? Young again and insulin

so my cats (all 3) are constantly starving and not having it with the wet food anymore. I've tried different varieties but they are over it. All the want I their kibble. So I purchased some Young Again and want to try it (tried sample and they loved it). But I'm not sure how to handle with feeding since they are going from a low carb to no carb meal. Any suggestions from people who feed young again how to best work with the food and insulin. Or do I just keep tracking as normal and go with it that way?


Thank you in advance!

 

YAZC, despite their advertising and claims isn't zero carb....we estimate it at about 5%

As with any diet change, go slowly and test...it's the only way to know what's going on inside Tiger's body..we've had some cats do well on YA but we've had some that didn't too and their BG went back up. It's one of those ECID things

Just remember to take the food up 2 hours before shot times so your Pre-shot numbers aren't food influenced

 

Even though it says zero carb it's actually about 5% carbs.

 

well....
it's difficult .
you can't do tight regulation with dry food.... so you will need to do the go slow method.

I recommend that you keep trying with the wet food..... you may just have to slow the process down and work on it incrementally.


a dear friend here is our example of one who did it with dry food. She is departed but I still have her link to her ss which has notes.
She had a hard time steering with high carb since her cat wouldn't touch the wet... or gravy... or syrup or anything.
Ninja's ss
she tried to leave good notes on the side for anyone else since she was on her own.

it's difficult when you have a diabetic because those who feed dry tend to think of it as something to leave out 24/7.
And dry food is metabolized differently, slower and stays in the system longer.

But , sometimes.....
you have to do what you can.....

 

Yeah I know dry isn't ideal but I've been trying to get them to eat wet since July and there are times were he completely turns his nose up to almost any wet food I give him and have tried all the tricks of getting him to eat. He hasn't really had kibble since beginning of August and at first was doing okay but the last couple weeks has been fighting the eating more and more.

Good to know the 5%. I figured it wasn't truely 0 carb but hadn't actually figured it out to be honest. Will definitely take slow and thank you for reminding to take up 2 hours prior to shot

 

I see you've already got SLGS in your sig line - just a reminder that with SLGS, doses are held for one week at a time and reductions are made at 90 on your human glucometer.

It looks like you're adjusting the dose using the Tight Reg guidelines, but with dry food in the pic, for safety, you want to use SLGS. You might want to reread the sticky on SLGS.

Have you read the info on www.catinfo.org about dry food? Dehydration is hard on the kidneys and diabetic cats are typically dehydrated. The water in cat food is one way to address dehydration, and many people also add a water to their canned food. None of my 3 cats are diabetic and I still wouldn't give them dry food - I've seen too many cats with kidney problems who end up on subq fluids and if I can avoid that, I sure do want to. Been there done that with punkin.

You have to keep them eating, obviously, but if you haven't had to resort to dry food yet, I wonder if there is still a way to avoid it. Dr. Lisa has a good list of suggestions on that site about how to transition a dry food addict - perhaps some of those would make the canned food more enticing for your kitties.

 

Julie? Just wondering, I know that YA says "feed our food ONLY", but any idea if anyone has tried it along with wet food? Possibly as a treat for those carb fiends? Just curious. One thing I have noticed, my boy does LOVE the dehydrated chicken, so that may satisfy some of the "I want my food to have texture" craving? Thoughts?

 

You can feed your cat what you want to feed...The people at YA sound like they know what they're talking about, but they've got a good motive to sound good too

We've had others who have left YA down for "crunchies" and continued to feed canned

If he loves the dried chicken, I'd try just chopping some up and sprinkling it on top of the canned to see if it satisfies his need for "crunch"

 

For dosing. That's what I had thought from reading but with his drops I was asking to verify with people and was told to adjust below 90 every time...so probably just a miscommunication.

As far as dry and cats. I've read about the issues but my cats are big water drinkers and always have been (as in bowls of water a day). And I will make sure to monitor it still. But there's also the balance between eating and not eating. Almost every night it is a fight to get him to eat that I have been doing for so long now and I can't keep doing it. And I'm the only person who can get him to eat wet food now. Especially since he is not getting filled/satisfied off the wet food. I'm not saying I will do yazc for ever but I need him to actually eat and not bug me 20 minutes later cause he's still hungry. I've tried dehydrated chicken to give him the crunch, cooked wet food and many more things but it's not working so far. There have been a couple times where I have had to give him a little dry to just get him to eat and when I have he calms down and relaxes a lot more then when I have him on wet only.

 

Yes, you're right that reductions are taken whenever you catch them. I just noticed that your earlier increases that were done more quickly than once a week, were from the vet's direction. My mistake - I didn't realize that.

Some kitties are really hooked on the dry - you don't need to feel badly about it. They're worse than 2 year olds who only want to eat chicken nuggets!!! If you need to do it, then go for it. I just wanted to raise the issue about the dosing and make sure you were aware of the dehydration issue. There are some folks that are trying to feed dry and still follow Tight Reg, and the Tight Reg guidelines make it clear that it's only appropriate with canned low carb or raw food.