? Help! my 10 year old 15 lb cat Charlie was just diagnosed with diabetes

He is not sick & has not started insulin (soon will). This newbie has a couple questions to start: he is a dry food lover & I just ordered Hills Prescription MD, but now I’m worried it’s too high in carbs. He will *sometimes* eat wet food/pate only. My thought was 1/2 can of wet in AM & 1/4 cup dry in PM? What if he won’t eat much of the wet before his shot? Can I give him a healthy treat during his shot? Does he have to eat his whole meal before injection? Also my vet wants to put him on Vetsulin & I’ve read negative things here, anyone have positive? THANKS for any input.

 

Welcome to FDMB!

Most of the "prescription" dry foods, regardless of the manufacturer, are very high in carbohydrates. There is also nothing in any prescription diabetic food, canned or dry, that is truly prescription. (In fact, there's a class action law suit prohibiting the pet food manufacturers from claiming certain foods are prescription.) The ingredients are truly awful. You may be interested in reading about feline nutrition on this website that is authored by a vet. If your cat is a dry food "addict," there are a handful of foods that are low in carbs: Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein, Young Again Zero Carb, and Wysong 90. FWIW, the prescription foods have a guarantee that you can return them and get your money back.

There are several reasons we are not strong advocates for Vetsulin. First and foremost, it is no longer recommended by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) for the treatment of feline diabetes. Vetsulin is a harsh insulin that does not have sufficient duration given a cat's metabolism. In other words, the insulin poops out well before 12 hours leading to wide swings in blood glucose (BG) numbers. Vetsulin (also known as Caninsulin) was developed for treating dogs and dogs do not have the same fast metabolism compared to their feline counterparts. The AAHA endorses the use of Prozinc or Lantus (or the glargine generics/biosimilars which are recently available). If you are concerned about your cat eating at shot time, you MUST have food on board in order to use Vetsulin. You need to feed your cat 20 - 30 min prior to shot time to insure there is food to offset the faster action of Vetsulin so numbers don't crash. The most positive aspect of Vetsulin is cost. We have had some cats do well but it's more the exception than the rule. For some time, Caninsulin had to be the first line choice of insulin for those cats residing in the UK. This policy has since changed.

Please let us know if you have questions. We're here to help.