New member looking for help

[PhantomBanker]

Hello all,

I picked up a stray from the local shelter a few months after I split from my first wife. She is now about 9 years old and still acts like a meerkat when I hold my hand over her head: She stands up on her hind legs, and then gives a little jump to get pets.

Beginning of this year, I took her in for her semi-annual exam. I told the vet there was a lot of drinking and a lot of urinating going on. The vet immediately ran a blood test and a ketone count and quickly gave the easy diagnosis.

Since then, we have settled on 5 units of NPH twice a day. However, we do need to work on her diet.

We still have her on regular dry food (indoor cat formula), and we know we have to change. My question is: What is a good alternative that is inexpensive? We have had some employment issues this past year, so our income is not as good as it once was. The vet did give us a prescription for a special kind of dry food, but the cost is so ridiculously high when compared to Purina Cat Chow.

Thank you for your help. I'm glad I found such a community.

 

[Kris & Teasel]

Welcome! Yes, you've found the best community for help, advice and support. There are many very experienced, knowledgeable people here.

Canned low carb wet food is best for a diabetic kitty. Almost every dry food is too high in carbs, even those sold as diabetic diets by vets. There is one called Young Again Zero which is a low carb dry food sold online but it's very expensive. If you're in the US or Canada, grocery store brands like canned Friskies or Fancy Feast (pate versions only, no sauce or gravy - too high in carbs) are readily available and are what many of us feed our diabetic cats. If you are in the UK or Europe there are members here to help with food info.

The switch to a wet low carb food is very important. It might require training your cat to accept it over time. This type of food can cause significant lowering of blood glucose in some cats so that your current insulin dose would be too high. A dose of 5 u is high and might be largely influenced by the current dry food diet. Do you test blood glucose at home? If not, we recommend getting a meter and learning how to test before you change food. Many people use a human meter such as the ReliOn types from Walmart. The test strips for those are much cheaper.

If you need help with making these changes, post any questions/concerns you have in the main health forum.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Welcome

we have settled on 5 units of NPH twice a day

That is a very high dose. Can you provide in a new post in the Health forum how that does was arrived at?

 

[Olive & Paula]

I must say. ONLY CHANGE DRY FOOD IF HOME TESTING. Do not stop or reduce dry food until you home test. 5u is a high dose and by reducing or stopping dry will cause a serious hypo episode. I found out the hard way.

I knew nothing about FD, home testing or this board. Smokey was on 5u Vetsulin and vet told me there wasn't anything more they could do. It was the max dose. He was free fed wet and dry food. I asked about other options. They said let's change the food. I was told to give cooked chicken in place of dry food, come back in a month for check. If he acts funny or has seizure call right away. "Lets see if experiment works". Long story short the day I found FDMB because something wasn't right Smokey was in a hypo episode. I knew nothing about them, had nothing to treat it and no car to get to ER in the middle of the night. The folks here got us through. My point is. DO NOT CHANGE FOOD UNTIL YOU ARE HOME TESTING. During a crisis is not the time to learn.