Help with Food

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Jadi & Tiffany

Jadi & Tiffany

Member Since 2017
Food is very important to my cat Tiffany. She has not been doing great, but I have been encouraged by her feeling better the last few days. Numbers are not great but we are hanging in there!
She loves FFC...also natures variety instinct...trying Weruva, but not loving it as much. What is the best quality of food that I can feed her? So far the insulin is not working...
 
I strongly suggest that you post on the Lantus and Levemir forum for advice on dosing. There are several possibilities:
  1. the dose is too low
  2. the dose is too high
  3. your kitty has some condition that will require high doses of insulin.
The experts on that forum will be able to help you sort this out.
 
Yes, I have asked for help, but get many different opinions. My vet wants to go to another specialist. For now, she seems to be feeling better at 4 units. I am just looking for advice on food...thank you!
 
I looked on the L&L forum and saw that you had posted there a while ago. You got some advice from experienced people and I think you should consult them again. Here are some things I notice on your SS:
  • you've missed some preshot tests especially recently where there are none - these are important
  • you've changed dose AM and PM many times and this isn't how Levemir is dosed - you need to keep the dose AM and PM
  • you need to have a dosing protocol in place which is reflected in your SS - ie., a gradual, careful increase in dose over time until significant low numbers are reached which, depending on the protocol, cause the dose to be continued or dropped.
These L insulins work well but they have to be used properly to get good results. Please go read about the TR and SLGS protocols in the yellow info stickies on the L&L forum and make a decision about which would work best for you. Then go post for advice on that forum.
 
I totally appreciate your input. I am not acting blindly..my vet and a specialist have been the ones instructing me. I have read the stickies...what would you do with your cat at this point? Someone told me to lower the dose..stick with that for a week and do a curve. The specialist is the one who was giving me the dosing input. I wasn't making it up....
 
Jadi Faul said:
Yes, I have asked for help, but get many different opinions.
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I've read through the posts on the L&L thread and I see people offering several possible paths forward in getting your kitty on track. Several have to do with choosing a protocol and following it, getting more test data, checking for ketones because of high numbers, etc. Most people suggested keeping the 4 u dose until you got a low enough number. All we can do here is offer advice based on experience. There's a lot to learn about FD and insulin dosing. We rely on the owner to read the info stickies to learn as much about the type of insulin they're using and how to dose it. Then, you can post with questions about what you've read, don't understand, etc.
 
Jadi Faul said:
I totally appreciate your input. I am not acting blindly..my vet and a specialist have been the ones instructing me. I have read the stickies...what would you do with your cat at this point? Someone told me to lower the dose..stick with that for a week and do a curve. The specialist is the one who was giving me the dosing input. I wasn't making it up....
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It's very difficult to read advice from non-vets here that differs from what a specialist or other vet has said. Was it the specialist that suggested dosing differently AM and PM? Levemir is a depot insulin and changing doses AM and PM or too frequently day to day messes with the depot. It shrinks and expands in response to dose and takes several days to stabilize at a given dose.

I really do think you should run this by the experienced people on the L&L forum again. Tell them what the specialist has told you to do, refer them to your spreadsheet, tell them how the initial dosing was decided after diagnosis, etc. All I can say here with a high degree of certainty is that the current dosing regimen isn't working.
 
Wow...I really am beginning to feel under attack rather than supported. Is that how you treat all people who are asking simple questions? My cat has been on the verge of death in the animal hospital twice...we have paid thousands for her care. I am doing the best I can.,.trying to take the advice of highly qualified vets that I have paid money to...seriously what are your motives in attacking the way I have approached this?
 
And yes...the vet who is a highly sought after Diabetes specialist is the one with the dosing advice...I have followed her input to a tee.
 
I don't know you or Kris, but it doesn't sound to me like Kris is attacking you at all. It sounds like she's saying she understanding how stressful it is to get different advice from different people, but is advocating for you to use the resources here to help your kitty.
 
Jadi Faul said:
Wow...I really am beginning to feel under attack rather than supported. Is that how you treat all people who are asking simple questions? My cat has been on the verge of death in the animal hospital twice...we have paid thousands for her care. I am doing the best I can.,.trying to take the advice of highly qualified vets that I have paid money to...seriously what are your motives in attacking the way I have approached this?
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I'm sorry if you're feeling attacked because that certainly isn't my intention. I can tell that you're very worried about your kitty and want very much to help her. There's a lot of help here for people who have struggled in treating their kitties because they haven't received the best or most effective advice from their vet. It's quite possible that the specialist vet has a plan for your kitty that will help. The numbers on the spreadsheet - on the face of it - show you're not there yet.
 
Since your question was about food, I will put my 2 cents worth in. I am a strong believer in low carb, low phosphorus food without a lot of "junk" added. I say low phosphorus because so many of our older kitties get kidney issues so it's good to start them with low phosphorus food they like. Personally I fed raw, some of it home made. It gave me a lot more control over the ingredients and seemed to fill up my starving girl better. But there are good canned foods out there too. The Nature's Variety is OK, though it has peas in it and clay. :rolleyes: Ziwipeak makes some good options, as does Wild Calling and the TikiCat chicken varieties. There are lots of Weruva varieties, keep trying them. My girl liked the Lamburgerini and GlamNPunk. At one point she stopped eating raw. :(
 
Thank you!! I really appreciate the food advice. I made my husband read the stickies with me again tonight. He reminded me that although this forum has knowledgeable advisors that certainly have great information, they are not dosing advisors or veterinarians. My vet is on it!!! And yes, I love my cat and am very sad she is not stable yet.

Wendy, we you say raw..what exactly did you feed her?
 
Yes, none of us here are vets, just people with experience with diabetic cats. In some aspects of diabetic care, I know more than my vet. The vet clinic owner admitted to me I know more than him about acromegaly (Neko's high dose condition), but they used to be taught it was rare - back in the day when he went to school!

Anyway, onto food. I feed some premanufactured raw products as well as home made. I am in Canada so have access to some locally made raw, that is made with hormone free/antibiotic free/organic meat. I know someone who works there and have even done a plant tour. They gave me the As-Fed numbers so I know it's low carb. There are a few other vendors (Primal, Nature's Variety, Radcat) that are available in the US and sell in Canada, so I've tried some of those too. Half the meals I do are home made. I just buy the meat and add a premix to make a complete meal. I freeze in portions that are enough for a day for a cat. I use the EZComplete premix at the moment. I did use the TC Feline premix for a while (also locally made), specifically their low phosphorus formula for kidney cats. When Neko added IBD to her list of ills I changed premixes to EZ Complete. I buy organic hormone free meat at my local exotic meat butcher, but Whole Foods is also a good source. If you look at the Catinfo website, Dr. Lisa has a page on making your own food, and how to make your own premix too.
 
Thank you!!! This is very helpful. I do not mean any disrespect, as I am sure that you are knowledgeable and obviously love your pet! We are just beginning to navigate this fd and it is super frustrating!
 
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Wendy&Neko said:
I am in Canada so have access to some locally made raw, that is made with hormone free/antibiotic free/organic meat. I know someone who works there and have even done a plant tour. They gave me the As-Fed numbers so I know it's low carb.
Click to expand...
What is the name of the company please?
 
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