New to forum- can I control diabetes with diet alone?

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Ellen and Woody

Ellen and Woody

Member Since 2013
Hi all,
I was on this forum about 13 years ago with my cat Tucker, who is now gone. Today I found out that my cat Woody is diabetic, so here I am again! Luckily I knew the diabetes symptoms so I took him to the vet and he has a 326 BG. Here's my question. I'm on vacation, and my "vacation" vet says that since Woody is below 400, we can try to help him with diet alone to see if we can get his BG down below 250. The vet says his target range for diabetic cats getting insulin is 80-250, so he wants to try first by eliminating dry food and feeding only Science Diet canned M/D. If he falls to 250 or lower, we would just continue on the diet without insulin.

I called my "regular" vet and she says that we should start insulin right away. Her experience is that about 50% of newly diabetic cats given long-acting insulin (Glargine or Lantus) plus the M/D have gone into remission. He has only become diabetic in last couple months, when symptoms started (excess drinking). His BG was completely normal last April.

Q: should I try the M/D alone or do insulin plus M/D? Do you like M/D? How about Glargine or Lantus insulin?

Woody is a 9 year old long hair rescued sealpoint Siamese mix neutered male, perfect weight at 13 pounds. To add to the issue, he gets struvite crystals and has had most teeth pulled due to resorbtive disease. Vets say that M/D is okay for crystal cats, as it acidifies the urine.
 
Hi and welcome to FDMB.

The change in diet to a low carb/high protein diet will definitely help with lowering Tucker's BG levels. However, there are better food choices than M/D. Many Friskies and Fancy Feast canned foods have a lot less carbs than the M/D. You can find of list of cat foods with the protein & carb values here http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf. You want to look for foods that have 10 or less in the carbs column and a high number in the protein colum. Pates are usually lower in carbs than any food that has "gravy" in the name.

Some people are successful in managing FD with a diet change, however, most of the time insulin is needed especially at the beginning. The insulin will give the pancreas a boost and hopefully it will begin producing it's own insulin. Lantus, Levemir, PZI & Prozinc are good insulins and cats respond well to them. The first two are human insulins and the others are animal insulins. They all work well.

You should also learn to hometest. That is really the only way to determine how well the diet change and if needed, the insulin is working. You will use a human glucose meter to test. Many of us use the Walmart brand Relion meters. They are inexpensive, but work well. By testing before every shot if he is on insulin you will learn if it is safe to give the shot or need to adjust the dose. Even if you are not giving insulin, hometesting will tell you how well the diet change is working. These readings are usually more accurate than the ones taken at the vet's office. Vet stress can easily raise a cat's BG levels over 100 points.
 
I would say you can get there.... but you may need the insulin too.

I have a diet controlled diabetic cat.... It took me 100 days with lantus to get her there. We started with numbers similar to Woody.
The target range we strive for here is below 120 on a human glucometer.
I think your vet 's target range is too high.... those are regulation numbers.... not remission.

I would also avoid the Science Diet myself. It is not low carb , I think it's about 13%.
We strive for below 10% here....
Here is some good reading about proper cat diet. Many of us here quote Dr. Lisa all the time. http://www.catinfo.org/


This article on feline lower urinary tract disease may help.
 
Thanks to both for your quick response! It bugs me that Science Diet would put out a canned food for diabetics that has higher carbs than Fancy Feast! My cat has crystals so I cannot feed FF. I have been feeding Fussy Cat Urinary Tract canned and Pro Plan Urinary Tract canned plus Royal Canin SO Dry. I will see if those canned foods have lower carbs than M/D and just feed that without any dry food. We are buying a meter tomorrow. Is that list of meters on the forum good? I have experience testing my previous cat Tucker before every shot. I would NEVER shoot without taking a BG first! I think I used an Accu Check meter in the past. I think we will test his BG with no dry food/no insulin and then add insulin in a few days to hopefully bring him to a reasonable BG.
Are you both good with the Lantus/Glargine insulin?
THANK YOU!!!
Ellen
 
Welcome! I would encourage you to read up on that link for catinfo.org posted in a previous condo. My cat had struvite crystals and was on Royal Canin S/O dry when he turned diabetic. I am now feeding him Wellness turkey & chicken flavors and haven't had any crystal issues in over a year. You can also add a little more water to the canned food for good measure. I was upset that prescription foods don't appear to be all they're cracked up to be when I first started learning all of this, too.

We use the Relion Prime meter with good success. The test strips are the cheapest around - $9 for 50 and you can get them online. I buy 6 boxes at a time to get free shipping. If you shop using the links at the top of this page, a portion of the proceeds go into helping maintain this site.

Good luck to you! I hope we can help get you on track!
 
I was searching for others here who have dealt with similar issues and found this ......



http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-crystals-raw-diets-and-water
http://www.lbah.com/feline/flutd.htm
http://www.vetinfo.com/feline-bladder-crystals.html
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

Above are several websites that discuss urinary crystals and diet. It sounds like getting as much water as possible into Smokey's diet is key. In other words, add more than a little water to canned food. If you're not already using one, I'd also suggest a water fountain type of water bowl. It will encourage drinking.

None of these sites are pushing prescription diets. They all encourage a canned food diet that is grain free. This is exactly the kind of diet that we suggest. One site noted that avoiding foods that list by-products as the first or second ingredient should also be avoided and fish flavors are also discouraged as fish may contribute to crystal formation.

Just to underscore some of the problems with C/D (aside from it's carb count), here are the first several of the ingredients: Pork By-Products, Water, Pork Liver, Chicken, Rice, Corn Starch, Oat Fiber, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Fish Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor... Unfortunately, the quality of Hill's food is sorely lacking. If the websites are correct, the primary ingredient, pork by-products along with fish and gluten are not really helping to promote urinary health.
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