? Question about getting a diabetic cat to lose weight

[Ramon's mom]

My diabetic cat Ramon is overweight despite the fact that its hard to get him to eat. He gets insulin though he seems insulin resistant (his numbers remain high in the 200's/ 300's). I have been increasing the dose but to no avail. He gets Fancy Feast, sometimes raw food, sometimes Wellness but also Dr. Elsey's lo-carb dry (he hates wet food and will stop eating entirely if I take away that dry food). Its weird that he eats very little yet stays heavy. His thyroid blood tests are normal. I usually have to forcefeed him some wet food when its time to give insulin or I'd never be able to give it. Any suggestions on how I can get his weight down and still have him eat enough for the insulin shots?

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

One trick I used to convert my dry food addicts to canned was to add the dry food to the top of the canned food. Gradually decrease the dry food each day. It took about a month before I was able to get them completely off dry food. Use a canned food flavor that he likes. If you have more than one cat you want to get them all off of the dry food or he will be sneaking in to their food.

Even though the dry food is supposed to be low carb, that is probably why his glucose readings will not go down.

 

[Kris & Teasel]

Re dose: I'd bump him up to 1.8 u today, stay there for two days if no better BGs show and then go to 2 u. He probably has some glucose toxicity built up that you need to break through.

 

[Sylvie]

how much dr. elsey dry are you giving him everyday?? it is pretty high calories food, all my cats got a tad bit of a fat belly before i realized i was indeed over feeding them even though it was not that much dry food i was given them. 2tbsp/20 grams of dry elsey is approx 90 calories (45 calories per 10 gram) so it is very easy to not think we are overfeeding them when 2tbsp doesn't look like much at all, even my hubby though i was given them barely any of it. each cup has approx 120 grams of food, each cup is 544 cal i do believe so.

you said he will eat his dry, so my idea to get him to eat enough food for his injections would be to feed him the dry only at injection time.

 

[Ramon's mom]

Re dose: I'd bump him up to 1.8 u today, stay there for two days if no better BGs show and then go to 2 u. He probably has some glucose toxicity built up that you need to break through.

I know you've told me this before but it doesn't make much sense to me to keep increasing his dose when he actually did much better on 1 unit. I'm more tempted to go back to 1 unit and stay there for a while again. Something is off for him with the fact that he stays overweight despite not eating much. He is on 2 other drugs - Atopica and budesonide for other conditions. These and the obesity could very well be the cause of it all. And I am really wanting to address them rather than continue to play around with dosages.

 

[Ramon's mom]

how much dr. elsey dry are you giving him everyday?? it is pretty high calories food, all my cats got a tad bit of a fat belly before i realized i was indeed over feeding them even though it was not that much dry food i was given them. 2tbsp/20 grams of dry elsey is approx 90 calories (45 calories per 10 gram) so it is very easy to not think we are overfeeding them when 2tbsp doesn't look like much at all, even my hubby though i was given them barely any of it. each cup has approx 120 grams of food, each cup is 544 cal i do believe so.

you said he will eat his dry, so my idea to get him to eat enough food for his injections would be to feed him the dry only at injection time.

I can try your idea. It makes sense. I know in the past he has gotten very aggressive with my other cats if he is not allowed to free feed (to the point where he hurt two of them). I guess I can give it a try when I can be around to supervise. When I have tried to go to regular meals he has just stopped eating on me in protest. In addition to the behavior issues.

I also have the problems of other cats some of whom are house ferals who won't come out to eat on a schedule.

 

[Sylvie]

I can try your idea. It makes sense. I know in the past he has gotten very aggressive with my other cats if he is not allowed to free feed (to the point where he hurt two of them). I guess I can give it a try when I can be around to supervise. When I have tried to go to regular meals he has just stopped eating on me in protest. In addition to the behavior issues.

no need to upset him, you can still let him free feed, just use 1-2tbsp of dry at his injection times and only use low carb/calorie wet food during day/overnight for free-feeding (if you keep your house cool/under 70-74 all year round like we do, regular 'canned' foods like fancy feast/friskies won't go bad being left out for a few hours and we have had no health issues from leaving it out overnight either - i don't leave our cat[s homemade food out more than2 hrs though).

 

[Kris & Teasel]

I can only give an opinion. He's your kitty and it's absolutely up to you to decide on his dose. It might be helpful to add those other conditions he has to your signature text. Other health issues can certainly impact insulin response.