Hunting Rabbits and a diabetic cat

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bazil

Member Since 2012
My 13 year old Burmese male neuter (Basil) has just been diagnosed with diabetes. I have 2 questions.

1. He is an outdoor cat and a prolific hunter. He catches (and eats) 2 rabbits per week. This supplements his regular diet (mix of dried and canned senior cat food). The diabetes has made him even more hungry and he is now catching (and eating) 1 large rabbit every day - he is overweight. Our back yard is next to a field full of rabbits.
Can I let him continue to be an outdoors animal?

2. Both me and my wife have to travel on business and occasionally there is no one at home for 1 night. Our neighbours feed him at the moment, but I'm very relucant to ask them to be responsible for injecting him. Can we miss 2 injections (perhaps reducing his food at the same time)?

Bazil
 
Hello, and welcome to FDMB!

Re your first question, I also have an indoor/outdoor diabetic cat who sometimes hunts. I have not found that to be a problem. And I didn't want to 'cramp his style' by forcing him to be an indoor cat. But you may well find others on this forum who will think it more appropriate for you to keep your cat indoors... There are differing views here...

And regarding food, wild food is what cats were meant to eat! And, I'm sorry to say this but...dried food is NOT what cats are meant to eat... This will elevate your cats blood glucose, cause dehydration, and make it harder to regulate him (or indeed to get him off insulin if he turns out to be one of the lucky ones who can do that!)

However - and this should be a big 'HOWEVER' - it is not advisable to remove dry food unless you are carefully monitoring his blood glucose at home. (Most people on the forum test at home. It's not nearly as hard as it sounds and won't make your cat leave home!)
Removing dry food can cause blood glucose levels to drop quite a bit in some cats and so may necessitate a reduction in the insulin dose.

The general advice here regarding cats' diets is that canned low carb food - or raw food - are the best options.

Unregulated cats are generally always hungry because their bodies can't utilise the food they're taking in. When your cat becomes more regulated you'll probably find that he's not hungry all the time. There are some very overweight diabetic cats though who do need to lose weight. I'm sure you can find some advice on this forum from those who have experience of that.

Regarding your second question. It is inadvisable to miss insulin shots. But giving insulin shots isn't difficult and maybe your neighbour could learn....? Or maybe you could find a catsitter to do that? It's also recommended though that it's important to test your cat's blood glucose before giving insulin, to make sure that it is OK to give the shot. But again, learning to test you cat's BG is not that difficult. Honestly!

What insulin is your cat on? And what dose?

I'm sure you'll get more replies to your post soon....

Edited to add: (Sorry, message was written in haste earlier!) I just want to reassure you that feline diabetes is a manageable condition. It does mean factoring a few more things into your daily routine but these are not very time consuming. And I think all of us on this forum have found treating our cats' diabetes to be immensely rewarding. cat_pet_icon
 
Hello Ian and Sally,

From your PM it transpires that we are nearly neighbours ( you may be only a few streets away from me!). Amazing! :shock:

Bazil isn't on insulin yet so yes, it's a great opportunity to remove dry food at this stage. The effects of that (on Bazil's blood glucose) should come into effect pretty fast; I don't know how fast exactly but I've often read on the forum that effects should be seen in about a week.

With regard to UK foods that have been found to be good with diabetic cats (and your vet may not agree with this... ;-) ) basically most foods in jelly (NOT gravy) seem to be fine. Quite a few Brits feed their cats Butcher's Classic, but if you only have one cat (is that right?) then you may find some wastage from a large tin. Others feed Whiskas and Felix in jelly. Bertie gets Felix 'foils' (with NO peas, carrots or any other additions) to keep him occupied while he gets his insulin shot.

I should give a word of warning about Felix 'As Good As It Looks'. It looks great according to the ingredients on the label but some diabetics react to this food and it can scoot their blood glucose up really high (not all cats are affected in this way...).

Syringes can be bought from here (usually much cheaper than from your vet): http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?ma...sult&search_in_description=1&keyword=syringes Be sure you get the right type for the insulin.
 
I can add that in our instance, bg went down instantly over 100 less just from switching from dry food to a low carb canned food.
It's ideal if you can switch before starting insulin , just make sure you get a current bg number to decide on dose amount.
Sometimes that first initial high diagnosis number is different a week or two later and it was so high because of vet stress and
dry food.
 
A report on Basil.

He was in the vet all day for glucose curve testing. He really responed well (too well?) to insulin. Today he started at 26 (he was at 29 when vet tested hime 5 days ago), but was down at 5.1 after 7 hrs and stayed at that level. He had been given 2 units of Caninsulin.

After discussion with vet, we agreed to start with 1 unit, twice a day, and see how he does. My 1st injection will be in 1 hrs time. I then have to monitor Baz until midnight.

We've taken him off dried food and stopped the lickings - a good incentive to do washing-up immediately as Baz jumps on kitchen work surfaces and helps himself!

Vet wasn't worried about hunting - even keen to encourage it.

Baz is loosing weight - down to 6.9 Kg (used to be 7.4 Kg).

Thanks for all the help

Ian
 
That is good about the response for insulin- but that is a steep dive. Bear in mind that caninsulun is made for dogs and is a very short acting insulin for cats- only lasting 6-8 hours I believe in cats. And it is very harsh, too, dropping them like a stone and then leaving them to rise the last 4 hours. Until you get some data I would pick a BG number and not shoot below that. If you get teh chance to change to a better insulin like Levemir or Lantus I would jump at the chance.

Good for the food change. Rabbits are very good and nutritious- plus Bazil gets some exercise as he hunts them down. i wouldn't worry about that. We are able to buy rabbits as a raw food in the states.

Remember- once you start home testing you can save a lot of money and stress on Bazil by doing it at home and just giving the vet your sheets.

He might loose weight until the insulin starts working in his system and then he will hopefully start gaining it back again.
 
Wowsy, that was a steep drop! But over all a very promising result!!! If I were you I'd be pretty relieved after today (stiff drink in order perhaps? (or maybe its just me that does that kinda thing.... drinking09 )

Well done, Basil. Top stuff! dancing_cat

Elizabeth
 
On vet's advice went to the Pharmaist (Boots in Cobham, UK) and tried to buy some dextrose gel. When I explained it ws for a cat, the assistant refused to sell it to me without a perscription.

If I had said it was for a human, I could have had it no problem.

I just ordered it on Amazon instead.

I guess I will need to not be fully honest in future...

Ian

BTW - Baz is doing OK. I'm working from home today and is outside at the moment - left about 90 mins ago - don't know where he is but he's probably after rabbits again..
 
bazil said:
On vet's advice went to the Pharmaist (Boots in Cobham, UK) and tried to buy some dextrose gel. When I explained it ws for a cat, the assistant refused to sell it to me without a perscription.

If I had said it was for a human, I could have had it no problem.

I just ordered it on Amazon instead.

I guess I will need to not be fully honest in future...

Ian
Click to expand...

Oh yep, that's so true! I'm on record at LifeScan (who make One Touch meters etc) as Bertie's 'guardian', I think. And that means I can ask them to send me meter batteries and control solution (to test strips are OK). They don't know that I'm caring for a cat.... :lol:
 
Me again, Ian,

I've just had a look through all my diabetes stuff and I'm pretty sure I can put together a home-testing kit for you... I have a spare unused 'One Touch Ultra 2' meter and a lancing device, and I can give you some lancets and test strips to get you started. If you'd like it, just PM or email me your address. :smile:

(I'll email you too about this (not sure which you'll see sooner, a post here or your home email...). I wouldn't want you to spend any money that you don't have too!)
 
Just popped onto this forum and seen the header, so had to read it- and have found out that you're another Surrey member! I'm glad Elizabeth is helping you as she has loads of experience, and it must be reassuring finding someone on this board so close to you in Cobham.

I won't repeat anything or confuse the issue with much else, but will just say don't worry about your cat being a hunter and eating catching wildlife. Someone once told me that a mouse contains 2% carbs so I imagine a rabbit wouldn't be a lot more - and that's much better than certain other foods people give their cats.

Good luck. Oh and I agree with Elizabeth about the stiff drink - no, it's not just you, Eliz ;-)

Diana
 
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