Switching Peekas food question

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Peter (Boo) (Peeka GA)

Peter (Boo) (Peeka GA)

Member Since 2020
Hey y’all, we got our Dr. Elseys in today and are going to begin switching over her food. I just have a couple of questions I need addressed before starting tomorrow morning.

1. Do we need to do the 75% high carb 25% low carb for a week method, then 50% high carb 50% low carb for another week, then 25% high carb 75% low carb, and then 100% low carb? If not, please let me know. We aren’t switching to wet food JUST yet, but will plan to do so once we can get her accustom to lower carb foods.

2. Dosing: this one is huge, she is still on Vetsulin and may be for another little while. What do we need to change her dosage to when changing her diet? This is the part that concerns me the most. Should we pull back to 1u while we change her diet? What is the recommendation here?

As always, I appreciate everyone’s help and support. I’m hopeful with the diet change, more improvement will be made for Peeka.
 
Dont take this as gospel (because I'm no expert) but your plan sounds reasonable. I never dealt with percentages I just gave a little bit less every day. I never weighed or counted carbs. I kept his dose the same. By the time I was adding only about a quarter cup he was on the can food. Probably gave him a 1/8 cup his last bowl of dry.
Theres probably some fancy chart somewhere so hold on for more replies.

besides this will jump your thread to the top :p
 
I did some digging and surprisingly couldn't find any specific information on how to "properly" make the switch. All I could find was to monitor while switching to reduce as needed. I also found a post by Deb from a few years ago where she found a recent (at the time) study which recommended cutting the dose by 30-50% when switching. One of the writers, Rand, also helped write the TR protocol we use here today. I personally don't see anything wrong with switching gradually like you have listed, but I don't have experience with it.

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...e-on-insulin-stop-insulin.94548/#post-1013414
 
The food changeover doesn't have to be that slow, over many weeks.
The changeover can usually be done in about a week, with a little bit less of the old food each day, and a little bit more of the new food each day, until the food change is complete.

The reason for the slower food transition, is to try to prevent digestive upsets with the new food.
Your cat will also be "in charge" of the food change. They have to like the new food and eat enough of it to make the switch in a week.

Wink took about 6 weeks to switch from dry to wet. He didn't recognize the wet food as food, and it took a lot of time to convince him the wet food was edible.

Even a different dry food may not be accepted by your cat at first. Don't give up. Persistence and patience is key.

What the dose should be while you do the food change is a good question.
Peeka drops pretty fast early in the cycle, down over 70% in the first couple of hours sometimes.

I'd say somewhere between 1.5U and 2U. If I remember correctly, you have to leave for work and can't be there to test in the middle of the AM cycle.
You can always increase the dose again, if the food change doesn't drop the BG numbers too much.

You are there and know Peeka (and Boo) better than we ever will. You also know your life/work/responsibilities and commitments much better than we ever will. So the choice on the dose during the food switch is yours.

Would you please add a row to the SS, for 8/23/20? It's missing.
 
Deb & Wink said:
The food changeover doesn't have to be that slow, over many weeks.
The changeover can usually be done in about a week, with a little bit less of the old food each day, and a little bit more of the new food each day, until the food change is complete.

The reason for the slower food transition, is to try to prevent digestive upsets with the new food.
Your cat will also be "in charge" of the food change. They have to like the new food and eat enough of it to make the switch in a week.

Wink took about 6 weeks to switch from dry to wet. He didn't recognize the wet food as food, and it took a lot of time to convince him the wet food was edible.

Even a different dry food may not be accepted by your cat at first. Don't give up. Persistence and patience is key.

What the dose should be while you do the food change is a good question.
Peeka drops pretty fast early in the cycle, down over 70% in the first couple of hours sometimes.

I'd say somewhere between 1.5U and 2U. If I remember correctly, you have to leave for work and can't be there to test in the middle of the AM cycle.
You can always increase the dose again, if the food change doesn't drop the BG numbers too much.

You are there and know Peeka (and Boo) better than we ever will. You also know your life/work/responsibilities and commitments much better than we ever will. So the choice on the dose during the food switch is yours.

Would you please add a row to the SS, for 8/23/20? It's missing.
Click to expand...

Left a little bit out for Peeka right now, let’s just say her transitioning to the new food won’t be a problem. Was able to get a +3 at 237 as well, here’s hoping she will continue to take well to the new food. Only gave her about 1/4 cup of a mix of both the old food and Dr. Elseys, and she absolutely went insane.
 
So she likes the Dr. Elsey's dry food? It was a big hit it sounds like.

Hope she continues to do well on that food and continues to eat well.

Here's hoping it makes a big difference in the BG levels.
Please tag me in a few cycles, to come double check on Peeka's SS and see how she is doing on the lower dose and the food change.
 
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