Lisa and Dr. Love
Member Since 2022
The big question is at the end, the wordy background is in the middle. Also, I was diagnosed with T2 myself in June of 2020, and was able to completely reverse my diagnosis within five months with a low carb/keto diet and no medication. I don't test my own BG anymore, I simply no longer eat things that provoke any significant insulin response, and I back it up with an A1c check at my yearly checkups. So I'm not completely uninformed re: T2 in general, but I'm still learning about dealing with it in cats.
I'm new to this forum, but Dr. Love's diagnosis is not new. However...one doesn't know what one doesn't know, and I'm suddenly finding out how much I don't know. We run the Old Pets Home, it seems...Jake the 17 yr old dog passed last year, and Agent Mooshie the 15 yr old cat passed a couple months ago. We're left with the 13 year old cats: dsh Dr. Love, who was diagnosed T2 two years ago, and ragdoll Queen Fancypants, who has no health issues. For several years life here has been a stream of medications and accommodations for various geriatric pet issues. We just deal. We've been owned by cats for over 40 years, and we're not likely to give that up anytime soon!
Dr. Love was diagnosed in Dec. 2020 after a heckin' big weight loss that didn't seem to have other issues surrounding it. He's a Yeti Cat; it's very difficult to observe him eating, drinking, doing his biz, because he prefers to be secretive and somewhat nocturnal. Which means we can miss stuff, even when we're trying to hawkeye him.
Our severely understaffed and overworked vet clinic may have been doing their best, and they might also have been working with what knowledge they have. They admitted him for a day and observed and cared for him, then gave him back with a few instructions. But...I was told to put him on dry diabetic formula food, and that I could supplement with a little bit of Fancy Feast in the pate style. I was told to let him free feed, which we've always done so no biggie there, but we do official feedings/bowl refreshing twice a day and he gets tiny amounts of Fancy Feast with his evening feeding. I was told to give him Vetsulin before his meal times. It was NOT suggested that I do home BG monitoring, and basic numbers/values weren't really explained to me. It was NOT suggested that I switch him to a wet food diet. I've never even heard of a "curve". His fructosamine and BG numbers didn't improve fast enough for the vet that was monitoring him, so she kept increasing his insulin dosage. We quickly began dealing with what we were sure were hypoglycemic episodes, but the vet techs would test his BG (usually the next day, after he was doing better) and declare him "fine". It wasn't until I managed to video an episode and email it to the vet (hello, 2020...couldn't actually go see the vet myself!) that I felt like I was being taken seriously. But eventually we got him to a good place, and he started putting on some weight and looking and acting better...as much better as a Yeti Cat ever acts!
Doc is now stable and has been for a good while. The vet clinic is satisfied with his numbers and health. We've got a system of care and stick to it, and it's probably as simple as it gets--perhaps too simple, but it lets us feed both cats the same diet at the same time, in different rooms. He's now a bit chubby, although we really don't see him eating a ton. He doesn't care much about treats. He submits to injections without any fuss. It's been a long time since we saw anything that smacked of a hypoglycemic episode, but we now know what to do if we see the onset of one.
So why mess with what appears to be success? Because a few days ago I began to question if a little chaotic kitten energy might be good for our household of geriatrics pets (go ahead, laugh at me). I questioned how to feed a diabetic cat and a kitten without the diabetic cat eating what he shouldn't, and vice versa, so I started to research, which led me to much info, including here. Y'ALL. In almost FORTY YEARS of keeping cats, NEVER have I ever been told that wet food is better than dry! NOT ONCE. In fact, I was told the opposite! Nor have I been told that free-feeding isn't optimal. But knowing what I know about reversing my own diagnosis with keto and intermittent fasting, and then learning about the carb levels of dry cat food, I'm beyond appalled. This is the equivalent of a human continuing to eat a high carb, highly-processed uncontrolled-portion diet and taking a pill...and being satisfied that the numbers are "controlled" even though diabetes is actually still wreaking havoc on other systems of the body because there are still too many carbs to process properly.
Because Doc's Vetsulin doses are now much lower (2 units in the am, 1 unit in the pm--which happens to be when he gets his little bit of wet food combined with the Hills dry diabetic food), I suspect that the dude's diagnosis could potentially be completely controlled with a twice per day wet food diet, or at least significantly improved. But I am completely overwhelmed on how to get there.
Even though I've read and read here, I am totally overwhelmed by all the information that's new to me. I'm willing to attempt to transition these clowns to an all-wet diet, but I honestly don't know how to get from where we are (dx controlled, but probably not in the healthiest way) to where I hope to go (dx controlled by improved diet and Doc's own body in a healthy manner) without causing issues in the process. Keeping the system simple and consistent is rather important because we have multiple people helping care for the cats, so the fewer variables to consider and communicate, the better.
Where the heck do I even start? And can someone help me simplify this process so I'm not trying to do all the things at once? I need this change to be accomplished in bite-sized chunks that my whole household can handle, if possible.
Thank you to anyone who can make sense of my rambling and help me out!
I'm new to this forum, but Dr. Love's diagnosis is not new. However...one doesn't know what one doesn't know, and I'm suddenly finding out how much I don't know. We run the Old Pets Home, it seems...Jake the 17 yr old dog passed last year, and Agent Mooshie the 15 yr old cat passed a couple months ago. We're left with the 13 year old cats: dsh Dr. Love, who was diagnosed T2 two years ago, and ragdoll Queen Fancypants, who has no health issues. For several years life here has been a stream of medications and accommodations for various geriatric pet issues. We just deal. We've been owned by cats for over 40 years, and we're not likely to give that up anytime soon!
Dr. Love was diagnosed in Dec. 2020 after a heckin' big weight loss that didn't seem to have other issues surrounding it. He's a Yeti Cat; it's very difficult to observe him eating, drinking, doing his biz, because he prefers to be secretive and somewhat nocturnal. Which means we can miss stuff, even when we're trying to hawkeye him.
Our severely understaffed and overworked vet clinic may have been doing their best, and they might also have been working with what knowledge they have. They admitted him for a day and observed and cared for him, then gave him back with a few instructions. But...I was told to put him on dry diabetic formula food, and that I could supplement with a little bit of Fancy Feast in the pate style. I was told to let him free feed, which we've always done so no biggie there, but we do official feedings/bowl refreshing twice a day and he gets tiny amounts of Fancy Feast with his evening feeding. I was told to give him Vetsulin before his meal times. It was NOT suggested that I do home BG monitoring, and basic numbers/values weren't really explained to me. It was NOT suggested that I switch him to a wet food diet. I've never even heard of a "curve". His fructosamine and BG numbers didn't improve fast enough for the vet that was monitoring him, so she kept increasing his insulin dosage. We quickly began dealing with what we were sure were hypoglycemic episodes, but the vet techs would test his BG (usually the next day, after he was doing better) and declare him "fine". It wasn't until I managed to video an episode and email it to the vet (hello, 2020...couldn't actually go see the vet myself!) that I felt like I was being taken seriously. But eventually we got him to a good place, and he started putting on some weight and looking and acting better...as much better as a Yeti Cat ever acts!
Doc is now stable and has been for a good while. The vet clinic is satisfied with his numbers and health. We've got a system of care and stick to it, and it's probably as simple as it gets--perhaps too simple, but it lets us feed both cats the same diet at the same time, in different rooms. He's now a bit chubby, although we really don't see him eating a ton. He doesn't care much about treats. He submits to injections without any fuss. It's been a long time since we saw anything that smacked of a hypoglycemic episode, but we now know what to do if we see the onset of one.
So why mess with what appears to be success? Because a few days ago I began to question if a little chaotic kitten energy might be good for our household of geriatrics pets (go ahead, laugh at me). I questioned how to feed a diabetic cat and a kitten without the diabetic cat eating what he shouldn't, and vice versa, so I started to research, which led me to much info, including here. Y'ALL. In almost FORTY YEARS of keeping cats, NEVER have I ever been told that wet food is better than dry! NOT ONCE. In fact, I was told the opposite! Nor have I been told that free-feeding isn't optimal. But knowing what I know about reversing my own diagnosis with keto and intermittent fasting, and then learning about the carb levels of dry cat food, I'm beyond appalled. This is the equivalent of a human continuing to eat a high carb, highly-processed uncontrolled-portion diet and taking a pill...and being satisfied that the numbers are "controlled" even though diabetes is actually still wreaking havoc on other systems of the body because there are still too many carbs to process properly.
Because Doc's Vetsulin doses are now much lower (2 units in the am, 1 unit in the pm--which happens to be when he gets his little bit of wet food combined with the Hills dry diabetic food), I suspect that the dude's diagnosis could potentially be completely controlled with a twice per day wet food diet, or at least significantly improved. But I am completely overwhelmed on how to get there.
Even though I've read and read here, I am totally overwhelmed by all the information that's new to me. I'm willing to attempt to transition these clowns to an all-wet diet, but I honestly don't know how to get from where we are (dx controlled, but probably not in the healthiest way) to where I hope to go (dx controlled by improved diet and Doc's own body in a healthy manner) without causing issues in the process. Keeping the system simple and consistent is rather important because we have multiple people helping care for the cats, so the fewer variables to consider and communicate, the better.
Where the heck do I even start? And can someone help me simplify this process so I'm not trying to do all the things at once? I need this change to be accomplished in bite-sized chunks that my whole household can handle, if possible.
Thank you to anyone who can make sense of my rambling and help me out!
