New member, confused about diet

Hello and thank you very much for the wealth of information on this forum. My Skitty was very recently diagnosed. He had a glucose curve done today and the vet increased his dose to 3 units twice per day. When first diagnosed the vet prescribed Hill's Prescription m/d wet AND dry food. He had been eating Blue Wilderness wet and dry before the diagnosis. After researching on this forum, I decided it was important to wean him off the dry, which I am definitely doing. I also think that he does NOT need to be on the Prescription m/d wet food. I spoke with the vet today and he insisted that the Prescription diet is what my kitty should be eating because it is specially formulated for diabetic cats. I want to do what's best for my cat! I'm so confused. Thank you for your guidance!

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. You have come to the best place for your kitty.
Firstly I would recommend you go out and buy a human meter and start to test Skitty's blood sugar levels. It is the only way to keep him safe. You need to be testing the BSL (blood sugar levels) before you start to swap over to a low carb diet. Changing over can drop the BSL significantly and you need to be monitoring the BSLs constantly during the change over to keep him safe.

Just tell your vet that Skitty is refusing to eat the MD food. They can't argue with that. Take it back and they will give you a refund. It is expensive and no better than ordinary low carb cat food. Fancy feast pate are low carb and suitable.

Three units of Vetsulin is a very large dose to be giving a newly diagnosed cat. I would NOT increase it to 3 units from the 2 units until you are testing. Tests done at the vets are nearly always much higher than at home because of the stress that the cats feel at the vet. We recommmend you only increase it in 1/4 unit increments as increasing in 1 unit increments is unsafe and you might go past the best dose. I don't use vetsulin insulin so will tag @Kris & Teasel to help you.
I would suggest you post over on the main health forum as this is just the welcome page. You will get a lot more eyes on you over there. Here is the link
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

Here is the beginners guide to vetsulin
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/beginners-guide-to-caninsulin-vetsulin.186099/

Ask lots of questions. We are happy to help.. See you aver on the main forum.
Bron

 

I can only respond quickly: Bron has given you the link to the Vetsulin user's guide. It's full of valuable advice on how to use Vetsulin so I suggest you start by studying it thoroughly. Ask a lot of questions. Although the Vetsulin website (which isn't very easy to navigate to good info by the way) states that the usual starting dose is 1 or 2 units twice a day most insulins are best started at only 1 unit twice a day. If BG testing shows that to be insufficient then the dose is raised in tiny 0.25 u increments if following our FDMB recommendations.

Re food: any low carb (under10%) wet food is fine to feed. Friskies and Fancy Feast pates fit the bill and are used my many on the forum. If you can afford higher end low carb food there a ton of other options. This chart is very useful: https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

 

Thank you so very much, Bron and Sheba! I feel so much better after reading your input and will study all the information carefully. You and the rest of the members are generous and caring. I'm so grateful to have found you. My vet is VERY resistant to any input from me, I will go the next visit with more confidence. If he is not willing to work with me, I will find another vet. THANK YOU!!

 

Kris & Teasel, THANK YOU for taking the time to respond. I appreciate the info about the vetsulin dosing, I was afraid to increase it so quickly as the vet ordered and so I'm glad to have more concrete info. ​

 

We are very happy to help you. You vet should be working in partnership with you, not dictating to you. Skitty is your cat and you pay the bills. Keep educating yourself and you will feel more confident when speaking to the vet.
Start posting over on the main forum or the Vetsulin forum for more help and support.
Here is the link to FAQs
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/health-links-faqs-about-feline-diabetes.14/