? new can food vs dry?

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KarenR

Member Since 2016
Hello,
My kitty Cheechee was diagnosed with diabetes at 10 years old about 2 years ago and in that time she has gone from 1 unit twice to 6.5 now. There has been short periods where her BG is good but for the past 2.5 months it's been in the 300's.
I have been giving her about a TBL of Friskies canned when I give her her injections and a little more that 1/4 cup of Purina DM or Science Diet MD dry.
As we can't get it under control I started to look for a better alternative to Friskies and found Best Feline Friends canned food. The Tuna and Chicken has 69%protien, 29%fat and 2% carbs. Does anyone have thoughts about this change. Should I slowly take her off the dry? Whenever I ask the Vets they usually discourage it.
She goes back in two week for a recheck. BTW her weight has been constant at 15lbs
Thank you for any advice.
 
Do you test her blood sugar at home?

I fed the lower carb Friskies pates when my cat was first diagnosed over a year ago, and when I switched to Fancy Feast Classic Chicken and Fancy Feast Classic Turkey his insulin needs plummeted. He went from 3.0u of Lantus twice daily down to a micro dose (less then 0.5u).

Changing their food can drastically alter their insulin needs. If I wasn't watching him like a hawk and carefully testing him regularly during the diet transition, I would've easily killed him with a hypoglycemic incident.

Around 250 blood glucose is when the cat experiences the negative effects of high blood sugar. Since you say your cat is regularly over 300 now, I do think something needs to change if you want to improve her symptoms, but changes must be done cautiously. I'm surprised her weight has remained constant.

I think it's a good idea to move to canned food only, but you need to be testing and watching her carefully during the transition. Yes, any transition should be slow to avoid stomach upset and drastic changes in blood sugar or insulin needs. I agree that the way to start would be transitioning to only Friskies pates, but you must be testing and tracking her blood sugar multiple times daily during this transition.

If you haven't already, I'd ask your vets why they discourage a diet change.
 
The Science Diet/DM dry could definitely be keeping the numbers high and unregulated. I'm not sure about Friskies but it's possible it could be over 10% in carbs aka too high for a diabetic.

Best Feline Friends by Weruva is a much better option than any dry, but it's also very low carb, so it would be crucial to be home-testing during a food transition, because a food change alone could drop the numbers, and therefore the insulin requirement would change. 6.5 units is a very high dose. What insulin are you using?

I use Best Feline Friends for Carter because he doesn't love pate textures and this is a good alternative, it's also low in phosphorus.

Many vets do not know a lot about feline nuritirion and get kick-backs from selling Perscription diets. I worked for a vet for 5 years, sat through the "nutrition" seminars, etc so I can confirm this.

If you could provide us with some more information such any BG readings you may have, what insulin you are using, if you're home-testing, etc many experienced members on this board can try to help you further. :)
 
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Thank you for responding. I don't test her at home but I think I'm going to start. Can you recommend a meter. Another issue is the fact that I'm going to be out of town for 6weeks and I'm not sure my husband can do the test. He's fine with injection tho. I watch her constantly. She has developed a limp that seems to be her front paws. I started adding Cosequin
I have had fractosimine tests and will do another in two weeks
Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated
 
Hi Erica and Carter
Cheechee's numbers since March
3/10. 141 BG
3/25. 184 BG
4/28. 308 BG
5/03. Fractosimine 524
6/02. 117 BG
7/19. 306 BG
8/18 326 BG
8/31. 322BG
I've been reading a lot about foods and have seen the high carb numbers on the prescription dry foods. I don't understand how they can market them diabetic
Your thought?
Thank you!
 
KarenR said:
Thank you for responding. I don't test her at home but I think I'm going to start. Can you recommend a meter. Another issue is the fact that I'm going to be out of town for 6weeks and I'm not sure my husband can do the test. He's fine with injection tho. I watch her constantly. She has developed a limp that seems to be her front paws. I started adding Cosequin
I have had fractosimine tests and will do another in two weeks
Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
I would highly recommend home-testing as it is the best way to keep your cat safe and avoid a hypoglycemic incident. While a Fructosamine test is better than nothing while not yet home-testing, it only gives you an average of the BG over a few weeks - instead of the ability to test on a day-to-day basis and see how high/low the cat is going. What type of insulin are you using? And how long did it take for the vet to get up to 6.5units?

Another thing to note is that home-testing cuts down the costs as well, so you don't need to shell out for testing at the vet - Fructosamine tests are also often influenced by vet stress, so the veternarian ends up increasing the dose over and over because the numbers are still elevated partially due to stress.

If you're in the US, I highly recommend the Relion brand meters. Reliable and strips are affordable.

If you're going away for several weeks, and nobody would be able to test, I would personally not feel it would be safe to completely switch the diet over to canned food and still giving the 6.5 units blindly. Some cats' BG can drop by 100-200 points just by getting on a low carb food, and some cats even go into remission on diet change alone. If your husband thinks he can learn to test, that would ideal, but I know it can take some time to get into a routine. The numbers are not regulated but also not terribly high, so if it were my cat, I would wait to switch food until I (or my significant other) could home test as you make the transition.
 
KarenR said:
Hi Erica and Carter
Cheechee's numbers since March
3/10. 141 BG
3/25. 184 BG
4/28. 308 BG
5/03. Fractosimine 524
6/02. 117 BG
7/19. 306 BG
8/18 326 BG
8/31. 322BG
I've been reading a lot about foods and have seen the high carb numbers on the prescription dry foods. I don't understand how they can market them diabetic
Your thought?
Thank you!
Click to expand...

Perscription foods, specifically Hills, has an excellent marketing team that can claim just because their bags are different colours, that they are appropriate for various types of conditions. There's no science or facts behind it other than careful and strategic marketing. Cats are obligate carnivores and are not meant to digest any if very little carbs, and that's pretty much all dry food is - carbs. One of the ingreidents on many of the perscriptions food is "powdered cellulose"' which is sawdust, if that tells you anything! :rolleyes:
 
Cheechee'BG bounced around in early 2014 starting with 2 units up to 5 units. About a year ago she went to 4 units. In May 5 units July 6 units and now 6.5. She is getting Lantis insulin.
I think I will wait until I come back to start transitioning her to all canned, I just hope I'm not waiting too long. She goes in for another BG and fractosimine (I have requested fractosimine test) in about 10 days. I also have 2 vets as we go to Florida in winter. One vet relied only on fractosimine to adjust dose. The other vet only relies on her BG results.
It's amazing to me that these companies can get away with this type of marketing. And that vets don't see it
 
Not all vets are good with diabetic cats. They don't get much training in them. If you arent sure of a vet, find another. Ask questions before making an appointment. How many diabetic cats do they treat? Do they accept home testing? Read around this forum to learn as much as possible.
 
KarenR said:
Can you recommend a meter
Click to expand...

If you live in the US, the Relion Confirm or Micro meters from WalMart are very popular here....the meters are about $15 and the strips are $35.88 per 100....they also take the tiniest sample size and when you're working with "new" ears, that tiny sample size is good to have
 
That is becoming more obvious. I am going to wean CheeChee off of the dry food. She loves Best Feline Friends chicken and tuna. How should I go about doing that, how much of an increase at a time? I am intending to try to test her at home. Will she eventually get one 3 oz can a day?
 
Thank you Chris and China
Also, I have a question about wet food. I just started her on a table spoon twice a day ofBest Feline Friend wet food to give her when she gets her shot. She loves it however, all of the varities have tuna in them. I've read that seafood might not be good for a diabetic cat.
Anyone have any comments?
 
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