1 of my 6 cats just diagnosed. Overwhelmed!

Hello all!
As my screen name suggests, I am mom to 6 female diva kitties, ranging in age from 9 to 13. One of my two 12 year olds, Duck, was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Her sugars are running in the 320-420 range with 1ml of PZI a day. My vet decided yesterday to increase to 1ml twice a day and I need to switch their diet. Currently all 6 eat the same thing, wet food twice a day, grain free dry throughout the day (but small amounts).

Duck has always been a big girl, so she can lose a little weight. However, my house is small with no options to separate their food. My oldest girl, Autumn is VERY tiny and too skinny, so she needs to put ON weight. With 6 cats and only one diabetic, I'm overwhelmed at how to make sure everyone gets what they need and I don't break the bank. Suggestions and support will be greatly appreciated!!

 

Hi Diva Wrangler (great name!)

I'm fairly new here myself, but just wanted say welcome and sympathize. I only have two cats, so switching to low-carb, wet-only food was a little bit easier for us (at least from a financial standpoint). There are some great resources and discussions on FDMB about low-carb wet foods. Some are very ordinary, affordable brands/varieties that are easily found at the store--like Friskies and Fancy Feast. The brand name matters less than the dry carb %! Many people here will tell you that it's best if you can eliminate dry food altogether, if possible. I understand that might be difficult with so many non-diabetic cats who are used to eating it, but that might be a way to balance expenses a little bit. From what I've read here, it's absolutely fine for non-diabetic cats to eat a low-carb diabetic diet.

As for managing meal times, do you think it would be possible to coax Autumn away from the others for extra meals? Or to give her a larger portion at meal times? Sometimes I'll feed Riker (my diabetic) downstairs and lead Runa (my nondiabetic) upstairs for extra/larger meals while he's busy scarfing it down.

I'm sure other more experienced forum members will have better advice, but I know how overwhelming this can all feel, and just wanted to reply

 

Welcome! Please post all your questions on the main health forum. We can answer at length there.

Do you mean 1 unit of PZI?

 

Welcome to you and Duck! Great forum and lots of helpful cat parents that are veterans at this. Also a lot of newbies, myself included, lots to learn but you are in the right place.

 

Yes, 1 unit of PZI!

 

Welcome!
There are some autofeeders that have a ‘pin’ on them which allows one specific cat to use the feeder. You could have one of those for Autumn so she gets extra food. Easiest thing for you I would think would be to swap over to a low carb wet food for all cats.
Are you home testing? I would highly recommend that. Also if you haven’t swapped over to a low carb diet for Duck yet I would wait until you are home testing because low carb food can reduce the blood sugar levels a lot. I would not increase the dose AND lower the carb level at the same time. Do one then the other.

 

Welcome. I have six cats too and only one is diabetic. I feed them all low carb wet food. Mostly fancy feast classic.... And give CC some Tiki Cat as well. I either just leave wet out in the bowls to graze on through the day and sometimes put wet food with an ice cube in a timed feeder. It really hasn't been a problem. There's almost always some food left by the next feeding which our outside ferals help finish off. If fancy feast is a little pricey for you, Friskies pate is low carb as well.

 

Yes! I am home testing. Once I got the hang of it I did the glucose curve the Sunday before Christmas. That's the data my vet used to increase her insulin to twice a day.

 

Thank you for replying! It is very overwhelming, there's a lot of info to sort through. I'm taking this slow, one step at a time. Fortunately I work from home so I'm able to keep an eye on everyone!

I have been buying Autumn those Fancy Feast Broths pouches as treats throughout the day. She seems to really like the liquid. She only eats a few bites at a time of anything so it's a struggle to make sure she eats. Duck on the other hand, will plow through her serving of wet food and go through two more, little piggy! For years I've fed them wet food at least once if not twice a day and dry food as a snack all day, so her Duckabetes is my fault. Now I gotta figure out how to change 12+ years of feeding habits for all of us! Lol

 

My diabetic was definitly a dry food addict as well.

 

I have much the same issue as you. It has been almost 2 months since Kitty's diagnosis and things are a lot less overwhelming now. The feeding situation was (and still is) my main issue, but it has been easier than I thought it would be. I have 6 cats as well, included a 16 year old that needs to eat A LOT. He has been ill, and lost weight, and we are working on putting it back on. Kitty on the other hand wa a little on the chubby side. I also have (had) some dry food addicts, and they are all used to free feeding on dry food.

What took the most effort was getting Kitty to eat wet, but once that worked, I started free feeding wet food only. Kitty has lost weight on the low carb food, with no extra meassures taken. In addition to having wet food out all the time, I also put fresh food infront of the 16 year old (and some of the others) 4 times a day - for the extra calories. It doesn't really feel like much of a hassle, and it works fine. I still havent found a sollution that wont break my bank, but I started looking into home cooking.

It gets less overwhelming pretty quick. Hang in there <3

 

Hi and welcome "Diva". I'm so glad you found FDMB. You are in the right place to learn about feline diabetes treatment and how to manage integrating all the aspects into your daily living. I will say you have your hands full with six furry four foots, and Duckabetes to boot, but look at that adorable face! Who could resist?
It would be very helpful if you could set up your signature, that is Duck's pertinent info that will display with each of your posts, then get the spreadsheet going so that you can track insulin shots and BG testing. The spreadsheet is linked to the signature and is invaluable to advising members. Here are the links:
SIGNATURE

SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS

UNDERSTANDING THE SPREADSHEET

I know it's a busy time of year, with New Year's Eve tomorrow night, but if you can find the time, revisit the Home page and read the Getting Started and the Education sections on the right side of the page. Really good basic information to help you understand feline diabetes, and perhaps start helping answer some of the million questions you have.
We all started at the beginning, and there is a wealth of information here, many knowledgeable and experienced advisers, plus the support of the entire community.
Looking forward to seeing Duck's progress.

 

At one time I had eight cats, two of which were diabetic. The best advice I can give you it's to get them all on the same diet. Feeding them a low-carb canned diet, makes it easier to care your sugar Kitty and reduce the chance of any of the others becoming diabetic.

 

Hi. I'm new since 12/7/18 and I had the same overwhelmed feeling about the dry. I have 5 cats and what I did was give them less and less dry and then switched them to all canned. My younger babies weren't to keen on the idea and Nemo, my diabetic, was never a big canned food cat. HOWEVER, they did it and are all on canned now. This site and all these wonderful people are lifesavers!! If you have a question just ask and hang in there...it will get better!!

 

Hi there, I was in a similar situation just a short time ago - just have half the amount of the cats you do When my Bacardi was diagnosed, I switched all three kitties to wet diet. Bacardi was really fat and my other cat Matej, lets say, chubby. Both of them have lost weight with just the switch. They even have adjusted to being fed regularly rather than nibbling on dry all day long - at the beginning they were begging for food constantly, but now they know when the feeding time is and wait in their spots, nicely aligned one next to another Good luck with your pack and your sugar baby!