newly diagnosed

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larsonlink

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My 9yr old cat was just diagnosed two days ago with diabetes. After much thought--we have decided not to put him on insulin. We have decided that we want him to have a normal cat's life for however long he has. Not to be poked all the time and drug back and forth to the vet clinic which is so stressful for him. I am looking to find better food to feed him and my other two cats that is higher in protein and low in carbs so that maybe his BG levels won't be as high and he will feel a little better for the end of his days. And one of my other cats is overweight and could use less carbs. I would prefer to find something that I can just buy at the grocery store or Walmart as that is more convenient for me. There isn't a Petco or Petsmart within 50 miles either. So I am looking for suggestions as to what brand of food would be better. Right now we are buying Purina Indoor formula.
 
A diet change can help your cat, maybe even make it so he doesn't need insulin, but there's nothing about treating an FD that hurts their quality of life. In fact, I think Tucker's QoL is better since starting treatment. He's been insulin dependent for over five years. Other diabetics that I've adopted have gone off insulin on diet change alone.

Tucker rarely goes to the vet. I hometest his blood sugar and test time is enjoyable for us. He knows he gets his favorite treat and it doesn't hurt him to get tested so the very few times that I may forget the time, he's come to me and reminded me to test his BG (blood glucose number). The insulin needle is so small that he doesn't even feel it.

By not giving insulin your cat is starving, the body will not get proper nutrition and your cat will slowly starve to death. I'm sorry to say it so bluntly but there is nothing normal about starving to death.

My cats that have gone off insulin on food only eat Fancy Feast classic pate flavors, no gravy types, the wheat gluten free kind. Raw diet or other canned that is high protein, low carb will be helpful. Wellness, EVO, even something from the grocery like Friskies can work, but dry food will have to be removed.

I'd urge you to read some of the information here and ask questions. Many folks have treated their FDs and had them go off insulin quickly, others like me have learned how simple and easy it is and have gone on to adopt more FDs.
 
Hi there

Welcome to you and your family. I stood in your shoes in December 2002. If I'd made the tough decision that you just made, Squeak would not be with me right now. I chose insulin and food change because I believed that diabetes is treatable, even if it scared the heck out of me.

Squeak was on insulin until early March, 2003, at which point he no longer needed it. The insulin combined with food change was enough to put him in remission.

Your decision will more than likely cause your cat to decline and die. It is not a decision that we here will agree with, not because we don't recognize your right to it, but rather because we KNOW that diabetes is totally treatable. For the vast majority of cats, it is a rather easy disease to treat.

I urge you to reconsider your decision. And if you stick with it, we will help you as best we can, but know that untreated diabetes is a very nasty way to die.

Jennifer
 
First off let me say I am deeply sorry that you have decided not to treat you cat for this very managable disease. 9 years old isn't terrible old as my own sugarcat is approx. 12 years old and doing wonderfully and you wouldn't know him from my 3 and 4 year olds.

Should you rethink you plan at the moment and decide to give insulin a try, let me tell you if you do as we do and test him at home you will not be dragging him back and forth to the vet's all the time. You can do everything they would do for him from the comfort of his own home, and simply keep a spreadsheet of your testing to confer with your vet either over the phone or by email. Home testing is very simple, we obtain a small sample of blood from the edge of their ear and test it with a regular human glucose meter. We test before every shot to make sure they are high enough to give insulin, and run our own curves periodically to check on how the insulin is working, then I personally just email those curves to my vet.

As far as food goes, many of us feed 9-lives, Friskies, or Fancy Feast all which can be found at Wal-mart, If you go here http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html and look at Binky's list pick those that are 10% carbs or less, personally I feed 10 cats and only 1 diabetic but they all eat exactly the same thing, Friskies Pate Flavors. Currently on this diet my sugarcat is diet controlled, but it did take him a couple of weeks of insulin besides the diet change to go into remission.

However I'm going to be very honest here, even if you switch diet on your guy, if it isn't enough to get him into remission you are setting him up to literally starve to death with full bowls of food in front of him as well as several other nasty side effects including, blindness, DKA a deadly conditon of keytones in the urine from untreated diabetes, and nerve damage to his legs.

IMHO If you aren't going to treat this disease which is very easy to treat then do the kindest thing for your guy, and either have him put down or look for another home for him where he can be treated appropriately. However, also know that placing an unregulated cat in another is very very difficult as most shelters or rescues will not take them, or will immediately put them to sleep.

I personally adopted my current SugarCat Max from this very board as a diabetic, after losing my first FD cat, if this wasn't such a very easy disease to treat or effect a cat's quality of life in the least I would not have set myself up from more heartbreak by willingly adopting a diabetic cat. But had I not, I would not right now have a wonderful, loving and happy boy purring in my lap as I type.
Mel, Max & The Fur Gang
 
Hometesting is going to be the most important thing you can do right now. Piece of cake, really :mrgreen: It will give you the numbers you need to see if just switching to all canned will put him in to remission. Usually, canned food and insulin, especially Lantus(Glargine), are the two main factors for achieving remission. I have adopted 3 more diabetics because of all I learned from this board with my second diabetic, Baby(GA). Vinnie and Hope are in remission but Mishka is not and she has been getting tested and shots b.i.d. for over 7 years. Dana just posted celebrating 10 years of treating with her Thomas.

He still is a young cat and could live another 9+ years, possibly in remission, but no way of knowing unless you start treating. Look at all the posts on the different forums. If it was hard to do or took away quality of life, this board would be empty. As for testing the ear it does not hurt them. Mishka sits patiently on my lap while I get everything ready, licking my hand, butting my head for kisses.

Please, give him a chance and let this board help you. Vinnie and Mishka see the vet once every 6 months. Hope has a heart problem so she goes in more often. Many of us have adopted more diabetics because of all we have learned, we know how easy it becomes, and we have a hard time seeing a cat euthanized because of a treatable disease.

It is a commitment that becomes routine in no time and all done out of love. They give us so much from their little hearts and we return it by loving them back and caring for them.
 
Wow--just wanted to know about cat food. Didn't realize that I was going to get so much judgement and disapprovals. Especially when I didn't ask. Hmmmm--wrong site, I guess.
 
Really? I think we've been pretty darn understanding. Would you like us to just say ok, change the food, pat you on the head and say good for you? There have been TONS of people who've shown up here thinking that they would have to euthanize or let their cats die and then they've learned that it is treatable and they've gone on to have a healthy happy cat. So I think you do us a disservice. We are simply offering you our thoughts, our help and our information, gathered over YEARS.

Should you stick to your choice, please at least euthanize your cat at the first signs that its condition is worsening.
 
Judgement and disapproval? None of the posts said that.....we were all just trying to help convince you to at least give it a try and save your cat. We all care and want to help......we know the end result of not treating and we know how many times just canned food and a few shots of insulin can put cats into remission.
 
Food: Fancy Feast CANNED foods , available at WalMart.

The good ones are listed here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm

Also some of the Friskies canned foods are good, also available at
WalMart. Choose ones for which the 'carbs' column is 10 or less. (less than
10% of calories from carbohydrates as fed).

Listed here:

http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

A good thing you can do for all your cats is get them on a canned food diet and no dry food.

Here is a good article that explains why...written by a vet who specializes in Feline Nutrition:

http://catinfo.org/

You can try a change in diet. It will probably help...some.

I hope you will consider treatment. We can help you with free starter kit for home-testing, advice
and help, maybe even someone to come to your home and teach you to home-test.

Home-testing means you would not have to drag your cat to the vet all the time for testing and
it is MUCH CHEAPER.
 
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