New member, 3/18/24, questions about food.

Hi, I’m new. My 7 year old, Samara, was just diagnosed with diabetes, sugar was 317. I am looking for information on diet.

Shots won’t work for me because she fights too hard so I’ve never been able to give her one. Unfortunately the vet that diagnosed her didn’t tell me that if she had any insulin she couldn’t ever start on the new alternatives, so she got one shot in the office. So the other vet is looking into how strict they are about even one shot of insulin. And also the cost of them. So in the meantime Samara is relying on fancy feast only.

Is there a current updated list of fancy feast classic pates with dry matter carbohydrate percentages? And how many 3oz cans should a 9 lb diabetic cat have a day, does amount matter as much as carbs? Instead of eating a full meal of wet at once she grazes on it all day.

And Samara is really missing her temptations treats, can she still have even one of those? She won’t eat real meat so I was considering buying a small bag of Young Again dry food to substitute for treats. But I was reading where the shelf life is only four months. Is there a way to store it to extend its life past that?

Thank so much for the help.

 

You could always put the dry food in the freezer. Will she eat a jerky style treat? Wellness used to make jerky treats.

This is a formula that will give you an approximate number of calories to feed your cat. Required calories per day = [13.6 X optimal lean body weight in pounds] + 70. Just like with humans, the number of calories varies from cat to cat. Some cats have a faster or slower metabolism than what the formula would predict.

 

Some cats like their "crunchies". A good alternative for diabetic cats is freeze dried treats and air dried raw food. There are lots of different brands of freeze dried treats: Pure Bites, Fancy Feast Purely, Orijen, etc. Just be sure the only ingredient in the treat is 100% meat or fish. Some people buy the dog version because the bag has larger sized treats that can be broken up into smaller pieces for a cat and the bag doesn't cost much more than a teeny cat sized bag.

What insulin shot did the vet give? There are ways to get insulin for less. There's a coupon to get a box of five Lantus pens for $35, for example. The box will last you nearly a year, depending on the insulin dose. Lots of people buy the Relion brand of insuiln syringes from WalMart for no more than $15. That may be an option if you live near a WalMart store.

The food chart on Catinfo.org is the most updated one. I don't think there is any other more updated chart. A newly diagnosed diabetic may need several 3 oz cans of food daily until the blood glucose levels are more regulated.

 

I’ll look into Wellness treats. Thank you I’ll use that formula to figure calories. So the amount of food per meal or per day doesn’t matter when it comes to the carbs?

 

Thank you for the info. I don’t know if she’ll eat the treats with real meat but we can try. I couldn’t give her shots because she fights me and I have no one to hold her still. I’m not experienced at all so I couldn’t safely do a shot on a squirmy cat on the run, lol. Do the pens have shorter needles, that might help? So the vet is looking into alternatives. I’ve looked at the chart on catinfo.org but I’m not sure what it’s telling me as far as carbs, it doesn’t look like it’s the dry matter percentage. The difference between dry matter and as eaten has me confused. The vet just told me to look at the DM percentage. I’m slow on that part.

 

The Catinfo chart has a column for carbs. Just look at that column and choose foods that have 10% or less carbs. Keep a few higher carb foods on hand to use in case of a hypo.

Insulin pens are used with insulin syringes for cat, not with the pen needles that a Human would use. Pens only dose in whole units which is fine for Human diabetics but not cats who may need quarter or half or even three quarter unit doses. You can get insulin syringes with short 5/16 inch needles and that are very thin.

Would distracting the cat with food help with injections? Some people inject while their cat is busy eating and less likely to notice a quick prick.

 

A "very thin" syringe needle is a 30 or 31 gauge needle.

Calories and carbs are not the same. As a non-cat food example, a piece of a very fancy French cheese (e.g., brie) is way more calories than the cracker it's sitting on. You want low carbohydrate food. The calories aren't an issue unless you need your cat to gain or lose weight. Most of the high calorie, low carb foods have a fair amount of fat in them.

We consider low carb as under 10%. Most of the members here feed their cat a food that's in the neighborhood of 5% carb.

The advice above is good. If your cat is very food motivated, giving a shot when your cat's head is in her bowl.

 

I’ll check the carb column. I googled to see how a pen works for cats so I understand now. I’ve tried a shot while she’s eating but she’s still on high alert. She’s impossible to do anything with, the second she feels me try to pull up on her skin she instantly flips over and either bites or runs. It’s hard to help her when she won’t let me, she’s always been this way. I can’t poke her ear to test either. My next vet visit I’ll ask about shorter needles. Trying to inject within a half of a second is a skill I probably won’t be able to master. I know what happens if you hit a vein, but what if you inject too deep, into a muscle or fat?

 

I’m keeping the carb foods between 4-7. So unlike humans, cats can eat an unlimited amount of low carb food? That’s where I get confused with the carb difference in cats. People have to also limit the amount of total carbs they can have per meal, which cuts down on the amount per serving.

Unfortunately she’s not food motivated and never eats more than a few bites at a time. She eats 3-4 cans a day but she grazes on it all day, taking all day to get it gone. I was thinking if I could ever manage shots she’d never have any food before a shot like other people are doing.