insulin. Low carb wet food sounds great for a start, I've done that, too.
 
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