Timing for switching to lower carb diet while on Insulin

(There's a question coming after all the background info.)

As I mentioned in my welcome thread, Pumpkin is currently on a hydrolyzed protein (which unfortunately implies high carb) diet because she had previous allergy (we think) issues. For years it was just an occasional scarf and barf, but a year ago it got so severe that she was vomiting multiple times a day and barely eating. A hydrolyzed protein diet with a mix of kibble and canned wet food turned that right around. Unfortunately, it's also 40% carbs on a dry matter basis (both the dry and the wet, confirmed with the manufacturers).

The good news is that our trial of Instinct Limited Ingredient has been going well, with no vomiting or diarrhea so far. I started with their kibble and I've been using it as a lower carb treat (and Pumpkin has been getting lots of treats with all the poking and prodding she's been getting). It's still 20% carbs, which is better than 40% but not good. The other good news is that I should be getting some of their wet food tomorrow, which is only 7% carbs.

My goal is to get her switched to a 100% wet food low carb diet. That's going to take some time because we really don't want to rush and end up with a kitty on insulin to start vomiting up all her food. Also I can't test her consistently yet resulting in a lot of blind shots, so I don't want sudden BG chang

Right now she gets a total of 10 feedings. 5 after her first shot, 5 after her 2nd. The first 5 are each 2-3 hours apart. The second 5 are each 1 hour apart. That matches Pumpkin's appetite (much more active during the evening) and gets us done with food before bed time.

To start with I'm just going to move 20% of her food over. That'll move her overall diet from 40% carbs to 33%, which feels like a safe change. And my hope is that if we hit an allergy problem after introducing only a little more of the new food, it won't result in the repeated vomiting that could completely crash her blood sugar.

The question is whether there's any particular time of day where I should focus the lower carb food to start. I don't want to just mix it across all her feedings. If she has allergy issues, I want her to get it out of her system and be able to keep down her next meal. I'm thinking of maybe doing the evening meals she gets with her PM shot and at +1 (so 7:30 and 8:30 PM) since I'll be home and awake to notice if she vomits it back up. But I'm not sure about that. I put her feeding schedule in a tab in her spreadsheet.

 

I'm going to tag @Bron and Sheba (GA) to help with this, but from an BG/insulin point of view, you want to feed lower carbs later in the cycle when the insulin action is weakest. Or you could also feed the LC at PS, if she is high enough and switch to her usual HC from +1 so she has carbs on board at onset.

 

I agree with @Bandit's Mom
I also think I would concentrate on giving the lower carb food when you are there to monitor. I agree that you should do it slowly.
I know you have trouble with testing...Is it getting any easier?
Try and get the preshots if you can and one mid cycle test would be great if you can manage that

 

Well, good news and bad news today.

I'm slowly making progress on testing. I'm adjusting the timing a bit based on when she's looking docile and relaxed, but I effectively have two PS tests in a row. Last night's was at +11 from the AM shot, but close enough for now compared to shooting blind. Same thing this morning. We were up an hour early, she looked like she would allow it, so I went ahead. I'm going to focus on consistent pre-shot testing and then start adding in a mid-cycle on the four days a week I'm home.

The bad news is that I woke up an hour early to the sound of Pumpkin vomiting (that wonderful sound of a drain backing up). It was just a bit of mucus, no food. Even on the new food she does that sometimes when she's working on a hairball. So we're going to pause her diet transition at using the new food as treats and see if there's more vomiting.

When we're ready for more of the LC food (I'm going to wait a week at this point and just try 10% of her diet instead of 20%), it sounds like a good time to start would be with the PM shot? I'm around to monitor, and then we can get her some HC food at PM +1 before the insulin fully kicks in.

 

Some cats also throw up in the mornings if they've had a long gap between meals - this is due to the build-up of stomach acid.

 

Interesting. I don't think that's something Pumpkin has ever done. It's either been random or soon after meals. I'm keep an eye on the vomiting for now. I have a pretty good sense of what's a positive or negative trend there. Right now we're at neutral. If we can go a week without more vomiting or if she produces a hairball later today we'll move it back to cautiously optimistic.

 

Well done getting a couple of Preshots!