Introducing wet food to previous dry food only cat

[Mocha's_mom]

My cat Mocha was diagnosed with diabetes last week and one of my first questions to my vet was should we be switching to a low carb diet. She ignored me and said to use insulin only and not change up his current dry food only diet. After reading on this forum and other places it seems like switching to low carb should be the first thing that should be done (even prior to ever starting insulin). Needless to say as a scared mommy I went ahead and started Vetsulin 1 unit twice a day. He's still reading in the 300s so I know he will need to up his dose if we don't change his diet. So yesterday I gave him Fancy feast and he ate it right up. Usually he snubs his nose at wet food but maybe the hunger from the diabetes changed his mind? Anyway, I'm just wondering what everyone's favorite brand and flavors are? My other (non-diabetic) cat doesn't want anything to do with wet food either. But I don't want to turn her into a diabetic too!! So I want them both on low carb wet food only ASAP. I just don't know where to start because there's a million different varieties. How can I get them both to eat it? Thank you in advance!

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Fancy Feast "Classics" are all low carb as well as Friskie's "pates". 9-Lives ground are also low carb and they are all easy to find and affordable.

There are lots of choices available that are under 10% carbs. This Food Chart has a list of most of the commonly available cat foods and their nutritional breakdown

ETA: You need to change the privacy setting on your spreadsheet. Go to the "Share" at the top right and change it to "anybody with the link can view"

 

[Mocha's_mom]

Thank you! That chart is quite overwhelming that's why I ask. I know every cat is different but I seem to recall reading a lot of cats like fancy feast. I just want them both to eat it so I'm looking for the "crowd pleasing" flavors. This is going to be a tough transition to get them off kitty crack!

(updated my spreadsheet--didn't realize it was private)

 

[Bree & Misty]

Welcome Mocha and caregiver!
Here is a link that might he helpful in getting your cats to switch to wet food:
https://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf
Also a note about your insulin, Vetsulin isn't currently recommended for treating feline diabetes. It works better for dogs. This board recommends Lantus or ProZinc as the best options currently.
A lot of cats like the Fancy feast pates, and they're pretty economical. My girl gets tiki cat but she's not picky at all so I'm not sure how much help that'll be to you

 

[Judy & Fritz]

Mine were all on wet food with an occasional snack of dry food. They eat Fancy Feast pate because they love it. I switched the dry food to low carb Dr. Elsey’s CleanProtein. I use the Elsey’s as treats, toppers, and snacks. I have five cats and they are all crazy about it. They also like Orijin’s Six Fish freeze-dried treats and Purebites freeze-dried chicken. When Fritz was diagnosed on 7/23, I immediately donated all of the high-carb dry food to the shelter, just to get it out of the house, because they could still smell it. They all transitioned well, but for them it wasn’t a total transition from dry to wet. I waited a week before starting him on insulin. Your instincts were absolutely right. These vets! Mocha needs low-carb food, and your other cat will benefit from low carbs as well. Fritz was a perfectly healthy boy before his vet prescribed a weight-loss prescription dry food. He lost the four pounds, but at what cost? The ingredients were awful, first ingredient was corn. I was trying to avoid diabetes from weight gain and that Rx food brought it on. I could kick myself for ever giving it to him, I knew the foods vets “prescribe” is utter junk. Fritz is on Prozinc, I know nothing about Vetsulin, but someone will be along who can help you with that. You also might want to have a few cans of Fancy Feast gravy lovers set aside for times when you need to bring his BG up. Here is Dr. Lisa Pierson’s food chart. It tells you the amount of carbs in the listed foods, as well as protein, fat, etc. https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/

 

[Judy & Fritz]

Thank you! That chart is quite overwhelming that's why I ask. I know every cat is different but I seem to recall reading a lot of cats like fancy feast. I just want them both to eat it so I'm looking for the "crowd pleasing" flavors. This is going to be a tough transition to get them off kitty crack!

(updated my spreadsheet--didn't realize it was private)

I would buy one or two cans of every pate flavor made by Fancy Feast at the grocery and let the cats tell you which one they like. Your Mocha is gorgeous!

 

[Mocha's_mom]

Welcome Mocha and caregiver!
Here is a link that might he helpful in getting your cats to switch to wet food:
https://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf
Also a note about your insulin, Vetsulin isn't currently recommended for treating feline diabetes. It works better for dogs. This board recommends Lantus or ProZinc as the best options currently.
A lot of cats like the Fancy feast pates, and they're pretty economical. My girl gets tiki cat but she's not picky at all so I'm not sure how much help that'll be to you

Yeah I'm not super excited about giving the Vetsulin after reading about it. But my vet isn't very proactive and I think that's what she gives everyone. She even said that I wouldn't need to test his blood glucose at home! I was shocked. Needless to say the first thing I did was buy a glucometer and start testing.
I bought the tiki cat also but haven't tried it. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[Mocha's_mom]

I think I will buy all of the flavors as suggested. I'm sure I'll be wasting a lot of it during the process of weaning off dry food but it's totally worth it. I could just kick myself for ever giving him the dry food. Seems like the diabetes and weight gain all happened in the last year after starting him on Iams dry food. We had just gotten a new kitten (Charlotte) and that's what she was fed. So I figured they could both have it. Now I'm wondering if that high carb food is what precipitated the diabetes. And the last thing I need is for my new cat to get it too! They both seem to love the Iams dry food so I'm guessing it's a high carb junk food like most of them. I figure if I can do the keto diet myself with all the temptations in the world then my cats should be able to do it too lol!

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

(updated my spreadsheet--didn't realize it was private)

Good job! Just FYI..in the "current insulin" up along the top left, you'd put Caninsulin. We'll know what dose you're giving by looking at the U column on the actual spreadsheet. Hopefully you'll be able to convince your vet to let you try one of the better insulins!

Might try sending her the link to the 2018 AAHA Diabetes Management Guidelines for dogs and cats or specifically the page on Recommended insulins for cats. Just tell her you were doing some research to learn more about Mocha's diabetes and came across it (don't tell her you heard about it from a bunch of crazy cat ladies on the internet).

By the way, what can we call you? We can continue to call you Mocha's Mom, but it'd be nice to have a name for you. A lot of us put it in our signatures if it's not obvious from our screen name.

 

[Mocha's_mom]

Good job! Just FYI..in the "current insulin" up along the top left, you'd put Caninsulin. We'll know what dose you're giving by looking at the U column on the actual spreadsheet. Hopefully you'll be able to convince your vet to let you try one of the better insulins!

Might try sending her the link to the 2018 AAHA Diabetes Management Guidelines for dogs and cats or specifically the page on Recommended insulins for cats. Just tell her you were doing some research to learn more about Mocha's diabetes and came across it (don't tell her you heard about it from a bunch of crazy cat ladies on the internet).

By the way, what can we call you? We can continue to call you Mocha's Mom, but it'd be nice to have a name for you. A lot of us put it in our signatures if it's not obvious from our screen name.

My name is Christina. I will update my profile. Everything is so new right now it'll take a bit to learn it all (including how to use these forums).
Thank you for the guidelines. Now I have some more reading to do! Honestly, my vet basically came out and said that they treat diabetes very basically and not nearly as closely as we do in humans. But since I've dealt with diabetic humans in the past I know a lot about what is needed. And my cats are family to me so I'm going to treat them like I would any "human" family member. If that means testing all the time and getting him on the correct insulin for his needs then that's what I'm going to do. It's a shame that something so critical is just brushed off by vets. I would go to a different vet but she happens to be about 1 minute from my house and it makes getting them there a whole lot easier.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Welcome Christina and Mocha, just in case your vet didn't mention, when using Vetsulin, you test , feed ,then wait 30 minutes after eating and then give insulin.
You couldn't have found a better forum to join

 

[Mocha's_mom]

My vet just said "make sure he eats". Ugh! So frustrating. She didn't even recommend home testing! So after reading on this forum I've followed the advice of testing, feeding & waiting to give the shot. I'm so glad I found you guys

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Christina , can you please add the meter you are using to your signature
By the way I looked up the test strips for your true track meter from Walgreen's and it looks like the test strips are 35.00 for 50

Trying to save you some money, you will be testing a lot
You could buy
The Relion Prime Meter from Walmarts it's 9 dollars
17.88 for 100 test strips

 

[Mocha's_mom]

Christina , can you please add the meter you are using to your signature
By the way I looked up the test strips for your true track meter from Walgreen's and it looks like the test strips are 35.00 for 50

Trying to save you some money, you will be testing a lot
You could buy
The Relion Prime Meter from Walmarts it's 9 dollars
17.88 for 100 test strips

Thank you. I actually ordered the Alphatrak online and it came today. I was too nervous to even begin administering shots without testing first so I just ran out and bought whatever I could find at Walgreens. So I'm thinking that switching to the cat glucometer will be more accurate. I realize those strips are even more expensive but I'm just overly cautious and want to make sure I get as accurate a read as possible. But I see that most people on here use the human ones with no issue. I think if we end up doing this long term (meaning we don't achieve remission any time soon) then I'll switch over to a more economical option. Once I decide which one I'm using I'll add it to my signature.

 

[Judy & Fritz]

My vet has ordered an Alpha Trak for me. I intend to use it as a backup meter or when she wants me to test him with the same meter she uses at the clinic. Always good to have two meters and extra batteries for them. Before you start testing, check the expiration date on your test strips. Someone recently had a week’s worth of virtually unusable info because the strips had expired and she didn’t realize it. I also use a control solution on the first strip out of the container. It’s great that you know something about human diabetes, that is already helping you realize how dangerous the normal vet instructions are - feed dry, don’t worry about carbs, don’t test, etc. So scary!

 

[Mocha's_mom]

Just got the AlphaTrak and used it for the first time. I wanted to check it against the Walgreens TrueFocus meter I had. His glucose read 363 on the human glucometer and 410 on the AlphaTrak. I tend to think that the AlphaTrak is probably more accurate. I definitely checked the expiration and used control solution too. Scary to think how easy you could over or underdose based on the different readings. But I'm thankful to have a backup meter also. I'm going to do his first glucose curve tomorrow (if he cooperates) to see where we should be with his dosing since we are just starting out. I definitely think 1 unit of Vetsulin is not nearly enough. Hopefully the wet food only diet will help too! So far the Fancy Feast chicken pate is a winner! He just gobbled down dinner so he'll get his shot in 30 mins.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Thank you. I actually ordered the Alphatrak online and it came today. I was too nervous to even begin administering shots without testing first so I just ran out and bought whatever I could find at Walgreens. So I'm thinking that switching to the cat glucometer will be more accurate. I realize those strips are even more expensive but I'm just overly cautious and want to make sure I get as accurate a read as possible. But I see that most people on here use the human ones with no issue. I think if we end up doing this long term (meaning we don't achieve remission any time soon) then I'll switch over to a more economical option. Once I decide which one I'm using I'll add it to my signature.

No problem at all

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/beginners-guide-to-caninsulin-vetsulin.231587/

In case you haven't read about Vetsulin here is the link
Will tell you about the starting dose and much more

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Just got the AlphaTrak and used it for the first time. I wanted to check it against the Walgreens TrueFocus meter I had. His glucose read 363 on the human glucometer and 410 on the AlphaTrak. I tend to think that the AlphaTrak is probably more accurate. I definitely checked the expiration and used control solution too. Scary to think how easy you could over or underdose based on the different readings. But I'm thankful to have a backup meter also. I'm going to do his first glucose curve tomorrow (if he cooperates) to see where we should be with his dosing since we are just starting out. I definitely think 1 unit of Vetsulin is not nearly enough. Hopefully the wet food only diet will help too! So far the Fancy Feast chicken pate is a winner! He just gobbled down dinner so he'll get his shot in 30 mins.

. I did a search on the site about pet meters vs human meters


human meter, it's going to read lower then an alphatrak. the numbers are closer together at lower ranges, and far apart at higher numbers.
The biggest difference is in what the hypo number is. On a pet meter, anything lower than 68 is cause for concern. On a human meter, that’s 50.

I'm glad he liked the FF chicken pate, always add some water to it also

 

[Mocha's_mom]

Good call on adding the water to the pate. Seems when it gets too dry/chunky he can't get it out of the bowl and basically gives up. I've been trying to leave it out all day but it just dries up and both cats snub their nose at it. I guess they sorta have to eat it all in one sitting or they won't eat it. I'm still transitioning from leaving dry food out all day to just doing mealtimes. I've resigned myself to having to get them on a schedule now. We usually travel a lot (usually on weekends we leave them alone) so I've never even tried a feeding schedule. This is definitely going to be a huge adjustment for all of us. I don't even know how to find someone to care for him when we're gone. For now it looks like we aren't going anywhere!