New member Nov 7 2025

J

JaniceC

New Member
Hi my cat Felix was diagnosed and started 2 units Vetsulin twice daily on Nov 1.His glucose on a blood panel was 463 mg/dl. He had been losing weight but since he is 10+ years old I didn’t realize it was diabetes. My vet put him on glycobalance but after the first day and reading all the comments on its high carbs etc I switched him to Friskies and FF wet pate. Then I read when u switch to low carbs foods his glucose might go down too low on the insulin so today I took him to a walk in vet and his glucose in their Alohatrak meter was 167 about 4 hrs after his morning dose. I leave out some small amts of wet food during the day too. They said it was good. They also said glycobalance was better for diabetic cats and Friskies and FF was not very good food and they had achieved remissions on cats on glycobalance. I am so confused. This is all new to me and I don’t have a meter yet and I don’t know how to do a chart or what numbers to look for on a human meter like ReliOn Do I have to buy the bottle of control and use it every time too. Also what size lancet should I get ? Thank you for all the help you provide on this site.
Janice
 
Welcome to FDMB, our cats catch us by surprise when it comes to diabetes, but we are glad you are here, are you home during the day? if you are it is best to feed diabetic cats 2 main meals each before each shot, and at least 3-4 small meals during the day, if you cannot be home you might want to consider a pr wet food feeder, and home testing is very important before each shot, and yes most of the members use the ReliOn Human Premier and strips, each human monitor has their own strips, so make sure the box of strips say ReliOn Premier on it if you can purchase it at Walmart the monitor is $19.99 and the strips are $9.00 for 50 and $17.88 for 100 it is always good to have extra strips handy, especially when you are learning to test., a diabetic cat needs to have a diet of wet can foods or raw between 0-10% carbs, most members use Fancy Feast Pates up to 5% or the Friskies as you mentioned, stay away from gravies they are high in carbs, below you have a link of Drs Food list the third column will indicate the % of carbs for each food, you can also go to CHEWY.COM website, look for the food you already have, click on the can, scroll down to ingredients, use the nutrients to calculate the dry matter carbs which is what counts, a link to a carb calculator below as well. In the Main menu you'll find many sticky notes with valuable information, I tagged a couple of members that can help you with Vetsulin 🤗 :cat::cat:

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
Cat Food Nutrition Calculator | Elizabeth C Scheyder

@squeem3
@Wendy&Neko
 
Welcome :)

Ignore the vet about food :) Feed your cat whatever you feel is best. Vets have very little knowledge on nutrition and many are influenced by what the big pet food companies market. Fancy Feast, Friskies, and many other brands of commercially available canned foods are perfectly fine to feed and what many people here feed. Here's the food charts: Links to FOOD CHARTS

Any Human blood glucose meter works. Relion is ppoular and affordable. You do not need the control solution. That's only used if you think the meter isn't working right. A starter kit should include a lancet device and a few lancets but you don't have to use those if they don't work well for you. Some brands of lancet devices just don't work well on a cat. Lancet gauge should be about 27. Too thin and you won't get any blood from a cat's ear.

The spreadsheet instructions are here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Normal cat blood glucose levels are roughly 60 to 15 mg/dl. Anything over 200 is a diabetic number and you'll see lots of those are you get started on this journey. The higher numbers like 500+ are hard to see but it takes time and lots of patience for cats to show improvement in numbers. Dose adjustments will need to be made slowly based on curves.

Was the 463 from the regular blood work or was a special frucstosamine test done? The number from regular blood work is almost always elevated because a cat is super stressed out and stress causes levels to be high. A fructosamine test gives the average blood glucose levels over the past few weeks.

Alphatrack and other pet meters generally read higher than a Human meter. 167 four hours after insulin is pretty good but 2 units of insulin is also a large starting dose. This board recommends a starting dose of any insulin of no more than 1 unit twice a day but there are some exceptions.

Vetsulin isn't the best insulin to use. Better insulin choices are ProZinc and Lantus. Give the Vetsulin a try, though. There's info on Vetsulin here: Caninsulin / Vetsulin and N / NPH
 
Hello and welcome.

You'll read different ideas on what normal blood glucose levels are for cats. I've tested a few non diabetics, getting mostly in the low 50's and one at 49 - that is with a human meter. I've seen 50-120 also quoted as the normal level when tested with a human meter. Normal range is higher for a pet meter. I'd get a meter as soon as you can, with lancets in the 26-28 range. You can go to higher numbers (thinner lancets) once his ears have learned to bleed. Often the lancets that come with the kits are too thin to start with.

We seen people have their cats go into remission when the glycobalance was removed from the diet. It's too high in carbs for a diabetic cat. Not everyone feeds Fancy Feast or Friskies, but those are two cheaper options you can feed. Neither is a great option if kitty also has kidney disease as the phosphorus is a little high. There are plenty of other options available commercially.

Agreed that 2 units is a higher starting dose. My girl started on Caninsulin (called Vetsulin in the US) and started on 1 unit. She was a bigger girl (Maine Coon in her history) and at diagnosis her BG was even higher that Felix's at the vet. It is easier to start with a lower dose and work your way up. Especially if you are doing a diet change.
 
Welcome to FDMB!

I suspect your vet may be unaware that there was a class action lawsuit that the pet food manufacturers lost. The suit found that the majority of the "prescription" foods had nothing that was medically prescriptive in their ingredients. If you look at the carbohydrate amounts in most of the so-called diabetic foods, they are way too high in carbs and spike a cat's blood glucose numbers. Most of the manufacturers have changed the names of their diabetic foods to "dietetic." FWIW, my vet encouraged the diabetic foods. When I went back to the office to return all of the canned and dry food they sold me and asked her what the carbs were in the food, she didn't know. I pointed out how high in carbs the food was -- especially the dry food. I also compared it with the Fancy Feast pate. She was stunned by the difference. Also, compare the ingredients. They are not all that different. The Glycobalance canned food is about 14% carb and the dry is about 24%. We suggest keeping the carbs under 10% and most of the members here feed their cats a food that's in the neighborhood of 5%.

We tend to mention Fancy Feast or Friskies as options because of cost. They have low carb options that are inexpensive. Where are other brands, such at Tiki Cat and Weruva, that are low in carbs and are a better grade of food.

You may want to take a look at this post on helping us to help you. It provides instructions on setting up a spreadsheet and your signature. The spreadsheet will let you keep track of Felix's blood glucose testing results and allow us to follow along. Your signature will give us some basic information about you and your cat so we don't keep pestering you with the same questions.

Please let us know how we can help.
 
Yes, FF and Friskies and others are often suggested because they are big names everyone knows and see at a variety of stores (supermarkets, Target, WalMart, Petco, CVS, etc) and online (Amazon, Chewy, etc). But there are many other brands suitable for diabetic cats :) Take a look at the food charts which Corky linked above. Any food under 10% carbs is good for diabetics. The chart is a bit old so there are many newer brands out there now. You can post a new thread and ask for suitable current foods members feed that might not be on the chart. If affordability is a concern, stick with the lesser expensive brands like FF and even store generic. A general rule is to feed the best quality food your cat will eat and you can afford :)
 
Thank you all so much for your support and advice. I will get the ReliOn and try to figure out the spread sheet And learn how to do an earstick properly. After joining the group I realized Vetsulin is not the best but I’ve already started and it seems like most vets here use it. The 465 was from the original blood work at his first visit and no fructoseamine was done yet. The vet started him on 2 units and I don’t see him till Nov 21 but since the 4.5 hr post dose glucose was 167 on the Alphatrak perhaps I should continue till then. What would be an equivalent reading on the ReliOn? I will also check out the Wereva an Tiki Cat pates Are they around 5% too? I’m also taking care of a dog and 2 more cats so I hope it’s not an arm and a leg😅. I really appreciate all your input.
 
There is no conversion from the AT to the Relion. In side by side tests people have done, the Alphatrak (AT) tends to read higher than a human meter. But I've seen exceptions under 100. The two meters do read closer in lower numbers, those under 100. We suggest picking a meter and sticking to it, and not trying to compare the two.
 
Weruva and Tiki Cat might be on the food chart. If not, either search the boards for old posts that discuss these foods or post a new thread and ask for which varieties are low carb.
 
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