Can a 4 year diabetic go into remission?

I have a 15 year old cat that has been diabetic for about 4 years now. I switched him to Evo Low Carb dry food a couple of years ago and he has been on 1-2 units of Lantus with BG values maxing in the upper 200's. I recently decided to try switching to an all wet diet and chose the Evo 95% turkey and chicken. I am giving him a whole 5.5 oz can split up through out the day. After a week of this diet I am completely shocked, his BG values are between 80-100. Could he go into remission even after all these years? I have stopped giving him Lantus and have been checking his BG at different times just to be sure. His coat is finally soft and it seems he is drinking less water than before.

I am not sure if the 5.5 oz can will be enough food for him. He weighs a little over 10 pounds, and Sometimes I am not home for 8-10 hours so I don't know what to do for him then. I have two other non diabetic kitties and they are still getting the Evo dry food. I simply cannot afford to feed them the soft food right now. I keep their food upstairs away from my diabetic. It is on a timer so they don't eat to much. I have debated switching them to Nature's Variety "Instinct" because it has fewer calories.

Any thoughts on my situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your consideration.

Thomas

 

Yes. Angus stopped needing insulin seven months ago after being on insulin for almost four years.

As for feeding, cats don't need food available all the time. Feeding him meals twice daily will work. If you prefer to leave food out all the time, you can use a timed feeder, you can freeze some canned food for him to eat as it thaws, or you can just leave the canned food out.

5.5 oz is a good starting point. You can adjust up if he needs to gain weight or down if he needs to lose. Congratulations! You may very well have a diet controlled cat.

 

The problem with leaving food out is he would either eat it all at once and puke it up, or the other two would go after it. For now I will just split it up two times a day, since I might not have to worry about him dropping to low BG levels due to insulin it's not a big concern. Before on Lantus his blood sugar levels were not very consistent and the vet recommended food available so he could self regulate if his levels go to low.

Any thoughts as to Evo vs Instinct for the other cats or is the consensus that all dry food is bad to some degree and to get them all on a wet food diet? What is a good low cost alternative soft food for the non diabetic kitties? Maybe I can at least feed them some soft food once a day if it's affordable.

 

Freezing does work very well and would give him a midday snack.

I have not fed any dry for a couple of years, so I will let someone else answer which is best. The general consensus here is that wet is better than dry if you can afford it and your cats will eat it. A lot of people here feed Friskies, 9-Lives, Sophistacat (PetSmart brand), etc. Wellness is a "premium" wet food that may be affordable because it is available in 13 oz cans.

 

I actually prefer Evo 95% over Wellness because Evo has 0 carbs. What flavors of Friskies or 9-lives are low carb? I don't recall them having great values on binky's food chart. I have heard some Fancy Feast was ok because it was gluten free.

 

Please take the time to read www.catinfo.org . It's the most informed and unbiased feline nutrition site on the web.

And I question the Evo with zero percent carbohydrate. Did those numbers come from Janet's charts or package information? I am suspicious of all package information because so many manufacturers refuse to give as fed information so a more reliable analysis of ingredients can be made. This indicates the information on the package has been jiggered to make things look better.

Once you have read Dr. Pierson's catinfo site Janet's charts wull make better sense to you.

 

I have been well aware of Janet's charts for a few years, just didn't know about the forums. Here is the numbers I am referring to:

(Protein Fat Carbs Fiber (g) Phosph (mg) Calories per cup)

EVO 95% Chicken & Turkey 29 71 0 0.1 237 209

Wellness Chicken 30 66 4 0.2 219 220

 

Yes, remission can occur after being on insulin for many years. The recent change to almost no carbs may have been the trigger!

One note of caution though, even though it seems very likely that the total removal of dry food may have brought about this miracle, i would also get some blood work done, just in case. Sometimes, a sudden decrease in insulin needs in a cat that has needed insulin for many years can be an indicator that something else may be going on.

 

I just had a full blood panel done and the vet did not indicate anything that should be a cause for alarm. What should I be looking for?

 

Cancer. Unfortunately, most cancers thrive on sugars, so a sudden decrease in insulin needs could indicate the presence of a cancer. I am very glad to hear that a recent blood panel showed nothing to be worried about!

 

Just think of all the money you're going to save on not buying insulin! Maybe you could use it to feed the civies Friskies canned instead of dry anything, then if sugarcat gets some it wouldn't be as bad.

Also, every cat is different, but I feed my 10 lb sugarcat 2 5.5 ounce cans per day. Dry has much denser calories so you may need to up the wet food a bit more than you are used to feeding. See if he still seems hungry and add an extra meal (3x day)

 

Hope went OTJ after being on it for over 4 years. After all tests were run, including abdomen ultrasound, we then moved on to the cardiologist because of something the IM specialist heard. She was dx'd with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy and started on meds for that. Been over three years now and she is doing great. If it hadn't been for the diabetes and her not needing insulin any more, I would never have known about the RCM.

 

My diabetic was originally diagnosed with IBD and was put on prednisone which brought on his diabetes faster. I have never tried an all wet diet and we are also weening him off of the steroids. I sure hope that is the reason and not something more dire.

 

I am researching some food for my two non-diabetic kitties and according to Binky's chart some of the Sophistacat flavors have decent numbers. How is the quality of ingredients from this food? Weren't they part of the recall a few years back? Anyone feeding their diabetic this stuff? How are your BG numbers with it compared to say Wellness or Evo?

 

Personally, I use the EVO 95 canned food for my girls, along with canned Friskies Special Diet and Nature Variety frozen raw.

I used to feed the dry foods, until I learned that even good (expensive) dry food is no good for cats. So, I weaned them off and they eat raw and canned only.

I also add water to the food to keep it moist longer and ensure they get enough water, but it also makes it easy to freeze when needed. I can serve the frozen alongside the non-frozen and it will take a couple hours to thaw. None of my cats are piggies, so I don't have to worry about scarf and barf or over indulging.

If you have that issue and sounds like you might, you may want to use a combination of timed feeders and freezing the foods, to slow them down and ensure that everyone gets what they need.

As for remission, yes it's very possible. What we typically do in Lantus to be sure, is we wait 14 days and test typically at pre-shot time. If the Bg's stay within normal range, without insulin over the 14 days, then we say the cat is in diet controlled remission.

Of course, it's recommended that even after this period, that you continue to test (less frequently) say once a week, once a month, or when you suspect something. It's a good way to know if there is something going on that may not have presented itself.

 

The Sophistacat pouches were part of the recall. I don't think the cans were. The suspect ingredient in the recall was gluten (wheat, corn, and rice gluten) and none of the Sophistacat cans contain gluten. There is a link to a cat food ingredient table in my signature.

I have never fed Sophistacat or 9-lives. For most of the 4 1/2 years Angus has been diabetic, I have fed primarily Fancy Feast with some Wellness. I think I have tried every premium cat food on Janet & Binky's lists, both old and new, and a few that aren't on either list. Minou, my civie, vomits the higher fat premium foods and both liked Fancy Feast, so that is what I went with. I recently switched both of my cats to Royal Canin Urinary SO and Friskies Special Diet. They both have FLUTD and need food that acidifies the urine to dissolve crystals. The SO is too high in carbs (18%) for Angus and that is why I mix with Friskies. He went OTJ in June and has remained OTJ with the SO/Friskies mix.

 

Which flavors of the Friskies? According to binky's chart the numbers aren't that great. My diabetic is very "carb sensitive" so maybe he stays on the evo 95%, but if you guys like the Friskies I can let the civie's eat it because it's still better than dry food obviously.

Any reason not to feed the civie's Sophistacat? I like that they have 13oz cans for under $1, but I don't want to feed them garbage. The values on the chopped grill look good enough for my diabetic, High protein, low carbs and really low in calories:

Protein /Fat /Carbs /Fiber (g) /Phosph (mg) /Calories per cup

Supreme Chopped Grill 44 /56 /1 /0.3 /323 /94

Even better than the EVO 95% chicken and turkey:

EVO 95% Chicken & Turkey 29 /71 /0 /0.1 /237 /209

* Edit: Only 4 flavors are available in 13oz cans, this one has the best values:

Turkey And Giblets Dinner 37 /62 /0 /0.1 /298 /183

 

Jock went into remission after 4 years. He stayed off the juice for a month, then caught a cold, then stopped eating from the cold, then got fatty liver which raised his blood sugar and lost the honeymoon.

I remain convinced that he would still be OTJ today if not for the unfortunate cold.

 

I am feeding the Friskies Special Diet Turkey & Giblets and Beef & Chicken flavors because my cats both have FLUTD. The Special Diet acidifies the urine to dissolve crystals. I actually think Sophistacat is better than Friskies in a lot of ways. It does not have gluten or soy. It does have by-products which EVO does not.