Newly Diagnosed Cat & His Nervous Mom

[aneislis]

Hi everyone,
My name is Jess and my oldest cat, Commodus – age 10, has been diagnosed as diabetic. I’ve never had a pet with diabetes before, so this is all very new to me. I will be going to the vet’s office on Thursday to discuss how to inject with insulin (he will need 2 units injected twice daily) and to talk about his diet. Before I go to her, I have some concerns that I was hoping some of you who are experienced could help me address.

1. Which wet cat food is best for a diabetic diet? What about for a family on a budget? Do I have to use a prescription food?
2. Which dry cat food is best for a diabetic diet and also safe for 3 normal cats to eat? (I ask this because the other cats that are used to having dry cat food out all day long. I am unsure that I can feed them all diabetic food or that Commodus should eat any of the old food.)
3. Wal-mart offers his insulin for $25/1000 unit bottle, and 3/10 syringes for $13 per box of 100. Would I get a better deal online? Are online vendors trustworthy?
4. What diabetic treats are best? (I want to give him a treat after his injection!)
5. Do you have any suggestions for me regarding his disease?

These questions are important to me because my household is on an extremely tight budget. We have found a way to afford the medication for Commodus (as any dedicated parent would), but anywhere we can save a penny, we need to.

Thank you all so very much for taking the time to read my post! cat_pet_icon
-Jess

 

[Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA]

Learning to test his blood sugar at home will save you the most money. Buy a Relion meter at WMart and some test strips. Read about testing in the FAQs (button, top, right). In fact the FAQs have a lot of information about this disease.

What insulin are you talking about? I have a bad feeling it is not a good insulin for cats. The best insulins are ProZinc (pet insulin), Levemir and Lantus (both human insulins). And startign dose is .5u to 1u twise a day, NOT 2u. That is too much. Especially is you are going to be changing his diet to a low carb, wet one (best diet for all your cats).

A lot of people feed Fancy Feast Classic flavors, but the pate versions of Friskies and PetSmart's Great Choice are also OK. I mix Great Choice and Wellness. Wellness is a very good food as it is grain free and has a high quality protein, but it is expensive. I get the largest can size and mix it 1:1 with the large can of Great Choice pate. (Avoid gravy foods as they are high carb).

I use boiled chicken as a treat - just cut in small chunks and boil for about 5 mins. I freeze small containers of them. I use them after I test blood sugar and give the shot.

The best news is that this is totally treatable and sometimes a diet change and short time on insulin can put the diabetes into remission. I just adopted my third diabetic cat. My first one is diet controlled - has been for 3 years. My second, unfortunately, died from cancer unrelated to the diabetes, this 3rd one was not being treated, so she is in bad shape, but I started her on insulin Sat and she is already having better blood sugar numbers.

 

[Ry & Scooter]

1. Low carb canned or raw foods are the best for diabetics (and all cats, really). No you don't need a prescription food. You want a food that's less than 10% carbs, the lower the better, 3-5% is great. Some of the cheaper ones are Friskies, Special Kitty, Grreat Choice, and Fancy Feast Classics. There's a chart compiled by a vet that specializes in feline nutrition that lists the carb percent of some popular foods here

2. No dry food is good. Dry food is just too high in carbs - even grain free kinds, as they need some kind of starch to hold the kibbles together - usually it's potato or pea starches, which are high in carbs. Dry food is also extremely moisture depleted and wreaks havoc on your cat's renal system. It would be best if you could switch all of your cats to low carb canned - this might prevent them from getting diabetes or other health issues from dry food like chronic kidney disease (CKD) etc. in the future and you will not have to worry about your diabetic stealing food that is bad for him.

3. What insulin was he prescribed? Here we recommend Lantus, Levemir, or Prozinc. These are all far more expensive than $25 - so I think you may have been prescribed Humulin N, which is a short acting and harsh insulin - NOT good for kitties. Please see if you can get a prescription for one of the others from your vet. They are more expensive but much easier to regulate your cat with. You can get the syringes cheaper online, but $16 for 100 is not bad at all. Make sure the syringes have half unit markings.

4. Purebites and Halo Liv a Littles are freeze dried meat treats that are no carb. Bonito (tuna) flakes are good too. You can also cook and cut up chicken, turkey, shrimp, etc. and use it as treats if he likes that!

5. My biggest suggestion to you is to pick up a meter and begin home testing Commodus. Just like human diabetics prick their fingers to check our blood glucose we prick our cat's ears to do the same. By doing this we can make sure our cats are safe and we can make adjustments to their insulin dose as necessary. Not testing puts you at a significant risk of something like hypoglycemia. Some cheap and easy to find meters are the ReliOn Micro and Confirm from Walmart - they have some of the cheapest strips too.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Which wet cat food is best for a diabetic diet? What about for a family on a budget? Do I have to use a prescription food?

I would pick up something like Special Kitty Pates (Walmart), Grreat Choice Pates (Petsmart), or Friskies Pates in the large, 13 oz cans. It's easiest to have all of your cats eating the same food, so that you can free feed the canned food if you need to. When you factor in the savings in litter (cat's digest most of the canned food, where they poop out a lot of the dry food), the amount you're feeding (cats need to eat far less canned food than dry because they digest it more), and the savings in future vet bills from the illnesses the dry food is bound to cause, you are paying way less for the canned food. If the convenience factor is the issue, tell us the problem and we can give you tons of tips to help you make the change to canned nearly as convenient.

Which dry cat food is best for a diabetic diet and also safe for 3 normal cats to eat?

No dry food is safe for a diabetic cat, and and no dry food is good for any cat for that matter. The dry food is what likely caused the diabetes in the first place. Feeding dry to diabetic is like feeding twinkies and potato chips to a human diabetic--you have to cut out the unhealthy food if you want your cat to recover. Here is a great website written by a vet that explains: http://www.catinfo.org

Wal-mart offers his insulin for $25/1000 unit bottle, and 3/10 syringes for $13 per box of 100. Would I get a better deal online? Are online vendors trustworthy?

There is no insulin that costs $25 that is good for a cat. The only insulins that are recommended for use in cats are Lantus or Levemir (1st choice), or Prozinc (2nd choice). If your vet prescribed Humulin N (NPH), this insulin is NOT recommended because while it is good for people and dogs, it is ineffective in cats. The initial cost of Lantus and Levemir is a lot more expensive than Humulin, but it is saving you a ton of money in the long run because the majority of cats on these insulins go into diet-controlled remission. Look at it this way--you can pay $25 every month or two for the Humulin N for the rest of your cat's life for it to pretty much do nothing and for your cat's diabetes to get worse (that's $200-$300 a year you're wasting), or you can spend around $200 (less if you order from Canada) for a year's worth of Lantus or Levemir and most likely have your cat go into remission and not need insulin any more. You also have the option of getting the script from your vet and ordering online from Canada instead of picking it up at Walmart, where it's way cheaper. Here's a link to places where you can do that: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1FCnrPxpYD02Gp5hWtEIbhLXm0VOyaZlAT_qeCjlx-Js. Get a script for the pens, because they are more economical than the vial (they'll last a year or more as opposed to 1-3 months with the vial). Walmart syringes are the cheapest I've found--you want .3cc, 29-31g, 5/16" syringes with half unit markings. Sometimes they have to order them but they were always there in a day or two. I would also pick up a Relion Confirm or Micro glucose meter at Walmart. They are a good meter with really cheap test strips (even cheaper online on the American diabetes wholsale web site).

Unfortunately, it sounds like your vet is not up to date with current feline diabetes treatment recommendations. Here are some documents that you should print out and give to your vet.

Humulin N Dosing protocol: http://www.uq.edu.au/ccah/docs/diabetesinfo/link2.pdf. Note where it says "Lente is the 3rd insulin of choice and NPH the 4th choice insulin for control of diabetes mellitus in cats, behind glargine or detemir (1st choice) and PZI (2nd choice), Lente and NPH result in lower remission rates compared to longer acting insulins."

Current American Animal Hospital Association guidelines (see p. 218): http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/AAHADiabetesGuidelines.pdf

Article on the safety and effectiveness of Lantus in cats, as well as how to properly dose it with home monitoring:

What diabetic treats are best? (I want to give him a treat after his injection!)

Anything that is just meat is low carb and good to give him. I get Beefeaters freeze dried chicken and salmon in the cat treat section at Petsmart. You can also find them in the dog treat section--just make sure the ingredients are 100% chicken or other type of meat.

Do you have any suggestions for me regarding his disease?

Being proactive in educating yourself and getting him on the right treatment plan from the start pays off TONS (in both money for you and his health), so I strongly urge you to NOT pick up the Humulin N, take the documents I gave you to your vet (or another vet if your vet is being difficult) and get him on the right insulin, the right diet (low carb canned food), and dose him properly (via daily home testing). If you do these things right away, your cat has an 86% chance of going into remission (see the article I linked above). Remission is the cheapest place for you and the healthiest place for him to be. If you stay on the treatment plan and diet your vet currently has you on, you have a virtually no chance of getting your cat in remission. I know it's scary to challenge your vet (after all, they're the one that went to vet school), but understand that your vet is a general practitioner for many different animals, not a cat endocrinologist, and treatment guidelines for diabetes have changed dramatically for cats in just the past 3 or 4 years. Many vets just aren't aware of the changes, and appreciate you bringing them that information.

 

[squeem3]

1. Which wet cat food is best for a diabetic diet? What about for a family on a budget? Do I have to use a prescription food?

Read http://www.catinfo.org for proper cat nutrition.

Then, check out Dr. Lisa's food chart: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf

Any brand that has under 10% carbs is suitable for diabetics. Any brand that your cat likes to eat and you can afford is the "best" one, IMO. Popular brands include Fancy Feast, Friskies, Wellness, Nature's Variety, and Merrick. Some of the higher end brands are sold only at independent pet stores/specialty boutiques.

You can also use these charts and lists:
Binky's canned food charts
Pet Food Nutritional Values list
Hobo's Guide To Nutritional Values
Dr. Lynne's Wet Food list
List of low carb gluten free Fancy Feast

On Binky's charts, stick with foods that have a number 10 or less in the carbs colum. On the Pet Food Nutritional Values Chart and Hobo's Guide, look at the %kcal from carbs column and choose foods that have a number 10 or less.

Raw pet food, either homemade or a commerical brand, is another option.

2. Which dry cat food is best for a diabetic diet and also safe for 3 normal cats to eat? (I ask this because the other cats that are used to having dry cat food out all day long. I am unsure that I can feed them all diabetic food or that Commodus should eat any of the old food.)

There is no dry food in the world that is suitable for a diabetic. Or any cat for that matter. Read Catinfo.org for reasons why. Dry foods labeled as "grain-free" still are too high in carbs for a cat because of the starches used to hold the food in those little kibble pieces. Dry food is one reason why many cats end up diabetic in the first place. All those carbs puts a huge strain on the pancreas.

To see how many carbs are in various brands of dry foods, you can look at this chart: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/dryfood.html Many commerical brands are well over 30% carbs per cup :shock: Cats have no real need for carbs in their diet.

There is a section at Catinfo.org with tips on how to transition dry food addicts to canned food. At least give it a try for a few weeks. You may be surprised to find that your cats will readily eat canned food :smile: For those really stubborn cats, there are way to make canned food more appealing such as putting crushed up freeze dried meat treats on the canned food or using ForitFlora or some stinky tuna juice.

3. Wal-mart offers his insulin for $25/1000 unit bottle, and 3/10 syringes for $13 per box of 100. Would I get a better deal online? Are online vendors trustworthy?

If it's Humulin N insulin, then no, it is NOT a good insulin to use for a cat. It's cheap but does not work at all for cats.

If it's another Humulin insulin, again, it is NOT a good insulin to use.

If your vet prescribed Humulin R, DO NOT use it at all and find a new vet. R is a very short acting insulin, used to quickly bring down blood glucose levels. It is extremely dangerous to use without the very close supervision of a vet who has experience using this insulin. R is used with another insulin, such as Lantus, never on it's own.

Please ask the vet for Lantus, Levemir, or ProZinc insulins instead. Any of these are much better choices for your cat. We can provide ways to save money on buying insulin.

Many people buy insulin syringes online at AmericanDiabeteswholesale.com, both U100 and U40 insulin syringes.

Wal Mart's Relion brand of insulin syringes are good to use but not sold online.

4. What diabetic treats are best? (I want to give him a treat after his injection!)

See this list of popular treats: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9172

5. Do you have any suggestions for me regarding his disease?

Learn how to test your cat's blood glucose levels at home instead of paying the vet $$$$ for results that are never accurate. You can rquest a free testing kit from here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=60261 You need to test before giving each and every insulin injection. Blindly giving insulin is like driving a car with a paper bag over your head - it's dangerous and the results can be fatal.

Here is info on how to test a cat: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

These questions are important to me because my household is on an extremely tight budget. We have found a way to afford the medication for Commodus (as any dedicated parent would), but anywhere we can save a penny, we need to.

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Frugal Feline Diabetes: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/frugal.html