Newbie Questions

[Nichoa]

Hello!

My cat was diagnosed diabetic in March and I am having issues with getting his levels regulated. I am currently using the Lantus pen and is being given 3 units 2x a day. His levels don’t seem to be going down. His food might be the culprit. I can’t seem to get him to eat wet food at all no matter what I do. Does anyone have suggestions on what food I should try? I cannot afford the prescription diabetic food unfortunately. He is currently eating Rachel Ray indoor formula..

If its not his food could it be the type of insulin he is on?

Thank you for your help!
Ashley

 

[Bandit's Mom]

Hi Ashley

Welcome to FDMB!

Are you home testing? Do you have a record of his sugar levels since March? I'm a newbie here myself, but if you could set up a spreadsheet with your cat's data since you started giving insulin, senior members here would be able to guide you. Without that information it would not be possible for them to do so.

And yes, food could definitely be the culprit. Most dry food and prescription food is often very high carbs. You should be feeding your kitty less than 10% carbs. You can check the carbohydrate content of food using the calculator here:
http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html. My cat is a kibble addict too and I feed her Young Again Zero Mature kibble as well as Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein (chicken) which are low carb.

Why don't we start by setting up a Spreadsheet (assuming you don't have one) and your Signature (take a look at mine at the bottom of this post - it's a quick summary of your cat for people to look at and advice).

Here's a sticky that gives you a good idea on what you need to get started. https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/

If you're feeling overwhelmed at the amount of information, don't be! We were all there once and you will figure it out by and by. The important thing is you are here and you want to do right by your kitty!

Welcome again and please feel free to ask any questions you have!
Bhooma

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Ashley, Bhooma has given you some good suggestions.
You don’t need to buy expensive prescription food. It has nothing special it it. Ordinary low carb canned food 10% or under is fine. Here is another link to suitable food. I’ll give you the whole list as I don’t know what country you live in.
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/links-to-food-charts.174182/

Here is a link to how to transition from dry to wet food.
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/transitioning-your-cat-from-dry-to-wet-food.956/

Are you using a pen or syringes to give the insulin? A syringe is much better as you can give smaller increases of 0.25 units which is safer and you won’t go past the best dose. The syringes you need for Lantus are U-100 0.3ml 30 or 31 gauge 6 or 8 mm 1/2 unit syringes.
Lantus is a very good insulin for cats so I would think the reason you are not getting any good numbers is much more likely to be the dry food.

As Bhooma said home testing is one of the most important things you can do to help your kitty. A human glucose meter is fine....most of us use those and they are much cheaper to run. If you could record your data onto our spreadsheet we will be able to help you much more.
It is not unusual for a cat diagnosed only a couple of months ago not to be regulated.
Hang in there, we will be able to he you if you can set up a SS and enter your BG data.
Bron

 

[Sue and Luci]

Welcome to the best place you never wanted to be! We're glad you're here. This is a great group...tons of information and suggestions, advice and support for you and your kitty.

You've gotten lots of great info...we'll be looking for your next post with the name of your furbaby!

Welcome to the group!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Just to add a bit more information....

If you use the nutritional values you find on the cat food packaging or on the manufacturer's website, you're likely gong to be plugging in the guaranteed analysis information. It will have maximums or minimums in the values. These values differ from the "as fed" percentages. For some reason unknown to everyone, the manufacturers don't want to publish the as fed values. The nutritional information on the chart that Bron linked is based on as fed values. That list doesn't include dry food.

There are only a handful of dry foods that are low in carbohydrates. Young Again Zero Carbs is about 5% carbs. Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein is also lower in carbs. These may be reasonable places to start. We encourage a canned food diet due to there being a much greater variety of low carb canned foods than dry food. The other reason is the moisture content. Cats have a minimal thirst drive. In the wild, they get their water from catching prey. Dry food has almost no moisture content versus canned food which is high in moisture. This is particularly important for kidney health. It's especially important for a diabetic cat since diabetes is hard on the kidneys.

We are very numbers driven. It would help us to understand your kitty's numbers if you could set up a spreadsheet. Please let us know if you need help getting your spreadsheet put together. Home testing data is the best way to keep your kitty safe.