Quote:
Originally Posted by Grover
Anybody have experience with a diabetic cat?
|
Yes. And after a lot of research, I changed vets. But not cats.
Feline diabetes is not like human diabetes, which is usually permanent.
Vets love the idea of being the source of frequent checkups and insulin supplies.
Often, they're right. But often, it's just a scam - and you need to figure this out on your own.
Most cat food is extremely high in carbs. But cats cannot digest carbs properly. They are carnivores. The best diet for a cat is raw meat. It's not practical, though.
So the first thing you should do with a diabetes diagnosis is look at what you're feeding your cat. Unfortunately, pet foods are not labelled like our foods. But if you look up web sites for dealing with pet diabetes, often they have a list of foods with an analysis of carb and protein content. You need to be feeding your cat something with high protein. For wet food, Fancy Feast is really good, despite the reputation. For dry food, which is usually higher in carbs, Innova Evo stands out. Science Diet and most of the other crap vets are paid to recommend are truly horrible for cats in particular.
The second thing is go to the drug store and get a diabetes testing kit. Test strips, little testing tacks and a monitor. Cats don't really feel it, so if you have patience and a calm hand, you can test their blood by pricking their outer ears. Good blood flow and not much risk of hurting them.
I asked my vet about this, and was told that if I dared test her blood on my own, they wouldn't let us come back. I'm glad I said goodbye at that point.
You need to monitor this every day, because high blood sugar will cause damage in time. When we had our cat diagnosed, her blood sugar was in the 600s. I changed her food immediately, threw away the Science Diet, tested every day, and her blood sugar was around 100 within two weeks - and stayed there. She lived another six years, until she was almost 20, and what she died of probably had nothing to do with blood sugar.
I can't guarantee you'll have the same experience. But I think we had a better outcome than a lifetime of shots.