Welcome to FDMB.
The Purina "diabetic" food is not really formulated for diabetes. In fact, the pet food manufacturers were the object of a class action suit because their "prescription" food had nothing that required a prescription. The name is actually "dietetic" not diabetic. That's my long winded way of saying you're paying premium prices for a food that isn't formulated to address your cat's diabetes and does not contain premium ingredients. In fact, the dry food is VERY high in carbohydrates and contains my favorite ingredient -- powdered cellulose (aka sawdust).
This is a link to a wonderful website on
feline nutrition. The site is authored by a vet who has an active interest in the topic. There is also a link on the site to a
chart that contains a great deal of information about most of the canned cat foods available in the US. Then carb content is listed. There are any number of premium cat foods (e.g., Weruva, TikiCat, ZiwiPeak) that are listed so you have choices from the less expensive to the more expensive.
Unfortunately, vets do not get a great deal of training about nutrition during their training. Most of the information comes from pet food sales reps. Dry food is a terrible choice for cats. Cats have a limited thirst drive which over time, can have a negative effect on their kidneys. Canned food has a much higher moisture content. It helps to remember that in the wild, cats get most of their fluid from eating live prey. So, ditch the dry food. However, if you are not home testing, I would not eliminate the dry food until you can test your cat's blood glucose levels. 6u of insulin is a fairly high dose. If you eliminate the dry food, his numbers could drop without you're knowing what's going on and trying to deal with hypoglycemia without testing could be a problem. This is a link to our
information on home testing.
And if I've not already bombarded you with enough information, this is our link to a post on
helping us to help you. There are instructions on how to set up your signature. That information means we won't keep asking you the same questions about insulin, food, date of diagnosis, etc. over and over again. There's also information on how to set up a spreadsheet. We keep track of a cat's blood glucose testing on a spreadsheet so you can see trends and we can see what's going on and offer feedback.
Please let us know if you have questions. The members here are very generous with their time and knowledge.
