New Member Old, Picky Diabetic cat.

Hi Everyone, I think it would take more room than is available to me to fully discuss the situation with our cat Buddy. I am leaving out the details. They are available on request.

Buddy is over 16 years old. Up until 1 year ago, his diet consisted of dry food, left out all the time, and canned food in the evenings. He began to exhibit classic symptoms, Hungry and thirsty all the time, and weight loss. A trip to the vet and the diagnoses was immediate. To summarize, with a combination of switching to canned food and insulin we brought the blood sugar down to acceptable levels ( we did home monitor during the diet change and lowered the insulin dosage in step with the lower blood sugar levels that resulted from the diet change ). That was all over 1 year ago. Here is where we are today. Blood sugar is within limits. Weight is back to normal. He drinks normal amounts of water. So you are probably asking yourself " why is this guy writing" ?

BUDDY HATES HIS FOOD! He does not want to be limited to eating 2 times per day. There are no waking hours where he stops complaining. He whines continuously. One of his signature whines is more like a crying/whine/growl/gag combo. It will send chills up your spine. He wakes us up at 5 AM every morning. He will eat after a couple of hours of prompting him with 3 or 4 different cans of Fancy Feast (or what ever kind of new canned food we are trying on that day ) . Do not even think about re-using any of these. Buddy does not eat leftovers. He won't eat them. He sits at his table and cries until we give in. The evening meal is the same way. It's not like we are too soft. This has been going on over a year. We have tried everything we can think of to find something that suits him.

What prompted me to write is, this morning there was no 5AM call, not even 5:30. I woke up at 6 and went looking for him, assuming he must be deathly ill. He was sleeping comfortably on the sofa. Let me explain. We have another cat. She still gets the dry food and canned food combo. Except now we can't leave the dry food down. We have to close the door put the food down, wait for her to finish and pick it back up. Last night, I forgot to pick the food up. I went in this morning and her bowl was empty. I don't mean low. I mean clean down to the very last, incredibly delicious, hi carb crumb. You could not find enough residual to carbon 14 date. Freddy, the other cat, never eats in this way. it was obvious that Buddy had been up during the night and engorged himself on the dry food.

I am finally down to the question. What can we do ? He currently receives just 1 unit of insulin twice a day to keep things under control. Is it against all cat health rules to consider letting him have more dry food, even if we need to increase the dosage ? Is there a canned food we may have not found that has been found to appeal to picky cats ? Is there a dry food that might not be as damaging to his diet?

Thanks in advance and Pardon my rambling.

 

Hi and welcome to you and Buddy.
There is a dry food that is ok for diabetic cats. It's called Young Again Zero Mature.
https://www.youngagainpetfood.com/zero-mature-health.html
It seems expensive but is very nutrient dense so kitty doesn't have to eat as much. If you call them they will send you a sample.

 

Thank you for your quick reply. I will call them first thing Monday morning. Expense is a secondary concern at this point !!

 

You can also spread his meal out during the day. I stead of twice a day, try 4 times a day, if that doesn't work 6 times a day. Same amount of food just spread it out.

 

Thanks, I am not sure how one would time the insulin injections. The idea of 2 meals per day was to get the insulin injections in coordination with the meals. Admittedly we have difficulty with that since his meal times now sometimes extend out for 2 or more ours due to the effort involved in getting him to eat.

 

Yes you give meals at insulin time but there is no reason why you can't give meals in between. As long as you don't feed 2 hrs before insulin time so the glucose test isn't influenced by food.

Feeding more often can help keep the glucose level steady through out the day. It also keeps kitty satisfied and won't whine continuously.

 

I agree with the young again. My cat loves it and we leave it out all the time. I give wet food twice a day and leave the young again out all the time. Doesn't spike the levels at all. You can give more food in between feedings, just not two hours before you test before the shot. So leave out food and pick it up two hours before. He's probably gagging because his belly is empty and he has a build up of acid.

 

Can we get you started using our grid to record your glucose tests? It will help us give you better feedback. Instructions are here.

Understanding the spreadsheet/grid:

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning, pre-shot, test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening, pre-shot, test)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

The nadir is the lowest glucose between shots. There is a general period when it will happen which is specific to the insulin being used and testing then helps make sure your cat doesn't go too low.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.