Dining out....

Do you all keep your diabetic kitties inside away from neighbouring kitty bowls? Little Boy has presented with an unusually high number today at 1.30 in the afternoon. Given that he's had a controlled diet from his dad and me I cannot account for a 300 number 6 hours after his morning shot. He spent more time than usual out and about this morning. Partly I think it's good for him to get out of the house. His breed is meant to roam and be in charge of his domain. To stay at home and sleep all the time isn't a good thing - and that applies to all of us! How does everyone handle this aspect of our carefully controlled regimes of blood testing and diet control?

 

unfortunately in vs. out can be a slightly heated topic. in short what i think you'll find is that in different parts of the world, what some consider normal is considered cruel by others. personal views aside, what's important here is that yes, if kitty was out, that very well could account for the higher glucose level. when they are out, you have absolutely no control over nor knowledge of what they get their little mouths on soooooo, all you can do if you can't keep him in is to let bygones be bygones and watch for trends in the numbers moreso than the occasional high. if he's consistently running high, then you have to look for other possible causes, i.e. illness, dose inaccuracy, etc.....

 

the other side of the coin ,of course, w/ a cat being out is the danger if they go too low and hypo while out. all the more reason to get lots of data on such a kitty and get to know how they respond to insulin , food and exercise.

there have been some on this board who have been very successful in treating an in/out cat. I hope they pop on.

 

Cheryl pointed out this post to me as she remembered that my Luck was an in/out kitty. He is allowed to go outside during the day, but comes in at night. Also, I will point out that we live at the end of a street that is basically a cul-de-sac so very low traffic. And Luck pretty much sticks to the back yard unless we are in the front, but the back does border a woods. Luck is 15 years old now and has free rein so to speak his whole life. I did tragically lose a kitty 2 years ago, to unknown causes and it devestated me. My other 2 kitties are now NEVER EVER allowed outside. Just Luck because he would go insane at this point if denied his "kingdom". That said - let me answer the basic question. I am lucky that the two neighbors on either side of me that Luck just might have the possibility to visit, 1 has a dog in the yard so it wouldn't matter what kind of food they were offering, he would never go near the dog. The other neighbor, I just nicely asked if they ever leave food outside for any reason and they didn't so I didn't really worry about his getting into "bad" foods. What I did find was that he would go hunting and find himself a mouse (apparently they are low carb allowed foods) or the occasional baby bunny. Bad Luck If anything the downside has been when he doesn't come back for his dinner/shot on time at night. Not sure if I have helped you with your issue or not, but just want to say, you have to know your kitty. Luck is a long time diabetic and I think I know him pretty well. We are currently at a point in our treatment that if he misses a shot or two along the way, neither he or I freak out about it. So I guess all in all as in all of the treatment for this disease. Know thy cat is the guiding force. Best of luck to you.

 

Woud an underground pet containment fence work? Something like this: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=18117 You could put the fence around your property to keep your cat from wandering around the nieghborhood and possibly eating stuff he's not supposed to eat.

Or maybe an large outdoor cat enclosure/playground?