Eating Canned Food

Hi all,

First I want to thank everyone on this message board for being so helpful the past few weeks.

T.C. was grazing on dry Iams weight and hairball control indoor food until Thursday. That's when our new vet suggested feeding him low carb wet food. We have been slowly switching (1/2 of wet 1/2 of dry... 2/3 of wet 1/3 of dry... and so on), but it's been hard to get him to eat all of his wet food. He starts eating it well like he's hungry then he just stops. I put the bowl in front of him again and he eats and stops. And this continues until there's still a little left.
Does he just not like Fancy Feast? Will he ever eat 3 oz. in one sitting? What are your suggestions?

 

My diabetic kitty and one of my civvies do the same thing, very frustrating! Most times it can take well over an hour for them to finish less than 3 ounces, with me constantly shoving the bowl under their noses! And both of them are on appy stimulants; I'd hate to think what they'd eat without it.

You could try breaking it into two smaller meals, separated by an hour or two, maybe that would help. It works for my civvie. With Squallie, mealtimes just turn into long, drawn-out affairs (secretly, I think he does it on purpose so he can monopolize my attention, lol!).

You can also try putting a tasty topping on the food. Sometimes that helps!

 

You have already got some hints on feeding but I wanted to add that you need to keep a close watch on the readings with the food change. The drop today from a preshot of 583 to +6 of 68 is HUGE!! The change from dry food to wet food can with some kitties cause a much reduced need for insulin. With drops from high numbers to a much lower number, this can set off a pattern of bouncing.

 

Hi! Yes I've been concerned about this! I've lowered the dose to 2 units. How do I prevent a pattern of bouncing?

 

If you are able to do some extra testing while you are transitioning to all wet food you will be able to catch fast drops and give some extra food ..maybe even medium carb or high carb depending on how fast and low the drops are. This would help to smooth out the drop so there is not such an extreme between the high and the low. Novolin usually has an onset around +2 with a nadir around +6...this can vary with different kitties but gives you a good idea. If you are able to do a +2 test and if you see a large drop starting then some higher carb food would help with the huge drops.

ETA Lowering the dose to 2 units is a good idea as well. Some kitties can have greatly lowered insulin needs once they are on a low carb wet food diet.

 

Thank you! I will do a +2 test soon and update you. What would a large drop be? My preshot was 520.

 

With an insulin like Novolin you really only want to see around a 50% drop during the cycle for the nadir. With a preshot of 520 if you saw a +2 of around 400 0r less that could indicate that it could be an active cycle. In the case I mentioned you would want to give little LC food and retest again in about an hour. At this point you don't have a lot of data on what happens during the cycle so the more information you can get the better you can understand your kitty's responses to the dose.

 

Ok, +2 is 304. Gave him a snack of some FF and a little dry.

 

That is a big drop for so early in the cycle. The dry would most likely be high carb so should bring the numbers up, but I would retest at +3.

Not to worry you but this link has good information on hypos and how to treat them. It is a good idea to print it out and read through it. Hopefully you will never need it, but everyone should have this information available.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

Please post your next reading when you get it. Thanks!

 

Have you done another test yet?

 

Hi, unfortunately my brother is sick and I had to go to the store for some things. I did a +5 and he was at 56!!! He showed no symptoms of hypo either. I gave him temptations covered in Karo syrup along with dry food with Karo. I'm so confused and frustrated and upset that this is happening. I don't understand how he can go from so high to so low. I will check in 15 minutes.

Just checked after 15 minutes and it's at 94.

 

I had the same issues with my Darwin. He was a die-hard kibble addict! It took him AGES to even touch the canned, and then he'd do the same thing where he'd eat a bit, and stop, etc. I just feed him smaller meals, and he usually finishes it all up.

I also had big jumps in numbers after the switch from LC canned! Darwin went from 1.5U to 0.5U in a couple of weeks! Hang in there - there are amazing people here that will help you a TON!

 

I just don't know where to go from here? Do I give him insulin tonight? Or wait until my vet is open tomorrow morning?

 

Did you get a PMBG? I'd probably post on the Novolin N forum, and see what they recommend...

 

He still has about 5 hours until his next dose is due. Thank you for the suggestion. I will post there.

 

Oh, okay - you've got some time. You may want to check again after that low number, but the Novolin group will likely be able to give you better advice.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

I suggest you drop the dose immediately to 1 unit twice a day. If the pre shot test this evening is above 200 give that dose of insulin. After you have a couple of days' data at 1 u twice a day, a decision can be made whether to raise the dose up to 1.25 u. Whole unit increases are far too large. Yes, you'd have to eyeball that on the syringe.

It will be very confusing to viewers of your spreadsheet if you mix human and pet meter numbers together. Please use only one or the other.

 

I ran out of alphatrak strips and even with one day shipping on Amazon they won't get here until Tuesday. So, it was either not test or use a human meter to keep an eye on him. Any suggestion on how to make the human ones more obvious on the spreadsheet?

 

Use the human meter for now and maybe put a * beside each reading from it and an explanation in the notes section on the right side of your SS.

 

I switched from dry to canned when my cat was first diagnosed with diabetes and within one week he had a minor hypo while on insulin because the food change had drastically dropped his glucose levels already.
After two more weeks on a reduced dose and no dry food he went into remission. I didn't even have much time to set up a regular home testing schedule it was so fast.
I had the same problem with the eating after switching to canned. Leo would hoover his dry food down in 3 seconds but not with the canned. Eats a little, goes out to the patio, comes in eats a little more, goes to the litter box, wanders around, eats some more- and on and on it goes. I'm having trouble keeping his weight up because he just doesn't consume as many calories eating this way. I just keep putting more food out all day and over night I fill the auto feeder.

 

Sorry I wasn't around when you reposted again... I didn't get the alert for your thread. I'm glad Kris was here to give you some advice. It is obvious that the food change has drastically dropped your kitty's insulin needs. Even dropping down to 2 units appears to be too much. I agree with Kris that 1 unit should be given if the preshot is 200 or higher.

I don't know if you gave a shot last night or not, but regular monitoring is important right now to get some good data. When you do your morning preshot if it is lower than 200 please post again for some help.

ETA It would be a good idea to start a new thread (post) with a title of Dosing Advice Needed for Novolin" with a link to this thread. This will get more attention than your current title.

 

Hello, thank you for replying.
I gave him 1 unit and updated my spreadsheet for PM. It's high, but it's not going down super fast.

 

T.C. is probably still bouncing from the BIG drop into lower numbers on the last cycle. You are still getting a good drop from preshot to +4..just over 50%...but without the wild drop from before. You should check again at +5 or +6 to try to get an idea when and where the nadir is.

 

I see the * on your SS now. You'll have to go colour code those cells manually now because of the *. Go to the tool bar at the top and look for the little paint can icon. Click on the colour that corresponds to the correct BG range. Please also put a note on the right side of your SS saying what the * means so others will understand if they look at your data.

I'm glad you dropped the dose to 1 u. Keep that for a few more cycles as long as the pre shot test is above 200.

 

Thank you for letting me know! I will update the colors as soon as I can get to a computer.
His AMPS was 688. I'm thinking it was because he had some high-carb food last night (we have 2 other cats that eat that). I will monitor every two hours again and update. I also called my vet and they're going to call me back later today.

 

Have you thought about switching the other kitties to lower carb?
Also, I see you gave him Karo with the 56 reading on AT2 meter yesterday. At the 15m mark, the 94 may still have been influenced by the syrup. It doesn't last long so you might want to grab another test, 15-30 minutes after the second. Just to be safe

 

Oh thank you for letting me know that! I will be sure to note that down.

 

He is 113 at +4. Is this something to be worried about? I gave him some treats and some low-carb pate. Basically, what kind of numbers am I looking for for +2, +4, and +6? And if the preshot is below 200, what do I do? Not give insulin?

Alphatrak test strips should be here tomorrow afternoon! Hooray!

 

Your cat is really sensitive to insulin to drop so much. While 113 is not a hypo number, it is so much lower then the preshot that his body will respond as if it is a hypo and release stored glucose. You may have to reduce to half a unit until the bouncing can stop. Ideally you want them to only drop about 50-60% of the preshot test.

Just to be clear, you are taking the preshot test before all food, right? No eating for at least two hours prior?

 

I also just read you have him 4 temptations treats. I would say in the future just give a bit of his regular food. I gave 4-5 temptations once and 15 min later she was 100 points higher. Cut out all dry.

 

Wow. Okay, I will avoid them in the future! I was getting a bit panicked about the number.

And yes, preshot before food.

 

No biggie. They work great when a cat is really low though, so hang on to them.