Hello! My cat Jack was diagnosed with DM in October 2023 with glucose over 400. He had been eating royal canin urinary s/o dry and canned for years after urinary issues. Unfortunately, I fed my other cat this as well since the vet said it was fine. I am gone for 12 hours at a time during the week and felt that was too long to go between meals so fed them this dry food during the day when gone. When Jack was diagnosed, he was started on royal canin canned glycobalance and insulin. My other cat had been having what our best guess is IBS issues so he was started on royal canin fiber response food. The vet told me it was fine to feed Jack this also as he tended to have constipation issues. We started glucose curves at the vet and his blood sugar never got lower which I know now was pointless since he was too worked up to be accurate! We started doing fasting blood sugar testing every 2 weeks where i would take him in that morning and not leave him there all day. He was always low so we kept decreasing the insulin. This vet said he was likely heading to remission and wanted to do another all day curve at the vet which I knew again would be pointless, so I took him to a vet that did the freestyle libre. They felt he was in remission and discontinued the insulin. I at this point do not really know if he is and don't feel I can truly trust either vet I went to. I am at a loss of what to feed him as he does not want to eat the royal canin glycobalance any longer! I am looking for a new vet but in the meantime need help on what others are feeding their cats with diabetes and am almost ready to give up! Help please!
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- Thread starter Carla M
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You have a very smart cat! The ingredients in glycobalance are not wonderful. My favorite ingredient is powdered cellulose. That's the polite term for saw dust. Many people here feed their cat Fancy Feast or Friskies pate style food. This is a link to a food chart that has most of the canned foods that are available in the US along with the nutritional content including carbohydrates. You want to be feeding Jack a food that is less than 10% carbs which is what we consider a low carb diet. However, most members here feed their cat a diet that is in the neighborhood of 5% carb. You will have lots of choices. For what you've been paying for the Glycobalance, you can feed a human grade food (e.g., Tiki Cat, ZiwiPeak and there are others).
We strongly encourage caregivers to learn how to home test their cat's blood glucose. The Libre is a good alternative although it is a bit problematic and misreads lower numbers as being way lower than what you would get with a hand held glucometer. We can help you learn how to master home testing if. you need to. Do you have any information as to what Jack's blood glucose numbers were when the vet took him off of insulin? We tend to not declare a cat in remission unless we monitor the kitty's numbers for a 2 week period and the cat is in normal (50 - 120 with most of the numbers below 100) numbers.
I would urge you ti eliminate any dry food from Jack's diet. There are timed feeders available that have a space for an ice pack and you can set the feeder up for when you're at work. If, in fact, Jack is in remission, it's more helpful to consider him a diet controlled diabetic. You want to keep him on a low carb diet essentially forever.
I'd also suggest considering looking for a cat only vet practice. With a cat specialty practice, vet's don't have to keep up with any new treatments that pertain to dogs, ferrets, birds, etc. This is a link to the American Assn of Feline Practitioners. There's a search on the page for feline only practices.
We strongly encourage caregivers to learn how to home test their cat's blood glucose. The Libre is a good alternative although it is a bit problematic and misreads lower numbers as being way lower than what you would get with a hand held glucometer. We can help you learn how to master home testing if. you need to. Do you have any information as to what Jack's blood glucose numbers were when the vet took him off of insulin? We tend to not declare a cat in remission unless we monitor the kitty's numbers for a 2 week period and the cat is in normal (50 - 120 with most of the numbers below 100) numbers.
I would urge you ti eliminate any dry food from Jack's diet. There are timed feeders available that have a space for an ice pack and you can set the feeder up for when you're at work. If, in fact, Jack is in remission, it's more helpful to consider him a diet controlled diabetic. You want to keep him on a low carb diet essentially forever.
I'd also suggest considering looking for a cat only vet practice. With a cat specialty practice, vet's don't have to keep up with any new treatments that pertain to dogs, ferrets, birds, etc. This is a link to the American Assn of Feline Practitioners. There's a search on the page for feline only practices.
Thanks for the info! All I know was that his fasting blood sugar without food or insulin was 35. I don't understand it. Neither vet suggested home testing which I thought was strange. I have been looking up vet clinics in my area and will try a cat friendly one. The food chart is confusing to me in that is all the food listed diabetic friendly??
Bron and Sheba (GA)
Member Since 2015
The food chart gives the carbs count for all the foods listed. Not all the foods are suitable for diabetic cats or cats that are in remission. If in fact your kitty is in remission Jack will need to stay on a low carb wet diet forever. The low carb food is when the carb content is 10% or lower.
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