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lccobol

Member Since 2026
Hello, My baby is Mercury, I amL for now. She is 12yo 12 lbs, diagnosed the end of January. I called the vet in because I had many changes in my house and she was stressed. I noticed the back end was different. It seemd she had a hard time walking and jumping. I thought she got into a fight with one of the new cats. Turns out to be neuropathy. I was presribed Prozinc. I did get a DM dry food which my girl hated. That was the only food advice given. I googled all kinds of foods and bought so much that turns out is not good. I found much information through different forums (like the carb calulator). I bought all new food AGAIN. Mercury is a junkie. She likes her dry and cheap food. After trying a few things (one was young again it did not agreee with her gut at all) I ended up with Dr Elseys Clean Protein she loves it. I was uing it in place of the temptations she used to get before diagnoses.
I feed her 2x a day wet food with much water in it I rewet throughout the day so she can keep enjoying it. She grazes (I would say on a schedule of her own every few hours) All the wet I give her I used to calculator to try to keep at 5% carbs. She begs for dry (treats) usually 10am, 1pm and 3pm. I have read that dry is terrible but I thought that it was referring to a dry only diet. I have been trying to cut back and will try the 48 hour no dry today (no garantee, she already refussed to eat breakfast until I gave her a few kibbles)
I will try to attach the SS maybe someone can give more advise?
I'm trying my best with what I have learned (online, not via a professional)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/181GUy4YFUMR1r4MmQSzbXIvnmD0tnLpMQYCi_CJPP5c/edit?usp=sharing
 
For crunchies, offer some freeze dried treats or air dried raw. These are healthier than dry food. Dr. Elsey's is ok and often suggested to use to transition a cat to canned food but some diabetics are super carb sensitive.

Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food

Slowly increase the amount of canned food and decrease the dry food. A programmable timed feeder works well to give cats multiple small snacks throughout the day.

The food charts are here: Links to FOOD CHARTS

A newer US chart: Cat Food As-Fed Chart

For the neuropathy, you can treat that with methylcobalamin. LifeLink Zobaline is one product but expensive. There's a cheaper alternative:

posted by @Diane Tyler's Mom GA

the Vitacost brand another member told me about
Vitamin B-12 Methylcobalamin -- 5000 mcg - 100 Capsules

Same as Zobaline , but the Zobaline is so expensive as you know
This is the same thing
The only difference is the Zobaline has 200 mcgs of folic acid
So I bought the folic acid at the supermarket and crush it up and added it to the Vitacost brand
If you can't find the 200 mcg get the 400 mcg and cut it in half and crush it up and add it, some members didn't even add the folic acid and the neuropathy improved
The Vitacost brand is a capsule so just open it and pour the powder on the wet food
Has no taste, no need to crush it up, I still give it to Tyler every now and then and he has never tasted it in his food , I always add water to his food and just stir up the methyl B-12 good
I switched to the vitacost brand because the zobaline was too expensive,
Even though the vitacost brand is 5000 mcgs and the zobaline is 3000 mcgs
What they don't need they will pee out because it's water soluble.

The Zobaline is expensive for 60 pills, 30.00 some other places want 33.00
I used to use the Zobaline when I joined, then a member told me about the Vitacost brand .

It took about 2 months for Tyler to get back to walking normal, jumping on to the couch, running around
But every few weeks I did see a slight improvement
Some members didn't even add the folic acid to the vitacost brand and it still helped and the neuropathy was gone

https://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-vitamin-b-12-methylcobalamin-5000-mcg-100-capsules-6
Click to expand...

Your spreadsheet isn't viewable. You need to share / Publish it so that anyone can view it. The instructions on how to make it shareable is here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
 
Carb-Calculator.xlsx
This is the calculator I've been using. I had to get rid of a bunch of new food I bought. These calculations are far higher than any others I have seen including your as fed chart.
 
squeem3 said:
For crunchies, offer some freeze dried treats or air dried raw. These are healthier than dry food. Dr. Elsey's is ok and often suggested to use to transition a cat to canned food but some diabetics are super carb sensitive.

Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food

Slowly increase the amount of canned food and decrease the dry food. A programmable timed feeder works well to give cats multiple small snacks throughout the day.

The food charts are here: Links to FOOD CHARTS

A newer US chart: Cat Food As-Fed Chart

For the neuropathy, you can treat that with methylcobalamin. LifeLink Zobaline is one product but expensive. There's a cheaper alternative:



Your spreadsheet isn't viewable. You need to share / Publish it so that anyone can view it. The instructions on how to make it shareable is here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
Click to expand...
squeem3 said:
For crunchies, offer some freeze dried treats or air dried raw. These are healthier than dry food. Dr. Elsey's is ok and often suggested to use to transition a cat to canned food but some diabetics are super carb sensitive.

Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food

Slowly increase the amount of canned food and decrease the dry food. A programmable timed feeder works well to give cats multiple small snacks throughout the day.

The food charts are here: Links to FOOD CHARTS

A newer US chart: Cat Food As-Fed Chart

For the neuropathy, you can treat that with methylcobalamin. LifeLink Zobaline is one product but expensive. There's a cheaper alternative:



Your spreadsheet isn't viewable. You need to share / Publish it so that anyone can view it. The instructions on how to make it shareable is here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
Click to expand...
squeem3 said:
For crunchies, offer some freeze dried treats or air dried raw. These are healthier than dry food. Dr. Elsey's is ok and often suggested to use to transition a cat to canned food but some diabetics are super carb sensitive.

Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food

Slowly increase the amount of canned food and decrease the dry food. A programmable timed feeder works well to give cats multiple small snacks throughout the day.

The food charts are here: Links to FOOD CHARTS

A newer US chart: Cat Food As-Fed Chart

For the neuropathy, you can treat that with methylcobalamin. LifeLink Zobaline is one product but expensive. There's a cheaper alternative:



Your spreadsheet isn't viewable. You need to share / Publish it so that anyone can view it. The instructions on how to make it shareable is here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
Click to expand...
I think I got it?
squeem3 said:
For crunchies, offer some freeze dried treats or air dried raw. These are healthier than dry food. Dr. Elsey's is ok and often suggested to use to transition a cat to canned food but some diabetics are super carb sensitive.

Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food

Slowly increase the amount of canned food and decrease the dry food. A programmable timed feeder works well to give cats multiple small snacks throughout the day.

The food charts are here: Links to FOOD CHARTS

A newer US chart: Cat Food As-Fed Chart

For the neuropathy, you can treat that with methylcobalamin. LifeLink Zobaline is one product but expensive. There's a cheaper alternative:



Your spreadsheet isn't viewable. You need to share / Publish it so that anyone can view it. The instructions on how to make it shareable is here: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
Click to expand...
 
squeem3 said:
Your spreadsheet is viewable now.

I"m not familiar with ProZinc. Maybe @Suzanne & Darcy can take a look at your spreadsheet.
Click to expand...
Do I direct message? I have looked around a little but don't really know how things work here. I could use some extra eyes and a little guidance. The vet will up the dose as he says it's not that high
 
squeem3 said:
lccobol said:
noticed the back end was different. It seemd she had a hard time walking and jumping. I thought she got into a fight with one of the new cats. Turns out to be neuropathy
Click to expand...
Sorry for my delay. I have had a tragedy in my family with one of my beloved cats — and I haven’t been around. Are you currently giving either Zobaline or methylcobalamin for the neuropathy?
Click to expand...
 
I have to say, I did look at your spreadsheet last night and I was really troubled by the way the doses were increased so rapidly — by 1 unit at a time.
 
lccobol said:
Do I direct message? I have looked around a little but don't really know how things work here. I could use some extra eyes and a little guidance. The vet will up the dose as he says it's not that high
Click to expand...
I don’t know what your vet means by not that high. It’s definitely not what I would call “typical” for a cat to be on such a high dose of ProZinc. Most of the cats I help are at a dose of perhaps 2 units or less - but there are a few currently on higher doses. Now, having said that, my own cat had acromegaly, which os a high dose condition, so I am not at all unfamiliar with high dose kitties. We were up well over 40 units at one point (something I would never wish on anyone.)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Please tell me what you are currently feeding Mercury? And when are you feeding?
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Mostly fancy feast pate. The international site has a calculator that eliminated most of the food I bought. so wet food am and pm keeping with the 5% carbs. She doesn't eat it all at once so I wet it and leave it for her to snack every few hours. Tiki stix with zobaline a couple times a day. I have been weening off dry which is her fav. She gets maybe 10-15 kibbles of dr elsey if needing coaxing to eat or begs beyond my will power.
We had a rough night and she hadn't eaten or had insulin so today I thought I would try the international insulin to BG ratio. She got 1.75U tonight. I will monitor.
Her numbers today, being off insulin for 24 hours and then getting a light dose have been better. But there are so many ups and odwns I just never know.
 
lccobol said:
We had a rough night and she hadn't eaten or had insulin so today I thought I would try the international insulin to BG ratio. She got 1.75U tonight. I will monitor.
Click to expand...
I do not understand this. She had previously been on a dose of 5 units of insulin? That is what I see on the spreadsheet.
 
Diabeticcatinternational has a right dose/right time scale
Because the dose kept getting raised and her numbers kept going up I thought I would try it

They use the human meter and base dosage according to bg and need
According to their scale and Mercury’s bg, 1.75u was the dose to give.
Her bg (on the contour monitor) after 6 hours was 196. I have not seen a number anywhere near that low since this started
 
lccobol said:
Diabeticcatinternational has a right dose/right time scale
Because the dose kept getting raised and her numbers kept going up I thought I would try it

They use the human meter and base dosage according to bg and need
According to their scale and Mercury’s bg, 1.75u was the dose to give.
Her bg (on the contour monitor) after 6 hours was 196. I have not seen a number anywhere near that low since this started
Click to expand...
@Marje and Gracie @Wendy&Neko
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
@Marje and Gracie @Wendy&Neko
Click to expand...
Thanks, Suzanne.

@lccobol
Are you testing ketones every day?

DCC uses a sliding scale which we have found to not be in the best interest of the cat and getting him/her regulated.

I’m not seeing where you shot a 1.75u dose or where she dropped to 196. In general, human meters read less than pet meters.

We would not typically drop a dose that much. We call that a “rebound check” and you have to be careful because if she needs 5u bid, dropping the dose too far could put her at risk for ketones and potentially DKA.

The best thing to do is be sure you get a couple of tests during the evening cycle so if that’s when she is going low, we can see it. She’s not been dropping during the day so she could potentially be going low at night and bouncing during the day but without some pm cycle tests, that’s hard to discern.

Please be sure and make it a priority to test her urine ketones every day and let us know if you see any. And grab at least a +2 and before bed test in the pm cycle.

I won’t be on the board tomorrow so I’m hoping Wendy can check in and offer some thoughts on tomorrow’s am cycle.
 
I have not tested for ketones in a bit. I never catch her. The last time I was able to test because she hung it over the box.
Since Tues aftenoon she has been ravished. Constanly asking for food. I think she just wants the dry but I keep giving her a different wet or a tiki and she eats it.
 
lccobol said:
I have not tested for ketones in a bit. I never catch her. The last time I was able to test because she hung it over the box.
Since Tues aftenoon she has been ravished. Constanly asking for food. I think she just wants the dry but I keep giving her a different wet or a tiki and she eats it.
Click to expand...
It’s odd because her BGs right now are not so high to make her so hungry.

It is really important to try and catch her peeing for ketone check.
 
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