Newly diagnosed Cat in France. Need help. Kate

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nilremk2

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My cat was recently diagnosed but her glucose levels aren't that high. At vet's she ranged from 258 to 78 with 4 tests over a period of a day. My Vet told me she only needed to be treated by diet....She gave me Royal Canine Diabetic dry food and told me to give her 80 grams per day in 4 servings. The reason I brought my cat in was because she always seemed hungry....famished....and she got very very fat, I put her on a diet, she got down to about 12 pounds....still fat but not like before but her hunger was alarming.When I was told she was diabetic by the vet I immediately started researching and through your organization found that wrong diet (dry food) may cause diabetes and that the best diet is very low carb. and no dry food is that at all. I have no access to the excellent canned cat foods like in USA here, but found one called Almo which seems okay. The problem is that when I tried feeding this to my cat instead of the Royal canine dry diabetic she became even more frantically hungry. I went back on the ROyal Canine, she seems a bit more stable. I got a Glaucometer (sp?) and am just learning to test my cat.... a little challenging but will keep trying until I get it right. My vet said I should be testing her 4 times a day but I don't know if she''ll tolerate this. At this point she runs away when she sees me and I've only had one successful test out of 3 (she tested 100 today an hour after eating but she didn't eat that much of her food and didn't seem hungry which was puzzling).
My biggest questions are: How many times should I be testing her? What should I do about her diet....should I stick to the Roayl Canine Diabetic cat food which seems to be bringing a bit of improvement or is that counter-productive? How can I best help her? I have read that in early stages like this reversal is possible. But if she were ever reversed would she still be an overeater who would then become diabetic again? Very confused!!!! Would very much appreciate input. And Thank-you! Kate
 
Hi Kate, and welcome! This board is a great place to be! While I'm not familiar with commercial foods in France, our advice is to get your cat off all dry food as soon as possible! A low-carb canned diet is much better for cats for many reasons, not just for diabetes. You want to choose foods with less than 7% of the calories from carbohydrates. We use Janet & Binky's chart to help us shop, and there is a non-USA chart, which may or may not have brands you can get. We do have some members in Europe who can probably be of more help.

Here's a link: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/nonusfd.html Most grain-free canned foods that are pate-style (no gravy!) are ok, but ideally, you want to be able to know the values. Almo is on the chart and the chicken, kitten, and senior formulas are all fine. So is the chicken and shrimp, but too much seafood can cause urinary issues, so you may want to limit it. You may have to feed more of the canned as it is less dense in calories than dry. Or it could be that your kitty thinks it is just wonderful and can she please have some more. Until the diabetes is controlled, either by diet or by insulin, cats do need more calories as they aren't able to process their food to get the nutrition from it. Dry food can make them feel fuller longer, but if they aren't getting the nutrition from it, it's doing no good. Try feeding a few smaller meals of the wet each day.

If your cat is not on insulin, 4 times a day is plenty to test...test just before you feed and again a few hours after. You may need to test more if insulin becomes necessary. Most cats get used to testing...some even learn to like it. Giving a low carb treat, like freeze dried chicken every time you poke the ear will help!
 
Hi Kate,
First off, it is nice to read that your vet is encouraging home testing. Most apparently do not do so, for whatever reasons.

4 times a day... I am guessing, but can't be certain, on the timing.
For sure, you should test before each and every shot, so that is twice a day (twelve hours apart). The other two times would be, in my opinion, at the half-way point between shots (what we call "nadir") which is when the insulin would be peaking. That tells you exactly how much effect the insulin has with a given dose.

Dry food is bad for cats for a bunch of reasons, but particularly for diabetic cats because it tends to contain a lot of carbohydrates. Carbs and diabetes are not a good combination. Here's a link that will explain a lot about nutrition and dry vs. canned food.
http://catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes
Royal Canin diabetic has a carb content of 24% (% of calories from carbs) according to Janet and Binky's food charts. An ideal diet for diabetic cats would be canned food with a carb % of less than 10%, and we usually recommend lower than 7%. I am not sure what brands are available to you, but here are two lists of canned food for you to look over:
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodOld.html
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

Many cats have gone into remission just from a diet change. The best chance at that is for you to find low-carb canned food that your kitty will eat.
The easiest way to home test is to bribe your kitty. :smile: Do you offer treats to her during or after trying to get some blood? Many cats will associate the test with a treat, and actually look forward to having their ears poked! Any freeze dried meat treats available in France? You can also use small pieces of boiled chicken breast as treats.
 
Its glucometer (gluco=sugar meter=measuring device).

Testing before insulin &/or meals, plus in-between insulin/meals, and maybe before bed is nice, but the cat needs to agree with it!

In the US, we have neosporin ointment with pain relief. If you can find it or something similar - a topical ointment for soothing minor irritations which has some kind of pain relief - put a dab on the ear a few minutes before testing. Wipe off the excess, then test. Follow with a low carb treat, such as a small piece of chicken (cooked, or freeze-dried for pets). Some folks test unsuccessfully no more than 3 times followed by the treat, to reduce resistance to testing.

And now that someone who may speak French is here ... please review this list of diabetes word and phrase translations and if any of the French is wrong, please provide me a correction to enter!
 
Thanks for all the info. My cat is not on insulin because the vet wants to treat just by diet (wrong diet, though). I got her to order me a glocometer and she didn't object but it did cost $125. which I think was overpriced. I asked her about diet but she's too busy to read up and doesn't seem to know about the importance of avoiding dry food. The canned food here doesn't seem too good but I found a German Brand from a big pet outlet about 30 mins from here that is called Almo and contains 70% protein and 3% rice. I put my cat on this but she became frantically hungry and distressed. I hadn't started testing then and am still learning but am hoping I can find out WHY when I can see her blood levels but am wondering if anyone has an idea WHY THIS MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED. I'm am putting off further testing until I figure out what protocal to follow. She doesn't drink much water at all which I know is not usual and doesn't seem to pee all that much. I am so hoping I can figure out how to reverse this. Thank you for the tip about neosporine for ear. Have some here and will try it. Still confused and am trying to get more imput to understand how to proceed.
Also re: the French...am not great with written French but it seems fine! Thank you
 
One of the reasons that she is so hungry right now if she is still unregulated and if she is truly diabetic is because insulin is the hormone that the body uses to unlock the nutrients in the food she is eating so that her body can use it. If she isn't producing enough of her own insulin then her body isn't using the food she is eating properly. So she is literally starving while stuffing herself full of food.

In their little bodies they take the food they eat and break it down into sugars, that breakdown into sugar is what normally tells the pancreas to produce insulin to help those sugars be used by the body as fuel, but in a diabetic the pancreas doesn't get the right signals so it doesn't work right and doesn't send out enough insulin to use the sugar that their body has turned their food into, so that excess sugar just stays in the bloodstream until it is finally flushed out through the kidneys.

Does that make sense?

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
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