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Walker

Walker

Member Since 2016
Hi all.

Well, I'm here because our cat, Smokey has been recently diagnosed with diabetes. We've been giving him Lantus, 1 unit twice a day for about 4 days now. His diet has been switched to Purina DM (wet and dry), which he surprisingly took to very well, he's been a picky eater since we adopted him about 3 years ago. We have a blood curve booked at out vet next Monday.

From what I've read here, it seems like we should be asking our vet about home glucose testing, and using a different dry food. We were feeding him Blue Buffalo Basics before, so I'm thinking of keeping feeding him the DM wet, and switching the dry back to Blue Buffalo dry. He never has eaten a lot of wet food in one sitting, and he's a pretty big boy, (6 kilograms , and he seems a bit underweight right now because he's lost weight) it's hard to get him to eat enough wet food in a day to fulfil his calorie needs, so we leave dry out for him to graze on during the day, and at night between his wet food meals. At least his eating habits seem like they would tend to be thee way to go with a diabetic cat, eating throughout the day.

Smokey had serious health problems right after we adopted him three years ago. He would not eat, and after a lot of vet visits, it was determined that he had an enlarged lymph node on his liver, which we had biopsied and fortunately was benign. We had to tube feed him for over two months before he started eating on his own. He's been healthy since then until now.

We're hoping that we can get this under control, and Smokey can enjoy his life with us. Our last cat lived to 21 years old, it would be nice to give the Smokey the chance for a long, happy life as well.
 
Welcome Walker& Smokey!
I am fairly new too!
I have learned so much from the wonderful people on this forum.
Are you home testing?
Someone with a lot more experience should come along soon.
Once you are home testing you can set up a Spread Sheet and the members will be able to give sound guidance.
As far as the food there are really good choices most important is the %of carbs you are feeding Smokey.
I chose to feed Fritz my kitty homemade raw food. I do understand that doesn't work for everyone.
There is a ton of information to help you manage Smokeys fd.
Once again welcome and I wish the best for you & Smokey!
 
Hi Walker welcome to you and handsome Smokey! Sorry about the diagnosis, but you've come to the right place. Lantus is an excellent insulin and I'm sure Smokey will do fine on it. Please do consider home testing. It is very easy to do and is the best way to keep Smokey safe and to see how well the Lantus is working. I don't know the carb count in the Blue Buffalo Basics, but I see it has Tapioca, peas and potatoes-all high carbohydrate foods, so I'd be wary of it. The Purina DM wet is a good food, the dry is a bit high in carbs, so if you need to feed a dry food maybe we can help you find one that's lower carb. But unless you are home testing, do not take Smokey off the dry. Changing to an all low carb diet can lower his glucose numbers and he would need less insulin. Please let us know how the vet visit goes Monday and if we can help in any way.
 
Welcome! Have you seen these tips for transitioning to canned food? http://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

There really isn't any dry food that's good for diabetic cats. There's one or two out there that are low enough in carbs to be used if the cat will absolutely not eat canned food, but usually with a few changes, most cats can be transitioned off it. The fact that Smokey is already eating some canned is good!

How much food, and how many times a day are you feeding the canned food? Cats have metabolisms twice as fast as people, so they do best with smaller, frequent meals throughout the day, and if Smokey is used to grazing, that's probably your issue. First, I would pull up all the dry food, and only offer it to him in portioned feedings when necessary (i.e. he won't eat enough canned to meet his caloric requirements). You want to work with his natural hunger drive! Second, I would try smaller meals, at least 4 times a day. If you're trying to give him an entire day or half day's worth of food in one sitting, that can be problematic. But if you know there's a certain amount of food he always eats in one sitting, make that your portion size and feed as much as you need to get up to the amount of calories you need. If you aren't home to feed that frequently, you can freeze portions of canned food and leave them out, or put them in an automatic feeder.

Some canned foods are higher in calories than others, so he may do well on a premium food like Wellness, especially if he's underweight. Wellness kitten is diabetic safe and great for packing on pounds.

Some cats just like to graze, and if he's one of them, you can add water to the canned food you're leaving out and see if he eats it over a longer period of time.

You're doing great so far! I can't stress enough the importance of home testing. If your vet hasn't talked to you about it, I would definitely push the issue. Not only is it cheaper than office testing, it's recommended over office testing because the numbers are more accurate (office tests will often show inflation due to stress, leading to chronic overdosing). And it's vital in keeping your cat safe. Cats can go hypoglycemic on VERY small doses of insulin, and it's incredibly hard to get good control over blood glucose without it.

80+% of cats go into remission with a low carb canned diet, dose adjustments via daily home testing, and a slow acting insulin like Lantus or Levemir. Bandit's been diabetic for over 7 years, and he's only needed insulin for a fraction of those years.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone.

Smokey gets wet food about 6 times a day. Right now, I'm a stay-at-home cat dad, so it's possible for me to feed him that frequently. He has been doing better at eating larger portions, so we may be able to eventually give him all the calories he needs from wet food. Like I said, he's a big boy, about 6 kilos, so he'd need to eat 1-3/4 cans of wet DM. Right now he's eating maybe 1-1/4, so I'm hoping to slowly increase his portions to get him where he'll be solely on wet.

We're definitely going to talk to our vet on Monday about home testing. So far, they haven't even mentioned it, which is why I was so surprised to see so many people here advocating it.

Thanks Sharon14 and Critter Mom, we think he is pretty handsome too. And he was so happy to meet us at the animal shelter. He chose us as much as we chose him. lol
 
He may just not like the DM very much...it has a lot of liver in it which many cats get sick of quickly. I'd play around with some other types of diabetic safe foods and see if there is one he will gobble down better! Fancy Feast and Sheba pates are all diabetic safe and about the same quality ingredients you're feeding now, and there are many premium foods with higher quality ingredients that will still cost less than the DM. BFF (best feline friend) is a food I often recommend for inappetent cats, as many seem to love it! You could try mixing it with some of the pate style foods and see if it helps.

Here's a link to the AAHA diabetes guidelines for you to print and bring to your vet. Note where it says (under initiating insulin therapy) "Home monitoring of BG is ideal and strongly encouraged to obtain the most accurate interpretation of glucose relative to clinical signs."

Most vets are general practitioners, not specialists and often times they may not have seen all the current research on FD. Bandit and I have gone through 4 vets since his diagnosis, and it took seeing an internal medicine specialist at Cornell to find one who got everything right! If you can find a vet who will work with you and read the information you bring them and support recommended treatment, that's all you need. Your vet did put Smokey on a good insulin and an OK canned food, which is better than a lot of cats we see here, so hopefully they will be open to the rest.
 
It is your decision/choice about whether or not to home test, not the vet's.
In addition to blood glucose testing, check my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some other assessments you may find helpful in evaluating your cat, in particular, urine ketone testing, dehydration checks, and food and water intake and output.
Ketones form as a by-product of fat breakdown for calories. Too many ketones may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis, as severe complication of diabetes.
 
So... we spent the day at the vets. They were kind enough to let us stay with Smokey in an exam room. We didn't like the idea of leaving him alone all day. We're increasing his dosage on the Lantus to 1.5 units twice a day.

They showed us how to test his blood glucose, and we bought an AlphaTrak monitor. We're going to try doing our own curve in a week.
 
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