New to Diabetes, question on feeding

Hello!

My 11-year-old kitty was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday. Things are actually going great and it seems like he's truly responding already - the litter box is not overflowing with pee anymore and his coat already looks less flakey and scraggly just after a day and a half of wet food and insulin. But, my one question is this:

I have 2 cats, and I've switched them both to the low carb wet food diet twice a day. They are used to grazing on dry food all day, but I have to say they are doing great. To make things less complicated I'm just feeding them both at the same time in their own bowls. They both eat a good amount of the food right away but do leave about a third behind to pick at over time. Last night and today I've put the food out and left it for a few hours to be sure they get as much as possible. My diabetic cat is on 2 units of lantus with each meal. I'm currently letting him eat about half the food, giving the shot, and letting him finish the rest over the next hour or so. Is that alright? Or should I try to get him to eat more quickly?

Thanks!

 

That should be fine. Lantus is slow in onset so there’s no need to have a large meal on board.

 

Hi! I'm sure someone else will chime in, but my vet told me as long as they eat even the tinyest bit of food before lantus, it's ok. In fact I just got back from the emergency vet and he didn't anything and they gave him his shot, granted his number was super high.

 

Thanks guys! I am mostly wondering how long after the lantus I should let him keep eating. Does that matter? I know the meals should be controlled, so I wasn't sure just how controlled to be. Should I just leave it out until his finishes since he's starting the meal/getting the shot at the same time each day and the lantus is long acting?

 

I think there is debate on controlled vs free feeding. I'm giving my guy wet food before the insulin, and keep dry food out for them to graze on. My other non diabetic cat only eats dry so there is no way I could keep diabetic from eating the dry. There is a brand of very low carb dry food, it's expensive though. https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/zero-formula.html You can even request a sample form them to see if cats approve!

 

Oh, and really no eating for 2 hours before bg check before insulin

 

Many people here either feed several small meals a day or allow the kitty to graze if that’s their preference.

 

We've actually seen that most cats do better with multiple small meals instead of 2 big ones....just like humans are told to eat multiple small meals instead of 3 big ones.

2U is actually a pretty high starting dose....we usually start at .5 to 1U (depending on the weight of the cat and what they're eating)

Are you home testing?

 

If you're not checking your cat's blood glucose on 2u of Lantus, do so ASAP. That dose is a usual starter dose when a cat's diet has *not* been changed to the Catkins low-carb diet but may be too much for your cat now that you've changed your cat's diet. Lantus is slow acting and its effect builds up over time so if you aren't already testing, start now. Crashing your cat is bad and recovery from a Lantus crash is something that takes an emergency vet and lots of $$$$ to save your cat.

As for when to feed, I've looked at the graphs of how Lantus puts insulin into the blood stream, and it's a fairly flat curve. There's no need to worry about when you feed your cat, just make sure you feed your cat. As others have noted, Lantus seems to work well for "nibblers", those who nibble on food, then come back three hours later for another go. You don't have to give an injection right after a meal like with the older insulins because Lantus releases insulin into the bloodstream continuously and slowly over the next 12 hours. More on the Lantus forum on that though.

 

I like to refer to the AAHA guidelines when these feeding questions come up. They say that feeding four times a day (using an auto feeder if needed) is ideal and that free-feeding is okay in cases where the cat is underweight. https://www.aaha.org/professional/resources/diabetes_management.aspx

 

This.

@ErinKC - Bit of background info: It's important that the preshot test is for a fasting blood glucose level in order to determine whether it is safe to give the next dose of insulin.


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