Twice daily feeding

[Gus da Cat]

Hi all- We're brand new here and have not even started on insulin (glargine) prescribed for Gus as we are still working on regulating his food.
So after two weeks he is still only eating a maximum of 2 oz of Purina DM wet over the course of a day. He will eat the dry Purina DM with no issue. We went for one day giving him only wet and he just will not increase his consumption, so we're back to supplementing with dry.
Our vet is wanting to hold off treatment until we have him on twice daily feeding and prefers we stay on wet to try to keep his urinary health up. Soooo, as I peruse different sites trying to get more info and ways to get him to eat more wet, I see some sites saying that feeding only twice daily is not necessary but just withholding food for a couple hours prior to his insulin injections is adequate. This would sure make it easier to get him started on the insulin. I don't see a day any time in the next month where I can get him to eat an entire can of the wet food (plus now I am losing weight because as a vegetarian, smelling and handling all this canned cat food makes me want to yak) Realistically, I think I'd be able to get him to eat a little more wet food if we could feed him several times/day, but I don't see him eating a full can in a day any time in the near future. Maybe we could feed him one ounce of wet twice a day, supplementing the rest with dry, though I don't know what that amount would be.
It seems like there are differing philosophies around feeding schedules. I'm a bit worried we're starving the poor dude. He's already lost a lot of weight and I can't see how he'll survive on less than 3oz of wet/day so we are just continuing giving him dry too.
Thoughts?

 

[jt and trouble (GA)]

WELCOME TO FDMB! Glad you found us! You are about to hear from some of us about food. LOW CARB like Fancy Feast pates are used here by a lot of us. There is s food chart link at the top of this forums list pleas check it out.
I'm going to let others link you to the health and F&Q as my links arent working. darn computer grrr

 

[Deb & Wink]

Sticky INDEX: Health Links/FAQs that Jt and trouble mentioned.

Many cats don't care for the pork based flavor of the Purina DM canned food. They'll eat the dry food version, because it's sprayed with yummy animal digest, to peak their interest.

Are you home testing the blood glucose levels?
Are you checking for ketones? Either in Gus's urine or using a blood ketone monitor?

Ketones can develop when a cat is not eating enough, and their body breaks down fat and muscle tissue, to provide energy for the body. Too many ketones is very serious and life threatening for your cat and can lead to DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis).

Not sure why your vet is still holding off on the insulin. Without insulin, the cat's body can not properly process the food they are eating, so they are going to keep losing weight and quite literally be starving to death.

Try some or all of these Tips for Transitioning a Dry Food Addict.

I despise the smell of fish. But my cat loves some canned fish flavored foods, so I feed her that sometimes anyway.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Hi. Also most of us feed several small meals as opposed to twice a day. It helps level them out over the course of the cycle. I fed 2 times during the first half of each cycle usually unless I had to steer with food.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

You need to be making sure Gus is getting enough food every day.
If you don’t feed enough and he’s not getting insulin, you are running the risk of ketones and you certainly don’t want to go down that path if you can possibly help it. You need to buy some Ketostix which you can get from a pharmacy or Walmart if you live in the US. Collect a urine sample and dip the test strip into the urine and read exactly 15 seconds later. If you get a trace of ketones, you need to start the insulin and if you get more than a trace you need to phone the vet. You can’t leave ketones untreated. And the way to treat ketones is with food and insulin.

I don’t understand the vets logic waiting until Gus is eating twice a day. Multiple small meals is much better for diabetic cats.
Do you have the insulin already?
What dose did the vet prescribe?
What is Gus’s weight?
Are you going to home test the blood glucose levels so you can monitor them and keep Gus safe?

 

[Gus da Cat]

Thanks, the wait on insulin was a logistical issue for us, in critical travel that we couldn't delay and no one we could call on to manage Gus in the mean time. In addition, there was a lot of miscommunication with us standing at a window outside the clinic, talking at a distance through a window with traffic noise, etc. We've just finished a two week curve using the freestyle libre. Food is still a struggle, but we're getting there.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Many cats do not like prescription foods. Many members feed their cats either Fancy Feast or Friskies canned foods, pate flavors. Pates are usually lower in carbs than anything with gravy in it, such as shreds, bits & chuncky canned foods. If your cat will not eat prescription canned food, you can take it back to your vet for a refund, even if it is opened.