Suggested Portions and Doses- Fancy Freast and Overweight Kitty

Hello all,
First time poster with a newly diagnosed diabetic kitty on Lantus every 12hrs since 1/11/18 PM. First I must say THANK YOU to everyone on this message board. You helped me gain invaluable knowledge and courage from reading this forum over the past few weeks. I hope someone can help me with a few questions? I’m wondering how much Fancy Feast Classics I should be feeding per day for my slightly chubby (12-13lb) cat in general per day? I worry about weight gain with wet but also don’t want to starve her! I’m sure this answer is out there everywhere on this forum but I simply can’t track it down!

My next question: it’s time to give her insulin now. I switched her to Fancy Feast Classic over the past few days and have been home monitoring. The vet had her on Hills Prescription W/D dry food which I learned here was not a good idea!!! And I also knew because of this site that I should be VERY careful w her insulin when switching from high carb to low carb diet, so hence my question...yesterday was her first full day on wet, and her BG 1hr pre-shot was 240. Prior to the switch she had readings around 300BG pre-shot - although I only ever managed to do it at home 2x - and so I was too scared to give her the full 2u and only gave about 1.5.

Today I just took her BG again and she’s at 179. I’m so glad to see her numbers in a better range...but now I’m concerned about how much Lantus I should give her right now. Can anyone help reassure me?! Hypo scares the daylights out of me!

Thank you so much for any guidance,
-Erin and Kitty (and her brother Elliott too)

 

I was told by my vet 20 calories per pound to maintain weight, and 15 calories per pound to lose weight. I try to aim for 17 just to get him down a bit, he needs to lose about 3 more pounds.

 

Thank you! Sounds like I shouldn’t be worried about 2cans per day. These are all about 90cals. So 15cals x 12lbs is 180 cals to lose a little bit of chub. That’s a relief!

Anyone have any advice whether I should give insulin now before her dinner or skip/decrease the shot since she was at 179? Thank you so much again!

 

Because it's so early in your feline diabetes journey it's safest to skip the shot if BG is under 200 if you're using a human meter and 250 if you're using a pet meter. I suggest you go to the Lantus forum and get some help from the many experienced people over there so you get the best start possible. And congrats to you for home testing!

 

Thank you! Just bopped over there for some advice. For now I haven’t guven the insulin.