New Member

Status
Not open for further replies.
Ginny & Alex

Ginny & Alex

Very Active Member
Hello,
This is my first post.

I have 2 kitties (Alex and Adurey) that are litter mates. They will be 11 yrs old in August and Alex, my pretty boy, was diagnosed with diabetes at the beginning of March. With my vet's advice, I've changed his diet and he is eating Hill's Science Diet WD (along with Audrey because I don't know how to separate the food). The biggest issue I have with Alex is that he is a very tempermental cat. He hates the cage, the car and the female vet that we used to see. He hisses and growls and makes terrible noises and many people are afraid of him now. After being banned from that office, I found a vet that makes house calls and we've only been with him about a year. Our second visit revealed that Alex is diabetic. The diet doesn't seem to be making a noticeable difference in his frequent drinking, his hunger and his increased urine output. So now, the vet wants to do a glucose curve to determine how much insulin is going to be needed. This means Alex has to stay at the vet's house for at least 24 hours and I keep wondering how accurate these numbers are going to be if Alex is stressed to the max (and me too, but that shouldn't effect his numbers).

Alex is a sweet kitty with my husband and me most of the time. But sometimes, quite unprovoked, he'll turn around and hiss and growl and swat at us.

Just curious if anybody else has experience with a cat with such a disposition.

P.S. I did interview another vet whose offices are close by and he agreed to see Alex at least once, but said he wouldn't put his staff nor himself in danger to treat Alex. I told him I didn't expect him to. Then, he said if Alex wouldn't let him treat him that he would recommend I euthanize him right away. That did not go over well with me.

I'm a basket case so if anyone has any words of wisdom, I'd love to hear them.

Ginny and Alex
 
Welcome. Most of use caretakers here test our cat's blood glucose levels at home with a human meter. That way you do not have to go through the difficulty, expense, unrepresentative BG measurements caused by stress. I use an a Maxima meter and an Embrace talking meter.
 
Hi Ginny and welcome to FDMB.

Will Alex allow you to handle him? If so, another option is to start on a low dose of insulin, such as 1 unit and you learn to hometest and do your own curve.

Hometesting is something we highly recommend for various reasons. The first is to make sure that it is safe to give the dose of insulin and second, determine if the dose is working. By learning to hometest, you also eliminate the need for having the vet test the glucose to see if the dose needs to be changed. Usually the reading the vet gets anyway is not accurate due to "vet stress" raising the cats glucose levels as much as 100 points. You will be able to do your own curves and provide your vet more accurate data.

Another suggestion is to also change his diet. He does not need to be on prescription food. Most cats do not like it, it is expensive and it is not as healthy as the vet wants you to believe. Most of us feed our cats regular canned foods such as Friskies or Fancy Feast. Also if he is on WD dry food, that will also keep his glucose levels high. All dry foods are higher in carbs and it is very difficult to regulate a cat that has that as part of its diet.
 
Breathe, Ginny, breathe. We have ways to make this much easier on you and Alex. We test our cats at home, so no scary visits to the vet. We use human glucometers: Video for hometesting We have taught hundreds of people how to do it over the internet. We would love to teach you. Once you test at home, you can do your own curves (more accurate - less stress) and you will know before every shot how much insulin to give.

I assume you mean Hills WD wet? It is 26% carbs: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html We feed our cats under 8-10% carbs. It makes a huge difference in their blood glucose levels. A downward difference.

Let us know how we can help you. This is very doable. We were all terrified at the beginning, but knowing how the insulin works and how to best help your sweet Alex will make you feel so much more in control.
 
Hi Ginny! Welcome to FDMB!

I'd say you definitely need to change his diet before you start him on insulin. Hills W/D is extremely high in carbs and not appropriate for a diabetic cat. Are you feeding the W/D canned or dry? The canned W/D is really awful but the dry W/D is horrendous for a diabetic cat. A low carb wet diet (less than 10% carbs) is recommended. Is Alex overweight?
 
Wow! You guys are fast! I thought I would wait for a couple of days to see repsonses, but within minutes you're already advising me.

Alex is chowing down on both dry and wet Science Diet Hill's WD. That was the vet's recommendation for a diabetic cat. I'm confused which seems to be a large part of this disease.
 
We are going to recommend you change the food. BUT not until you are testing. When we switched our Oliver over from dry to wet, his numbers went down 100 points overnight. If we had not been testing and just given the same dose from the day before, he would have hypoed.

Here is a great website by a FD vet: www.catinfo.org She explains why wet lo carb is best. Unfortunately, many vets just haven't done much research into food. They get a couple of workshops on pet nutrition, often put on by the catfood manufacturers.

We see so many cats that benefit overnight from a switch to wet lo carb. It works!
 
Ginny

A curve won't tell you what dose your cat needs. Why? Because the body needs time to adjust to insulin, and doses need to be built up slowly. So teh best way to start is at 1.0 units given twice a day of an insulin like lantus (glargine), levemir (detrimer) or Prozinc PZi. Monitor blood glucose levels at home and then adjust dose upward by maximum 0.5 units at a time until you see the numbers you want (we'll help you with that if your vet isn't helpful).

I know this is tough having unhelpful vets but we can help you, and hopefully you can bring one of your vets along with you.
 
Hi Ginny, and, of course, you too, sweet Alex,

GinnyClark said:
Just curious if anybody else has experience with a cat with such a disposition.
Click to expand...

Yes, and her name was Gizmo -- aka Cujo, Gizzie Blair, and the Spawn of Satan. She was an 8-week-old black furry gift from my co-workers on June 15, 1989. And, she was hell on paws from day one... For 17 of her 18 years, she held the dubious distinction of being the most ornery kidimal in her vet's practice. With the exception of her vet and, Helena, vet tech extraordinaire, most of the other techs wore elbow-length falconer type gloves to handle her. And, she was declawed in front... Still had all of her teeth, though...

She was diagnosed diabetic and DKA about 6 weeks after her 14th Birthday and we danced for four more years. Diabetes didn't take her. Being the human equivalent of 90, she simply decided her work here was done. And, I miss her to this day...

She was a one-person cat and I was privileged to be her person. And, the bond that developed between us after she was diagnosed extra-sweet was beyond anything I could ever imagine. (And, trust me, Ginny, I have a great imagination!) She understood I was helping her feel better and let me do ear pokes, slide ketone strips under her buns, and give her shots. It wasn't always easy, particularly in the beginning; but, once we got the hang of it, we were good to dance.

It is most interesting and rewarding sharing life with a sugar cat.




Welcome to the place you never wanted to be; but, will be blessed for having found.

Encouraging hugs for you all,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...
 
Ginny, just to clarify--Alex is not on insulin yet, right? Because that makes a huge difference on whether or not you can change his diet right away. If he's not on insulin, you can start making the change immediately. It's much better to change the diet before he starts insulin. A change in his diet might even eliminate the need for insulin.

Either way, home testing is going to be key whether he needs insulin or not, because you need to figure out how high his blood glucose is outside of the vet's office. And there's no point wasting all that money to have the vet do curves that you can easily do yourself.

The reason why I asked if Alex was overweight was that W/D is usually prescribed for weight loss. It's extremely high in fiber and filler and very hard on a cat's pancreas. (I believe dry weight loss food is what caused Bandit's diabetes). Bandit eats the classic flavors of Fancy Feast http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm, which is what my vet recommended and he is now diet controlled.
 
Just to summarize:

Alex was given a shot of ketamine so the vet could acutally do the initial blood draw. His BG was 439. Vet had me start him eating Hill's WD. He's been on that diet for at least 2 weeks. We have not started any insulin however my vet is suggesting ProZinc (?) He's been chowing down on both the wet and dry WD like there's no tomorrow. The bags and cans even say they are for diabetic cats, but I guess you can't believe everything you read.

I'm supposed to take Alex to the vet on Sunday night so he can do the glucose curve, but after the responses I've received within the last couple of hours, I'm thinking this might not be my best bet.

I think I hear you recommending
1) that I change to a low-carb canned-food only diet (no dry food?). I assume this won't be bad for Audrey, the other cat. Should I be limiting the amounts? Like I said earlier, he is a hungry boy. How long should he stay on this diet before I start monitoring? Or before I consider giving insulin?
2) start home monitoring--depending on results
3) start giving insulin--always twice a day?

Thanks.

Deb, You already made me cry, but that's OK. It's been an emotional roller coaster the last few weeks.
 
Yes, I would change to wet lo carb for both cats. Unregulated diabetics don't process their food well, so they are literally starving. It would be good to feed him more than usual and I like the idea of dividing it into several small meals to help support his pancreas.

I would start testing asap. Then you will know how the diet change is impacting his bg levels and whether he needs insulin.

PZI is a nice mild insulin and, if he needs insulin, will be a good choice.
 
fwiw my Mousie used to have a similar disposition. still does to a degree i guess. she doesn't try to kill me at least but she has taught me my boundaries that's for sure. :-)

I had never handled Mousie prior to her diabetes diagnosis actually. Yes, she had lived in my house since she hurt her leg and we trapped her but she wasn't necessarily thrilled with the idea. She eventually got to where she would be in the same room with us but god forbid we try to touch her.

but then things changed. she suddenly got close, talked to us alot and followed my fiance around everywhere he went. we figured out that she was his best friend suddenly because he would toss her food every time she cried to him. LOL!!

problem was she was eating all the time but shrinking so somehow we managed to get her to the vet's. i can't even remember how we got her in the carrier though. i think we backed her into a corner with the door open on it.

and we got the diabetes diagnosis. when the vet called to tell me, he actually asked if i had a nicer cat i could bring in for him to teach me how to do injections on so i took my Spazzie in for that. she had a much better disposition :-)

but reality was that Mousie's life depended on me. if i didn't "man up" and convince her that i was indeed bigger than her, she would get very sick and die. i mean come on, here i was about 140lbs and she was what, maybe 7lbs? how in the world could i not handle it i figured. sooooooooooo, for the first several weeks, i chased her 'round and 'round and 'round the house, cursing her and my fiance from time to time, getting annoyed and frustrated and all that.

buttttttttttttttt, i won her over. while to this day i can't pick her up and hold her, unless medically necessary :lol: , i have no problems at all testing her glucose levels as many times as i want every day or giving her her shots every day. reality is she probably thinks she won since she won't let me pick her up and we just let her believe that :-) what's the harm in it i figure

as a matter of fact, she is one of the kitties shown getting tested in the hometesting tips and tricks sticky in the health links part of the forum here. and mind you, that video was taken probably about 3-4 years ago now :-)
 
GinnyClark said:
I think I hear you recommending
1) that I change to a low-carb canned-food only diet (no dry food?). I assume this won't be bad for Audrey, the other cat. Should I be limiting the amounts? Like I said earlier, he is a hungry boy. How long should he stay on this diet before I start monitoring? Or before I consider giving insulin?
2) start home monitoring--depending on results
3) start giving insulin--always twice a day?
Click to expand...

A low carb wet diet will benefit both cats! It can prevent a lot of future health problems for Audrey. My cat Gabby didn't have diabetes but the dry diet caused kidney problems with her later in life. Dry food can also cause irritable bowel syndrome and urinary tract infections. Here's a good link that explains the benefit of a wet diet: www.catinfo.org . You can feed him as much food as he wants right now...if he has numbers that high and eating that w/d food on top of his body is probably starving. How much do Audrey and Alex weigh? That's usually how you decide how much canned to give. If you can, start monitoring right away. If you don't see any drops in numbers in the next few days, he should start insulin. And with numbers as high as his, you should pick up some Ketone urine test strips as well.

Insulin in cats should always be dosed twice a day because they have very high metabolisms. But let's hope we see a big drop with the diet change! He might only need insulin for a short time.
 
They each weigh around 10 pounds. Weighing them is getting harder and harder to do also because they are suspicious of me since that last vet home visit. He did blood work on both cats and it was traumatic for us all--both cats, my husband and me. Probably the vet too!
 
GinnyClark said:
They each weigh around 10 pounds. Weighing them is getting harder and harder to do also because they are suspicious of me since that last vet home visit. He did blood work on both cats and it was traumatic for us all--both cats, my husband and me. Probably the vet too!
Click to expand...

If 10 lbs is normal for Alex, then I would say they should each have about either one 5.5 oz can of food (friskies size), or two 3 oz cans (fancy feast size). Because Alex is probably so hungry, it's ok to feed him more than that, like 2 1/2 3 oz cans, or 1 1/4 5.5 oz.

That's if you're feeding Fancy feast or friskies. If you end up choosing a food that's higher in calories like EVO or Wellness, you might feed a little less.

But I'm just saying this as a guideline. Every cat is different, so go by how hungry they are. Wet food can be left out for up to 12 hrs, or longer if you freeze it or add water, so you could just leave some out and see how much they want to eat. If they start gaining too much weight, cut it back a bit.
 
Just wanted to say hello and welcome. My cat Max was diagnosed in January and I was right where you are now. I'm sure you're already figuring out that you've come to the best place for help with your diabetic cat. I knew next to nothing at first and was overwhelmed and stressed. This forum and following the great advice/protocol really helped me turn Max's health around. I think a long, long time ago when not a lot was known, Science Diet W/D was recommended for diabetic cats. Some vets are old school when it comes to feline diabetes and are not aware of the new research and advances (hard to know everything when you're treating multiples species and ailments). As others have said, a wet low carb diet is actually a lot better for diabetic cats and all cats in general. Before I changed Max's diet to wet low carb, his numbers were high and unregulated on more and more insulin. He really turned a corner though when we went to only low carb wet food. I was uncertain at first about changing the diet from what the vet recommended, but it has sure paid off. Since Alex isn't on insulin yet, like others have recommended, I would get his diet changed right away. Breathe and take things a step at a time. Read all you can, ask questions (we all want to help), learn to test, and start administering insulin if needed. Max was on ProZinc but Levemir and Lantus are really good too. If you're happy with the vet that does house calls and he/she is willing to listen and work with you (e.g. diet, home testing), you can stick with them or you can look around for a new vet.
 
Good morning All,

I've read and re-read your posts and watched the video on hometesting. Buddy sure did sit still for that poke. I tried to touch Alex's ears last night and he got hissy with me, but I'm still inclined to give it a try. This morning I picked him up and held him like a baby while my husband rubbed his ears. He was OK-ish with that.

I'm going to be out of town this weekend (thought I'd visit my parents before we actually start the insulin). Since I don't know if Alex will allow us to give shots, finding someone to do this in our absence might be close to impossible. I really don't want to make any changes before we go away, even changing food b/c I want to be around to see what happens. Sunday night, however, I plan to switch over to a wet-only low-carb diet.

I would like to get a reading or two while he's still eating the WD. Now, my next questions.

When and how often do I need to test? Keep in mind I work away from home Monday thru Friday as I'm sure many of you do.
I also see that Julia has a spreadsheet and see headings like +1, +2, at the top. Can someone fill me in on what this means?

I went to the glossary and see many of the meanings, but I'm still trying to figure out what OTJ means.

Thanks,
Ginny (and Alex)
 
You need to test before every shot to be sure it is safe to give insulin in the dose you have planned. You need to get other mid cycle numbers also. Some people give the insulin a couple hours before they leave in the am and get an test before they go. Some people get a test as they walk in the door. Some get several tests in after the pm shot but before bed. Some set the alarm so they can get a mid cycle test overnight every so often. You have to figure out what will work with your schedule. And on the weekends, get more tests.

+2 means 2 hours after the shot, +6 means six hours etc.

OTJ means in remission or off the juice (off insulin)

I would start testing asap whether you can change diet or not. All data is helpful.
 
When I hear W/D I think about my Patches, dx'd '90 and lived for 4 years with diabetes and only being able to eat W/D, canned and dry. The knowledge was not out there yet about canned food only and I think of those 4 years that he could have been eating tasty canned food instead of that junk W/D. I lost him to kidney failure at 16. Next up came Baby and after 1 1/2 years of diabetes we got internet and found FDMB in the fall of '98. She was so vicious to handle at the vet they had to gas her down. I learned to hometest after catching 3 hypos starting and for the next 4 years Baby never saw the vet and never came even close to a hypo situation again. I'm not sure if it was '99 or 2000 that it was learned that dry is high in carbs, take away, feed canned only. I was well into testing so I just removed all dry and she dropped from needing 3 units to 1 unit 2x a day (b.i.d.) Baby had been adopted by me so the only age I know of was she was at least 18 1/2 when I lost her to heart failure. We had 5 1/2 great years treating diabetes because of canned food, hometesting, and learning it all on FDMB.

Hope, Mishka and Vinnie all adopted by me because they are diabetics. Hope is in remission possibly because of her heart condition. She had been getting insulin for over 4 years when she went OTJ and found to have Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. She will have her 9th anniversary with me in Sept. Vinnie is OTJ because of canned food and started on Lantus. A year later Vinnie is still OTJ. Mishka is still diabetic and gets insulin b.i.d. and will celebrate her 8th year of being diabetic this Oct.

Throw that W/D out the window. The only product in my mind that Hill's makes that is worth a hoot is their A/D for sick and debilitated cats. Even the cheapest canned food is better than any dry you could buy.
 
GinnyClark said:
I've read and re-read your posts and watched the video on hometesting. Buddy sure did sit still for that poke. I tried to touch Alex's ears last night and he got hissy with me, but I'm still inclined to give it a try. This morning I picked him up and held him like a baby while my husband rubbed his ears. He was OK-ish with that.
Click to expand...

In the beginning, Bandit would fight me to do his blood tests. I ended up getting a basket about his size and wrapping him in the blanket and placed him in the basket while I did the test. I rubbed a little antibiotic + pain relief on his ears after and gave him a low carb treat (we use the Beefeaters freeze-dried chicken from PetSmart) after each test. After a few weeks, he got used to it and stopped fighting me. Alex will come around, he just needs to get used the testing. Rubbing his ears and calming him is a great way to get him relaxed. I'm glad your husband is helping you out!

I work two jobs and go to grad school, so my schedule during the week was test before the AM shot, work all day, test before the PM shot, then test 4 hours after the PM shot and 6 hours after (the 6 hour test is important because that is when the insulin peaks). On the weekends, I did a curve (testing every 2 hours in the AM cycle).

Bandit went OTJ (off the juice, or into remission) at the end of this past summer. Never could have done it without home testing!
 
Well, I am now armed with glucometer, lancets and test strips.
On my way home from work, I may stop at Kroger and buy a few cans of Fancy Feast (since that seems to be popular on this site).

If the Fancy Feast does have a positive effect, how long will it take to show up in the testing? Days, a week, two weeks?
And what BG level requires that he gets insulin?

I really do appreciate everyone's help so far.

Ginny
 
Diet change can take a few days...

Regarding when to decide to give insulin, that is a bit of a grey area...200 for certain, perhaps as low as 150 depending on the insulin, the cat, and whether the human is proficient at testing :)
 
It's that "Every Cat is Different" thing. With Oliver, it was overnight - his numbers went down 100 points. With others, it takes a week or so.

In general, a cat off insulin is in the range of 40-120, in double digits most of the time. A cat on insulin can be considered regulated if he is in the 200s at shot time and the 100s at nadir.
 
Don't forget that Fancy Feast CLassic is the one you want. The others with gravy etc are high carbs so avoid them. Choose the classic series in Fancy Feast or the pate in Friskies.

Write down the numbers that were just posted as a reference as to whether or not to give a shot. It will really help.

Also read about the shed and how once it fills up then the need for insulin injections goes down. My cat started on a high dose of insuliin (starting high is not recommended) and his shed filled up quickly. Add that to a change in diet to canned high protein low carb food, then his need for insulin went way down.

Read about hypos so that you have everything you need in the event that your cat has a hypo event. Because of what I learned on this forum, i was prepared when my cat had a seizure. he had no symptoms before the seizure.
 
Welcome to our wonderful FDMB family. I hope you picked up low carb Fancy Feast... Nothing with Gravy, rice, veggies,.... See our Janet and Binky's list... I'ts probably available on our home page....

When my Charlie was DX with Diabetes... the vet actually wished me luck and said he'd pray for me, as Charlie had attitude... and also liked to scratch, bite.. hiss and then scream.... When at the vets... people also added the heavy leather gloves, and I hated how they'd hold him down....

But I listened to someone from FDMB... I sat and told him what was going on... please believe me, I thought he spoke Russian (JK) but as he's a Russian Blue, I knew he wouldn't listen... they told me to tell him everything I was doing... The first time I gave him his insulin... I put him on the island in the kitchen, I laid him on a pink towel.... He watched me roll the insulin to mix it... he watched me draw the unit, and then turned away when I pulled his skin up in a tent and inserted the needle and pushed in the syringe.... I'd done it.. He looked at me. I hugged him... He let me. I kissed his head as I put him down. He was twelve when DX and 18 when he died from a blood clot to the brain, we rushed him to the ER Vet and there eased his journey to Rainbow Bridge... He was the most loving, and patient cat with his treatment. Those that called him the Devil's Spaun, could never believe how becoming 'extra sweet' changed my Charlie. I could test his ears... no problem... He felt better when I poked him with the sticky thing..... (his words not mine).

I’m A Cat
©2004 by Carol Notermann

I’m a cat, and I have attitude, at least that’s what I’m told.
But last year, didn’t feel too well, but not because I’m old.
I was just a little tired, really hungry, thirsty all the time.
I’m not old you understand, but a little past my prime.

I used to take such great delight in chasing everything.
But for a while, I simply watched when Mommy played with string.
My Mommy took me to the vet, and really seemed quite scared.
The words he said upset her, but I’m so glad she cared.

She came home and told our family that things would have to change.
She’s moved their food to way up high. It’s past my jumping range.
And now she’s giving me, in my own dish, a different type of food
I sniffed, it didn’t smell the same, I showed my attitude.

But Mommy sat and talked to me. She explained the reasons why
So I’ll make her very happy, and I’ll eat it and not cry.
And then she went on line and looked up a bunch of things
She found a site, she likes a lot, that comfort to her brings.

It’s called FDMB, whatever that could mean.
And since she’s found those people, her smile again does beam.
I’m getting shots and blood tests, and trying to be good.
Cause when she says I’m better, she always knocks on wood.

There’s this thing that’s called a” h*n*ym**n” that she so wants to see
But prays that I can regulate, whatever that may be
She says she’ll just keep keeping on and I should not be afraid
She cuddles me and pets me lots, when in her lap I’ve laid.

I’m a cat, and I have attitude, at least that’s what I’m told.
But now I feel much better, as I told you, I’m not old.
In fact, I look so pretty now, my coat a shinny one
I think today, I owe myself, a long nap in the sun.

(The little cat lies sleeping, in his spot right in the sun
His Mommy’s on FDMB, and talks to everyone.
And Mommy baked a catnip cake, to celebrate year one!)
 
Fancy Feast Classic or Fancy Feast Elegant Medley's? I hear most of you saying Classic, but Janet & Binky's nutritional info says Elegant Medleys.

Thanks, Carol, for your welcome and your story about Charlie. It gives me hope.
 
Yes, you want the Classic since they are lower is carbs than the others including the Medleys. J&B has tow different tables (and links), one for new data from manufacturers she has obtained and the other for older data. The Medleys are new and are on the table for the newer data.
 
Hi Ginny, and, of course, you too, sweet Alex,

Here are two links to Janet & Binky's famous food charts (both old and new). Just look under the carb column and pick anything under 10%, okay?

New:
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

Old:
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodOld.html

Hope this helps!

Encouraging hugs for you and yours, dear Ginny,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...

PS: I'm sorry I made you cry the other day... Extra hugs just for you...
 
It was a two-person effort, but hubby and I tested Alex this evening. It was only 1 1/2 hours after he ate, but I just wanted to see if we could prick his ear and get enough to regiester on the meter.

His BG was 437.

Now we'll feed Fancy Feast Classics and test again in a few days. In the meanwhile, I'll explain to my vet that I don't want to do the glucose curve in his office and they we'll try the "home" approach.
 
Dear Ginny and your helpful hubby, and, of course, you too, sweet Alex,

I'm so proud of all of you, I actually have goosebumps!!!

GinnyClark said:
It was a two-person effort, but hubby and I tested Alex this evening. It was only 1 1/2 hours after he ate, but I just wanted to see if we could prick his ear and get enough to regiester on the meter.

His BG was 437.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Vampire Club!!! Bet you never, ever thought you'd hear those words, did you? ;o)

Much love and countless encouraging hugs for you all,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...
 
So I went out a bought some Fancy Feast Classics and Elegant Medleys and they were a definite hit. Right now, I think Alex would eat anything. I think Julia recommended maybe 2 (or a little bit more) cans of the 3oz cans daily for each cat.

This morning, they woke me up (both of them) really early talking about breakfast. This has never happened . I've always had some dry available for them to "snack" on. What should I do?
 
I use an automatic feeder. The PetSafe 5 is the only one we found that the cats couldn't break into....I set it so Niko can have his breakfast early in the am without waking me up. With a diabetic cat, you can set it to go off during the night - long enough before your am test that it won't be influenced by food - but late enough they will be happy with a midnight snack. Small frequent meals seem to support the pancreas, so feeding overnight can be helpful too.

You can add water to the food in the feeder or you can freeze it and let it thaw out. I use a silicone muffin pan whose cups are exactly the right size for a can of FF. The frozen pucks pop out and I put them back in the freezer in a plastic bag, then put them in the feeder before I go to bed.
 
so you're recommending feeding more often, but not more than 6 or 7 ounces a day?
Alex is not overweight and has probably lost a little bit weight.
 
You can decide what you want to feed over a day and night, and just divide it into several small meals. With new diabetics who are not overweight, feeding a little more may be a good idea. When unregulated, their bodies are not metabolizing the food as well as when they are regulated so they can be very hungry. When diabetic, we increased Oliver to 2.5 - 3 cans of FF a day. He was overweight and not active. When he got regulated, we reduced it back to 2 cans daily.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top