My Wellington has just been diagnosed

Hi there. I am a retired journalist and I live in France with 9 cats, a dog, 3 ponies and a goat. Wellington. at 11 years old, is the third oldest furry member of the family. He has had a hard life - he was dumped on my doorstep at 3 months old, in a very bad state, and has been asthmatic his whole life. He also is FHV and has constant eye problems. But this morning I was very sorry to learn he now also has diabetes, and will be on medication as of tomorrow. He is such a special boy - a gentle giant at 8.7 kg, pure white and with a laid back temperament that means he will allow almost any liberty without complaining. I know very little about diabetes - I have two older cats with renal problems and one who has had urinary surgery, so my researches have been more in that direction. I know I will have many questions, and I am already doubtful of some of the things my vet told me this morning. But we will take it slowly and I look forward to exchanging views and experiences and getting some good advice from those with much more to offer than me.

I attach a pic of Wellington with his adopted sister Persil

 

Hello and welcome. @Capoo is in France I think. Which she can hopefully explain where to get supplies in France.
This will give you a good idea about treating diabetes. http://jfm.sagepub.com/content/17/3/235.full.pdf html
This explains diet. catinfo.org
What did you vet tell you so far?

 

Thanks. So far I have the blood results - 350 for glucose, 250 for fructose. She is ordering insulin for me to pick up tomorrow - I only just learned there are different sorts so I will have to trust her on that to start with. She wants me to put him on RC diabetic kibble, and all I read so far says a wet diet is best. But he already eats grain free wrt food and a little urinary quality dry as snacks, so I am not sure what to change to.

 

Stay with the wet food dry kibble is not good for diabetic cats. Not sure which wet foods are low carb in France though.

 

All my cats have been fed on grain free Smilla pates for years, so I am not yet sure how to better that.

 

Hi @lechatblanc ,

I live in France, in Paris.
Where do you live?

For the wet food, you can try at first Sheba Les Terrines.
Felix Les Effilés is also low in carbs.
But both varieties aren't so good in terms of ingredients.
Personally, I buy GranataPet Symphonie on Zooplus.fr

Please tell me how I can help you.

Sophie

 

I'm not positive but I don't think grain free is low carbs

 

Grain free goes a long way to cutting down carbs. Smilla is 70-75% meat/fish proteins. I rejected Felix les effiles some time ago as I did not like their ingredients. I get all my cat and dog food through Zooplus so I will try the Granita.l It is not a brand I know. Thanks for that.

I live in Basse-Normandie, and have access to all major French supermarkets and chain stores in Caen and Flers. But I do buy a lot online, as I said, almost all petfood from Zooplus.

 

Smilla you're using is wet food, right?

I think that you can also find some convenient food with good ingredients in Maxi Zoo, but I don't know if there is one in Basse Normandie ( my parents have been living in Granville from 2006 to 2014).

 

By fructose, you mean fructosamine?
Your vet has measured fructosamine, and it was only 250?

 

Welcome! You've come to the right place to gain information, advice and tips!

 

Maybe @Chris & China can explain grain free and carbs to you

 

"Grain Free" does not mean "Low carb"....I saw a food today that someone was asking about that was "grain-free"...still worked out to be over 35% carbs

"Grain Free" are just the latest buzz words from the pet food industry to try to sell more products....they removed the wheat, corn, rice and soy and added potatoes, sweet potatoes and other starches

 

It depends on what brand, because before Baco was given an all raw diet, she got grain free dry food with only 11% carbs. (This was still to much for her, being carb sensitive so I switched to raw food only) but it was much less carbs than she got before, the supermarket dry food with 35%.

 

I had this brand, do you know it?

http://m.zooplus.fr/shop/chats/croq...rta21/croquettes_chat_sensible_porta21/171942