New dx, difficulty finding diet

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nutcracker

Member Since 2012
Keziah is 15 years old, and was diagnosed less than two weeks ago. I started Lantus insulin on 12/21/2012, 1 unit twice a day. At the same time, I switched her off the dry food she's eaten all of her life, and tried the Royal Canin diabetic diet. For a couple of days, she ate it right up, but then she found it "no longer acceptable." I then tried the Purina diabetic diet, but that was a complete fail. She wouldn't touch it. I haven't tried the Hill's diet yet. My veterinarian recommended your site and mentioned Fancy Feast, so I got various Fancy Feast flavors to try. She does not seem thrilled, but she doesn't refuse to eat it at all.

Since I had to give sub-q Epogen to a prior cat, the insulin injections are not a problem for me in the least.

Keziah went back to the Cat Clinic on 12/28/2012, at which time her blood sugar was down to 113 (from in the 300's) and the veterinarian reduced her insulin to one time a day. She had also gained a little weight. It seems she may be OTJ very quickly. Her next appointment is 1/4/2012. I do have complete confidence in her veterinarian; he is a cat-only veterinarian, widely regarded as the best cat veterinarian in our area.

Keziah (as well as my younger cat, who just had surgery to remove bladder stones!) has made clear she will not eat any pate-style food. It must be sliced, minced, or whatever. If I choose "Classic" Fancy Feast, how can I tell whether it's sliced/minced/etc? I've been going by the "sliced" or whatever wording on the can where the word "Classic" is in this case. :?:

The info here has already helped in clarifying exactly what I am looking for in a food. We are waiting on the lab analysis of Malachi's bladder stones so that the appropriate diet can be recommended for him. . . . in the meantime, I'm feeding him the same thing I feed Keziah, since the vet wants them both on canned food now. Both cats ate Little Friskies yesterday, but today, Malachi wouldn't touch it--although Keziah still ate it.

Any tips on the consistency of cat foods, especially Fancy Feast or other diabetes-friendly foods, would be appreciated.

Keziah is a great cat, the most vocal cat I've ever known, and still very feisty. Her philosophy of life is, "I meow, therefore I am."
 
nutcracker said:
Keziah is 15 years old, and was diagnosed less than two weeks ago. I started Lantus insulin on 12/21/2012, 1 unit twice a day. At the same time, I switched her off the dry food she's eaten all of her life, and tried the Royal Canin diabetic diet. For a couple of days, she ate it right up, but then she found it "no longer acceptable." I then tried the Purina diabetic diet, but that was a complete fail. She wouldn't touch it. I haven't tried the Hill's diet yet. My veterinarian recommended your site and mentioned Fancy Feast, so I got various Fancy Feast flavors to try. She does not seem thrilled, but she doesn't refuse to eat it at all.

Since I had to give sub-q Epogen to a prior cat, the insulin injections are not a problem for me in the least.

Keziah went back to the Cat Clinic on 12/28/2012, at which time her blood sugar was down to 113 (from in the 300's) and the veterinarian reduced her insulin to one time a day. She had also gained a little weight. It seems she may be OTJ very quickly. Her next appointment is 1/4/2012. I do have complete confidence in her veterinarian; he is a cat-only veterinarian, widely regarded as the best cat veterinarian in our area.

Keziah (as well as my younger cat, who just had surgery to remove bladder stones!) has made clear she will not eat any pate-style food. It must be sliced, minced, or whatever. If I choose "Classic" Fancy Feast, how can I tell whether it's sliced/minced/etc? I've been going by the "sliced" or whatever wording on the can where the word "Classic" is in this case. :?:

The info here has already helped in clarifying exactly what I am looking for in a food. We are waiting on the lab analysis of Malachi's bladder stones so that the appropriate diet can be recommended for him. . . . in the meantime, I'm feeding him the same thing I feed Keziah, since the vet wants them both on canned food now. Both cats ate Little Friskies yesterday, but today, Malachi wouldn't touch it--although Keziah still ate it.

Any tips on the consistency of cat foods, especially Fancy Feast or other diabetes-friendly foods, would be appreciated.

Keziah is a great cat, the most vocal cat I've ever known, and still very feisty. Her philosophy of life is, "I meow, therefore I am."

I think the better tip for you is to start home testing because your cat may not need insulin now that you have changed the diet to wet from dry. Pick up a blood glucose meter, strips and lancets, and lots of people here can help you get going.

Lantus is not dosed once a day for cats. Instead of going from 1u twice a day to once a day, it should be dropped to .5u dose twice a day..... Lantus does not last 24hrs in a cat, so all you have is a cat who is high then low, high then low.

For food, just refer to Dr. Lisa Pierson's excellent site.... catinfo.org
Her food list..... look for foods under 10% carbs.
http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food%20Char ... -22-12.pdf
 
Fancy Feast Classics are all pate style.

Have you seen the food chart prepared by Lisa Pierson, DVM? They list out the % of calories from carbs. You will want to keep Keziah under 10% carb. Most of us feed substantially less than that. In addition to the canned foods, you may want to consider a raw diet. That has more texture than pate-style.

You'll need to be careful about the chunkier foods. Often the "gravy" in those food has a substantial amount of carbs.
 

Attachments

Here are easy food shopping lists you can print out:
Dr. Lynne's Wet Food list
List of low carb gluten free Fancy Feast
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=84885
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=81687
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=84512

Here are the more extensive food charts:
Dr. Lisa's new food chart http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf
Binky's canned food charts
Pet Food Nutritional Values list
Hobo's Guide To Nutritional Values

Look for foods under 10% carbs on the above four charts.

There are many brands you can feed besides Fancy Feast. Fancy Feast is often suggested here because it is a big brand name that you see on tv commericials, in magazine ads, coupons in the paper, etc and it is inexpensive and widely available in many supermarkets and big box stores like Walmart and even discount and dollar stores.

Some popular brands fed to diabetic cats are Wellness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Merrick, Innova EVO, and Special Kitty. The higher end premium brands are typically found only in independent non-chain pet stores/boutiques.

Try a few different brands to see what your cats like. My diabetic didn't like Fancy Feast so I tried a couple other brands and settled on Nature's Variety and Innova EVO with a few other brands rotated in on occasion.

For food texture, have you tried freezing a can of pate food, letting it thaw out slightly, and then feeding it? It will have some texture. Or try mixing in some freeze dried meat treats or freeze dried raw into the canned food for texture.
 
The Avoderm Chicken chunks with gravy is 8% and has chunks in it....not a pate.
I think they call it a gravy but it's not really a gravy like we use to raise low bg levels.
It's more of a liquid broth.

I was really liking it for my cat, her bg stayed in nice numbers when she was eating it so I consider it one of the good ones.
She doesn't have teeth so she got tired of it already. (and I have many cans still :roll: :roll: )


The other one is Tiki Cat Koolina Luau 0% carb. it's shredded chicken with egg bits.

And the other chunky one is 6% Nutro Natural Choice Mature Health Chicken & Turkey Formula chunks in gravy - again, a broth.
 
Milo started on the DM canned food. First I tried the gravy but he has trouble eating such big chunks. So I tried the pate. He didn't really like it. So then I tried mashing the chunks from the gravy one and then mixing it with the pate. He really liked that. Of course I know now that food sucks but mixing a somewhat low carb gravy food, like the 8% another poster suggested, with a low carb pate might work.

I mix pate versions a lot to make them sort of creamy. Then I make some peaks. It's weird but they seem to like it. If I just dropped a chunk into a bowl they wouldn't touch it.
 
Seafood based canned food in jelly/aspic are in chunks. But you shouldn't feed seafood to a cat all the time. Some cats get addicted to eating fish and will refuse to eat anything else, some types of fish may contain mercury, the high phosphorus content can be hard on the kidneys.

The canned B.F.F (Best Friends Forever) is all under 5% carbs and are either chunks of fish (or fish and chicken) in jelly/aspic or chunks in gravy/broth. It is listed on Dr. Lisa's food chart: http://catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf Here is the B.F.F web site: http://bestfriendsfoods.com/index.shtml The brand just came out with new pouched foods but they are all in gravy which probably means the carb content is over the ideal 10% for diabetics.

Soulistic has a couple of low carb varieties according to Dr. Lisa's chart. The food is chunks or shred in gravy/broth or chunks in gelee (jelly). It looks like the low carb varieties are the seafood ones again :YMSIGH: http://www.soulisticpet.com/cuisine.php Avoid the Soulistic pouched foods, which aren't listed on the Soulistic web site but Dr. Lisa has them on her chart at nearly 20% carbs.

Weruva's new canned Cats In The Kitchen line might be ok for a diabetic. There are a couple of meat varieties which, from taking a quick look at the ingredients, look ok for diabetics :smile: No starches, potatos, grains, etc. The food is in broth so I'm guessing the food is chunks or slices or shreds of meat or fish. The pouched Cats In The Kitchen are not low carb.

A few of the regular Weruva canned seafood are low in carb and are chunks of fish in jelly. The chicken and beef varieties are not low carb which is too bad because the food is slices or chunks of meat for those cats who like texture.

Interestingly, one company makes the above 3 brands. They started with Weruva and then expanded it to BFF and Soulistic. Soulistic is the inexpensive version of Weruva and BFF and you can find it at Petco stores and some online pet stores.

rhiannon and shadow said:
The Avoderm Chicken chunks with gravy is 8% and has chunks in it....not a pate.
I think they call it a gravy but it's not really a gravy like we use to raise low bg levels.
It's more of a liquid broth.

I forgot about that one. It is shredded chicken in a light broth. My diabetic didn't like it though and neither did I. The food has a strong odd non-chicken smell and the broth is pink :shock:
 
My kitty Shadow was diagnosed with diabetes 2 yrs ago and thanks to this site I was able to find canned food he loves and keep him from even starting insulin shots... I've had good luck feeding Wellness Grain-Free Turkey, Nature's Variety - Lamb (helps keep him regular) and Merrick's Cowboy Cookout... He loves these and is super picky... sometimes I think it is about the quality and sometimes the texture...
 
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