Martini 01/01 - Cdn opinions on High Carb Food?

Previous

Firstly, Happy New Year to all the kitties and CG's here!

I have been trying to feed Martini's lower numbers. When I see her heading down, I try to give a tbsp or so of food to ward off really low numbers and bouncing. LC and even MC seem to have no/little effect on declining numbers.
US people are lucky that they have so many great foods to choose from LC to HC. We here do not.
The last three times I've given HC gravies (FF and Friskies) Martini has thrown up. She is not digesting the little chunks in the gravy. Does anyone know any foods without these chunks that are HC that we can get here?
I'd love to avoid buying many different brands to see if there are chunks if possible.

Thank you all!

 

You can try adding a bit of honey or maple syrup to her LC food. Make a note on your SS of how much. Teasel doesn't tolerate the gravy styles well either. I've also resorted to putting a few Temptations style treats in his LC food as a BG booster It works - easy to count out how many for reference later on.

 

In Canada for HC food the Friskies Indoor Cat (green lid) is quite high...can't find my calculation but it is close to 30%. My girlie will not eat the MC foods since they are all chunky or pieces. She isn't that interested in the gravy part either....she is a picky eater at the best of times and has very few teeth left. I use the Friskies Indoor Cat Classic pate Chicken with Garden Greens, which she will eat since it is a pate. Also just over a week ago she had a bad hypo and this food is smooth enough that I was able to mix some water and syringe this food into her since she wasn't wanting to eat. Between syringing syrup and syringing the HC Friskies I was finally able to get the numbers up. I can usually pick this up at Walmart, Sobey's or Co-op.


ETA If you want to make a MC just mix some of this with the LC. I find too much syrup gives my Maxie a tummy upset and the runs.

 

Thanks for the tips!
Just reading another post and I know we're only supposed to do one a day so.. @Sienne and Gabby (GA)
"A couple of observations. Merry is a long term diabetic -- she's been a FD for over a year. With TR, once past the one year mark, reductions occur when numbers drop below 40. In addition, Merry is out of remission which means you need to be more aggressive if your goal is to get your kitty back into remission. "
Martini will soon be a long term diabetic and I'm trying to follow TR. She got to 2.4 (45) could barely stand, was staggering and looked 'stoned'. I can not let her get below 40, does this mean I can never truly do a reduction? I know ECID.

 

Sandy --

No one -- and certainly not me -- is going to tell you to risk hypoglycemia because the TR protocol "said so." Just like everything else and as you surmised, ECID. If below 50 is the danger zone for Martini, so be it. That's the advantage of knowing your cat. Remember, once Martinis is in normal range, a week of mostly green numbers earns a dose reduction. One alternative may be the "three drops below 50" rather than the one drop below 50 with diabetics who are less than a year after diagnosis. This option is described on Tilly's Diabetes Homepage in the Reducing the Dose section:

 

@Tuxedo Mom, if I recall correctly, there was no carb information on Dr. Person's food chart so I contacted Friskies and was told this was 4% carbs. I was using this as HC and noticed it didn't work as well as the other HC foods I had on hand.

 

Thanks Sienne, I think I'm too caught up in just trying to follow protocol. A week of mostly greens would be heaven..not seeing that happen for a long time if ever, but I can hope. She will be an over a year gal very shortly. I do think 50 is a better number for her.
Thanks again to all for input!

 

If you use a basic carb counter:

http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

Protein 7%
Fat 3%
Fibre 0.95%
Moisture 78%
Ash 3.3%

You will get a wet matter carb of 7.75%. However once you convert to a dry matter carb the reading is 35%. You want to know how many calories in a food are carbohyrates so you need to remove the moisture from the calculation.


ETA. This is definitely HC food. When Tuxie was still here it was the only thing I could use to bring his numbers up after giving syrup since he was not carb sensitive,

 

Thanks Mary Ann. This is exactly what I gave her last night which she threw up. It's got the little chunks, I don't know why it says Pate (to me pate is smooth, no chunks). Guess truly ECID.

 

There are some of the Friskies Indoor Cats that are chunky. The one I pictured is the only one that is a smooth pate. I accidentely bought one of the others before since the labels look so similar.

 

I just checked again and I did exactly what you did. thank you!!!

 

Maybe you could try blending the chunky food to a puree to see if that helps?

 

There are some foods made in Canada that are HC or MC. The catinfo list lists the First Mate (made in BC) that uses potato for carbs so it's gluten free if kitty can't handle gluten. They are pate. Turkey is the highest at 20%. Try a pet food store vs. the grocery for more options.

 

Thanks Wendy! Will try for the First Mate. I always do the pet food store option (and price match on the grocery prices The info list is good, if I have access to those brands. Again thank you tons for the suggestion.
Right now, I'm so upset actually, I don't seem further ahead with regulating Martini than last year at this time despite my best efforts. I hate this disease!!!!