New member - Marit & Hero

[marit]

To make life a little simpler I have copy/pasted this text from a feline Facebook group I am in. It is my own text but some of it may not be in the context with this group.

Hey guys! Unfortunately, my beautiful girl Hero, who truly is a hero, has been diagnosed with diabetes. She'd lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, which I had wrongly attributed to her being on a wet food diet for a while. She started drinking more and more and my concerns were growing.

I am in an autistic burnout which means day to day life with all of its senses is hard to get by! Evenso, I want to give my cats the best possible care. They have turned 11 today!! I have had them on kibble for the most part of their life and switched to giving more and more wet food about a year ago, with the help of this group.

The vet made me doubt this decision a little bit, she said wet food can contain higher amounts of fat which the body, if given "too much" can interpret as carbohydrates. I was giving them the Venandi duck, which is admittedly, quite high in fats. I am giving them Mac's duck, Turkey and chicken now, which is lower in fat and higher in protein. Mac's does have a very transparant customer service, more so than Venandi/Mjamjam.

I don't think switching back to a diabetic kibble or wet food from RC/Hills/Trovjet is going to be the problem solver. Luckily she is very brave and clever, seems to understand the painful injection is making her feel better.

She has been overweight and on kibble her whole life, over the past few years she's had to have a prednison injection twice for allergies. I have come to understand possible skin conditions can be attributed to diabetes, it is unfortunate the other vet, although I did make my concerns clear (she was already drinking a lot then), did not see the clinical signs, back then there was only the drinking more water and licking her tummy, bad infections on her skin.

I do trust the current vet better, she is young but does go through treatment options with an older vet. I have to give her injections twice a day and Friday we will check again to see if this has helped. She is a little bit persistent on Hills/RC/Trovjet being good food, her fairest claim is they are more "honest" about the ingredients in their foods. For a diabetic cat it is of course important to have a steady baseline. I doubt very much though, if they are more trustworthy than say Mac's, who have been very transparant and open with me about their ingredients.

Closing up: any suggestions here (wet) food wise how I can make my girl feel better? Any words of encouragement are also welcome, as this is quite a stressful time for us! Her brother Speedy, also 11 today, is in the second picture. Thank you in advance!!

 

[CORKY]

@Wend&Neko
@Suzanne & Darcy

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome to your little furry girl. And give them some cheek rubs from me to say happy birthday.

Can you tell me what country you are in? Food suggestions will be location specific. But we can universally say that there is nothing special about the vet "prescription" foods like Hills/RC, and some of their options are higher in carbs than should be given to a diabetic. I'm not familiar with Trovjet, just found a reference to Trovet - same thing? The comment that fats can be interpreted as carbs isn't right. Stay away from all kibble if you can. Diabetics need low carbs and more water that wet food can give you.

What is in the injections you are giving? I'm looking for the type of insulin. And also how many units.

Most of the people learn to home test blood sugars for their cats, so don't need to visit the vet as often. Cheaper for you, less stressful for the cat. A stressed cat can often test with higher blood sugars than they have at home. You don't want to set an insulin dose based on temporary higher numbers, just to come home and find it's too much insulin. If you are interested in learning to test, we have some tips and videos of people testing in this post: Hometesting Links and Tips

A couple posts to have handy, just in case but hope you never need them:

• How to treat HYPOS - THEY CAN KILL! Print this Out!!
• jojo and bunny's HYPO TOOL BOX

 

[marit]

Hello and welcome to your little furry girl. And give them some cheek rubs from me to say happy birthday.

Can you tell me what country you are in? Food suggestions will be location specific. But we can universally say that there is nothing special about the vet "prescription" foods like Hills/RC, and some of their options are higher in carbs than should be given to a diabetic. I'm not familiar with Trovjet, just found a reference to Trovet - same thing? The comment that fats can be interpreted as carbs isn't right. Stay away from all kibble if you can. Diabetics need low carbs and more water that wet food can give you.

What is in the injections you are giving? I'm looking for the type of insulin. And also how many units.

Most of the people learn to home test blood sugars for their cats, so don't need to visit the vet as often. Cheaper for you, less stressful for the cat. A stressed cat can often test with higher blood sugars than they have at home. You don't want to set an insulin dose based on temporary higher numbers, just to come home and find it's too much insulin. If you are interested in learning to test, we have some tips and videos of people testing in this post: Hometesting Links and Tips

A couple posts to have handy, just in case but hope you never need them:

• How to treat HYPOS - THEY CAN KILL! Print this Out!!
• jojo and bunny's HYPO TOOL BOX

Hi! Yes it is Trovet indeed. I will stick with grain free cat food.

I am situated in the Netherlands, the insulin I am giving is caninsulin 40IE/ML. Twice a day I have to give her 2IE (so 4 total). She really seemed to be feeling a lot better, but actually when I gave her "shot" tonight, she seemed to go backwards. I also had a friend over so she may have been a little cranky, she is sick of course and wants her mommy all to herself. But I thought maybe she was low, I gave it to her while feeding (yes she is that easy and its like she understands!).

A colleague of my father has all sorts of stuff, they used to have a diabetic cat. He will send it and it also includes a glucose meter. As you say it will be much better and less stressful to do it myself. I am quite amased at how quickly I am easily giving her the shots so I'm sure I can learn that too.

Thank you for the links, I will definitely use them! Its nice this space is here as it is quite overwhelming and a lot of responsibility to keep my kitty healthy. Thank you!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Here is a list of low carb foods we put together for the UK, but a lot of them are also available in Europe. You want foods under 10% of carbs for low carb food. UK Cat Food List

For testing, you probably want a meter that takes as small a blood drop as possible. Not all the human ones fit that. You also want a meter with test strips as cheap as possible. For meters or other supplies that might be suitable, you can check out our Members map feature and see of there is someone who has been on recently. If you can get one that someone else used on a cat, that is a good option.

Caninsulin isn't the greatest insulin for cats, though perhaps what you have to start with in the Netherlands? Prozinc or Lantus are much longer lasting. I too started my cat on Caninsulin - cause that is what the vet was familiar with.

 

[marit]

Here is a list of low carb foods we put together for the UK, but a lot of them are also available in Europe. You want foods under 10% of carbs for low carb food. UK Cat Food List

For testing, you probably want a meter that takes as small a blood drop as possible. Not all the human ones fit that. You also want a meter with test strips as cheap as possible. For meters or other supplies that might be suitable, you can check out our Members map feature and see of there is someone who has been on recently. If you can get one that someone else used on a cat, that is a good option.

Caninsulin isn't the greatest insulin for cats, though perhaps what you have to start with in the Netherlands? Prozinc or Lantus are much longer lasting. I too started my cat on Caninsulin - cause that is what the vet was familiar with.

Luckily I was already feeding her a low carbohydrate wet food, Mac's, which is on your list! Ever since then her drinking became less "obsessive", so I felt it was good for whatever she was dealing with at the time, which I now think was luring diabetics. It is somewhat puzzling to me that despite this diet she still got diabetes now, Although like I said she has been obese and on kibble for most of her life. It was last year on their birthday that I started feeding them more and more wet.

I will attach a file with the picture of the stuff I can get from my dads colleague.

I have know knowledge of what type of insulin are available. The vet did tell me (they have only recently opened their doors) that so far all the cats that have received the same procedure as I have, are doing well. They are trying to keep vet visits as minimal as possible.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Steroid injections may also have played a role in the diabetes diagnosis.

I used the Freestyle Lite too to start. Good choice, small blood drop needed.

Chances of remission are stronger with Lantus or Prozinc, should that be a goal. Gathering test data will tell you if your kitty is one of those few for whom Caninsulin works well enough.