You can successfully manage your diabetic cat with insulin therapy, a suitable diet and a healthy lifestyle.
Can diabetes be cured?
Diabetic cats usually require lifelong treatment with an insulin preparation such as Caninsulin.
Some diabetic cats no longer need insulin after a few weeks or months of treatment. This is known as clinical remission. Remission does not necessarily mean cure and care must still be taken with your cat’s diet and lifestyle.
Aim of Treatment of the Diabetic Cat
The aim of treatment is to restore your cat’s quality of life to normal by stopping the signs of diabetes mellitus (drinking lots of water, urinating frequently, increased hunger and weight loss) without causing hypoglycaemia.
Untreated diabetes mellitus may result in a serious condition known as diabetic ketoacidosis.
Insulin therapy in diabetic cats will also help minimise the long-term complications of diabetes mellitus such as hind limb weakness.
How are Diabetic Cats Treated?
A regular routine is vital for successful management of diabetes.
* Regular insulininjections
* Correct feeding
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Carbohydrates, Obesity and Diabetes in Cats
Carbohydrates, Obesity and Diabetes in Cats
Most people are aware that diabetes is more common in overweight humans than it is in people closer to an optimal weight. The same is true for cats. Fat (adipose) cells produce a substance that increases the resistance of the body's cells to insulin. This increase in insulin resistance is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes. As mentioned above, this is the most common form in the cat.
Cats are designed to utilize proteins and fats for their energy - not carbohydrates. They are lacking the necessary enzymes to efficiently utilize carbohydrates to meet their energy needs. When the carbohydrate level of an obligate carnivore's diet is higher than it should be - remember that a bird or a mouse is only 3-5 percent carbs and that most dry foods contain between 35-50 percent carbs - the excess carbohydrates are stored as fat. The increased fat cells, in turn, promote Type 2 diabetes via an increase in insulin resistance.
Not all carbohydrates are created equal, but it is safe to say that obligate carnivores - especially diabetic ones - do not benefit from carbs at a level above what would be in their natural diet regardless of the type. But that said, carbohydrates are characterized by their Glycemic Index (GI) and their Glycemic Load (GL) which are measurements that reflect how high and how rapidly a specific carb causes a rise in blood glucose when ingested and the overall impact that particular carb has on the diabetic state. The higher the GI/GL of a carbohydrate, the worse the result will be for a diabetic patient.
The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load values of different food sources are very important to consider for people trying to manage their own diabetes. However, I do not like to concentrate on these values for cats because then it sounds like there may be "good" carbs versus "bad" carbs for cats. The bottom line is that humans are designed to utilize carbs whereas cats are not. What we can say is that some carbs are worse (higher GI/GL) than other carbs, but ideally, we should strive to keep the carb level of the feline diet at a level which would be found in nature.
Please keep in mind that corn, wheat and rice are very common ingredients in many pet foods and that these species-inappropriate grains have relatively high Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load values. Also, when you see the word "flour" know that the flour of any grain has a higher GI/GL load than the grain when it its whole form.
Please see my list of Commercial Canned Food Choices. This list was originally compiled in order to benefit the IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) cats that I work with. The culprit in this disease process is often specific hyperallergenic grains such as corn, wheat, and soy. In addition to these grains, yeast is also hyperallergenic. So for this reason, you will note that the list is split into two sections - With Grains and Without Grains. The "With Grains" list only includes products that do not contain corn, wheat, or soy.
For the diabetic cat, however, the caregiver should ideally focus on keeping all grains out of the diet. While an IBD cat may be able to tolerate rice, this is definitely not an ingredient that you want to feed to a diabetic cat - or any cat, for that matter. Rice has a very high GI/GL value. On the other hand, the varieties that do not contain grains are naturally very low in carbohydrates.
Subtracting all of the percentages on the label (using 'nutrient analysis' and not 'guaranteed analysis', preferably) from 100 percent gives you an approximate percentage (of the total weight) of the carbohydrates contained in any product. In other words, subtracting the protein, fat, water, fiber, and ash/mineral content from 100 percent will leave you with the percentage of carbohydrates contained in the diet on an 'as fed' basis which still takes the water content into consideration. Unfortunately, the math does not stop there because it is much more useful to determine the carbohydrate level on a 'dry matter basis' which results in a value that is not influenced by the water content of the diet. Using dry matter basis values allow you to compare all foods - both dry and canned - on an equal basis.
Cats are designed to utilize proteins and fats for their energy - not carbohydrates. They are lacking the necessary enzymes to efficiently utilize carbohydrates to meet their energy needs. When the carbohydrate level of an obligate carnivore's diet is higher than it should be - remember that a bird or a mouse is only 3-5 percent carbs and that most dry foods contain between 35-50 percent carbs - the excess carbohydrates are stored as fat. The increased fat cells, in turn, promote Type 2 diabetes via an increase in insulin resistance.
Not all carbohydrates are created equal, but it is safe to say that obligate carnivores - especially diabetic ones - do not benefit from carbs at a level above what would be in their natural diet regardless of the type. But that said, carbohydrates are characterized by their Glycemic Index (GI) and their Glycemic Load (GL) which are measurements that reflect how high and how rapidly a specific carb causes a rise in blood glucose when ingested and the overall impact that particular carb has on the diabetic state. The higher the GI/GL of a carbohydrate, the worse the result will be for a diabetic patient.The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load values of different food sources are very important to consider for people trying to manage their own diabetes. However, I do not like to concentrate on these values for cats because then it sounds like there may be "good" carbs versus "bad" carbs for cats. The bottom line is that humans are designed to utilize carbs whereas cats are not. What we can say is that some carbs are worse (higher GI/GL) than other carbs, but ideally, we should strive to keep the carb level of the feline diet at a level which would be found in nature.
Please keep in mind that corn, wheat and rice are very common ingredients in many pet foods and that these species-inappropriate grains have relatively high Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load values. Also, when you see the word "flour" know that the flour of any grain has a higher GI/GL load than the grain when it its whole form.
Please see my list of Commercial Canned Food Choices. This list was originally compiled in order to benefit the IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) cats that I work with. The culprit in this disease process is often specific hyperallergenic grains such as corn, wheat, and soy. In addition to these grains, yeast is also hyperallergenic. So for this reason, you will note that the list is split into two sections - With Grains and Without Grains. The "With Grains" list only includes products that do not contain corn, wheat, or soy.
For the diabetic cat, however, the caregiver should ideally focus on keeping all grains out of the diet. While an IBD cat may be able to tolerate rice, this is definitely not an ingredient that you want to feed to a diabetic cat - or any cat, for that matter. Rice has a very high GI/GL value. On the other hand, the varieties that do not contain grains are naturally very low in carbohydrates.
Subtracting all of the percentages on the label (using 'nutrient analysis' and not 'guaranteed analysis', preferably) from 100 percent gives you an approximate percentage (of the total weight) of the carbohydrates contained in any product. In other words, subtracting the protein, fat, water, fiber, and ash/mineral content from 100 percent will leave you with the percentage of carbohydrates contained in the diet on an 'as fed' basis which still takes the water content into consideration. Unfortunately, the math does not stop there because it is much more useful to determine the carbohydrate level on a 'dry matter basis' which results in a value that is not influenced by the water content of the diet. Using dry matter basis values allow you to compare all foods - both dry and canned - on an equal basis.
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