New Member - Mandy & Izzy

[Izzy#2022]

Hi! I am so glad I found this place. Izzy has not been given the official diagnosis of diabetes. Izzy is a 7 year-old spayed female. At her yearly check up she had a blood sugar level of 370 and sugar was found in her urine. Her vet gave me a bag of hills prescription diet diabetic food and said that she’d see me in a year. I didn’t feel comfortable with that so I sought out another vet who gave me a blood sugar monitor. I’ve have a difficult time using it so I’m not sure if my numbers are correct. So here I am and I’m kind of at a loss of what I need to do. I’ve read a lot of information that says I should move to an all wet or raw food diet. I am completely fine with that but I also have a 1 year-old kitty and I would like them to be given the same food if possible and I’m worried that all wet food may not provide all the nutrients that is needed. I’ve heard from a lot of people that they feed fancy feast, which my cats love, but my vet always discourages me from using it. Does that alone have all the nutrients both cats would need to remain healthy? What is the best diet for them? Thank you for letting me join.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum to Mandy and Izzy.I’m glad you have found us!
First of all I want to say I am astonished that a vet would tell a caregiver with a cat with a BG of 370 and sugar showing up in the urine to come back in a year! I’m certainly glad you did I not follow that advice….that is just plain negligent.
I’m glad you are hometesting the BG…that’s great.

There are a few things I would do now.

• Get a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and test the urine for ketones. It’s a simple test. Just follow the directions on the bottle and make sure you read it at 15 seconds. There should be no ketones in the urine. If there is more than a trace of ketones in the urine you need to tell the vet as ketones can lead to the much more serious DKA
• I would recommend swapping your cats over to an all wet low carb diet. If the other kitty is 1 year old he should be able to eat adult cat food (I’m thinking nutritionally here). The hills prescription food is still high carb. I will post a link to suitable food below. You can also feed a raw diet if you like but make sure it is a complete food nutritionally….we can help you there.
• I would set up a spreadsheet and start putting in all the data you have. Test before the 2 main meals of the day so we can see how she is going and also get a few tests in about 3 hours after the meals if you can. I would also commend giving a few snacks inbetween the main meals.
• We will be able to tell you if your kitty needs insulin…….and by the sound of it she does. We recommend you ask for either Lantus or Prozinc insulins as they are best for cats. But let’s get the things I’ve suggested done first and then we can go from there.

HELP US HELP YOU this will give you information about the spreadsheet , signature and hypo kit and other information

FOOD CHART look for foods that are 10%carbs or less. Most of us use carbs around 4-7%. Fancy feast is absolutely fine.

COLLECTING URINE SAMPLE

Keep asking questions
Bron

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB! Sorry you're needing to be here but welcome to the group.

It's fine to feed both your diabetic cat and kitten the same diet. Cats are obligate carnivores -- they can't process the fruits and veggies that are in foods higher in carbohydrates. In addition, cats do not have a huge thirst drive. There's very little moisture in dry food. The moisture content in canned food is much higher and as a result, is better for their health. Fancy Feast isn't the highest quality of food but is is perfectly fine for a diabetic as long as you are getting the pate style (Classic) variety. There's a broad range of carbohydrate content in the entire line of food so you need to be sure you are using a type that is less than 10% carbohydrate. (Most of the members here feed their cats in the 5% range.) The chart that Bron linked has lots of options and will give you the carb content for Fancy Feast and other foods.

The food chart that Bron linked comes from a site on feline nutrition that's written by a vet. If you want more information on feline nutrition, it's a great website!

Honestly, the best food for your cat is the food the cat will eat!! However, a low carb, canned food diet is what we recommend. At a personal level, I avoid food that has gums or carrageenan as they can cause GI problems. (I also have a cat with inflammatory bowel disease so I feed a novel protein diet without the gums and carrageenan to both of my cats.) My older cat was on this diet when I got my kitten and both are fed the same foods. I would also keep in mind that like MDs, vets get very little training in nutrition unless they go out of their way to study the subject.