? Seeking Advice: High BG and Intro to Wet food:

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AmandaE

AmandaE

Member Since 2019
Hey Everyone,

I had an awesome moment this morning when I went to start Mowgli's transition to wet food. Turns out... all of the sudden, Mowgli is this GREAT wet food lover... I am truly shocked and totally relieved that this will be one struggle that I won't have to add to the pile of struggles that have existed since his diagnosis at the beginning of the month.

SO... I have a question / idea that I would like some advice on. I have gathered from this site that typically when you switch your cat to a completely wet food diet that the transition should be slow because of the resulting lowering affects of a low carb diet on BG. That being said, Mowgli has been on 1u BID Lantus since Saturday and we are still seeing relatively high BG results.

I was wondering: Since Mowgli is actually loving his wet food... do you think that, due to his high BG and lower dosage, that it could be safe to just switch to wet food cold turkey? I don't want my impatience to cause Mowgli a crisis of health, but I also want to get his BG lowered since he has been high so long now. Additionally, I really expected Mowgli to reject the wet food because he hated it so much in his younger years, so transitioning cold turkey hadn't occurred to me as an option.

I was thinking about making "the switch", if advisable, on Saturday when I can be home all day to monitor him.

Let me know what you think.

I have included a post from the Lantus board about my concerns around his BG, dosage, and how to start transitioning to wet food below...

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...-seeing-much-of-a-change.212412/#post-2354019
 
Amanda, I'm sorry this post didn't get answered today. It looks like it was a very busy day on the board, and sometimes posts kind of drop to the bottom. :(
I am glad that Mowgli is liking the wet food now, but I was cautioned about transitioning Idjit off his wet high carb/dry diet slowly to prevent the drastic drop in BG, as well as possible gastric upset. He loves wet food too and probably would have been willing to just eat the low carb canned, but I did wean him off, as I was super confused about everything diabetic and trying to do something right! LOL I took about 2 weeks to get him mostly on the low carb food, watching for any loose stools or vomiting. Didn't happen. :)
Mowgli has had a few major events in his life lately, and I would caution you to take things easy. I am no expert, just my opinion.
 
Hi Amanda. I would start the transition to wet food now but do it slowly mainly because you don’t want to upset Mowgli’s tummy / bowels. Changing foods quickly can cause tummy upsets which you don’t want to happen.
Also doing it slowly shouldn’t cause huge drops in the BSL. You will still need to monitor but if you are giving both types of food throughout the day and night, it should lower the BSL gradually.
 
@Idjit's mom @Bron and Sheba,

I'm going to watch Mowgli's BM's and see how he is doing with the transition... I certainly don't want him crapping his pants! I do feel comfortable fast tracking a bit... but I will still execute a transition style.

I am definitely having issues with patience... it's hard for me because I just want Mowgli's BG to lower and it has just marginally. Even getting ready to introduce Mowgli to Nyx it's so hard resisting the urge to rush it. I need to take a step back and re-focus so that I don't miss the big picture of why it's important to take your time. (But I feel so bad for Mowgli stuck down in the basement all by his lonesome self)

Also! I picked up some wet treats by Tiki and Mowgli LOVES them... he gets so pumped for them when I get them out... definitely a good bribe for gathering my BG data points :smuggrin:

Thanks again for all assistance!
 
Amanda, I do sympathize and empathize with you on the subject of patience and wanting Mowgli to feel better and be integrated into the household much faster. We all want to "fix it" as fast as possible.

I changed Idjit's diet to a raw meat with supplement, beginning the transition in December. The supplement instructions were very clear, a tsp one meal a day at first, then a little more, until one whole meal a day was the new food. Then move to another meal.
Well, the first protein went so well, I figured I could up the ante a little bit, after all, chicken breast, chicken thigh..it's still chicken, right? Then I was running after my poor very stinky cat, with poopy pantaloons (and this guy has some very fluffy pantaloons!) trying to clean him up. So yeah, take it easy, and you may not have to clean up poopy trousers. Just put on the "patience pants" and wear 'em with style, momma!

In a few months you are going to look back and be amazed at yourself, at what you have accomplished. And you will help out a new member, knowing it can be done. :)
 
LOL @ poopy pantaloons!!!

ok ok ok! I definitely don't want to be cleaning up after Mowgli in that way! I know that the patience will be worth it in the long run... but I'm having to really come to terms with the fact that I am an impatient person (a fact my boyfriend probably could have told you before I could have).

I find it really helpful to hear from other peoples previous experiences so thank you for that, I totally hope I can pay it forward some day.
 
I think the biggest thing that our FD kitties teach us all is patience. It is a recurring theme in many threads. Sheba certainly taught me patience.
The longest way round is often the shortest way home .... as the saying goes!
When I was swapping Sheba over to a raw diet several years ago, instead of trying her separately with all the ingredients, I just made up a batch and froze it and started feeding her. It gave her diarrhoea. So I had to trial every individual ingredient. Turned out she couldn’t tolerate raw egg yoke, so all that batch had to be thrown out. Cooked egg yoke was fine. Lesson learnt.
My current cats are fine with raw egg yoke so ECID (every cat is different).
I am going to send you some patience pants. We all own several pairs!!!
 
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