Zachary

Our 11 year old cat, Zachary, was diagnosed with diabetes on 12/26. The vet has us giving him Hill's canned diabetic/weight loss food but I have learned that it's not good, plus Zachary was never overweight and is really thin, now. The vet also had us buy a very expensive litter box and has us testing his urine every day but I've learned that blood tests are much better. The vet also has us giving him 2 units x2/day of Lantus insulin which, from what I'm reading, looks good. But, that was also difficult at first because the vet didn't know how to use an insulin pen and when we asked for some instruction from the pharmacist he told us he didn't give instructions, and suggested that we go back to the vet. (!) Needless to say, I am VERY grateful for all good trustworthy information from people with experience with diabetic cats! I am confused by all the abbreviations and slang terms that I am reading. This is a whole new world and it seems that there is so much to learn and there is so much bad advice from vets and companies that just want to make money from our cat's illness. In the past few days both Zachary's brother and sister have been drinking a lot of water and behaving like they are starving (Zachary's first symptoms) so I would like to find a food that might prevent them from needing insulin, too.

I recently searched every can of cat food on the shelves of PetValu to find a good non-prescription food. What I have learned is that it must be canned, high protein, no carbs, no grain, no vegetables, no fruit, and of course no nasty chemicals, preservatives, etc. I found 2: Dave's (9%protein,$1.29/can)has 2 flavors that fit the list. Dave's high protein(10%protein,1.49/can)does not look good because it has flaxseeds (good for people but I'm not sure about cats.) The other food is a no-frills looking can just called Health Diet Cat Food by Peton Dist.(10%protein, $.49/can) which fits my list and looks the best.

After I searched through all the foods I discovered the list of good foods from the diabetic group on Facebook. The focus there seems to be on the % of carbs which I don't see listed on the labels. Fancy Feast seems popular but I saw a few ingredients that I wanted to avoid. One of them is "natural flavors" which is pure artificial chemicals. Maybe my avoidance list is too long and I'm not looking for the most important things? I am so grateful for insight!

 

Our best Resource for diabetic cats and diet is www.catinfo.org. Dr. Lisa explores what is in foods, what is important and what is not, and she put together a great food chart. We do try to stay under 8-10% carbs. There is a formula for calculating the carb percentage of foods. You can't tell from labels.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/calculating-food-carb.27876/

 

Unless you have a blood ketone meter, testing fresh urine for ketones can help you identify ketones. These form from fat breakdown. Too many may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal, expensive to treat complication of diabetes.