Wellnes Brand Canned Food questions

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MiaMom

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Hi,
Mia is still on Lantus since last Fall except for a short break in early January, has BG readings from a normal range to over 300, but he Dr(s) think she is doing well. She weighs in at 12.5 to 13 lbs and is a spayed 11 year old seal point Siamese. She has had some appetite issues lately. We were giving he Evo canned and Evo Dry and timed meals to her morning and eve shots with 2 very small snack type of meals at other times. Then, she became finicky earlier this month and did not want to eat that Evo canned food. I heard from the pet store that that company may have been sold and there may be a change in their food. I switched to Wellnes brand Chicken or Turkey canned that she used to eat a couple of years ago. She still likes Evo dry and I use that to relax her at shot time.
Does anyone out there use Wellness brand? I am guessing at portion size per meal - usually try diving the 5.5 oz can in 4 portions. Does this sound right? For the dry treats, tyr to limit it to 1/16 of a cup twice per day at shot time to add to the canned 1/4 can portion. Today, she did not have her usual appetite, so could not give eve shot. By the way, my DH is not supportive of home testing, so were are depending on monthly fructosamine tests and some spot BG tests at the vet's office.
It's a stressful time for all, too much is being spent at the vet each month and too much time taking her to appointments - maybe Mia is tired of the whole routine or picking up on our stress.
Amy suggestions or diet or managing her diabetes? Know you are all into home testing- what to do if cat parents are not??
Thanks for listening,
MiaMom
 
Because you are not testing (and really, you don't need his approval to do so!), it is likely you don't have her glucose controlled. You probably should test her for ketones, which are a diabetic emergency.

Pop over to the pharmacy and pick up some ketodiatsix. If she'll let you hold it under her while she pees, great. Otherwise, try a serving spoon under her while she pees, or non-absorbent acquarium gravel in a fresh litter box (just slide the litter over and tilt the pan to test).

Also, does her breath smell like nail polish remover (acetone)? If yes, it is very likely she has ketones.
 
MiaMom said:
By the way, my DH is not supportive of home testing, so were are depending on monthly fructosamine tests and some spot BG tests at the vet's office.
It's a stressful time for all, too much is being spent at the vet each month and too much time taking her to appointments - maybe Mia is tired of the whole routine or picking up on our stress.
Amy suggestions or diet or managing her diabetes? Know you are all into home testing- what to do if cat parents are not??
Thanks for listening,
MiaMom
Click to expand...

How can he be against home-testing when it's costing you so much and it's so time consuming to take her to the vet each time???

The bad thing about fructosamine testing is that all it does is show an average of blood glucose values over an extended period, 2 weeks or more. Your kitty could be having lows, coupled with highs from rebounding and with only fructosamine testing, you're never going to know that is going on.

Effective Lantus dosing is based on peak or nadir BG values. You can't get around that. And even if you were taking her to the vet for curves, the vet stress alone could be altering the results and not in a good way.

I'm sorry to be so insistent about home-testing. Home BG testing will give you a feeling of control which will lower your stress level about treating Mia. The board even has free meter kits available - just click the link near the top of the page.

About the food, Wellness is an excellent brand. She will do fine on it. There are several varieties, so you should be able to find one she likes or rotate the varieties if she gets tired of one.
 
I feed Wellness brand and usually feed about 1/4 can at a time mixed with water or tuna juice, 3x a day with Purina DM dry as treats at shot and test time and a little for snacks during the night since she won't eat the canned once it gets cold. She is a big girl, almost 20 lbs. How much you feed also depends on that. She is considerably smaller than Racci but Racci is an old girl (15 1/2) and sedentary.

I totally agree with the others that home testing is very important for you to have a handle on her diabetes. There is no way for you to keep her safe without testing. I also test ketones whenever my Racci doesn't feel well or has an extra high or low blood glucose number. It is very easy to do and can save her life. The same for home testing. What if she were very low at shot time and you didn't know and gave her full shot? It could wind up with you in the ER with a very sick kitty. I don't know why your dh is against it but I don't think he has thought it through. Perhaps you could get him to read some of the articles on this site.

Melanie & Racci
 
I'm curious as to why your H doesn't agree with home testing. Does he think it's mean or too invasive?
Tell him that no human diabetic would EVER give themselves insulin without testing their blood sugar first...it's dangerous. Why would we give our cats insulin without knowing what their sugar level is too?
My diabetic would come running for his test because he knew he'd get a treat every time. They learn quickly. Having a spreadsheet of data and knowing what's going on is power. It's silly to waste your money and rely on the vet when you can do it yourself. It's also dangerous to give insulin blindly. I feel for you that you have to get him to agree with you. UGH. If you two could get on the same page it would be so much easier....your cat could be regulated faster too.
 
I recently purchased some wellness in 12.5 oz cans at mrchewy.com. Work out cost per ounce, and it is much less. I got an additional discount by setting up auto ship (you can always cancel it). You also can get free shipping on the auto ship!

I think home testing would be way cheaper than the fructosamines. I just found out the the arkray glucocard 01 strips match my relion confirm meter. In addition, arkray makes an even cheaper strip for a meter called glucocard vital. It needs a little more blood, but not much. Check at adw for those.

http://www.americandiabeteswholesal...-01-sensor-blood-glucose-test-strips_4050.htm these glucocard 01 match walmart's relion confirm and cost less. They are made by arkray for Walmart.

http://www.americandiabeteswholesale.com/product/arkray-glucocard-vital-monitoring-kit-pink_4031.htm probably best price I've seen on strips. Melissa and tarragon use this model and I'm going to give it a whirl.
 
Wellness is good. Scooter liked the chicken a lot. The turkey smelled kind of funky, but he ate it just fine, although not as enthusiastically as the chicken stuff. It ended up being way too expensive for me though. I was paying $2.75 + tax a 12.5oz can, and Scooter was eating one can a day. It's dense in calories which is nice but when you've got a hungry unregulated diabetic, food volume means just as much if not more than the calories do.
 
I forgot to tell you how I do quantities. I decide on how many ounces per day and then use a scale like this one to measure the meal. This makes it easier to use the 12.5 ounce cans I mentioned above. You can put the bowl on there, push tare/zero, and then measure the food. I already had it and it has other handy uses in the kitchen.

My cats are getting 5.5-6 oz per cat per day. They need to lose a little weight. We are going for an ideal weight of 10-11 lb.
 
I have active 9-lb. civvies (about 9 months old) and for now they eat pretty much according to the body weight guidelines on the can. Because of that, it's pretty easy and economical for me to use the large cans of Wellness, and my cats seem to like it and do well on it. (I get the cans for under $2.50, with a small case discount from my local pet store, so it's around the same price that I can typically get Fancy Feast. I also like that I only have to wash out one can vs. 4 of Fancy Feast.)

I open one 12.5-oz can of Wellness and one 5.5-oz can of Merrick each evening, split the food between two plates, then cover and refrigerate one plate for breakfast and feed them the other for dinner. So, although some of it is Merrick which is lower calorie and fat, they are eating the equivalent of 8-9 oz per day each (about 2/3 of one of the large cans). Again, though, they are young and very active, so later on they may not need as much. I feed the Chicken, Turkey, and Beef and Chicken, and they like them all.
 
Be careful feeding too much of the Evo wet food, as the Evo 95% Chicken is super high in fat. Some alternatives if you guys gets tired of the Wellness are Fancy Feast Classics (look for the word Classic on the label), which are high protein/low carb. There are about eight different flavors.
 
Cedric only liked the Evo with the purple label, and then one day he barfed, so I haven't bought it in awhile.
Before I rescued Dallas (civvie trash can, eats anything), I was buying the 5.5 oz cans and splitting them into 4 small meals (we use an autofeeder for 2 daytime meals). Now that stray cat Dallas lives with us, I buy cases from PetFood Direct.com. I buy 12.5 cans of Wellness Turkey, Turkey & Salmon, Chicken (although not a favorite of Cedric's) and Chicken & Herring. I also buy Friskies Mixed grill pate - cedric LOVES this; Dallas will eat anything.

Cedric is in remission, after uding Lantus for a month. My vet is experienced (some) with FD, but they are still scratching their heads that it only took Cedric a month to go itno remission. he was about 5 1/2 YO when dx'd. When I took him off dry food, his numbers dropped 100 points within 24 hours; within 48 they were normal. My vet was very excited that I was ready to hometest. I got a reli-on micro from walmart within a few days of dx. Like someone else said, as a human, I'd test myself before injection. I have had several conversations with friends and co-workers about diabetes - they were facinated that a cat could be diabetic, but everything we talked about was the same (except you don't prick a human ear to get blood - lol).

Please reconsider home testing, especially if you take the dry away - it could save your cat's life.
 
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