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katlady1974

katlady1974

Member Since 2013
My 13 year old Timber kitty was just diagnosed with diabetes yesterday. I started him on insulin (Lantus) lastnight and he does really well with it. They gave me samples of DM wet and dry food. He liked the wet lastnight, but not this morning. I read on here that fancy feast is just as good- which is awesome since that's what he's been eating anyways! i also give him (and his twin brother) dry food to much on during the day. they both seemed to like the DM dry so i got that and will just keep giving the fancy feast- i double checked the carb content from a link i found here and the ones they like have a carb content of 3 and 4 so i guess that's good?!

Vet wants him to come in for a curve next wednesday. i talked to her today about doing it myself at home instead and she was totally fine with that. said i can go in ahead of time and have the tech show me how to do it. that made me feel better! i worry about him being freaked out at the vet office for 12 hours!!

Anyways, i feel like i hate A LOT to learn as this is all brand new to me. Looking forward to chatting and learning from all of you!! :)
 
Welcome Timber and Mom,

You are already doing lots of great things. Lantus is a good insulin. Wet DM is lower carb but is liver based, so many cats get tired of the taste. Dry DM is high carb. Fancy Feast pates are less expensive, similar quality. And have more variety. You can take away the dry and let him graze on wet, either leaving it out during the day or freezing it or leaving it out to thaw.

It's great that your vet supports home testing. Lots of people here like the ReliOn meter. It's inexpensive as are the strips.

Let us know how we can help. Keep reading and ask questions.
 
DM dry is high in carbs??? then why do they give it to diabetic cats??? i just bought a big bag for $40! :(
 
Here is a food chart: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/dryfood.html DM dry is 13% carbs. We try to feed under 8%. Vets often get nutrition workshops from Purina so they may be why they sell it. We don't see much value in "prescription" foods. The ingredients are nothing special. The good news is that Purina will take back any foods, even open bags. Just tell the vet your cat won't eat it. You can read lots of great info about feeding diabetic cats here : www.catinfo.org
 
thanks for the info! we used to feed Iams active maturity- it's 35!! so much to learn!!

i'm kind of scared about doing the testing on him. luckily he's a pretty docile cat so i'm sure he'll tolerate it. but how often do i test him?? before every shot? that's twice a day!
 
I posted on your other post too, but welcome to the board:) I know it will say in the link given but I just wanted to note, if you take away the dry food and do the switch to all wet that is recommended, the insulin dose needed will go down so be cautious. Some cats (like mine) even go into remission and are diet controlled with no insulin. My cat really dropped in numbers even when I was just transitioning over to all wet and there was still a bit of dry, those midcycle tests gave the info needed to keep her from hypo.

And the ear testing gets better, my hands used to shake and I was very stressed. I finally got better, just took practice! It did help that I had a patient (but confused) kitty. The freeze dried all meat treats (like purebites chicken) during/after blood testing worked well and she got them even if the test didn't get enough blood. It is a learning curve but you'll do great :-D
 
katlady1974 said:
DM dry is high in carbs??? then why do they give it to diabetic cats??? i just bought a big bag for $40! :(
Click to expand...


Yes please see my post in this same area about our kitty Sunny who we recently switched from Purina DM dry to canned and the *huge* difference it has made. I also really recommend reading this website http://www.catinfo.org written by a vet about feline nutrition and how unhealthy dry food is compared to canned for a number of reasons - there's a section on that site specifically about diabetes too.

Note: When switching to an all-canned diet your kitty WILL require less insulin so please be very careful. Our cat Sunny had a very scary experience with hypoglycemia (had a seizure) because we didn't know that dry food (DM included) was loaded in carbs compared to canned.

Like you, I was dumbfounded that my vet hadn't cautioned me about the high carb content of all dry food, even DM. We had been feeding Sunny dry Purina DM for over a year and couldn't get his blood sugar under 200, and we were giving 5.5 units of Lantus twice a day. He's now on 0.5 units and his blood sugar is nearly normal (today's morning reading was 116) after just 4 days on canned food.

I really want to shout from the rooftops the benefits of an all-canned diet over dry food now that I'm aware. Hope this helps your kitty!
 
I had a similar experience with Azrael. Before I even gave him insulin I changed him to all wet food and his BG dropped by 100. He only gets .5 and is doing really well. It's amazing what the difference in diet will do.
 
And if you add about 1/4 to 1/2 can of water to the Fancy Feast, it helps to fill him up, keeps the food from drying out in case he is a grazer, and helps to keep him hydrated.

There are also frozen 'hockey pucks' or 'cat food cicles' you can make by freezing the food, in a nonstick muffin pan works well. Pop them out of the muffin tin, put into a Ziploc bag and then take one out and leave out when you go to work. They slowly defrost and let your cat eat a little bit of food as they defrost, over a period of a couple of hours.
 
It's late so I don't know if someone said but not all fancy feasts are low carb so check the list. It needs to be under 10%calories from carbs.. The fancy feast classic pâtés are good. Check here column C http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf.

Here are some testing tips.. https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c_CPZVKz27fD_6aVbsguadJKvjSrSAkD7flgPPhEag/pub

And a shopping list..


1. Meter ie Walmart Relion
2. Matching strips
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool.
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie Ketostix or ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast

Let us know how you get on!
Wendy
 
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