What to Feed?

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Ellyn Renken

Member Since 2016
My vet has my cat on Hills Prescription Diet (dry food). It is high fiber and low carbs and is also for weight control. He has lost weight. I have also been giving him a prescription moist food ($2.00/can) but I give him very little of this. The vet feels that on this diet, you don't need to do the glucose levels periodically. I don't know which way to go anymore.
 
Hi Ellyn. Which Hills dry are you feeding? The W/D is 25 carbs while the M/D is 13- both too high, as we like to keep the carb count 10 or below. A low carb, wet food is best, and it doesn't have to be from the vet. Many of us feed Fancy Feast Classics, or Friskies Pates, just make sure there's is no gravy. Most of us here firmly believe in home testing our kitty's glucose. What insulin, and dose is your kitty on?
 
Hi Ellyn - from your other posts I note your cat is on vetsulin so if you are considering a change of food you must be home testing, you also said he has mild IBD. A change in food from dry food to wet (and dry food is high carb - even the 'prescription' ones) can drop the blood sugar considerably so to keep your kitty safe you should home test, it does form part of the regime - test, feed, shoot so even people with the worst work schedules (like me) can home test and do curves periodically to check response to insulin. Most owners don't seem to test but if you are wanting the best for your cat, and you do as you joined this board, you should start to home test.

Are you able to add a signature so we don't keep asking the same questions over and over, it also makes it easier to advise.
 
Hey there, Welcome and glad you found us because there is a lot of information here.

The dry food is not the way to go, not even RX food from your vet. We recommend low carb wet food and it does not have to be RX because there is nothing special about it except that it is expensive and usually higher in carbs than it should be. I see Larry linked you a wet food guide and you want to keep the carb count under 10 %. A lot of us feed our cat Fancy Feast CLASSICS ( I underline Classics because not all FF is created equal in the carb department. Any thing with gravy in the name is going to be higher carbs.
Unfortunately, the vets do not know a lot about feline nutrition.

When giving insulin to your furbaby, it is very important to home test. I ask those whose vets tell them it's not necessary if they would shoot insulin to their child or even themselves before testing to make sure the kitty is in a safe number.

When did you cat get diagnosed? And how long have you been giving insulin?

We can help you to learn how to test. Here is a link with lots of good information for you.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/


Keep asking questions and tell us how we can help you.
 
Hi Ellyn,

I see you just joined FDMB on Tuesday. Welcome to the group! I remember how overwhelming it was when I first got my cat's diagnosis and joined FDMB. There is so much to learn about feline diabetes, and it's easy to become overwhelmed with information. Take a deep breath. You can do this, and the amazing people here can help you.

My first vet, unfortunately, wasn't very knowledgeable about feline diabetes. He prescribed Hill's w/d for my cat, which I later found out was not much better than the Meow Mix I had been feeding her. Both were way too high in carbs for a diabetic kitty. My vet also didn't advocate home testing, but I'm really glad I did learn to test her at home - even though I was absolutely terrified to do so in the beginning. One day, Jersey dropped down to a glucose reading of 58 just four hours after her morning shot. At that time, we were using Humulin-N and feeding her the Hill's diet. (Just in case you may not know, we consider a reading of under 50 on a human meter to be too low. In other words, Jersey was close to going too low that morning.)

I would agree with some of the previous comments not to change foods until you are able to test your kitty's glucose. We definitely want to make sure your boy is safe, and switching to a low-carb food can cause insulin needs to decrease dramatically.

Back to the original question you raised, here's a link on feline nutrition that you might find helpful.

Hang in there!
Shelly
 
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