Does your cat have diabetes? ?

Question

This is a disease where you need to be proactive and be the primary caregiver with the vet as a secondary source. I can help you learn what you need to take control.

Here are some tidbits

Doses should never be raised based on fructosamines or a single test. That could be dangerous

Curves at the vets can be off by more the 100 points due to stress and other factors.

Insulin needs can change over time

Are you feeding DM or MD?? You can do oh so much better for cheaper. Lower carbs is what reduces insulin needs.

Were doses ever raised by more then 1/2 bid? sigh

Are you giving more then 5 bid of insulin? sigh

Do you hometest or know how to? it is the ONLY way to know if it is safe to give insulin and get the info u need to treat this correctly. I can teach you how.

There is nothing in this for me except the pleasure of helping

I have owned and adopted diabetic

Answer 1

Good hints!!  One of my cats is diabetic, and when she reached the age of 12 had to go on insulin - basically only 2 drops a day.  My vet was very careful about her readings, and was thrilled to know that I had a glucometer at home; after one month on insulin, she had me take readings once an hour, for 12 hours, to give her a good set of reading to keep in the f\medical file.  She also asked that before going in for an annual exam, we do readings at home so that there are fewer stress induced levels.  Twice a week she and the other cats have a roast chicken feast - lots of protein, no carbs.  I encourage all diabetic cat families to invest in a really good, interested vet - it makes a big difference!

Answer 2

Hi all, yes he is right, I have a cat who is 11 she has been diabetic for almost 6 of those years. I have been keeping her disease under control all wrong with shots of 5 units twice a day!! OMG!  Though her blood sugar was getting up as high at 580 pre shot readings, I had to eventually over the course of 5 years go from 1 unit twice a day 1 1/2 units to 2 units and  slowly up and up and up by 1/2 units every few months over the course of the 5 years to try and help her keep her sugar down, I didnt know I was not helping my diabetic kitty by feeding her dry food and can food c**p!!!   Found this all out by reading one of Ken here's posts on yahoo answers.  I was feeding all 3 of my kitties HIGH CARB grain filled food!CATS DONT NEED GRAINS!  OMG was I SHOCKED when I saw the cat food charts at  http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/dryfo... my Hill's science diet DRY food was a whopping 48 % carbs!!  And the adult canned was I was using is 18-25 % carbs!!  http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/  They have two charts on that last site one with new cans foods and the old chart of canned stand bys like fancy feast, which some of the flavors are really low in carbs, and cats do love it. REMEMBER Ken would tell me NO GRAVY!! TOO MANY carbs for the high sugar kitties...

EVEN MY VET was telling me to fed her canned food more then dry cuz of the carbs but she NEVER sat me down and showed me the chart of foods to choose from that had less carbs in those cans.. like Ken did.. I am so thankful for him helping me do the right way after doing it all wrong for YEARS!  I could have NEVER changed foods and get her regulated with her new blood sugar levels.  I started doing her blood tests at home again and I saw HER SUGAR went from HIGH 500's to Low 300's just by changing to low carb foods in a few days.. ITS AMAZING, you will no longer have to give kitty such high doses of insulin.. thus saving money on it as well as getting a much healthier cat eating no or low grain foods with main muscle as the main source of food.  I really love the wellness cans too,  almost all of them are really low in carbs... They are a great value in the larger cans since I have 3 cats. I get them at a mom and pop pet store here in my town, their rent is lower than the big boys like Petco or Petsmart so their food costs less.

I  changed  all their food, to lower carbs 4-10%  BUT my diabetic cat got less carbs due to her problems, I give her 5-8% carbs per servings..  After the food change I started testing her again every pre shot  started using 2 units of insulin and I was made SURE BY KEN to TEST my kitties sugar with her ear prick before her shot.  I had stopped doing that many years ago, I thought I had it all under control by watching her water in take and her water out put. I was dead wrong!

My  one kitty sure missed her crunching so I had to buy her some wellness core dry its only 12 % carbs and give her about a half a hand full a day. None for my diabetic cat though she is doing well on her low carb can food.  What is great is Ken was so willing to help me for free and out of the love of all cats.. Give him an email if you really are serious about helping your babies.. He is a nice man and GOD BLESS HIM!!  

Answer 3

My past change in food made my diabetic kitties sugar 200 points lower,  I mean if a kitty is a 300 blood sugar on carbs, you can reverse it ASAP with a simple food change! That's my passion now to help spread the word too!