Newbie - My 13 yr old cat just diagnosed w/ diabetes

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beausgrrl

beausgrrl

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Hello all!
Well, I've been scouring this forum and the net for any and all information regarding kitty diabetes. Shadow, our 13 year old, overweight domestic short hair cat was diagnosed with diabetes on Thursday. Since then I took him off his Solid Gold dry food and have only been feeding him high protein no grain canned cat food. He seems to be responding super with just this alone (not crying constantly and drinking tons of water and peeing tons...)

Unfortunately he has always loved Wellness Grain Free Chicken and Herring (was getting a tablespoon a.m. and p.m. with dry food and then as treat at night..) BUT I've read that he should only get canned cat food with fish one or two times a week at most. :( Is there documentation or people experience showing mercury problems with herring in canned cat food? I really hate to go to a food that has by products since he seems to get tired of other canned I've tried yesterday and today that isn't the Herring formula... I got him Wellness kitten, Evo 95% venison (had to mix some of the Wellness C&H to get him to finish up the venison).... and one other Evo 95%...

This board has helped a ton already, adding water to the canned food seems to be a great trick for him to poop and also keep the canned food from crusting up...

We originally had an appt. Friday to take him in and get the whole insulin lesson, etc. BUT due to my reading here about switching to high protein and low carb, etc. I wanted to (if it wasn't endangering him) see about this diet change for a bit b4 the appt. so our Vet said it would be ok if we brought him in in 2 weeks as that was a good amount of time to experiment with the new food routine... I also ordered the relion confirm glucose meter today as the ultima one I already had didn't have any new test strips and from my reading the confirm sounded better since it uses less blood. I actually got blood the 2nd time I pricked his ear but didn't realize the test strips had expired. :( He wasn't too happy with me and stayed in the basement awhile sulking. I have to get some freeze dried chicken treats or something for him, he's picky and won't eat these beef liver ones I got him for Christmas (Beau, my black lab has no prob. with that though).

Anyway ... Just wanted to introduce myself (Tracey) and my kitty (Shadow) and say thanks already! :)
 
Oh, I forgot to post that he had blood and urine tested... His blood test results were over 250.. and he had sugar in his urine..... He also lost weight since his annual last year and has been eating more so I knew something was wrong with that alone, and of course his behavior was off...
 
Welcome Tracey and Shadow to the FDMB family.

Sounds like Shadow maybe only a borderline diabetic, since 250 on a bloodtest especially one done at a Vet office, with the added vet stress isn't really that high. Hopefully they also ruled out anything else that could have caused his BGs to be raised. Most kitties get here with reading in the 400 to 500s.

My own guy Max was 485 when he was dxed and with a very short period of time on insulin, and a diet change my guy is in remission. So with Shadow no higher than 250 you have a very good chance of never needing insulin change and diet alone may reverse things for him.

I can't answer your questions about Wellness as I don't feed it here, I have 11 cats of which only one is a diabetic so to keep the family budget in check everyone here eats Friskies Pate flavors.

But I just wanted to pop in and welcome you to the family, others should be along soon that can be more help.

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang
 
Thanks MommaofMuse for your kind greeting. :)

I wish I had been home when the vet called as I would have written down exactly what "Shadow tested over 250" referred to.... From my research I came to the conclusion it was to do with his blood glucose results... would it be anything else??? I am excited that it was not higher .... :)
 
Hi Tracey, and, of course, you too, sweet Shadow,

There are quite a few extra-sweet cats here who are diet controlled. Alas, I wasn't/am not owned by two of them...

Giz was a handful feeding-wise, was diagnosed at age 14, and we danced for four more years... Nikki, is my sweet rescue. Arrived into my heart almost two years ago at around 8-ish years of age; and, actually and gratefully, does eat cat food...

Eating is important with a diabetic cat. Since, you're only giving tablespoons of Wellness C&H, I think it's okay to keep adding it to whatever new food Shadow's being served. If that makes him eat the other canned food, go for it! I'm thrilled he's super responding so well, in whole cat terms, to his diet change! And, no, I do not have any documentation regarding mercury issues with herring in canned cat food... He has a good possibility of being diet-controlled with that BG (blood glucose) reading of over 250. That's not that bad at all. Giz's was over 500... I learned a lot about vet stress, as she would often test 150 points lower after our return...

Bless you for becoming a vampire! Bet you never thought you'd hear those words, right??? Testing is important. You know, to let you know if Shadow is going to need insulin or is okay with his diet change. Basically, a normal, non-diabetic reading would be between 70 and 120.

Well, gosh, welcome to the place you never wanted to be, but will be blessed for having found, dear Tracey, and, of course, you too, sweet Shadow!

Much love and countless encouraging hugs for you both,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...

PS: You can also check his pee... Keto-Stix check for the presence of ketones. Keto-Diastix check for the presence of ketones and sugar in his urine, but doesn't give a BG reading. Just tells you there is sugar in his pee and if he has ketones...
 
hi there

herring are smaller fish and therefore don't bio-accumulate as much mercury as bigger fish....but mercury isn't the only issue with fish, there is also the issue of increased phosphorous which can be an issue with cats who have kidney issues. That said, my cats are hooked on fish so they get some at breakfast every day!
 
Hi Tracey!
At this moment Wellness is my very favorite food, and I love the way it mixes with water, better than
most. I started off mixing some water in with each can and now a can of food mixed with a can of warm water. When I was transitioning mine over to canned I was sprinkling quite a bit of dry over the wet and gradually reduced it .... maybe you could put some of the seafood on top of the chicken or turkey or beef?
I have also read in many places that seafood is not good on a regular basis, who would have thought?
cats = fish? weird. But I use it as a treat, I don't need to worry right now about anything else except the
diabetic cat who will not regulate and is throwing off ketones, and yes you should just double check occasionally that Shadow doesn't have ketones.

This list has many knowledgeable people who will give you all the tools you need to have a healthy cat.
Welcome!
Nancy and Payne (who believes all the talk about ketones have wooed them back ohmygod_smile )
 
Thanks for the information, I'm going to keep feeding the Wellness Herring and Fish and add some other flavors as well... :)
 
Welcome Tracey! Congrats on getting blood! It may be difficult until you and your kitty get into a routine for testing, but eventually it really gets easy and brings you even closer together. Post with questions and tell us about any difficulties--- we have lots of tricks to make it easier.
 
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