New Member - frustrated and looking for advice

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Mom_of_Jonesy

Member Since 2024
Hi,

My cat Jonesy is almost 8, he was diagnosed last year in October, he is onLantus. Jonesy is a big cat, he weighs about 16.5 pounds, he has lost about 1 pound since October. We switched from a mostly fry food diet to a mostly wet food diet.

There wasn't a lot of discussion about wet food with my vet, I didn't know to look for a lower carb food or that pate is better than chunks in gravey.

We started out with small doses, at first it was just .5 and now we are up to 5. but his numbers just aren't getting better, he is between 370 and 470 when we do his curves.

My doctor suggested the prescription food but to be honest, it would cost over $150 a month just to feed Jonesy. I have other cats, and keeping all of the food separate is almost impossible.

My vet is now saying that the next step is an ultrasound and a bunch of other tests and I just don't know if this is the only path to be taking.

I guess I am just looking for insight from people who have diabetic cats and have a handle on things, since I clearly do not.
 
Hi and welcome. We have a 7-cat household so I am right there with you. We actually switched the entire household away from dry food, and away from higher-carb food. All seven, including the diabetic kitty Hendrick, eat a diet that is ok for a diabetic cat. This is challenging as our elderly kitty, Roxy, needs some special diet foods and they aren't always ok for Hendrick.

We bought chip-feeders, called SureFeed feeders. They are not cheap, I think my wife paid about $175/each. But they work great, they keep each kitty's meal secure from the other cats.

Lantus is a great insulin, and your kitty is still on the young side. I think with the right approach you could have much better results. This forum is great! They are very numbers driven. if you are committed and willing to go all-in, they can help you here like they helped me and my boy Hendrick. He is now a diet-controlled diabetic feline in diabetic remission thanks to this forum!!

Home testing of the blood glucose is key however. I thought I could not learn how, it seemed impossible to me --- so if I can learn how, anyone can.
 
Mom_of_Jonesy said:
We started out with small doses, at first it was just .5 and now we are up to 5. but his numbers just aren't getting better, he is between 370 and 470 when we do his curves.
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Can you post BG values?
Maybe you missed the optimum dose.
Maybe Jonesy has a high-dose condition like acromegaly or insulin resistance and more insulin is needed. There are blood tests for these conditions.
What is color and consistency of his feces?
 
I'm not sure what an ultrasound would show? Did the vet explain why she/he recommends an ultrasound and how it would help with your cat's diabetes management? Bloodwork is helpful as Larry mentioned.

Do you test your cat's blood glucose levels at home?

You don't need prescription food in any form. Low carb canned food is fine. Some diabetics are very carb sensitive so even a few pieces of high carb food in any form can keep blood glucose levels too high. What do you feed the other cats? Can you feed all the cats just one low carb diet so you don't have to worry about the diabetic sneaking in dry food or high carb canned food from the others? A high carb diet is why so many cats become diabetic in the first place.
 
The doctor said the ultrasound could rule things out...maybe show if there were masses or enlarged organs.

My cats all like dry food, we just switched to a high protein low carb dry food for them and Jonesy is eating wet food now. I didn't know that pate was the better choice, he prefers the cuts with gravy. I did get some new pate yesterday that is low carb, it is hit and miss with what he likes, he is pretty picky.
 
Yeah ours were all totally hooked on dry kibble. It was a real struggle to change over to wet food. We tried so many different kinds.

Fancy Feast classic pates are fairly low-carb for the most part.


This is a great resource and can help you identify lower carb cat food to try. Under 10% is probably best, many members feed around 5% or lower to their diabetic kitties.

https://catinfo.org/chart/index.php
 
When you say low carb, what is the carb % and what brand did you switch to? Most grilled are not low carb

If there are no other issues other than the diabetes, save your money on the ultrasound as it won’t show anything diabetes related.

we can help you with dosing and getting him regulated if you’d be willing to home test him and set up a spreadsheet.

It can take a while to get a cat’s diabetes regulated. Especially if you’re not home testing. A spot check or a curve at the vet doesn’t give you the full picture and it’s much harder to find the ideal dose. Minnie was unregulated for almost a year and until I found this forum and followed the advice I got here.
 
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With a diabetic cat you need:
  • A low carb wet diet that is 10% carbs or under. Most of us use around 4-7% carbs
  • A suitable insulin such as Lantus or Prozinc which are long acting, more gentle insulins than the old insulins.
  • We recommend hometesting the blood glucose with a human meter…it is not necessary to use a pet meter which is expensive to run and is no better. It will keep your kitty safe and you will know how the dose is working for your kitty. Only testing every so often will not tell you what is happening in between those times and an awful lot can happen in even a day.
  • HELP US HELP YOU has information about the spreadsheet, signature and hypo box which you will need to be able to look after your beloved kitty properly

We are happy to help you with setting up the spreadsheet, sorting out what food to buy, how to transition safely to a low carb diet, how to learn to home test and much more.

FOOD CHART have a look on this chart and choose foods that are under 10%.

You will also need some higher carb foods for that hypo box..information in the help us help you link.

This is an excellent site for diabetic cats…it has been around for more than 25 years and has very experienced people to help you.

Keep asking lots of questions!
 
Anything in gravy or sauce is going to be too high in carbs for a diabetic. You want to stick to pates or the ones in jelly. Some dry foods are more acceptable for diabetics than others. What country are you in? That would help members suggest brands of low carb foods you can feed to all the cats. The Catinfo chart someone linked is for US foods. Under 10% carbs is ideal.

I think it's safe to say that a combination of different things can result in diabetes :) I can't speak for other cats, but my first diabetic was a result of a mostly dry food only diet. He was overweight as well, from all the calories in the dry food and having the activity level of a slug :p My current diabetic was on a steroid for a health condition and it's known that long term steroid use can cause diabetic-like symptoms and even diabetes. He has eaten raw food his entire life so I know the diet was not the cause of the diabetes. Every cat is different. Don't blame yourself for the diabetes or for not knowing why dry food is so bad or anything else :bighug:. You can do everything "right" and still wind up with a diabetic.
 
squeem3 said:
Anything in gravy or sauce is going to be too high in carbs for a diabetic.
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Not really try it depemndon what the manufacturer uses for sauce/thickener. Agar-agar is low cal thickener while starch is not. You have to look at ingredients/food chards to help determine if low cal.
 
You can even feed the Fancy Feast Roasted/Flaked/Chunky
The are either 4%, 5% , and 6% which are also ok to feed

Chunky Chicken Feast - is 4% carbs.
 
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One possible explanation for your cat's numbers staying high is that you're feeding him food that's high in carbohydrates. You would likely have to give your cat a huge dose of insulin to defeat the effect of the carbs and have an effect on the blood glucose numbers. If you're switching over to a lower carb diet, transition your cat slowly. If you make an abrupt switch to a low carb diet, there's a good chance the numbers will drop and your cat might become hypoglycemic. It's best to do this slowly so you have the ability to control the numbers.
 
Mom_of_Jonesy said:
I guess I am just looking for insight from people who have diabetic cats and have a handle on things, since I clearly do not.
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Do you have plans to test Jonesy on your own with a blood glucose kit? I got one from WalMart pretty inexpensively, and with the help of this board (videos), I mastered it pretty quickly. Allowing the vet to be in total control, doing the BG curves, prescribing high carb food her office sold, etc. was a mistake, and fortunately, I wised up fast. Some vets are fine/happy with clients bringing in cats for testing, never telling you that you can do it at home (mine didn't and when I later asked her why, she simply said: "Most owners are not interested.") and adding you to their prescription food club. It was certainly cheaper and caused less stress to my cat to test at home and then research/obtain better food. I presume her vet thought I would take her in often for curves, buy the prescription food, and pick up a script for insulin. For the rest of Sister's life. Wrong. Instead, I joined this group and got Sister's numbers which were 486 when diagnosed down to under 120 when she had her first "food trial" in Sept 2021. She has remained off Lantus since that time. She is a dry food junkie, so after trying most of the Switch Tricks, I compromised with Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein dry which is low carbs but high protein. She lost 2 pounds within that first year. Today, her weight is creeping back up (she sometimes sneaks another's high carb struvite crystal dry food when I am not paying attention) so I am re-reading the dry to wet transition article and giving it another shot. Please check in to let us know how it is going. We have so much more to share.
 
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