New Member-- Crowley 8/12

Crowley

Crowley

Member Since 2026
Hi! I'm Liz and my newly diabetic cat is Crowley. I also have a second cat, Talasseres. I just got the call earlier today that his peeing all over was because of he had diabetes, and I'm going Friday to learn about giving injections and getting a prescription for his new food. I was honestly surprised; I thought his continence issues were probably behavioral more than anything, since there's been a lot of ruckus on my street this summer and he's been otherwise normal. So honestly, I thought he was just freaked out about that.

I want to be as informed as possible going into Friday! I'm going to go ahead and get some microchip feeders because I already know both cats are gonna need different foods. Really grateful to be able to comb through this resource.
 
Hello and welcome. There are three main things you need to know about with feline diabetes. First is food, you want him to be on a low carb food, preferably wet or raw and not dry. He does not need special "prescription" food. The vet foods often don't have the greatest ingredients and a couple of them supposedly for diabetics are actually higher in carbs than a diabetic should eat. One place to start looking is this food list, anything under 10% carbs is good. The list is older now, but a place to start. There are other food lists too. What is Crowley eating now? I took the opportunity to switch both my cats over to low carb food when Neko got her diabetes. Does you other cat have special food needs?

Second thing to consider is treatment. Good insulins for cats are either Prozinc or Lantus. Any other ones don't last long in cats. Some vets are starting to recommend the new SGLT-2 drugs, Bexaxat or Senvelgo. It works for some cats, but there are a number of contraindications so you have to be careful using them.

And lastly (for now), most of us here home test our cats blood sugars. There is a learning curve, but you end up saving money over getting tests done at the vet. Plus it is more accurate as many cats show inflated blood sugars at the vet due to stress. Testing at home is the best way to keep your cat safe. This post has some information and videos about it. Hometesting Links and Tips
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Hello and welcome. There are three main things you need to know about with feline diabetes. First is food, you want him to be on a low carb food, preferably wet or raw and not dry. He does not need special "prescription" food. The vet foods often don't have the greatest ingredients and a couple of them supposedly for diabetics are actually higher in carbs than a diabetic should eat. One place to start looking is this food list, anything under 10% carbs is good. The list is older now, but a place to start. There are other food lists too. What is Crowley eating now? I took the opportunity to switch both my cats over to low carb food when Neko got her diabetes. Does you other cat have special food needs?

Second thing to consider is treatment. Good insulins for cats are either Prozinc or Lantus. Any other ones don't last long in cats. Some vets are starting to recommend the new SGLT-2 drugs, Bexaxat or Senvelgo. It works for some cats, but there are a number of contraindications so you have to be careful using them.

And lastly (for now), most of us here home test our cats blood sugars. There is a learning curve, but you end up saving money over getting tests done at the vet. Plus it is more accurate as many cats show inflated blood sugars at the vet due to stress. Testing at home is the best way to keep your cat safe. This post has some information and videos about it. Hometesting Links and Tips
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Thank you! I've done a lot of reading of this forum (don't tell my boss lol) and it's calmed down my initial fears. Talasseres doesn't have any special needs, so I will def be switching them both over to a low carb wet food. They will both be soooo happy because I do get them wet food as a treat sometimes and it's always their fav. I think Crowley did this on purpose so I have to get them wet food always 😭😭 but I've read some of the literature now and I know how much better it is for both of them.

They're currently eating Wellness Complete Health Grain-Free Indoor Deboned Chicken Recipe.

Definitely was planning on home testing after reading about it! Wanna get my little crimeboy feeling better ASAP (altho he mostly seems to be feeling fine so far. Just peeing a lot!)
 
It's great they both love the wet food. That'll make the transition easy. Just do it slowly, so they don't get tummy upset. The change from dry to wet should also help his blood sugars quite a bit. Good luck with the vet visit.

If you have time, you might want to pop into Walmart, if you have one nearby, and grab a Relion blood glucose (BG) meter and test strips. I think a lot of people use the Premier. More info on this post: Getting started shopping list

Is Crowley the orange boy in your avatar? They look like they are good friends.
 
Hooray for wet food !!
It is much easier for regulation - and makes their kidneys a bit happier. Cat are obligate carnivores, so they don't even process all the filler in dry food. * which no one tell us as owners *
Welcome ! Ask lots of questions and be patient with yourself. Diabetes can be very overwhelming but very manageable!
 
Thank you both! One thing I am worried about is work. I am on a hybrid schedule right now. I wfh 2x a week, which is great but I'm in office 2x a week. I leave at ~230pm and get back around 135ish am. It kind of seems like they need close monitoring at least at first... do you think leaving him alone for 11 hours is going to be a problem?

ETA and yes, Crowley is the orange boy
 
First thing to invest in is an automatic feeder. Petsafe 5 or the Catmate are two popular options. Or the microchip ones if you want to make sure Crowley is the one getting the food. That way you can make sure he has food available during the day. I'd also start the insulin (if you can delay) to when you have a couple days off or wfh so you can gather data on how the insulin dose is doing and what might be the low point during the day. Once you figure that out, use the autofeeder to make sure he has food available at the low points (nadir). Food is what keeps him safe.

Once you know what insulin you will be using (if doing that), let us know and we might have tips for you.
 
I can use some wfh flex days and stay home this week. Usually I try to save them for the end of the year and I've blown thru them this month (the sewer backed up into my basement last week too 🙃🙃) but obvs Crowley is more important.

I am going to the vet tomorrow. I know she did mention insulin (and also a prescription diet that I won't be using thanks to you folks here!)
 
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