Newly Diagnosed Fat Orange Cat; Im so frustrated, please help! :-/

Hi all, I like to think that I am technically savvy, but it took me a solid 10 minutes to figure out how to make this post. !! Any ways, I have two orange man cats , but they are my babies, one is named Biscuit, and the other is named Gravy a.k.a. Phat Kat, I rescued them from a pound when they were approx. 12 weeks old, they are supposedly brothers, which seems correct given their similar size, color, and markings at the time of adoption. They are 7 years old now <3 and I just love them so much. They are indoor only, and seem to have no desire to go outside. I did not get them neutered until they were 2 years old, at that time they were both svelte and in great shape, Biscuit was about 12 pounds and Phat Cat (the cat formerly known as Gravy) was 9 pounds! With in just a few months after being fixed Phat Kat ballooned up to 18 lbs, I was then able to get him down to 16, but he quickly went back up to 18 lbs, and over the next few years made it to a high of 20.6lbs! Biscuit has never been much over 13lbs. Despite following veterinary recommendations of feeding certain portions twice a day with no snacks etc. in between meals, it has been nearly impossible to get my big guy to lose weight. when he was around the age of 4, he developed bladder crystals and the vet recommended S/D for one month with a maintenance of C/D, he told me that C/D was not good for weight loss, but at that point keeping the crystals away was more important, went on like this for about 2 years (other than one point in between where I ran out of C/D and had to feed a random cat food, literally 2 days off the C/D and urinary symptoms started again) with no more weight gain, but also no loss (mind you 20.6 lbs). The vet then suggested to me the "urinary health +metabolic" food, which I have used for the past year, at first I thought this was great, because Fat Cat would often have soft stools on C/D , and this new food stopped that from happening, and made the fur around his bottom much cleaner. (I no longer needed to wipe his hiney, and where it was irritated their before, it was no longer) All seemed well, no weight gain, but no apparent loss, but both cats seemed happy and normal. Well about one month ago I noticed more urine in the litter box, (I have the tidy cat breeze), I also noticed fat cat drinking slightly more water than usual, but honestly nothing too exciting, still it got me worried, since I know he has pretty much all the risk factors. (I would like to at this point add that I am a people nurse, so I know a little bit about diabetes ;-P) I dipped his urine and it had 1+glucose, oh no, this is when I was certain he was diabetic. A few days later (which was 7 days ago) I got him to the vet and they did a sugar on him which came back as 504!! Yikes!! He told me I would need to start insulin (Novolin N), twice a day, 12 hours apart, given 1 hour after a meal, and to bring him back to stay all day at the office for a curve in 2 weeks, I asked about changing foods he said I could stay on the current "urinary+metabolic" food, and mentioned nothing about home testing.

WELL!! After having 7 days to do some research I am appalled, and feeling like I will need to switch vets!!

1. The food that they have been on is dry food, never did the stress that he should be switched to canned.
2. this food has TONS of carbs I now know.
3.they did not even mention home testing which irks my nerves because human get regular checks daily
4.every source I have read states that Novolin N is not best practice for cats (I am fine paying 6 times more for lantus if its best!)
5.Seems to be that starting at 4units is a huge does
I feel like I have some more concerns that I cant think of right now, but those are the major ones.

I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING AND SEARCHING TO FIND THE BEST FOOD TO SWITCH TO THAT IS CANNED, AND GOOD FOR DIABETIC CATS WITH A HISTORY OF URINARY CRYSTALS. I FEEL LIKE IT NEEDS TO BE LOW CARB, BUT I DONT KNOW WHA T WILL WORK FOR BOTH PROBLEMS! THIS IS MY BIGGEST FRUSTRATION AT THE MOMENT PLEASE HELP!

ALSO, I PLAN TO BUY A GLUCOMETER FIRST THING IN THE MORNING AND START HOME TESTING. I REALIZE THAT TRANSITIONING TO A PROPER FOOD MAY VERY WELL DECREASE INSULIN NEEDS, I WOULD TRANSITION SLOWLY AND PAY GOOD ATTENTION TO BG NUMBERS.

I PLAN TO CALL A CAT ONLY CLINIC MONDAY TO GET AN APT WITH THIS NEW PERSON/PLACE.

BIGGEST QUESTION RIGHT NOW IS WHAT FOODS WILL BE BEST FOR HIS 2 PROBLEMS??

He loves to eat, so getting him to eat wont be much of a problem, he has had no problem at all with the with the shot this far that I can tell, and almost seems to look forward to getting it, and he has been seeming more spunky the last few days since starting insulin. I JUST WANT TO GIVE HIM THE BEST TREATMENT POSSIBLE EVEN DESPITE COSTS!!!

I am sure I will be using this forum a lot, but please help a cat momma out!! (I have already been looking at the food charts, but need more help)

Stressed out in savannah,
Elizabeth

 

Hi Elizabeth,
It's generally recommended that a diabetic cat be given ONLY low carb canned food. The low carb grocery store brands like Friskies (pates only) or Fancy Feast (classics only) are what many people here feed. There is a much more expensive vet prescribed canned food available, Purina Pro Plan DM (dietetic management) which is low carb if you choose to go that route. As far as a food that would help stave off urinary crystals, I don't know what to recommend. My cat was fed prescription Royal Canin Urinary S/O wet food for a long time before he became diabetic because he was prone to bouts of cystitis. I realize this doesn't necessarily involve crystals. Since his diabetes diagnosis last January, I've been feeding him a mixture of DM and either Friskies or Fancy Feast. He hasn't been troubled by cystitis so far.

 

Welcome! A low carb wet food is best and if you add a little extra water to it, all the better. Wellness grain free is a good one. Check this out
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

 

Hmm, thanks, that is good to know that his urinary symptoms haven't bothered him with those foods, im stressed, my poor boy, I just want him to feel good! I am slightly interested in the Purina Pro Plan Focus Adult Urinary Tract Health Formula Chicken Entrée. (that was copy pasted,lol) because it is a urinary food and seems to be the lowest carb option of the urinarys, but I just don't know what to do, and based off of the advice my current vet has already given me, I am afraid he wont be as much help as I would like. I pray I will find another vet that will be more helpful.

 

Thank you Sharon14, I have actually already read that, im just terrified of making this switch and him making crystals again, but I get anxious about new things always in life. I keep finding foods that I think may be ok, and then I do a google search and read all sorts of forum/blog horror stories!!

 

Good for you to start researching for your sweet kitty. You have already learned a lot about what is best and what isn't. This vet has an excellent page on urinary issues /food. She advocates wet, low carb. On that same page, there is a food chart. We try to feed under 8-10% carbs.

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

 

When my cat was younger, he had two bouts with cystitis and had to be catheterized. He's been fine on the low carb canned diet. The Wellness is supposed to be good for urinary tracts too. What is the carb count of the Pro Plan Focus?

 

I meant to add to my giant post that he has lost 2 lbs in the last year he's now down to 18.6 instead of 20.6, but the vet thinks it could just be from him being undiagnosed for however long.
The purina pro plan I was speaking of has 13% carbs, I realize high than optimal, but his current food has 30%...I feel like the food that was supposed to be helping him in one way is killing him in another and that's frustrating. I don't know if it would be a good intermediate to try since it would be at less than half his current carb load. Also will cats be like humans and have that weird carb withdrawal fog, or not maybe not so much since the human brains fuel source is carbs and cats is not.

 

Have you seen this one
https://www.proplanveterinarydiets.com/products/dm-dietetic-management-cat/
It's a prescription food and the Pate type is 3 carbs. Some cats don't like it over time though. The website claims it's good for urinary tract health.

 

I feel like I did see that, but then didn't look into it much, does it really only have 3 carbs, maybe I will try this! My fat cat can be weird about change and certainly wasn't jazzed about wet food in the past, but at the end of the day, he loves food, so I feel like its worth a shot, I think he will be fine transitioning to canned food, just might take some getting used to.

 

Seems perfect, but I am going to have to get my vet to write an RX right :-/.... I hope he doesn't give me any flack......

 

How do you figure out the 3 carb part? All I see is 18%, maybe that is for the dry food? Which option has 3 carbs?

 

According to Dr Lisa's food chart, the wet Pate type has 3 carbs and the Savory Select has 10
http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

 

Most vets carry the Pro Plan DM. If you buy some and he won't eat it, you can return it.

 

I am feeling a little dumb here, but I can not find the pro-plan DM on the chart, what page is it on?

 

Page 31.

 

AHH! Thank you! for some reason when I hit print it only printed the first 27 pages... weird

 

What do you think about the phosphorous, Ive noticed that most urinary health foods has less than 0.8, im just such a nervous nelly. I see the UR only has 8 carbs... this is getting exciting!

 

I don't know about the importance of Phos for cystitis, I know it's important for CKD though.

 

Welcome Elizabeth!! (the GA prefix stands for "Gone Ahead" or "Guardian Angel" and we use it for kitties that have crossed)

You might want to go ahead and move over to the Health Forum...it gets a lot more traffic than this forum does.

The important part to remember about crystals is water.....not some fancy "prescription" food....Find a low carb food and add extra water to make a "gravy" and you really shouldn't have the problems with crystals

Water flushes out the bladder and kidneys and keeps them a lot healthier.

You're right that Novolin isn't a great insulin...Lantus is a lot better and if you get a script for it, you can get your Lantus from Canada (which is what most of us are doing!) It's 1/3rd the cost!! Here's all the information on where we're getting our lantus from

It's safest if you transition onto the low carb food before you start insulin. As long as you haven't had any problems with DKA, taking a few days to transition is a pretty good idea.

Come on over to the Health Forum so you'll get more answers to your questions. Copy the link to this post and put it in your first post over there so people can quickly go back and read this one.

Again, welcome to the best place you never wanted to be!!

 

OMG... I thought it stood for Georgia .... I'm a dumb. I just got home from work after picking up the "relion confirm" glucometer. My fat cats sugar after going like 12 hours without food, and insulin too was 325 ... Ughhhhhh how terrible is that

 

Also, as an aside, just because I wanted to know I tested my non-diabetic cats sugar and it was 51, lol. He's acting his completely normal self, but why so low .... Both ends of the spectrum, is it because it's a human meter ?

 

FYI - the last time I bought a box of Pro Plan DM pate I asked them to check the specific carb content for me. They looked it up in a binder of fact sheets for all the Purina veterinary diets and I was told that the pate (as sold in Canada at least) is 5.7% carbs and the "savory selects" is 10.2% carbs, both as fed.

 

I've been struck by the number of members I've come across here whose cats became diabetic after being on the above food, Saoirse included (the kibble version in her case).


Mogs
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Elizabeth,

Could you tell us a little bit more about this when you have time. Some cats go into a bit of a funk when they first start treatment (and sometimes when their dose is adjusted) and I wonder whether what you mention above might have some sort of kitty equivalent.


Mogs
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Wow! I wasn't aware of this (possible) connection.

 

Sure can ! I just got off from work so I may have to elaborate more after I wake up, but people get weird when they are trying to go no-low carb because the human brain functions primarly off of carbs, although I keep reading how cats are designed to consume very little carbs, so I don't know if that problem could still happen, I will try to post more later .... also I am convinced that fat cat is too skinny this am....I worry so much about him, I know he can't be much different from
Last night but he looks too thin to me this am... my poor guy, I don't want him losing too fast.

 

Hi Elizabeth,

You're right to watch for too rapid weight loss. Hepatic lipidosis is a beast to deal with. If he looks the least bit "off" you might want a vet check.