Maine coon diet

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Rob Bassindale

Rob Bassindale

Member Since 2020
Hi, new here, our 10 year old female Maine coon is in the vets, we now know that she is diabetic. We can pick her up on Monday, she will need 2 injections a day plus a new diet, I’ve been reading about certain foods and about weight control, the thing is, she has lost a lot of weight, so even though she needs a special diet, I don’t want her to loose any more weight, in fact I want her to put on some, last year she was 9kg and now she is 5.8kg, what can I do?
 
What part of the world are you in Rob? You could update your user profile to include you location.

Once you do that, we can make food suggestions for you. We have food lists for various parts of the world. Simply need to know "Where's Rob?"

Whatever you do, the Hill's Prescription diet, W/d would be inappropriate. That is a weight loss food, yet many vets still put skinny diabetic cats on that food.
 
A low carb canned or raw food diet is recommended. It does not need to be prescription food. Pate or loaf flavors are usually lower carb than anything with gravy such as flavors that are shreds, bits or flakes. If you have more than one cat it is better to try to get them all on the same low carb diet. Most dry food is high in carbs.

What insulin and dose will you be giving her? Will you be home testing? This means testing before every shot to make sure it is safe to give the dose. Home testing is something we strongly recommend to everyone.
 
We are not quite sure yet on levels and home testing is something I need to speak to the vet about on Monday, yes we have other cats, which is quite annoying as some of them don’t belong to us!
 
Thanks for letting us know your location. That makes a big difference as to which food chart we link for you.
There are actually 2 lists here for you. The first link includes supplies. The second link has foods found in the UK and other European countries.
We have another British ex-pat, living in France. She is posting in our Prozinc ISG (Insulin Support Group). I'll "tag" her @PatJ and perhaps she has some country specific advice she can share with you.

There is also a French language feline diabetes facebook group, if you are interested. My French is horrible, and google translate is not the best. Too many idioms for it to deal with. Do you want the link to that group also?
 
Not many vets are on-board with home testing, but in this group we feel it's one of the safest ways to treat a diabetic cat and not have them go too low with the BG's (blood glucose) levels or too high either. Home testing also allows you to adjust the dose.

Good insulins for cats are Lantus, Levimir and Prozinc. Some vets still prescribe Caninsulin/Vetsulin for cats, but it usually does not have the duration you need in a cat. It was developed for dogs and works better for canines, hence the name Caninsulin.
Rob Bassindale said:
yes we have other cats, which is quite annoying as some of them don’t belong to us!
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Sorry to hear all the cats are not yours. How do you mean that? Ferals? Roommates cats? All living in the same household? Something else?

p.s. If you click on the "Like" next to the post # at the bottom of the post, it let's us know you have read what we said.
 
Would you please put a bit of information in another section of your User ID profile? Please? The "Signature" is what would be helpful. Still don't even know your cats name.

Signature instructions.

Sure would love you to take 60 seconds and put some helpful information in your User Id profile, including the "Signature" portion.

Go to the top right corner of the screen, click on your user name, a drop down list will appear, select "Signature" from that list. Start typing in the text box that appears and be sure to click on the "Save Changes" button at the end of the text box.

Information like your first name, your cat's name age and sex, DX: (diagnosis date), insulin used (when you know), meter used (when you get one), food fed, and then the SS (spreadsheet) link when you get that setup are so, so helpful to those of us responding to members. That signature information will be "magically" attached at the end of all your posts. Signature and other user profile information can be updated as needed.
 
I will update my profile, my cat is called Princess Macy Jay Cartier, or Macy for short! She lives up to her name, and doesn’t do much, she used to be an indoor cat before we moved here, and now she just ventures into the garden. Her nephew Duke, will roam the camp site. We also had her mother and father, but both sadly passed away before we moved to France. We live and work on a residential camp site, so we do have a few feral cats around here. There is a cat fund as we are trying to round up the Feral cats to get them done.
Macy is still in the vets, so only just been diagnosed with being a diabetic, she’s on a drip at the moment, been in 4 days, and we pick her up hopefully in 3 days.
My French is not good at all, as we are on a mainly British campsite.
So only knew about Macy’s condition for a few hours, just trying to get my head around it, plus worried about her in the summer months with the heat.
 
Rob Bassindale said:
she’s on a drip at the moment, been in 4 days, and we pick her up hopefully in 3 days.
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What kind of a drip? IV? Glucose? Electrolytes? Getting insulin at the vet? Being monitored for being seriously sick?

Did Macy have DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis)? Did she have ketones?

Rob Bassindale said:
My French is not good at all, as we are on a mainly British campsite.
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So no French language feline diabetes group for you. Got it.

Rob Bassindale said:
We live and work on a residential camp site, so we do have a few feral cats around here.
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Is there food left out for the feral cats, that Macy will or does have access to?

p.s. I know this has really gone off topic from your original question about the food. But the more we know about Macy and your situation, the more we can make suggestions, hopefully useful ones.

It's really late now in France. Like 11 PM. Would you like to continue with this conversation more tonight, or pick it back up in the morning.
 
I’m not sure on the details yet, I will know more on Monday 16th, that when I get all the details on what she had and what she needs to be on.

we always have biscuits down for the cats, and we tend to feed them wet food in the evening, Maine coons like to graze, so that’s why we leave biscuits out, we will be able to feed Macy separately, but not sure what to do with the food being left down as Duke (another Maine coon) likes to graze. We also have an adopted cat (mixed breed)
We do not have a cat flap (as yet) so other cats can come in and do, we live in a mobile home, with an extension. And on a camp site.

we run the on site bar/bistro. So we are around the van and can come and go when ever we like. And I’m also thinking about taking Macy to the bar when we are there.
 
Hi Rob,

I've been tagged by Deb because I live in France with a diabetic cat and might be able to help you if you have any questions about living over here with a diabetic cat! I will if I can, with pleasure.

You've come to the right place for help and advice. They are brilliant on this board and they know so much between them about diabetic cats, that you'll never be at a loss for advice. And it's good advice! Nothing is too much trouble to answer. I think they're wonderful.

Glad Macy comes home on Monday. She must be so miserable stuck in the vets.
 
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