New diabetic cat

Hi! I just found out my 10 year old male cat Rex has diabetes. We have a total of 4 indoor cats. I feed Fromm's Game Bird Recipe dry food that is available 24/7. I also give a little wet food once a day. Now I need to eliminate the dry food or go to 2x a day feeding. Not sure how to manage that. My other cats are 17 and 14 so they have had this for many years. I haven't started the insulin because I wanted a recommendation from actual cat owners what to start with and how much to purchase. Rex had a blood sugar of 537 so I need to start immediately. Thank you.

 

Welcome! There's a lot of help for you here. Please go post all your questions on the main health forum where more people will see them. Let us know:

• What insulin your vet recommends and dose if you know
• Whether you'll be testing blood glucose at home
• Any other health issues/meds your kitty has.

 

Welcome!
A lot of people feed smaller wet food meals a few times a day. See you on the Main Health forum!

 

You can either go to all wet food (fancy feast classic or Friskies pate are foods many of us feed) OR feed a combo of wet and dry. There are only a handful of dry foods that are appropriate for a diabetic cat. My favorite is Young Again Zero carb food available at Youngagainpetfood.com. It is about 1% carb and doesn't raise my cats bg at all. They will send you a free sample if you ask. Another is Evo Cat and Kitten in the purple bag at 8% carb. Some also feed natures instinct raw and orijien cat and kitten.

I personally feed wet in the morning and evening, leaving extra to graze on, and two bowls of young again and a bowl of evo. I have 7 cats.

 

Have a look at :
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/transitioning-your-cat-from-dry-to-wet-food.956/
Not remembering how I got there but Dr. Lisa has a lot if information accessed via this board.

 

Hi. I thought I replied on this thread. I think I have 3 threads running.

The vet recommended 3U BID, but I was told if I am going to switch to all wet food, to start at 0.5U. My Lantus will finally arrive today so Rex will get his first dose tonight.

Rex has no other medical problems.. I do have another cat that is hypothyroid, but doing very well. I just switched all 4 cats to 2x meals/day of wet food yesterday with a little dry food out all the time. The cats are eating less than 1/2 cup of that now. I wasn't concerned about switching all over to wet only. I just didn't know how much they would still want the dry, but now I know .. not very much.

Rex was dx on Wednesday with a bg of 537. My first test on Friday was 436. I did it again on Saturday (just practicing) and got 493. Yesterday morning, it was down to 462 before getting their first wet meal. Yesterday afternoon, before dinner, Rex had a bg of 371. This morning, it was only 293!

 

Holy moly! That food change is really having an impact - a good one! Make sure you test before you give any insulin.

 

You can also post on the Lantus forum as well if you haven't done that already. Welcome to you and Rex.