Melvin

Melvin is a 15 year old rescue (?ragdollx). He was diagnosed on Saturday. My vet was going to try to control it with diet but He hasn’t been eating so I took him back to the vet yesterday. She started him on insulin- he tested at 580 when we got there. He is eating s little more today but he has always prefer kibble and I understand that is not recommended. I bought $60 worth of different foods for him and he is not interested in any of them.
I have seen Fancy Feast mentioned. I was under the impression that was a very low quality food but apparently I was wrong. Can any one tell me what they have had success feeding?

 

Hi Laurie and Melvin and welcome to the forum.
If Melvin is not eating he may be nauseated. Some cats when first diagnosed do not want to eat much. But it is really important that he eats. If he doesn't start eating by tomorrow I would go back to the vet and ask for some cerenia tablets for nausea.
Do you know if the vet tested for ketones and if Melvin had any? Some cats when diagnosed with diabetes can have ketones and as they can progress into DKA which is a very serious illness,the ketones need to be acted on. So it is really important that Melvin is eating, drinking and is getting the prescribed insulin.
Did Melvin have an infection as well or just the diabetes?
Can you tell us the type of insulin you are giving please?
Here is a link to food charts. Choose the one for the country you live in. The top 4 are for the US.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/links-to-food-charts.174182/

Diabetic cats need to be eating a wet/canned food diet with 10% carbohydrates or less. Have a look in the charts and choose ones that are 10% or less. A lot of people use Fancy Feast. There is no need to buy the expensive prescription diets from the vet. They are no better than the foods you can buy in the supermarket and pet stores. Dry food is too high in carbs.

Here is a link to FAQ which you may find helpful.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/health-links-faqs-about-feline-diabetes.14/

Have a look at the yellow stickies at the top of the FAQ page about hypos and how to deal with them. Make sure you have some high carb food (over 16%) in the cupboard and some honey or Karo in case of low numbers. We suggest printing the hypo pages and putting them on the frig, as when you get a low number, you don't want to have to look for what to do,much easier to have it on the frig and the highcarb and the honey in the cupboard.
It is a steep learning curve in the beginning but it gets much easier.
This is a very supportive community and we are happy to help on any way we can.

You could try sprinkling some Parmesan cheese on top of Melvin food to tempt him. Here is a link to stimulating kitty's appetite
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/suggestions-on-how-to-stimulate-kittys-appetite.130770/
Looking forward to seeing you again. You may like to start posting over on the main health page where there are many more people to help and support you. Here is the link.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

Bron

 

Welcome to you and your kitty. It can be a lot to take in. I hope things start to get better for Melvin soon.

@Bron and Sheba gave you a lot of good info.

Just wanted to mention on the food, when I switched my cat to all low carb I spent several days trying to find the perfect food and finally decided the Fancy Feast pates were close enough most important was she really liked it and it was not terribly expensive and was very low carb. I fed her really expensive dry food for 7 years and I thought it was healthy for her. Now she is diabetic because of that dry food.

A lot of people add a little water to the canned food to make a thick “soup” this makes it easy to eat and also gives the cat extra water which they need. My cat loves the FF Classics pate in chicken flavor and also turkey and giblets. I know Fancy Feast also just came out with a naturals line very recently. I was going to figure the carb content for those, think it is similar to regular Fancy Feast pates, but they removed any artificial ingredients and raised the price some for those.

The FF with gravy are high carb and only good to have a few in stock for an emergency if sugar ever gets too low.

Tiki cat has a Chicken and also Chicken/Salmon mix in cans, these are a very healthy option and taste great, are all natural, but very expensive. I give her a little of that about once a week as a special treat.

Also check out the food list Bron mentioned for more ideas.

 

What insulin and dose did your vet prescribe? It is important that if you are changing to a low carb food that you also hometest if you are giving insulin. A diet change can significantly drop the glucose levels and unless you are monitoring, you may be giving too much insulin. That can be dangerous for your cat.

Most people on this group hometest and use a human glucose meter to test. There are pet meters, however they are expensive and the test strips are not readily available. With a human meter, you can get the strips when you need them from your pharmacy.

 

Thanks for your support! This is scary for me and I want to do everything right.
Melvin is on Vetsulin u40 if that makes sense. The insulin bottle says Vetsulin, and the container for needles says u40. The vet told me when I get it refilled to make sure I get the 40 and not the 100.
Melvin is feeling better and is eating pretty well now. I bought him Fancy Feast and that seemed to do the trick(maybe the combination insulin and Fancy Feast!)
I hope he continues to do better. I have such an awful feeling that I did this to him. He has significant arthritis and I was giving him an anti inflammatory (prescribed by the vet) however the use in cats is off label and I had to sign a waiver saying I understood there were risks. Now I don’t dare give it to him so he has pain AND diabetes. Being a mom to either 2 legged or 4 legged is a guilt filled adventure.

 

Welcome! I’m glad Melvin is eating better. Come to the Main Health Forum and tell us more about him. We have several members whose kitties have arthritis and maybe they can give you some ideas to help Melvin.