Hi everyone, new member with a question about switching diets

Hey Everyone,
Our cat Dizzy was diagnosed with diabetes almost exactly one year ago, initially before diagnosis she was free feeding dry main brand kibble but after her diagnosis our vet insisted she go on the hills prescription glucose/weight management dry kibble. Trusting our vet as I assume most people do we did just that and for the best part of the past 11 months she's been eating this food. It was only recently when I can across the cat info website and was shocked to find out how many carbs are in the prescription diet.

SO, one week ago I switched Dizzy onto friskies pates (mixed box from sam's club) that have a range of carbs between 5%-11% depending on the variety in the box. She has lost 0.2lbs since we started her on the food, previously had been stuck at 10.2-10.4lbs for months, but we were worried about over dosing her with insulin so we decided not to give any insulin and she how she adjusted. My question is, as you can see from the spreadsheet, her numbers are no where near a diabetic cats numbers and whether anyone else has experienced this when switching their cat over? She was originally only on 1 unit of vetsulin and would eat 6:30am/6:30pm with an insulin shot 15mins after all food was eaten (18g of hills glucose management kibble). I am planning on taking her to the vet this week for a check up but wanted to reach out and see if anyone else has experienced this?

Thanks in advance for any input!
- Aaron

 

Hi and welcome to FDMB. Diet can gave a very significant effect on the blood glucose levels and it appears Dizzy is one of those kitties for whom a diet change has made a difference.

Since you are using a pet meter, those numbers you got on the 31st are absolutely PURRRFECT! It looks very promising that the diet switch may have taken Dizzy from insulin dependent into remission.

We consider a cat in remission if they can maintain similar range numbers for a period of 14 consecutive days without insulin. We test AM & PM at normal shot times. No need to do a daily curve. If Dizzy maintains good numbers (normal on the pet meter is 68 to 150) for that 14 day period then you can consider her to be in remission.

Going forward after the 14 day OTJ (off the juice) trial, we recommend continuing to check BG weekly. Some folks revert to monthly testing after a few months but checking weekly will ensure that if there is any sign of relapse, you can catch it and take action ASAP.

Keep Dizzy on the low carb wet diet. She will still be diabetic but diet controlled.

Good luck and do keep us posted about how things are going with the testing and your upcoming vet visit. We love success stories!

 

Welcome. Happy to hear your kitty has improved on low carb diet, sometimes that is all it takes. Glad you found out about the food in spite of vets advice. As you can see the vets are not always the most knowledgable about the best ways to help diabetic cats. Hopefully this will be an easy transition and may quickly put Dizzy into remission. I would certainly let the vet know it was because of your action of switching to low carb food that this was possible

There is a lot of good info and support here, even if you get Dizzy in remission, you are still welcome here so you can keep her in the best health.