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Henry's human

Henry's human

Member Since 2016
Hi. My cat Henry was diagnosed yesterday. He has been told to eat a Hills prescription dry food for weight management (he's currently underweight). I have read here that dry food is bad... I have four cats in total and they all eat Science Diet indoor dry food only. Should I change all their diets? Henry is the only sick one. I live in Australia and have no idea what is good and what is bad now. Two of the cats were my sister's (she passed away) and she had them on whiskas pouched food and they were always starving. I don't want that to happen again.
I am still in the overwhelmed stage of this diagnosis.
 
Welcome to FDMB.

Many of us were overwhelmed at first. just take it a step at a time.

If you are already giving insulin, you must be home blood glucose testing your cat before changing food as such a change could reduce the needed insulin by 1-2 units of insulin. All you need is an inexpensive human glucometer, matching test strips, and lancets labelled for alternate site testing. Bayer and Abbot are good brands.

To get the down under food recommendations, go to your first post and on the right, select Thread Tools to edit your subject, then add your location to the title. We do have a few folk from down under who have done some searching to find options.
If you're up for it, there is a recipe for home made raw food at Cat Info.

And remember to breathe!
 
One of our Australian members put together a spreadsheet with lots of great information on low carb foods available in Australia and New Zealand ....as well as where she gets things like her blood glucose meter and strips for home testing

It's VERY important that if you're already giving insulin that you don't switch too quickly to a low carb canned food....dropping the carbs can drop the blood glucose up to 200 points (11 points in your scale)

It's much easier (and healthier) to just transition all your cats onto a low carb canned diet. The website BJM linked above is well worth the time to read it on why dry is bad for all cats, not just diabetic ones
 
Hi Emily. I posted on the welcome page.
Hills prescription dry food M/D is 15 %carbs and too high for diabetic cats. Science Diet is even higher than the MD Hills. I would definitely swap all your cats over to canned food. They will be much better for it.
Apart from dry food being higher in carbs it only has about 7% moisture in it whereas canned food has 70% moisture in it. Cats are not natural drinkers so need to have water in their diet to protect their kidneys from failing.

Just on the diet for Henry. If you have been feeding him Science Diet dry, DONT SWAP TO A LOW CARB FOOD unless you are monitoring the blood sugars. This is because when you swap to a low carb food the blood sugar could drop several points and if the insulin is not adjusted to suit the new blood sugar levels (BSLs) Henry could drop too low. It is no good going back in a week to the vet to see how he is going. You need to be testing every day.

Here is sticky ( they are the yellow posts at the top of pages) that might get you started.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/
Do you have some honey at home..it is always a good idea to have a hypo kid at the ready so you can use it if necessary. There is a page that tells you all about it but I can't find it at the moment....I will have to keep looking
 
Hello and welcome to the best place you never wanted to be :)

We have all been where you are right now and know how overwhelming it all is but I promise you it will get easier. The initial learning period is pretty heavy but before you know it everything will be second nature and you'll be giving advice to other newbies. There won't be a question you have that we haven't dealt with before and there's no such thing as a stupid question so just keep them coming.

I saw that Henry has asthma, I wonder does he have a steroid inhaler for that? If so it may be what's caused his diabetes.

I saw in your other thread your questions about feeding so I wanted to let you know that it's also OK to free feed a lantus kitty, with the exception of removing the food two hours prior to his shot so that you get a preshot test (once you've mastered them) that is not food influenced and therefore know whether it is safe to shoot. If he's been free fed previously and he's not overweight I would stick with that - he's facing a lot of changes already and that doesn't need to be another one at this stage. Later you may find it beneficial to structure meal times to smooth out his cycles, or it may not be necessary. Vyktor has always been free fed and with his cycles we haven't found it necessary to change that.

Unfortunately most vets aren't very well educated about feline diabetes but fortunately you found us so you don't have to worry about that too much :)

Highly recommended reading for now are the stickies (posts stuck to the top) in the lantus/levemir support forum.

Anything we can do to help you just need to ask.
 
Thank you all so much. I didn't realise I had so many replies :)
I wondered, is it normal for him to be lethargic? He's sleeping more now that he's on insulin than he was before he was diagnosed. I'm worried about him. (But saying that, all my cats are really sleepy today). He officially hates me too - he's started to run when he sees me coming :'( I'm sure we will get passed it but it makes me sad..
I will get the testing kit tomorrow and I will watch all the videos and read all the links (and buy honey!!)

I am so so glad I found my way here.
 
Henry's human said:
Thank you all so much. I didn't realise I had so many replies :)
I wondered, is it normal for him to be lethargic? He's sleeping more now that he's on insulin than he was before he was diagnosed. I'm worried about him. (But saying that, all my cats are really sleepy today). He officially hates me too - he's started to run when he sees me coming :'( I'm sure we will get passed it but it makes me sad..
I will get the testing kit tomorrow and I will watch all the videos and read all the links (and buy honey!!)

I am so so glad I found my way here.
Click to expand...

lethargy can be a sign of dehydration. Have you checked to see if he might be dehydrated? Check his gums. Are they tacky or moist. Pull up the skin on his scruff. Does it fall down quickly or does it go down slowly?
Here is A very good sticky from BJM which you will find useful.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1r6ktdF7AMJCYHgPkVQWFUFy5Ag6OnbmfNfQqL3zX_88

Did you say earlier you were going back to the vet tomorrow? If so get him to check if Henry is dehydrated
 
Henry's human said:
He's sleeping more now that he's on insulin than he was before he was diagnosed. I'm worried about him.
Click to expand...
It can take a cat's body a little time to adjust to the 'foreign' insulin and that can be a cause of lethargy at the start of insulin treatment but it is not the ONLY potential cause of lethargy. Definitely monitor closely, and make sure that Henry remains normally responsive otherwise. (The vets Saoirse was with at time of Dx were very anti home testing so I had to dose Saoirse blind for the first few weeks and she was very, very lethargic. I kept poking her every time she slept to make sure she was OK. :rolleyes: Better safe - and she forgave me!). Once you learn to home test you'll have much more peace of mind about Henry's status. :) Be sure to keep a daily journal of clinical signs such as this; they're very helpful to refer back to.

If in any doubt at all contact your vet for advice.


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