Needing help convincing against dry food

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Victoria & Buttons

Victoria & Buttons

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As a few of you on here know, my dad is diabetic as well. When my girl got diagnosed, as I did all of the research I took over buying the cat food for our house. I have 3 cats for note, only one who is diabetic. Before they were all on Whiskas dry food. I eliminated all that in the house and about to eliminate all Wellness Core dry food as well. Well my dad tells me today that one of our cats was meowing like crazy (shes a pretty quiet girl) and he had some Whiskas and fed it to her. I wasnt concerned too much because she isnt diabetic and I figured she would have ate it and then that be it. He has now created a bowl of food downstairs again with Whiskas and has told me he plans to buy diet Whiskas again because thats what they've been on all their life. Ive tried to reason with him and explain, but he wont listen. Even in the grocery store, he was looking and I was trying to tell him about the carbs and corn, and he basically just told me "Ill just buy it when your not with me".

I'm ultimately hurt, and frustated. Ive tried to explain that it will make Buttons sugars spike, and Pepper will get use to wet food. She isnt starving. I'm trying to get Buttons regulated and since he did that behind my back, no wonder her sugars spiked. Hes diabetic though, so to me, he should understand more so. But all he says is 'Look at all the **** that we eat and we're fine". Ugh, help please if possible? Like any articles that explains it better to get through a mans stubborn mentality? :(
 
Would he argue with a vet?
This is Dr Pierson's website: Cat Info

And ask him what he'd do if he was diagnosed with diabetes. Would he follow what the docter said, or choose to die sooner due to uncontrolled diabetes?
 
BJM - her dad IS diabetic. That is part of the struggle.

"Fine" and "Thriving" are 2 different things. Cats can SURVIVE eating dry but they will not thrive. Just like we could survive eating McDonalds but we would be extremely unhealthy and not thrive on it. Just like your diabetic dad would SURVIVE eating a crappy diet, but would feel awful because of unregulated blood sugars and maybe even suffer neurological problems in the future because of it. I am sure his doctor did not tell him "oh, it's okay, go home and load up on all the McDonalds, Coke, and Twinkies you want, you'll be just fine".

Feeding dry might be convenient and cheaper right now, but what are you going to do when your diabetic cat goes DKA and needs to be hospitalized because you can't get her regulated and the 2 other cats come down with CRF because they are eating an extremely moisture depleted diet? That will cost you WAY more than feeding canned food ever did.

There is only so much reasoning you can do. My mom was the same way. Refused to put our cats on canned no matter how much I tried because she likes to just set down dry and forget about it. It caused a LOT of tension between them because the cats were mine just as much as hers. I just had to let it go. You can't change someone who isn't willing to listen. Last time I was there the cats looked awful, they were scrawny, coats dry and flaky. A lot of the reason why I moved away was because of constant arguments between animal care in my family. My mom thought dry food was just fine, my sister thinks pets are disposable objects, and told me I was crazy for not just putting Scooter down. I asked her if she would euthanize her son if he became diabetic. ;-)

Could the other cats continue to eat CORE dry? It's obviously not ideal because it's dry after all, but it is a better compromise than them going back to the Whiskas. If your dad is not willing to commit to caring for your cats properly, I am sorry, but he should not have pets.
 
Victoria, I'm just glad that I'm not in your shoes, and trying to do good for your kitties while your dad thwarts your efforts.

I hope you manage to win you dad over, and get him to not feed any of your kitties high-carb dry food.

(((HUGS))) to you!

Suze
 
Try to understand his reasoning of feeding dry.
How about telling him feeding the cats dry food will result in expansive vet bills? ;-)
Not only disbetes, but urinery tract issues are caused by dry knibbles. And not to mantion the often product recall causing you to loss money on those packets!
 
Thank you Suze! Means a lot!

And thank you BJM, I'm thinking of printing some of that information out and leaving it in his lunch to take to works (so hopefully he'll read it!)

Ry, you're becoming one of my most favourite people in the world! I cant believe we're the same age, same age kitties, kitties with diabetes, and live in the same province. WOW! Thank you again for the kind words and help. Ill be honest, my dad doesnt have a very good diet. He gets **** every time he does go to the doctor, but hes a single man who does what he wants. I kind of gave up on that a long time ago. My dad is also a big softy when it comes to animals, and I'm pretty sure he saw it as Pepper was meowing cause she was hungry and that was his first instinct and now hes got it in his head. I give my dad credit, hes listened to me explain to him all the stuff I've learned, not too sure how much he actually got, but I know hes trying. My mom is too. She plans to put her two kitties on wet food too, but not too confident in that one. Long story short, Buttons and I did use to live with my mom, but things happened, I moved in with my dad, Buttons was getting worse, I was seeing my mom less, so moved her down here. (have a feeling some people would ask about her living with my mom haha).

See, thats what I was thinking, about putting the other cats on CORE because at least its a bit better, thats why its out right now. Pepper and Hemi do go outside a lot too, so I put CORE in their bowl outside too, and shes eaten it. Ugh, I just dont know.

Tortie, I CAN try that haha. Typical male, does worry about money. Thanks!

The thing that also gets me is for the wet food, I'm the one buying it all. Its not like I'm just putting it out for Buttons either. I bought the CORE food, so I dont understand really where this issue is coming from :/
 
Having a random, derr moment. Im pretty sure she didnt eat any dry food last night. Her sugars are 11.4 this morning, the lowest they've ever been, which makes me happy but nervous. I still gave her her insulin but she wasnt eating. I gave her a bit of yogurt cause i was worried. Was that okay of me? If her sugars are already low, and you give her her shot but she wont eat, you have to find something she`ll munch on, am i right? I know I should know this, having a mega blonde moment! ohmygod_smile
 
I'm not one for dosing but I'll repeat what I've read from others and when they get on-line they can correct me. Your 11.4 is 205 (x18) for us in the States.

It depends on what insulin you are giving and how your cat reacts to it. PZI/Humulin/Vet(or)Canisulin both have a drop to nadir really close to injection time and then builds back up. If you are using Levemir or Lantus that releases later, sometimes 2 to 4 hours later. So you need to know your insulin- have you posted in your insulin board yet?

Are you home testing in between shots? That gives you an idea of how fast Buttons drops on a dose. If she normally drops 150-200 pts you could be in for an interesting time while she's dropping and yogurt (what kind/flavor- I've heard plain vanilla is good) is helpful to bring that up as it might take her food levels a little longer to come up to counter-act the drop. And you might experience a bounce at the other end, so don't raise the dose based on that.

If she continues to drop fast you and you think Buttons might go below 3 you might need to get something higher carb into her- dry is it for the last ditch effort and it will take some time to turn her around, but anything with gravy- just give a little gravy, teaspoon or rub karo syrup on her gums for a fast spike until the higher carb gets through her system. There is a sticky for a hypo kit that should have some higher carb canned food, karo, strips- testing every 15-20 minutes to keep an eye on her- and some other things.

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

So... this may have answered your question or it might have made you more confused (sorry). Others will chime in. Continue to test and see where she goes. And try parmesean cheese- my cat will eat anything with parmesean cheese sprinkled on it.
 
I have an idea on how to deal with the dry food issue and allow your dad to get what he wants by feeding "dry food".

there is a freeze dried raw food made by STelle & Chewy's. You are supposed to add water to it, to make it wet, but I found that my girls prefer it dry, especially my civvie Buster who just can't go without her crunchies.

This is a low carb, healthy albeit expensive alternative to the dry food problem, but it does make everyone happy and if the FD cat gets into, there isn't anything in the ingredient list that is concerning.

How's that for a solution?

You can find it in specialty stores, along with petfooddirect..... http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product/50 ... -for-Cats-

Chicken is my girls favorite.
 
That is a good solution Hillary, except for my girl is picky and doesnt like anything frozen dried. Thank you though!

We`re on Levemir. I have posted in the forum for it and we`re at 1 UI. Her sugars are normally high and i was looking at changing her dose, but right now her sugars are sitting at 3 and I`m on the edge of my seat! :shock:
 
As you have learned this forum runs mainly on mg/dl (USA) and not mmol/L (Canada). That means you should take any blood glucose results you get and multiply them by 18 before you post them here. Because 3 in mg/dl = dead cat, but 3 in mmol/L = a normal number for a regulated/non diabetic cat (54 in mg/dl). :lol: I know it's annoying because Canada, Europe, etc. test in mmol/L, but the majority of this forum is from the USA and Lantus and Levemir's protocols are all done based on mg/dl.

Honestly.. as much as we all know no dry food is the best dry food, if feeding the civvies CORE and Buttons canned is the best solution to make everyone happy, I would go with that. You could continue to put the civvie bowl up on a table or somewhere that Buttons cannot reach it. But even if she does get into the CORE, it shouldn't cause too significant of a spike. Honestly, my Scooter will pick canned food over dry any day. I could have a bowl of the most tempting flavor coated dry on the floor all day and he would sit and meow for canned before eating it. I went on a 4 day vacation over Christmas and my landlord came down twice a day to give him his Friskies. He is normally a grazer that eats about 8 times a day. I also left him a bowl of Blue Wilderness dry in case he got hungry in between waiting for food.... but he didn't even touch it :lol:
 
victoriamamie said:
That is a good solution Hillary, except for my girl is picky and doesnt like anything frozen dried. Thank you though!

We`re on Levemir. I have posted in the forum for it and we`re at 1 UI. Her sugars are normally high and i was looking at changing her dose, but right now her sugars are sitting at 3 and I`m on the edge of my seat! :shock:
Click to expand...

This is not a frozen product. It sits out just like dry food. Freeze dried - just means that the product is dehyrdrated (all water content removed) and it's a dry food product. Think of it like instant noodles, you can eat it dry and crunchy, but if you add water, it gets mushy.

I get that your cat may be a picky eater, I have one of those as well. But if you don't try the food and give it a fair amount of trying, how will you really know whether or not she will or won't eat it?
 
If I may make a suggestion regarding parent management. I'm going to assume that your father tests his own blood glucose. Since he doesn't eat well when on his own, cook a diabetic appropriate meal for him. He should test before he eats and about an hour after. Record the numbers.

Then, have him test then eat something carbohydrate laden. It doesn't matter if it's healthy (e.g., an ear of corn, pasta) or his usual, not so healthy food choices (e.g., cake, ice cream, non-diet soda). Re-test an hour later.

You can do the same for your cat. Test on a day when you are managing your cat's food vs. your dad influencing your cat's food intake.

The point here is that he's suggesting that it's OK to give your cat the carb-laden diet all the time. I'm also going to assume your father understands the relationship between high blood glucose and medical complications. He may choose to keep his BG levels above renal threshold and risk kidney disease, heart disease, poor circulation with resultant amputations, painful diabetic neuropathy, and a host of other complications that go along with human diabetes. That's the choice he can make for himself. He's an adult. If this were his grandchild, would he be giving that child ice cream and cookies all the time? He does not get to choose to put your cat in jeopardy and he needs to respect your decision to be a responsible caregiver. This is no different than a grandparent countermanding a parent's disciplining or setting limits with their child. The only thing that results from undercutting the parent is that the grandparent doesn't get to see his grandchild or his adult child because they are angry over the lack of respect. It really sounds like your dad wants to justify they way he handles his own diabetes. You can't change the way your dad takes care of himself. You can limit his contact with your cat or ultimately, with you.
 
Thank you all for your input and suggestions. Unfortunately I noticed that he did buy a bag of Whiskas today (he doesnt know I donated the last unopened one he bought to the SPCA and have no problem doing it again and again until he gets it), but ill be printing some stuff of tomorrow and we'll see what happens. I'm thinking of even threatening to move out, cause I think that would make him think more. I'm also going to explain my feelings of feeling hurt as Ive been doing the research and stuff. I'm his baby, so I think it'll work on his heart strings. Keep me in your thoughts please! nailbite_smile
 
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