young again 0 carb/remission?

Does anyone feed strictly YAZeroCarb? I know some people feed it in addition to the wet low carb food but I am wondering if anyone has a cat that has gone into remission on this food?
I wrote to the company and told them I was on TR and test 3-6x a day--my cat is fussy and will not eat sometimes (this is why I ordered the YA--if I have to leave and he hasn't eaten anything)
The response I got was that there is a 85% chance of remission on YA by itself and "why am I testing so much as it is hard on me and the cat"
He told me to call tomorrow and he can explain why it is ok/better to feed this food and TR is not needed just a test before each shot-oh and why am I giving SQ fluids….. as if I was giving for no reason?? HMMM

 

I'm not a big fan of YAZC but not necessarily because of their food.....because their representatives say stuff like that!! They aren't vets...and although I've never asked, I'd doubt if any of them have actually had a diabetic cat!

Their sales pitch sounds very good, and they make all kinds of promises I don't think they can back up with any meaningful research/data

 

thanks Chris--I only ordered because if Dre refuses all the 9 plates of food and I have to leave I am nervous-
I just posted again about TR and YA--can I still do TR if I give him a little on the mornings I can't stay home (3 days a week)

 

Has he got a hidden camera in your home??? Frelling cheek of him.

Oh, please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeze ask him to explain in great detail his superior knowledge of how depot insulins work, and where Dr Jacqui Rand has got it all wrong ...


Mogs
.

 

LOL--I wish I had more knowledge when I call him--I may wait and call on my next day off so I am more prepared-
He made me feel like I torture my baby! I am looking at his perfect ears right now! Not to mention him laying on my leg (because I torture him so much)
He def sounds arrogant!

 

I'd ask the guy 2 questions.
1. Why couldn't he tell you why their food is OK/better right then and there? Did he have to go get someone to write a script for him?
2. What is his professional designation? Is he a nutritionist, veterinarian or what?

A member of this board called Purina a while ago to quiz them about all the corn and other "questionable" ingredients along with carb levels in their DM products. The person she spoke with admitted no one answering inquiries has any medical training. They are call centre employees regurgitating info from scripts. Their job is to sell their food and a company like Purina is obviously going to push their more expensive products when given the opportunity. Another new member called Purina recently and they wouldn't say Fancy Feast is a good food for diabetics because they have never done any testing to prove such a claim and again, they want consumers to buy the more expensive Rx products. YA is a much smaller company and while I doubt they have a call centre (I've called them myself), I doubt anyone answering inquiries has any medical designation.

If you dissect the YA marketing material, they are saying their food is low carb (zero carb) and low carb food makes X% of cats go into remission. They don't directly say their food makes a cat go into remission. Technically they admit they are relying on third party reports to back them up that their food is good for diabetic cats rather than actual research feeding their food. So while Young Again may very well be a decent or even good food for our sugar cats because of it's low carb content, unless the company has done specific testing to prove it brings about remission, they are taking chances making concrete claims and have to be careful what they say.

 

Here is the response he gave me-I thought it was pretty bold not even knowing much about my sugar cat….

The short answer is yes you can feed only our dry Zero. Please read our papers in the cat care section of our web site. Both our hydration paper and our stone/ crystal paper should provide you with the confidence to feed only our dry food.

We have an 85% chance your cat will go into remission on our food. Why are you giving fluids?
Tight protocol is not necessary with our food. If you call the office tomorrow I will be able to explain why. Testing your cat 6 times a day is a lot of work and hard on the cat. You only need to test the cat before each injection.

Call when you get the food and I can make your life a lot easier.

Best wishes,

Michael J. Massie
President

Young Again pet food LLC
31008 Fox Hill Avenue
Stacy, MN. 55079

TF 800 311 6646
PH 651 462 2249
FX 651 462 1844

 

I have no idea what this is…..
Both our hydration paper and our stone/ crystal paper should provide you with the confidence to feed only our dry food.

 

HMMMM! The President eh?! He's probably got an MBA and/or a marketing degree. What the heck are the hydration and stone/crystal papers? I don't even see those on the website. I would really like to use their food too but I'm in Canada and not even sure I can get it over the border. When I called them I got the impression that they are a bit of a Mom and Pop shop.....not a big company and getting a simple inquiry response from the President seems to suggest they're pretty small.

If their food is as low in carbs as they suggest it is, then I don't see any reason not to use their food. They do have to pass health inspections etc. like any other company and frankly, the smaller companies have a lot more to lose than the big ones if they start lying to their customers, so I can't see them being as prone to making false claims about their food content.

Too funny.... I was just about to post when you sent this!

 

I also posted in the lantus forum-I agree wet food is better for a cat--but if they refuse food and I have to go to work
I am not even sure if they will like it but hopefully if they do a sprinkle will do--they both have kidney issues (only 1 diabetic)
I may call tho as I am kind of curious how they make claims like this-as you said for the "President"

 

I'm probably one of the few here who understands your frustration. I too think canned is better but a cat has to eat. I have a cat who has refused soft food since she joined our family at the ripe old age of 10 weeks. She is a 5 yr old diabetic and I CANNOT get her to even smell wet food without her either burying it like poop or taking off in the other direction. I saw your other post and tried to get a rationale answer as to why YA is not allowed.

Logically, the low number issue is the only thing I can think of that would preclude a YA kibble diet and obviously low numbers are much easier to handle on a wet diet. I'm not sure I would personally ever go the TR route for that reason alone, but I don't think using the YA as an additional food source even if it is a bowl of kibble instead of wet, to tide them over while you are at work, should be a problem. It's the carb load that's important....not texture.

I did find links to what I think the "Pres" was pointing you to. They are under Pet Care. Here are the links.

http://www.youngagainpetfood.com/hydration.html
http://www.youngagainpetfood.com/uroliths.html

 

I am not glad your frustrated but glad you understand-yes it will only be in the case when nothing else works-
so thats what he was talking about--thank you for the links!!
It is funny that our cat trys to "bury " the wet food--my kidney cat does that before he eats it…. he walks away sometimes and comes back, he is a strange one

 

My cats all love the YACZ kibble, but since I have four mouths to feed they only get it as an occasional treat or it would break the budget!

I do believe YA is a fairly small operation, which is probably why you can only purchase the food from their website. If you ask they will most likely send you a sample to try so you won't be out so much $$ if your cats don't like it.

 

too late--LOL if they don't like it I guess I will be getting your address to mail it to you

 

Mine loved the samples....when I bought the bag, they turned their noses up at it so here it sits....I won't even offer it to China but was hoping maybe it'd be something I could give my civvies but they won't touch it

Makes me wonder if their samples somehow "taste better" so you'll buy the whole bag....hmmm

 

not good!

 

I got samples of YA and gave my girl a few pieces and she ate them but I was afraid to give her more in case I can't get it over the border or worse, she pulls the same stunt ....liking then suddenly refusing it.....as she has done with so many of the lowish carb kibbles I have access to here.

 

I feed it to my boys and they love it. I only give a little (1 tbl) a few times a day.
Something to keep in mind is that it's high in calories so if your not free feeding only YA you really need to control the amout you give them otherwise your cat will gain weight.
It does make a great food choice for folks that need a between feeding meal if your not going to be home....works great if your on vacation and don't have someone to come to feed them on the schedule their use too.

YA is a good company and Michael is a nice knowledgeable man who is willing to talk and explain what they believe and why.
I think with our cats you need to keep an open mind and know not one thing fits all cats so it's good to learn new thing and new findings.
I think if anyone has questions they should call him.

 

That's a shame! I hope the company doesn't resort to that type of practice. My limited dealings with them have been pleasant. I was too dumb to call and ask for a sample, so I just jumped in with both feet and bought a bag; my guys all went nuts over it and still clamor for it for snacks and treats.

 

My guys get a couple of tablespoons a week and think that's the best snack in the world, lol. It also doubles as treats when I run out of Pure Bites!

 

My Dulce went OTJ eating mose Evo Turky Cat and Kitten dry food. He does not like/eat much canned.

 

wow--I hope my guy get OTJ!! he eats canned when he wants to but sometimes he flat out refuses--thank you for the reply !

 

To answer your questions in the first post, I have seen two cats go OTJ on YA, there may be others. One of those two fell out of remission when her kitty decided she no longer liked it.

This part kills me. I wonder what study gave them the 85% number? 25% of diabetic cats have acromegaly (according the latest published research on a large number of diabetic cats). There is no way those cats will get into remission just by a food change. Neko, who has acromegaly, was on low carb wet with some low carb dry (Evo back when it was available in Canada) when she was diagnosed.

 

Fallacious statement. Tight regulation is not "necessary" with any food.

Generalisation and unsupported assumption.

TRP advocates two pre-shot and at least one mid-cycle test per day, preferably one mid-cycle test every cycle if possible (supported by periodical curves). In the published TRP study, the average number of tests per day was only five.

When taught good technique and with a little practice, for the majority of cats home testing should only take a few minutes per test.

False assertion. And dangerous. Some insulins are dosed based on the nadir, not the preshot. Failing to check the nadir could lead to over/underdosing.
-------

Grrrrr ....


Mogs


ETA:

Clarification:

Some insulins are dosed with the main emphasis on pre-shot BG BUT even in those cases, the nadir also needs to be taken into consideration.
.

 

The way the YA marketing material/feeding is worded, I'm wondering if their tight regulation statement is referring to food rather than insulin. These folks advocate free feeding as opposed to feeding precise amounts of food twice a day at shot time as often suggested by vets which could be considered "tight regulation" of food intake. The "Pres" did step out of his "bounds" saying testing twice a day was all that was necessary but he might just be regurgitating what a vet has told them. We all know there are a lot of vets who do not advocate testing at all.

This boils down to marketing. It's a small company. They want to increase their business so if they can make you believe that dealing with your diabetic cat is going to be easier with their food and up the chances of getting your cat into remission they are going to do that to get you to buy it. It's consumer beware. If the claims sound too good to be true, they probably are.

 

Trouble is it is dangerous marketing. We know to the differ, but caregivers of newly-diagnosed cats may not. I think Young Again are being irresponsible in making erroneous statements about insulin treatment. I don't think they should be making any statements about when - or how often - a caregiver should test before giving insulin. They don't have the knowledge, and it shows. They are food manufacturers, not vets.


Mogs
.

 

I totally and strongly agree but we live in a world where marketing folks get away with this kind of stuff everyday. Boggles the mind when government spends so much time protecting us from ourselves and stripping us of the right to self determination over silly stuff (e.g. several cities here have tried to ban toboganning) and yet this kind of marketing goes on all the time. Someone recently mentioned the packaging of their YA (they posted pictures) had changed and it now says "Zero" instead of "Zero Carb". It looks like YA got called on the carpet for falsely claiming there were no carbs in the food when in fact there is a "trace" amount. Sadly, even if a cat was endangered or worse as a result of following the preachings of a food company President re: BG testing, chances are good that the legal world would never even try to prosecute them because the caregiver is ultimately responsible for the decisions they make and any caregiver who takes direction from a food company executive with no medical background would be considered the responsible party.

 

It's the neoliberal capitalist way. The longer I live, the less free I see the majority of the populus in the Anglosphere becoming while at the same time transnational corporates are becoming more powerful than nation states. The pendulum seems to be swinging further and further away from protecting the people to protecting the interests of business. I do sometimes wonder whether the (allegedly) great and good that rule over us actually view us as livestock; assets to be husbanded, not people at all. (Can't have our precious economic units tobogganing! My, but I'm getting even more cynical with age. )

I wonder how YA got pulled up over the 'Zero Carb' labelling?


Mogs
.

 

What did I miss? Does it say that cats eating this food will not need insulin and no to give insulin?
The guy told me their are cats that will always need to be on insulin but eating YA it my be possible to put your cat into remission. I haven't read through the website so I'm not sure what their saying....I'll have to take a look. He did say it has zero digestible carbs but since it still had cars the needed to drop the zero carbs label.
There are people who don't test at all and do fine , I wouldn't be comfortable in doing that but many do are are happy and controlled.

 

well-I caught a 71 @+3 on AT before I had to leave for work--needless to say more than 2 tests a day can come in handy and I was late for work!

LOL--haha--first time I laughed today @ "what did I miss" so cute!
Lots to read on this thread--I am still taking it in ….

 

Their previous marketing line to some people on the boards was that you were to start feeding their food exclusively and then in 3 days just stop giving insulin because you wouldn't need it anymore.

This just makes me cat-spittin' mad. We fight and fight and fight to get people to become knowledgeable diabetic caregivers and keep their cats safe. Then we have people trying to sell their product undo that work. I'd like to know if he's ever even tested a cat. If his product does what he is saying it will, 85% of his clients' needs for insulin will drop and they NEED to be testing at times other than preshot to catch the low numbers that would be causing.

 

This was the first red flag I saw with this company. To say "zero carbs" when it wasn't true doesn't exactly instill confidence in the company. Actually, quite the opposite.

I wonder, too.

 

^^Above all, this.^^

.