Just diagnosed

Hi! Saturday I had my mom take our 12 year old 20 pound cat to the vet (I was working) because she had bloody urine and was peeing huge amounts in and out of her box (I had noticed she had been drinking huge amounts of water also the past few weeks). They put her on antibiotics for a bladder infection and glucosamine but then also told me they tested her and she has diabetes. I called the vet from work and they recommended a prescription diet and eventually insulin ....and to follow up with them when they were open on Monday... . Later that day I went on catinfo.org and read about changing to a low carb wet food diet. I went and found some wet food that was under 10 carbs on the list from the site because the vet was already closed. I bought cans of Fancy Feast and have been feeding it to her Saturday Sunday and today. She looks to be feeling 100% better and is not peeing near as much and back to keeping it in the litter box. She has even been cleaning herself, which she had stopped for a while now. I consulted with the vet over the phone and explained to her that I was worried about putting her on shots in the next 2 weeks because we are taking our son 10 hours away to college and my 83 y/o mom would be staying with our pets and would probably not be able to give shots for the 3 days we will be gone. She said we could wait a couple weeks and check her again and see. Has anyone heard of a cat turning around this diagnosis by changing diet alone or do cats pretty much usually need the insulin shots added to their care? She seems so much better already and I am not sure if it's the food or the meds. Also, how much wet food should I be feeding her? I have always left dry food out for both cats so I am not sure how to get her back down to a healthy weight..

 

Welcome to FDMB, Diane. It sounds like you've already been doing a lot of research and have made some great changes for your kitty. Yes, there are some cats who are able to go into remission simply based on diet change alone. I don't know how common that is, but it can happen. Since infection can also drive glucose numbers up, getting the infection knocked out can also bring numbers down.

Since this is just kind of the "welcome" spot, I would encourage you to move over to the Feline Health/Main Forum board to ask questions about feedings and weight control. You'll get more eyes on your questions, which means more answers.

Again, welcome....and hang in there. The diagnosis is overwhelming, but you can absolutely handle this!
Shelly

 

Welcome to FDMB.

Vet stress may raise the glucose 100-180 mg/dL according to one study. Reports here on some cats indicate it can be even higher.
Changing to low carb food may drop the glucose 100-200 mg/dL.
Infection will raise the glucose level.

Testing at home will help you determine how much of a reduction you may get by testing at home, changing the food, and treating the infection. Most importantly, you need to test for urine ketones to ensure that these changes are controlling the glucose well enough. Ketones form as a byproduct of fat breakdown for energy, which happens when there isn't enough insulin to use the glucose made by food. Too many ketones may trigger diabetic ketoacidosis which can be fatal. Please attempt to locate someone who can cat sit, test (at least the urine ketones), and has authority to take your cat to the vet.
See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some tips on urine testing, plus other assessments which may be helpful in evaluating your cat.

Please post more questions in the Health section.