Need advice on switching from dry to can

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Butkus2012

Butkus2012

Member Since 2012
Hi everyone,

This is only my second post, just joined last week when searching for info on feline diabetes.

My 12 yr old cat Butkus was diagnosed at the end of May and is currently getting 4 units of Prozinc twice a day and eating dry Science Diet WD.

After some research I now see how many people switch their cat to low carb canned food. I mentioned this to my vet and she said she never heard of a cat going off insulin from canned food and never suggested home testing so I don't think she's supportive of this change.

I have a test kit ordered and will start testing when it comes. My question now is that I am almost out of dry food so I don't know if I should switch to canned, stop insulin (or drop dose very low), and start testing when I get the kit or go get more dry food and keep feeding dry and dosing the same until I get the kit. I'll do whatever is safest and best for him but don't want to spend $28 for a bag of food if I don't have to.

I also think I need to find a different vet since she's doesn't seem supportive of this method. Anyone know of any good vets in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago (Elgin area) that support this method of treating feline diabetes?

Any help and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Dawne
 
Difficult decision, Dawne. You could lower the dose and start wet food but without the testing, you are still in the dark - the food could take him too low or the reduction of dose could be too much.

I think, if he were mine, I would continue with the dry and the dose until you get your testing kit. Then get the testing down, lower the dose and change the food. (sometimes they can switch overnight with no problems, but sometimes it upsets their digestive systems and you need to gradually reduce the dry while increasing the wet.)

Instead of buying a large bag of dry, how about getting a small bag of some kind of dry until you are ready? It should only be a couple days? (are you getting the kit from this site?)

What you can do is get him ready for testing. Pick a place where you will test - maybe a towel on the bed, on the floor, on the counter....put him there, mess with his ears, give him a treat, lots of praise and let him go. Next time, warm his ear with the rice sack or pill bottle. Again,praise, treats and release. When the kit arrives, he should feel okay with the preliminaries and you can add the poke.
 
I think Sue's suggestion is probably the best way to handle your transition. But, I just want to add that my cat, did, in fact, go into remission with only the food change. In less than 6 weeks time. She has since relapsed, but it DOES happen and there are plenty of people here who can attest to that.
 
My cat Jester went into remission switching to wet and my foster cat Mooch earlier this year did too. It's like people with type two diabetes who are diet controlled.
 
I did order the test kit from this site. I just sent my address and donation earlier this week. Don't know how often they ship them out but I hope to see it soon.

I need to clarify the order on testing:

Do you test, feed, then give shot, or feed, test, then shot?
 
There are tips on how transition from dry food to canned food here: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Tips for Transitioning PDF 1-14-11.pdf

Most people test and give insulin while the cat is eating. With some of the short acting insulins, like Humlin N, you would want to feed some food, wait about half an hour, then test bg and give insulin and the rest of the food. Having some food in the tummy softens the effect of the short acting insulins.

If you change the topic of your first post in this thread to include "need vet suggestions in Chicago" or something like that, you'll catch the eye of members who live around there.
 
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