Insulin Vs Diet?

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otiebear

Member Since 2021
Hi guys,

My cat Otis is an FIV+ cat that we adopted last year as he was abandoned by his previous family. We have gone through a lot with him in the past year, mainly many many allergy issues. We thought the allergies would be the extent of his issues, and he has been on a hypoallergenic diet for the past year. That is basically as much as we can budget for... we still don't know the source of his food allergy.

However now he has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The vet wants him on insulin however I wanted to ask if there is any way this can be controlled by food diet... I would love to get a second opinion although we spent about 500$ in the last week on vet visits so can't do that right now. I recently purchased a blood glucose kit so we can keep track of his levels at home.

My question is.. when is it recommended that the cat gets insulin ASAP vs controlling blood sugar levels by diet alone. I'd love to try the non-insulin route if it is an option.

EDIT: forgot to add, he lost a lot of weight, and was lethargic and not eating when we brought him into vet. They gave him an IV with fluids I think, and now he is back to normal.. for the time being I suppose. He has been on a low carb diet since he was diganosed about a week ago.
 
A lot of caretakers first try a low-carb diet for about 2 weeks and see what happens to BG level. Sometimes diet alone is enough. However, frequently insulin is also required and many cats then do not require insulin after times ranging from a month to many months.
Since you have a BG meter you can easily see what happens to BG with diet change alone.
 
Hi and welcome

Is very good that you already have the blood glucose meter, that way you can really know how he's doing, you could start monitoring him before giving insulin that way you can get the hang of it and at the same time se how he's really doing, if his numbers are just slightly elevated you could see how he's reacting to the diet change and see if that is enough to lower his numbers and if you see that his numbers are high then maybe start giving him insulin sooner than later
 
If you are going to try just the diet for two weeks, I would strongly recommend you test daily for ketones in the urine. This is because diabetic cats that are not getting insulin can develop ketones which can lead on to DKA, if not treated promptly. And DKA is a very serious illness.
To test for ketones you just need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and collect a urine sample amd dip the test strip into the urine and compare the colours with the colours on the side of the bottle at exactly 15 seconds. If there are ketones present, you will need to start the insulin
 
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