Hi from Steph, Casey and Mick

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Steph

Steph

Member Since 2013
Hi everyone. I'm new here, and am a health journalist in SoCal. I've been helping an elderly neighbor with her obese diabetic cat, Casey, and have received remarkable help from our local cat club and DCIN. Just adopted a 5-6-7???-year-old, "Mick," thanks to DCIN and he flew in Saturday to live with me and my other three felines.

(Neighbor's cat Casey is on Prozinc and my Mick is on Lantus.)

My brain spin is from the food issue: "Feed wet food only." I'm told Friskies is high protein--ok, but it's not exactly known for having, er, the "finest" ingredients. The designer canned food at the local "natural" pet food store is $2.00 a can. I'm feeding Mick, who is very underweight, Friskies Pate. My cat's internist recommended the following high protein dry foods if I must feed dry food.

Core Wellness Grain Free Indoor
Wysong Epigen
California Natural Grain Free

(I have 3 other cats, each with a separate medical problem: obesity, kidney, bladder stones)

Where are you on dry food? I want to feed it if possible. Do you like the recommendations above? One of my vets is totally anti any dry food.

Thank you!
 
Hi and welcome!! Bless you for adopting a diabetic baby from DCIN!! You are at the right place!!
Are you home testing? You can learn to home test if you are not already doing it.
Dry food is not good for any kitty, diabetic or not. I feed mine Fancy Feast.
Im not very computer savvy however someone will come along and post a link for you to a list of foods that are great for a diabetic cat.
Many cats have not needed insulin any longer after getting on a wet food!!!
Just wanted to say Hi! and Welcome!!
 
You will find that many here actually advise NOT to feed dry food at all. The best reading to do on why dry food is not a good food choice is Dr. Lisa's site - www.catinfo.org

Especially if you have cats with bladder, kidney and other health issues, the dry food will not help.

Now with that being said, I do know that some people are using Young Again dry food, I don't know anything about it, but if you search on this board, you can find discussions on the subject.

I would also stay away from the California Natural and Evo dry food products as they have had recent recalls and no sense taking any risks.

A cheater type of dry food, which is actually a freeze dried raw food is made by Stella & Chewy's. It comes in dry food and is meant to have water added to it. However, my cats prefer it dry and as I do have a dry food addict, this has been the best compromise I could come up with to satisfy the crunch she wants and not give actually dry food (kibbles).

I will say that this food is not on the food chart lists and some people have said that it is considered a high carb food. Maui has not had any negative reaction BG wise to it, so I do use it. I suggest you research it yourself and decide.

Here is a link so you can see the product choices and it does come in several flavors. This is also where I found it cheapest to buy online - especially with promo codes and such:

http://www.petfood.com/item/stella-and- ... od/498360/
 
Hi Terri: Yes, I home test. Mick is getting 3 units 2X day of Lantus.

He is difficult to test with only me to hold and do it. But, he has a good ear vein. I am letting his numbers "settle" a bit after his flight and numbers back in the 400s.
We were down to 250 yesterday, so moving ahead--downward.

Thanks for your note! Best to your kitties!
 
And when you get a chance, please share a picture of who you adopted? I'm trying to place the name Mick and don't recall who that is.... :-D
 
You might like the section in the AAHA Diabetes Management Guidelines for Dogs and Catsas to why wet food is preferred.

Canned foods are preferred over dry foods. Canned foods provide: Lower carbohydrate levels.
Ease of portion control.
Lower caloric density; cat can eat a higher volume of canned food for the same caloric intake.
Additional water intake.25-28
Click to expand...

How underweight does the vet say Mick is?

Grain free does not mean low-carb. The grains are often replaced with other carbs such as potatoes, peas, other vegetables and fruits.
California Natural Grain Free has lots of pea/pea fiber.
Core Wellness Grain Free Indoor has lots of peas/ potato/ tomato, etc.
Wysong Epigen lots of vegetable protein

You might try replacing 20% of the food with pure protein like plain cooked chicken or turkey if Mick needs to gain some weight.

We like the nutritional advice from vet and member Dr. Lisa Pierson at catinfo.org. Here is an article on feline obesity that may be of help to your neighbor.
 
Hi Stephanie!! Cindy here :-)

Glad to see you on here as there's people on 24/7 and they can answer any questions you have.
I get to pop in here when I'm looking at parts and doing estimates at work so will keep an eye out for your posts as I can
 
If you must feed dry, then these 3 may be used
Young Again 0 carb - 5 % calories from carbohydrates (internet only
Evo Cat and Kitten - 8 % calories from carbohydrates (they've been having some recalls and may be hard to find)
Wellness Core Original in gold and tan bag - 11 % calories from carbohydrates

Wet food is better - diabetic cats urinate a lot and can become dehydrated. Chronic low level dehydration feeding dry food may happen, as cats often do not drink enough to compensate.

It is safe to leave wet food out for 12 hours and have the cat nibble from it. Better yet, freeze half and let it be nibbled as it thaws.
 
Steph said:
Hi everyone. I'm new here, and am a health journalist in SoCal. I've been helping an elderly neighbor with her obese diabetic cat, Casey, and have received remarkable help from our local cat club and DCIN. Just adopted a 5-6-7???-year-old, "Mick," thanks to DCIN and he flew in Saturday to live with me and my other three felines.

(Neighbor's cat Casey is on Prozinc and my Mick is on Lantus.)

My brain spin is from the food issue: "Feed wet food only." I'm told Friskies is high protein--ok, but it's not exactly known for having, er, the "finest" ingredients. The designer canned food at the local "natural" pet food store is $2.00 a can. I'm feeding Mick, who is very underweight, Friskies Pate. My cat's internist recommended the following high protein dry foods if I must feed dry food.

Core Wellness Grain Free Indoor
Wysong Epigen
California Natural Grain Free

(I have 3 other cats, each with a separate medical problem: obesity, kidney, bladder stones)

Where are you on dry food? I want to feed it if possible. Do you like the recommendations above? One of my vets is totally anti any dry food.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
\

Hi Steph - just wanted to jump in on the Core Wellness dry....I occasionally use the original because its reasonably low carb - but when I looked at the formula for the Indoor version - it seems to be quite a bit lower in protein and fat - and I suspect that means its much higher in carbs - so if you are going that route - I'd stay with the classic Wellness Core.

And I feed EVO wet - I buy it online at around 2.00 for a 13.2 oz can which is certainly more than Friskies but a lot less than many of the quality brands. I don't know if its recommended for cats with kidney issues, but my non-diabetic cat has slimmed down nicely on it over the past few months.

Em
 
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