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Hello. I have newly diagnosed diabetic cat (Crush) after having received an injection of steroid when had a UTI. Now on Vetsulin, 4 units bid and being switched to Lantus tomorrow due to sugars still over 450-600 on prn checks. Has been on Vetsulin for about 2 months.

 

Hello and welcome to you and Crush. I'm sorry Crush has developed diabetes but you've come to the right place. What are you feeding him? A low carb canned food is best. Often with a switch from the high carb foods a cats BG can drop significantly. That's is why we test their blood glucose. Most of us use a human meter which can be purchased at any pharmacy. These two things can help Crush on the road to recovery. Again welcome and please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

 

We have a meter which he runs about 450-600 in am and pm. On 4 units so they felt Vetsulin not working and need to switch to lantus. He is feed Feast diet and I pick 3 diff types with each being 4-5 carb value,,,fish ones which fortunately are the ones he likes. He also has been on m/d dry food which he loves. He seems to still want some dry foods and not always wants the wet Feast one so twice a day on that is about all he will take of wet food. When on previous dry foods, BS was noted as HI on meter so totally off those foods now. Hard since other cat is now gaining weight off this cat's diet since hard to separate out.

 

I know how hard it is to feed cats separately(I have 13). I have put all of mine on the low carb canned food. That has made it a bit easier. Lantus is an excellent insulin. I'm sure you will have luck with it. I know you said Crush loves the D/M, but it too is high in carbs, so try to keep it to a minimum, and possibly work toward phasing it out. There is a dry food called Young Again Zero Carb that many have had success with. It's quite expensive, but you might want to check it out. When do you test Crush's BG? It is recommended to test before you feed and give the insulin, then again during the mid cycle so you can see how low his BG goes. Would love to see a pic of Crush!

 

Geez,,,I am only separating two. I assumed since D/M says for glucose maintenance and given by vet that it was low carb. I do not see a carb count on pkg. I will look into the Young Again. I test BG in am before insulin and in pm before insulin. I admit not daily since he seems to hide from me sometimes if I do to often and difficult to find. I tend to also watch the urine output,,,if excessive I know he is at least 500 or more. I have also done the curve at home when he was too upset at vet's so they sent him home and told me to do curve at home and then I sent his values in to them. He is to start on 2 units Lantus tomorrow bid. I am hoping since possible diabetes brought on by steroid shot that he will come out of it. I have also been talked to about method of incremental dosing throughout day for few weeks that has shown success in remission for this. Have you heard of that?

 

Crush is so cute! I love black cats, have 7 of them! If you go to the Young Again website, they have a chart comparing ingredients and carbs of different cat foods. The D/M is 15% I think (if I remember right). My vet wanted my cat on that too, but he didn't like it, and I couldn't afford to feed it to everybody, so I just went with the Fancy Feast. If Crush has eaten within 2 hours of the glucose test, the numbers will be food influenced, so try to take away all food for those 2 hrs pretest. To help him enjoy testing, always give him a low carb treat after every test. My cat comes to me when I sit in our testing chair and rattle the test strips-he wants that treat! I have not heard of incremental dosing. You may want to ask about that on the health forum where more people will see it. Someone may know about it. I'm relatively new here and am still learning!

 

Thanks for all your advice and support. I will look into the young again diet.

 

You can use this online calculator to get an estimate of calories from each of protein, fat, and carbohydrate.
The, divide the carbohydrate calories by the total calories, and multiply by 100 to get percent of calories from carbohydrate.
ie carbohydrate calories / total calories * 100
You want this to be under 10%

 

I see you are sad, and I understand. My cat was diagnosed about a month ago and I was sad, angry, shocked, afraid--you name it. But this board has helped me a lot. I still have moments when it feels overwhelming, but I'm learning a lot. I know you will, too, as everyone here is so supportive. Like most of us, I have multiple cats, 3, all of whom according to the vet need different specialty diets, but I live in a sort of one room open area and separate feedings are virtually impossible, so they mostly share food. My black cat Savvy has several issues including kidney disease and food allergies but when Kali his litter mate became a sugar cat, we switched to mostly low carb food which is exactly what kidney cats don't need. The vet was not happy. When we had his numbers checked last week, she was quite surprised that he had actually improved a little. I was relieved! We can only do the best we can and diet is one of the most challenging things to figure out. I know you'll find what works best! So glad you are here with Crush. Nora and Kali