Lantus and food amount

[Butter Bean]

The question is, how much food does my girl have to eat to be given her 1/2 unit of Lantus safely ??My girl has IBS along with diabetes.
She is giving me trouble eating the past few days because of a flare up. She is eating Hills ZD which I know isn’t low carb but it’s all she can tolerate.
Last night I was freaking out because she only ate about 1/2 of 1/8 cup. Usual meal is 3/4 cup twice a day. I always check her blood sugar before meals and shot and she’s coming in low 300s and high 200s.
And tonight’s shot time is rapidly approaching and I’m so afraid because even though I’m a year into this diabetes journey, I don’t know how little food taken in would be safe to give her the 1/2 unit of insulin.
Please help a scared cat mom

 

[CORKY]

The question is, how much food does my girl have to eat to be given her 1/2 unit of Lantus safely ??My girl has IBS along with diabetes.
She is giving me trouble eating the past few days because of a flare up. She is eating Hills ZD which I know isn’t low carb but it’s all she can tolerate.
Last night I was freaking out because she only ate about 1/2 of 1/8 cup. Usual meal is 3/4 cup twice a day. I always check her blood sugar before meals and shot and she’s coming in low 300s and high 200s.
And tonight’s shot time is rapidly approaching and I’m so afraid because even though I’m a year into this diabetes journey, I don’t know how little food taken in would be safe to give her the 1/2 unit of insulin.
Please help a scared cat mom

@Bron and Sheba (GA)
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

 

[squeem3]

IMO a few mouthfuls of food is plenty as long as the cat eats the rest of the food within an hour or so. You really just have to know your cat and how she responds to insulin and her eating habits.

My diabetic also has IBD and other issues. Have you seen this web site? https://www.ibdkitties.net/ There's lots of good info there. The canned ZD is better than the dry ZD IMO. Prescription food may not even be necessary at all for both IBD and diabetes. My diabetic cat eats a commercial raw food. He's has eaten raw since he was a kitten and my vet is fine with it.

 

[Butter Bean]

IMO a few mouthfuls of food is plenty as long as the cat eats the rest of the food within an hour or so. You really just have to know your cat and how she responds to insulin and her eating habits.

My diabetic also has IBD and other issues. Have you seen this web site? https://www.ibdkitties.net/ There's lots of good info there. The canned ZD is better than the dry ZD IMO. Prescription food may not even be necessary at all for both IBD and diabetes. My diabetic cat eats a commercial raw food. He's has eaten raw since he was a kitten and my vet is fine with it.

Thank you for the insight. I tried the canned ZD and she will not go near it, I have warmed it, I have added water to it, you name it and I have tried it.
The problem is when she gets like this once she decides to stop eating that's it, game over and she's done for like 2 hours. It's frustrating and scary.
She has IBD, Thyroid, and diabetes.
I have never tried raw food, what might I buy that you could suggest if I wanted to give it a go?
Again, many thanks, and I will check out the other site too!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I have a non-diabetic IBD kitty and feed Gizmo a partially raw diet. This is a link to a website that discusses raw feeding for IBD cats. They also have great info on managing common problems like diarrhea and nausea with meds and supplements. I've not used a commercially prepared raw food. I have used Stella and Chewy and they make a freeze dried raw food -- I use rabbit which is a novel protein. A lot of what I've seen in the commercially prepared raw foods are not novel proteins. I buy ground bison or pork at the supermarket and use a pre-mix (EZ Complete from FoodFurLife) that you mix in water and add to the raw food.

One of the benefits of Lantus is that it does not start to work immediately. For many cats, insulin onset doesn't start for about 2 hours. You may want to read over the sticky notes that are at the top of the Lantus board. They provide a great deal of information about how Lantus works.

 

[squeem3]

Thank you for the insight. I tried the canned ZD and she will not go near it, I have warmed it, I have added water to it, you name it and I have tried it.
The problem is when she gets like this once she decides to stop eating that's it, game over and she's done for like 2 hours. It's frustrating and scary.
She has IBD, Thyroid, and diabetes.
I have never tried raw food, what might I buy that you could suggest if I wanted to give it a go?
Again, many thanks, and I will check out the other site too!

A little sprinkle of FortiFlora or even just crushed up low carb treats or dry food works to get many cats to eat new food.

You can try air dried or freeze dried commercial raw food to start. Air dried is similar in texture to dry food, probably just a little crispier. Freeze dried needs to be reyhdrated in water before serving. Dehydrated raw can be too high carb for a diabetic, such as The Honest Kitchen brand. Frozen raw is another option but you'll need freezer space. Look for commercial brands of raw food at an independent pet store or, for the shelf stable ones, online at Chewy or OnlyNaturalPet or even Amazon. Homemade raw is also another option but you also need freezer space. Not all cats will take to raw. Home cooked food is an option and you'll also need freezer space to store a batch. A pre-mix supplement such as TC Feline or Better In The Raw turns any raw or plain cooked meat into a complete diet. There are companies that offer homemade or raw pet food subscriptions such as Smalls and Vita Raw.

I personally feed my diabetic Vital Essentials freeze dried rabbit. I buy it from Chewy. There's a frozen version which I originally fed until my cat developed an allergy from the goat milk. The frozen no longer contains goat milk. It's a basic, bland food without any filler ingredient to cause IBD or food allergy issues for my weirdo cat. My civvie eats Nature's Variety frozen rabbit bites. She won't touch freeze dried raw There are lots of raw food brands out there. Most are low carb but check the ingredients for any potential sources of carbs. If your cat's IBD is super sensitive to food, you should check the ingredients to any potential food triggers. Sometimes independent pet stores offer free samples of raw, usually freeze dried or air dried.

Many vets discourage feeding raw for one reason or another but you don't need the vet's permission to feed it. Catinfo.org is a good read on nutrition.