Diabetic cat with dry skin
Discussion
Jasandjules said:
I don't know if a raw diet would help? Could be worth looking into though?
It probably would but the concern with that is we would need to closely monitor his blood sugar and adjust his insulin accordingly which I am not confident enough to do without vet supervision. I totally appreciate the benefits of raw food and will probably feed it to the next cat I have but with him I'll stick to the prescription stuff and white fish but thanks for your suggestion. We had a dog in the same situation. In the end we had to test her every day and inject with insulin.
I suppose with hindsight the advice I would give is don't keep them alive for years just because you can. Keep one eye on their quality of life. When they stop being able to be a cat/dog, then it's time to think about what's best for them.
I suppose with hindsight the advice I would give is don't keep them alive for years just because you can. Keep one eye on their quality of life. When they stop being able to be a cat/dog, then it's time to think about what's best for them.
Rude Girl said:
We had a dog in the same situation. In the end we had to test her every day and inject with insulin.
I suppose with hindsight the advice I would give is don't keep them alive for years just because you can. Keep one eye on their quality of life. When they stop being able to be a cat/dog, then it's time to think about what's best for them.
He gets jabs twice a day but still leads a normal cat life apart from that, he still kicks sI suppose with hindsight the advice I would give is don't keep them alive for years just because you can. Keep one eye on their quality of life. When they stop being able to be a cat/dog, then it's time to think about what's best for them.
t out of his toys (and me) and sleeps for most of the day like he always has. I'm very mindful that if it gets to a stage where he's losing quality of life then I will make the decision as hard as it will be. 
bexVN said:
How long has he been diabetic and how long has he been on the px diet. How old is he?
He's been diagnosed for about 7 months and the px was started straight away. We started with Rpyal Canin wet food pouches and biscuits alternated but he just licked the gravy off the wet food and not eating the meat so now he has Royal Canin diabetic biscuits for breakfast and a rotation of Coley fillets, cooked chicken breast and a Purina pearle wet food pouch with biscuits. He adopted us years ago but I guess he's about 10.
He's had a couple of glucose curves done over the last 2 weeks and his figure is a little bit high so we've just upped his twice daily does of caninsulin to 3 units morning and night, other than that he's fine, his weight is steady at 5.5kgs and he's his normal self.
Thank you
I appreciate you weren't looking for advice on diet so hope you can get his skin sorted.
Ours is now on 13-14 months since diagnosis and without treatment. He's lost weight, not surprisingly, but the weightloss seems to have been stable for some time. Only other issue is that his fur has got a little thin in parts, so as a black cat he looks like he's got highlights on some parts of his body.
Ours is now on 13-14 months since diagnosis and without treatment. He's lost weight, not surprisingly, but the weightloss seems to have been stable for some time. Only other issue is that his fur has got a little thin in parts, so as a black cat he looks like he's got highlights on some parts of his body.
Hi, sorry for delay in posting back.
And for reference the questions re diet/ level of control/ age or help ascertain how may be relevant to helping the skin.
I would be reluctant to add supplement at this stage. He is still early days of control. Feeding raw does make some sense but it may be better to look at changing to pvd DM initially (slowly) and if good control with this then see if can change to raw (again very slowly) I know the article is not complimentary but it is very very low carb (esp the wet which is pate like) and I've known cats do well for years with this one (I've seen them do well with royal canin aswell though!) Changing diet may cause. Lowering of insulin dependency
And for reference the questions re diet/ level of control/ age or help ascertain how may be relevant to helping the skin.
I would be reluctant to add supplement at this stage. He is still early days of control. Feeding raw does make some sense but it may be better to look at changing to pvd DM initially (slowly) and if good control with this then see if can change to raw (again very slowly) I know the article is not complimentary but it is very very low carb (esp the wet which is pate like) and I've known cats do well for years with this one (I've seen them do well with royal canin aswell though!) Changing diet may cause. Lowering of insulin dependency
All this may help improve coat condition. It may be worth grooming him every day aswell if you don't already do so. However I'd strongly advise discussing options with your vet. They will know more about your cat and advise more appropriately re diet change/ supplements etc
(phone playing up had to do 2 separate posts!)
(phone playing up had to do 2 separate posts!)
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