I switched my cat to all wet food. What next?

[Ashlee Jennings]

Hey everyone. I had some questions about my cat Taz. I switched her to pure wet food on 9/1 after finding out she is diabetic a little over a month ago on 8/1. She has been on pure wet food for 8 days now and is transitioning well after 4 weeks of half wet and half dry. I have been struggling a bit financially so I have been feeding her Friskies Classic Pate (Turkey and Giblets, Salmon Dinner, and Mariner's Choice ) all of which are under 10% carbohydrates. I have been checking her BG before meals but have been bad at keeping my records in the spreadsheet for some weeks now. She has been between 200 and 250 still but hasn't gone over 257 in the last 8 days. She was going over 350 before I switched to all wet food so she is improving but not below 200 which is what I would like to see.

I have done a lot of reading and everything I have read says to decrease the dose of insulin I give her if I am going to switch her to all wet food. I haven't been giving her any except for one a day 2-3 days in the last week and have been measuring her BG before meals but haven't tracked it until today. I am not sure what do do next to help her go into remission. Any thoughts?

**I wanted to make an update and say she was prescribed just one unit a day twice a day.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with feeding Friskies! A lot of people here do so that's great!

I haven't been giving her any except for one a day 2-3 days in the last week and have been measuring her BG before meals but haven't tracked it until today

Do you mean you haven't been giving insulin while you were transitioning to all wet? If so, then it's time to re-start it.

Vetsulin isn't a great insulin for cats, but we have a few people here who have used it successfully. The one key thing to remember about it though is that it tends to "hit hard and fast" and usually it wears off before it's time to give the next dose.

Because it does hit so "hard", it's important to make sure she eats a good amount about 30 minutes before the shot. You still should test before feeding, then feed, wait about 20-30 minutes and shoot

1 unit twice a day is a pretty good starting dose and then you'll need to test at different points in the cycle to see how it's working. Here's a Vetsulin User Guide with some good information in it

 

[Alexi]

Can you update Taz's spreadsheet so we can have a look at her numbers and doses, if she has been on 1 unit twice daily for at least a week the next step will be to get a curve done to see how she is responding to the insulin. Vetsulin typically gives a smile shaped curve so the dose decisions are made on how low it takes her, the pre shots are to check if it is safe to give insulin. Numbers in the 200s are fine for pre shot but we do need to see that curve.

 

[jayla-n-Drevon]

Hi
We started on vetsulin and my boy did not have a good experience--he was very depressed and the insulin was too harsh for him. I have seen others do well with it tho.
It is very important that your kitty eats a good meal before shooting....