HELP!

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graciesmom

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Hi, my name is Theresa and and my kitty's name is Gracie. She is almost 5-years old and was recently diagnosed with diabetes. On top of everything she has been treated for a seizure disorder since she was 5 months old. Getting use to the seizure disorder was difficult but we managed to get things under control and live with it. Then we discovered allergies and from time to time her allergies flare and her skin breaks down and there is the soothing baths, allergy meds and antibiotics if the skin lesions become infected. She was seizure free for two years when she suddenly started having seizures again, was thirsty and hungry ALL the time, and a vet visit determined diabetes.

My biggest concern right now is if I am doing the right thing for her. The vet has put Gracie on a special diet and it seems to have brought her sugar under control...I think. I am diabetic and so testing her blood is no issue for me. Her levels stay around 65-70 at this time. Is this a good number for her? She also seems to be losing weight and that concerns me. Right now I am feeding her Blue Buffalo high protein grain free dry food - chicken flavor, has to be chicken or she won't touch it. She use to love fancy feast chicken feast, but since she was diagnosed and I am watching her diet I stopped the soft food. I have tried other soft foods, but she will have nothing to do with them, it seems that only fancy feast will do it for her. Would it be okay to continue with the soft food? Is there anything else that I should be doing for her?
 
Welcome I cant speak to the other issues your Gracie has but 65-70 are non diabetic numbers. I'm sure others here can help you better than I. Hang in there for more input.

Again WELCOME

jeanne
 
Hi and welcome :)

I'm not certain what your concern is...you've done a great job through diet change alone and her numbers are back to non-diabetic levels. As long as she doesn't have allergies to what is in the food you are feeding, all should be ok (knock on computer). I am however confused as to whether you are feeding dry or soft/canned food?
 
i'm confused as to weather your shooting insulin or not.
and i'm wondering if your kitty received a steroid shot for his skin alergies.
and your numbers are great so i'm wondering what help you need?
please let us know exactly what you are looking for.
you can continue to feed the the fancy feast she likes. check out our food chart to see if the flavors she likes are in our low carb range...10 carbs or under.
 
OK I had a couple comments..
Dry food is bad, so I would switch her back to the wet food. There are wet foods by the same company, and low carb wet food diet is a good thing for all cats. Even if Gracie turns out to be in remission or never was diabetic, wet is better than dry and there are several people with diabetic cats who feed fancy feast.

How was Gracie determined to be a diabetic? Did your vet have a fructosamine test done or was there just a test of Gracie's bg when at the vet? I ask because there are so many things, conditions and meds, that can cause a temporary rise in BG numbers, so the reason for good non-diabetic numbers now being received is a good thing.

If you are not giving insulin, and tests of Gracie are showing the numbers you mentioned, you can be happy. She's either in remission or just had a bout of high numbers from some other health problem.

My guess is that she may have had high bg numbers when she was ill, and possibly her meds were the reason for the numbers. Changing back to wet low carb foods is preferable - see the attached links for info on nutrition and foods that would be good for Gracie, except watch for her allergies when selecting foods.
Binky’s Food Lists
Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basics of Feline Nutrition

You can keep testing her bg regularly and keeping track of her numbers, just in case she is or was diabetic and the food switch helped - still switch to a wet food though but maybe go with the grain free ones.
Ask your vet for copies of whatever tests were done, and take a look for any values that are out of range, and ask the vet what they mean. Most definitely ask how your vet determined that Gracie was diabetic because only one high number for glucose on a set of results does not make a cat diabetic.

I hope Gracie feels better soon and that you get some good answers from your vet.
 
dry food is not 'bad', it is not the preferred food. some of our cats still eat it. they do for various reasons and do not like hearing it is 'bad'.
 
The Blue Wilderness dry food has 18% carbs, which is better than most.

If your kitty is diet controlled (65-70 are normal BGs for cats) on that food with no insulin - Great!

The Non-gravy flavors of Fancy Feast are fine -- "Chicken Feast" is fine as long as NOT "Chicken Feast with gravy"

The non-gravy Fancy Feast are better for diabetic kitties than any dry food.

There is a lower carb dry food available - EVO Cat & Kitten is 8% carbs.
 
How has her skin and other issues been since changing food?

The Fancy Feast is what I feed my own FDs, but if there is a positive change in your kitty since switching to the dry, I wouldn't change things yet. But if things are the same, then by all means, give the Fancy Feast.
 
This skin condition has happened before, long before she was ever diagnosed with fd. Therefore I am not convinced that it is her food that is the problem. My biggest concern for her at this time is the weight loss. She is a tiny cat to begin with, she started having seizures at 5 months old and her growth seemed to have been stunted as a result. At the most she has ever been is 6lbs, she now weighs 5.1lbs. A few people have said that the fancy feast (no gravy) is okay and since she loves that I am going to give it a try. Thanks for the advice.
 
I forgot to mention, Gracie broke a 2 year seizure free period with a lot of seizures and drinking, eating, and urinating a LOT. All the while she was losing weight. She stayed by her bowls of food and water all day and couldn't get enough. They did a 150 dollar test and told us that she was diabetic. The vet felt that a diet change might help and so we started there.It seems the increase in her sugar levels interfered with the absorption of some of her seizure meds. It seems that the diet change has done the trick with her diabetes, but she continues to lose weight. This is my biggest concern, the weight loss. I just feel like I am juggling a lot of conditions with Gracie and when I change one thing, another thing goes out of kilter.
 
ah, i see. she is a diet controlled diabetic and you want to get more calories in her.
let me look at some low carb high calorie foods on janets list for you.
 
Here is the link to nutritional info for dry foods. From what I can see Natura's Innovo EVO is your best choice. 8% of calories from carbohydrates, and VERY high caloric value; 612 cal/cup.

Andrea.
 
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