Hello.

My 5 year old male cat, Blackie has been diagnosed with diabetes. I am feedind him Dm wet food 2xs a day with his insulin injections of 4. I have the dry DM food out all the time since i have 5 other cats. Is there a better dry food? Is there a less expensive wet food? I also read that i could purchase insulin from WalMart. What do you think? Any suggestions and advise is appreciated.

 

Welcome!
What insulin are you using?
Dry DM is high in carbs so that is not ideal to feed him. A lot of us feed Friskies pate or Fancy feast classic pate, none of the gravy types. I feed my cat 9Lives. There is a list of food done by Dr. Lisa that lists the carb count of a lot of wet foods. You don't have to feed the expensive food from the vet- there is nothing in them that actually make them "prescription" food.
Dry food is not recommended. BUT there are two that are acceptable carb counts: Young Again Zero www.youngagainpetfood.com and EVO cat and kitten (purple bag I believe).
You can feed more than twice a day. A lot of us on here feed multiple small meals a day.
It's best to test at home. You can use a human meter. I use ReliOn Prime. Meter was about $9 and the strips are $18 for 100. There are other relion meters that use a smaller sample of blood. There are videos on here on how to test your cats blood glucose that can show you how. Treats are a great way to help convince him it's a positive thing.
Edited to add: It's very important to monitor his blood glucose levels and adjust the insulin if you decide to take him off the Dry food and switch him to a low carb wet food from the DM wet and dry. It must be done slowly to make sure he doesn't drop too much and end up going hypoglycemic. Cutting out dry food can drop their numbers by hundreds of points.

 

Thank you so much, Steph. His insulin is Vetsulin. Have you heard about the WalMart insulin?
Bobbie

 

I have heard of it but have no experience with it. I think you would find people with experience here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/caninsulin-vetsulin-and-n-nph.19/
They can probably answer your questions better than I can.
If you don't get any answers there you can try posting in the main health forum too.

 

Do you mean you are giving 4 units total (like 2 units in the morning and 2 at night) or 4 u twice a day? Because 4 units of vetsulin at a time is a HUGE dose. Most cats start at 1 unit twice a day and raise the dose gradually a half unit at a time if it's not enough.

How long ago did you start insulin?

Please with this kind of dose especially, go to Walmart and her a meter TODAY. Here's your shopping list:

Meter (relion confirm or micro.... Unless you would rather have a pretty specific alphatrak.... Amazon can send those out to you but the strips are expensive)
Extra test strips
Neosporin ointment with pain relief
28 gauge lancets
Cotton cosmetic rounds
Honey or Karo syrup in case of hypo... Which on 4 units is a real possibility. No joke.


For food ff classic or Friskies pate. Avoid the dry unless it's Young Again Zero carb (available at Youngagainpetfood.com....they will send you a free sample of the Young Again Zero carb food if you call or email) or Evo cat and kitten in the purple bag. I believe Orijien makes a diabetic friendly dry too. ....and there's a new one by Dr Elsley's that just came out that's under 10% carb and relatively inexpensive.... I haven't tried it yet.

DON'T REMOVE THE DRY DM FOOD UNTIL YOU ARE HOME TESTING BECAUSE THE NUMBERS MAY DROP QUICK.

 

Welcome Bobbie and Blackie!
I'll wait for some of these questions to get answered before overloading you with more information . I think it will be helpful to get your Signature setup though, especially as you post questions on the Main Health Forum: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Since you want to start home testing, here is the Spreadsheet template we use:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

This is also good to have when newly diagnosed (better to be prepared): http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

 

WalMart carries a few types of insulin under their Reli-on brand. Their NPH is the type that is most suited for pet use and some vets still prescribe it, though it probably is not that beneficial for use in cats as it does not cover the 12 hour cycle as it is more of an intermediate acting insulin and not a 'long' acting insulin.

My vet started Buddy on NPH and I got it from WalMart (dirt cheap at around $25), but after a couple of days I knew that it was not well suited for us. Maybe if I elected to do 3 shots a day (every 8 hours) it would work, but I don't know. Since I switched him over to ProZinc a little over a week ago, his blood glucose has shown a steady improvement.

His diet is Friskies Pate and Young Again Zero Mature, although the EVO worked well too. The cats just seem to prefer the YA and the added benefit over the EVO is the reduced carbohydrate count.

Good luck!