Need help transitioning to better food...

[vampygirl13]

I am thrilled to have found this forum!

My kitty Duncan has been diabetic for about 6 years. He is treated with Lantus insulin twice a day and I have been feeding him w/d wet and k/d dry as suggested by my vet. He LOVED the wet food and barely the eats the dry, which I can see from reading here is a good thing.

I was just at the vet for checkup when he started peeing everywhere and his reading was in the 400's. Previously it was 150. We are thinking the insulin was just going bad. I got a new bottle today and the doc is suggesting 2 units twice a day.

Now that I have learned a bit more about food (also talked to a sweet lady at the vet's who told me about a local place for natural pet foods), I would like to start slowly transitioning Duncan to a teeny bit of dry and mostly wet food. What in your experience is the best way to do this? Any favorite foods? I honestly wouldn't be against making him some food as he loves any kind of meat, especially chicken. And I realize I will probably need to start testing at home---your fave monitor?

Here's a pic of my Duncan too--he's a Maine Coon:

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

If you check out Dr. Lisa's site, she offers great tips for transitioning cats to other foods. She also has a recipe for making homemade raw food, if you want to give that a try.

Regarding meters - the least expensive is sold at Walmart - Relion brand - there are several types and all are good.

If you want a name brand meter, Bayer Contour is a good meter and requires a small blood sample.

whatever meter you get, make sure it sips the blood, requires a small sample.

the two meters to stay away from, are any meter with TRU or TRUE in the name and the Freestyle meter with butterfly strips. people have had problems with these meters and since there are lots to choose from, it's easy to leave these off your list.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Hillary mentioned Dr Lisa's website. Here is the link: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

I used most of these tips to transition my dry food addict to a low carb wet food. He went OTJ shortly after. He is now a diet controlled diabetic eating Fancy Feast classic pates and Friskies pates.

The Hill's w/d you are feeding is very high in carbs, 25%. Hill's k/d dry is 43% carbs, very high carb. We like to see <10% carbs for our diabetic kitties.

Dr. Lisa Pierson also has this chart of foods with great nutritional information. http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Does your cat have kidney issues? Is that why your vet has your cat on the k/d?