New user at wits end

Adam&Miley

Adam&Miley

Member Since 2025
Good morning.
Honestly, I’ve hit a brick wall and am miserable. My cat is 13 and has been diabetic for almost two years. Currently, she was at 7 units of Prozinc AM & PM but now has been upped to 8 units AM & PM. She constantly looks for food, has been yowling almost non-stop and scratching at my door, and drinking almost a liter of water a day with the urination to go along with it. I’ve hit my limits financially and just with my mental health. I don’t know what to do. She’s sweet and receptive to affection but as soon as she isn’t distracted it’s pawing to get out of the room and yowling non-stop. I’m losing sleep over it, stressing constantly, and I don’t know how to help. Weight loss hasn’t helped regulate her, and she was fine for a while before a UTI threw a wrench in everything. Now, for months, we have not been able to regulate it. Does anyone else feel this hopeless and exhausted?
Also, in case it comes up, she’s normally in my room only as we also have a dog who is resource protective and my cat always goes crazy looking for food. Even at the crinkle of a bag she goes ballistic yowling which causes the pup to get aggressive. This has led to fights in the past.
 

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Oh poor baby and poor you! It sounds like her blood glucose numbers must be really high, based upon the symptoms and behaviors you describe. Are you testing her BG at home? Is she on a low carbohydrate wet diet at home? Those are two of the most important things to do for a diabetic cat.
 
She is on a dry food that is specialized for diabetics who are prone to urine crystals. She was having UTIs frequently until we swapped her over. She refused to let them do her last glucose curve but they did do her fructose which was very high. I’m honestly so defeated. I love this cat to pieces, but I don’t know how much more I can do before I snap. She has been yowling since 2 AM this morning almost non-stop.
 
That is very hard on her. Wow. You need to have a way of monitoring her blood glucose as home. A fructosamine test only gives you an average of her BG over about two weeks before the test was drawn. Averages are not useful. The fructosamine test only useful in initially diagnosing the diabetes. Once the cat is on insulin you need to know how low the dose is taking the cat during each 12 hour cycle. If she absolutely will not allow you to test her BG via an ear prick, then a Libre continuous glucose monitor could be applied. It’s much easier, less stress on the cat and cheaper if you simply apply them yourself. We have people who can help with that too.

As for doing curves at the vet, those are pretty useless too. A vet curve is just a one cycle look at where the cat’s BG is on one single day. Also, vet stress can significantly increase blood glucose levels. Just because a cat is low or high on one day during one 12 hour cycle does not mean it has the same BG on a different day. The cat could also be reacting to lower (or perceived lower) numbers and be bouncing where there is a period of sustained higher glucose numbers. The only way to know what the insulin is really doing and to get her regulated is to either test at home or monitor at home with a Libre sensor.
 
Dry food is about the worst food that can be fed to a cat with urinary tract problems as it is so dehydrating. It is unequivocally too high in carbs for a diabetic cat and only serves to raise BG even further. Almost all dry foods, because of the way they are formulated, are high carb. The only exceptions to this are Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein kibble and Young Again Zero Mature. Here’s a link to a website written by a veterinarian. It has very useful information on feeding our cats, feline lower urinary tract disease and loads more information. Everything she says about feeding low carb and feeding wet food goes double for our diabetic cats.

Cat Urinary Tract Diseases: Cystitis, Urethral Obstruction, Urinary Tract Infection

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition – Common Sense. Healthy Cats.
 
And I do want to say I am sorry this is happening to you. You are extremely stressed out and I am sorry. Just know that a lot of people have been where you are now and there are helpful things that can be done to improve your cat’s health and save your sanity. It may seem like that’s not possible at this point, but it is.
 
Any recommendations on wet foods that won’t break the bank? I saw some foods like Tiki Cat, but with two senior cats it’s going to be nearly $200 a month feeding them both wet food that high quality. Almost feel like I’d have more luck, and be more cost efficient, just making my own or something.
 
We have quite a few members who do make their own cat food using a nutritional completer like EZ Complete or Superior Feline or Alnutrin.

Let’s see what Diane says (I tagged her). I do recall that she has a food recommendation that has worked for a lot of people I understand about the food costs! I feed high quality food to my cats and I have a lot of them. I think it generally pays itself in less veterinary expenses and healthier cats. Of course, I live at the vet anyway, but I do cat rescue and have a lot to take care of. I also have too many senior cats.

For lesser expensive foods, people here tend to feed Fancy Feast classic pates or Friskies pates, but those may not be the best for a cat with FLUTD.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
@Diane Tyler's Mom GA what is the name of the food you have used that is a wet food, is under ten percent carbs and is for cats with urinary crystals and lower urinary tract disease?
Click to expand...
The Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract Health is low carb and low phosphorus
Beef and Chicken Entree pate
Carbs are around 4.80
Phosphorus is 1.44 dry matter

They also have Chicken Entree in Gravy which isn't pate it like tiny pieces of chicken like the size of a chicklet piece of gum lol remember them, they are like tiny tiny chunks
Carbs are 4.5
Phosphorus 0.78 dry matter

Purina pro plan urinary tract turkey and giblets
This variety contains approximately 1.2% Carbohydrate content on an as fed basis (5.3% on a dry matter basis).
If you want to just try a can of each to see if your kitty likes them PetSmart and Petco sells them in the store.
I know Chewy sells them also

@Adam&Miley
 
Diane Tyler's Mom GA said:
The Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract Health is low carb and low phosphorus
Beef and Chicken Entree pate
Carbs are around 4.80
Phosphorus is 1.44 dry matter

They also have Chicken Entree in Gravy which isn't pate it like tiny pieces of chicken like the size of a chicklet piece of gum lol remember them, they are like tiny tiny chunks
Carbs are 4.5
Phosphorus 0.78 dry matter

Purina pro plan urinary tract turkey and giblets
This variety contains approximately 1.2% Carbohydrate content on an as fed basis (5.3% on a dry matter basis).
If you want to just try a can of each to see if your kitty likes them PetSmart and Petco sells them in the store.
I know Chewy sells them also

@Adam&Miley
Click to expand...
Thank you, Diane!
 
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