Question about switching food

[Tisha's_Person]

Our cat, Tisha, has always liked dry food, but responds well when given wet food as a treat. We have been giving 1/2 can of wet food (Fancy Feast classic seafood flavors) before her insulin shots and leaving the prescription dry food (Royal Canin diabetic) available for free feeding. From reading various posts, it sounds like it would be better for her health overall to switch her to exclusively wet food. We just changed her dose from 1 unit of Lantus to 2. How long should I wait before making any food changes? Then do I just try to phase out the dry food by giving her less each day? Do I need to increase wet food and leave it available for free feeding? We do have the ability to home test, but the vet only requests that we do a curve every 2 weeks. On Sunday, her numbers ranged from 254-380 on a One Touch Ultra Mini. Also, I have a whole bag of the diabetic food since we just started it two weeks ago. If it makes a difference, she is significantly underweight from her recent health issues. (Normally a 12+ pound healthy cat, now weighs right at 10 pounds.) Also, we have noticed that she is starting to be less excited about the wet food now that she gets it twice per day, and sometimes she won't eat enough for her shot without coaxing.

 

[BJM]

Reducing the dry food may reduce the insulin requirement, possibly 2 units worth (that happened to my 1st diabetic cat). You HAVE to be testing mid-cycle so you can see how low the glucose is going when you change the food.

Reduce the dry gradually and compensate by increasing the canned gradually. Because the canned is roughly 70+% moisture, for each teaspoon of dry you reduce, you'll need to increase the canned perhaps 1-2 tablespoons or more.

Personally, I leave enough canned out for all my cats that they can nibble through the next 12 hours. They are all doing fine with that.

 

[atajev]

Yes, you DEFINITELY need to be able to test mid-cycle when you start to add more wet food in place of the dry. My own cat had to drop from 3 units to the tiniest drop (less than .01u) in a week and a half when I switched from all dry to all wet. If I'd done that without testing and lowering her dose (sometimes several days in a row), she would have died. As it turned out though, because of the food change and home testing she's off insulin instead!

Mine was also not terribly excited about the wet food after the first few days when the novelty of it wore off, but she ate it eventually when it was left out and nothing else appeared.

 

[KPassa]

I also leave wet food out all day for them to graze on. As long as she has a good appetite and isn't vomiting or sick, with Lantus, it's not as important for them to eat at shot time as it is with the older, harsher insulins.

Also, I have a whole bag of the diabetic food since we just started it two weeks ago.

You can return it for a refund. All the "prescription" foods have a guarantee so just tell them your cat won't eat it.

 

[Tisha's_Person]

Thank you! I will wait to start seriously switching until I can be home all day to test!

 

[Tisha's_Person]

Follow up: so is it safe to just eliminate the dry food this weekend if I am home to monitor BG? She has been eating approx 1/2 can wet BID for approx. 3 weeks now. I am afraid that I will put her at risk of a hypo episode.

 

[BJM]

You might drop her 2 units - that's how much Spitzer's dose changed when I switched food. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Tisha's_Person]

2 units is her whole dose. I don't want to completely take her off insulting when she just started 3 weeks ago and her numbers are still high. Maybe back to 1 unit? Or just monitor closely and give her the Whisker Lickins treats she loves if her numbers drop under 100? The vet will also be open for about 5 hours post-shot if something goes wrong (and she gave me her cell # for emergency questions.)

On a related note., I think I am doing something wrong with BG testing. I was using the lancet without the glancing device on the vein in her ear. It seems like there is a lot of blood and she is pretty unhappy with me. I tried to get a PMPS tonight with the glancing device and didn't get any blood. Tried 2 more times without device without success before I gave up trying. :sad:

 

[Tisha's_Person]

glancing device

Really? Autocorrect is incredibly annoying. I meant (and typed!) lancing device. If it matters, we are using One Touch Ultra Mini, the included lancing device, and the OneTouch Delica lancets, extra fine 33 gauge, on the advice of the pharmacist. I didn't know about the board yet, so I didn't know who else to ask. FWIW, we bought everything because our vet strongly encourages home testing at least for BG curves every 2 weeks.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

Okay, don't aim for the vein. You're trying to poke in the small space between the vein and the edge of the ear. One thing that really helped me - I also started with 33 gauge lancets. Didn't go well.

I bought a box of 26g, and got blood the first time. Then I tried 28s and 30s with good results. Eventually, I was able to be successful with the 33g.

I never even tried using the device. The vet showed me how to freehand it, and that worked for me. She asked me "can you sew on a button?". I said, "yes ma'am". She said, "then you can do it this way".

 

[Jill & Alex (GA)]

Lots more help available here: Hometesting Links and Tips.

Laur and Danny's Famous Photo of "The Sweet Spot"

 

[Tisha's_Person]

THANK YOU!

The vet tech who showed us how to test said to use the vein, which obviously hurts Tisha, then she doesn't want to let me test her. After we did her BG curve, her ears were obviously sore and bloodied all along the edge. The photo is very helpful so that I can try to find the sweet spot, and I didn't know that I had the wrong lancets. In the meantime, I tried again this morning (twice) and didn't get enough blood to test. This is very frustrating. Then of course, she seemed okay but was vocalizing with a very high-pitched meow as I was about to leave and it made me wonder if something was wrong. She's a very vocal cat normally, but it just sounded strange. I made my husband (who works from home) promise to keep an eye on her today and call me if she has any strange behavior.

I am going shopping tonight for different lancets, ketone test strips, and low carb treats. Feel free to let me know if I'm missing something else I need. (I have a meter, test strips, and wet food.) My plan is to stay home all day tomorrow and see how she does with only wet food, but if I can't get an accurate test, it will have to wait until next weekend.

 

[BJM]

Sometimes, 2 quick pokes next to each other will work to get enough blood.

The vein is for when you are desparate to get blood and having trouble otherwise.

Always apply direct pressure (if your cat allows it) after getting the test to reduce bruising and scabbing.

 

[atajev]

I have pretty thin lancets (30) and I do the double-poke method and then I pinch the spot and scratch her neck while the meter is counting down. She thinks it's just a snuggle and it's a nice way to end the test for us both.

Just be home to test when you do the switch and I'd recommend testing roughly every 2 hours to be safe. Be sure you've read through the "How to handle low test numbers" sticky on this board and be sure to have some high carb food around to give her if she dips below 50. You don't need to try to bring her up at 100 - that's good territory.

It'll probably be a good idea to post your numbers up here for dosing advice as you're doing your tests, too, since you're almost guaranteed to need to reduce the dose, probably even the first night on the day you start, so post results as soon as you take each test so that the experts here can give you the best, safest advice as to how to adjust the insulin to keep her out of danger.

Good luck! Things were so much smoother for us after we made the full transition to wet food.