There is a dry food you can give them, which I have switched my cats to (much to their chagrin, but they will eat it) along with canned cat food. It is Core, by Wellness. It does have potato as a binder, but gluten seems to be the biggest culprit in causing reactions in cats. Not cheap, but my older cat who had been pulling his hair out now has regrown his coat, and my younger cat quit having strange sores growing around her face.

I also feed my dog Core.

This is not an advertisement, just a suggestion to feed cats something healthful BEFORE they become diabetic.

Carol, thanks for this. I wonder why they include potatoes in any amount? It doesn't seem like part of a natural cat diet. (Hodgkins' experience is that cats who've been diabetic and are in remission can quickly become diabetic again if they consume much carbohydrate at all.)

But thankfully, before falling asleep, Muppet did dispose of the Cheney alien hiding under the covers. Good work, Muppet.

Interesting info. I had a diabetic cat many years ago, a stray I had just taken in, but he recovered very quickly, and the vet said he probably was eating something bad for him to cause the diabetes.

It’s nice to hear a story with a happy ending once in a while. Thanks for posting this and the link to the website. Mr. Bebe the cat says “Meow.”

Why not just give Muppet actual meat instead of the processed meat cat food product? I started feeding meat to my dog last summer when I found out I'd been giving her one of the the pet food brands with non-food filler that had killed many pets. Cheaper cuts of meat cost less per pound than the premium brand food her vet had recommended (which had also been implicated in pet deaths from adulterated fillers). Lately I've been adding filler to her food myself -- rice and well cooked vegetables, not coal processing by-products like the pet food manufacturers used. Muppet would surely love him some boiled chicken wings!

Why not just give Muppet actual meat instead of the processed meat cat food product? I started feeding meat to my dog last summer when I found out I'd been giving her one of the the pet food brands with non-food filler that had killed many pets. Cheaper cuts of meat cost less per pound than the premium brand food her vet had recommended (which had also been implicated in pet deaths from adulterated fillers). Lately I've been adding filler to her food myself -- rice and well cooked vegetables, not coal processing by-products like the pet food manufacturers used. Muppet would surely love him some boiled chicken wings!

Glad to see you're safe from the blankets mouses. That is, afterall, a cat's job. And glad to hear you have found a way to help your cat. I had a cat with diabetes years ago and she didn't fare so well, I'm afraid. Now we have a diabetic dog.

Muppet looks so much like my own cat, he could be his twin.

What exactly do you call "wet meat" ? Pâté ?

I'm not an expert at all, although I did know that cats can get diabetes. But I poked around on the net a little and the Cornell vet school states that low-protein diets work well for some diabetic cats, while a diet high in complex carbs works better in other cats. Also, diabetes seems to be associated with obesity in cats and at least one study showed no difference between cats fed dry and wet food. Also one site had warnings about switching to all-protein in a cat taking insulin - as in your case, if the cat responds quickly, it can get dangerous hypoglycemia, so you need to be ready for that (the site was recommending all-protein).

I did have a cat that lived more than 20 years, the last 5 with kidney failure, which is common in old cats - and for which they recommend a low-protein diet, for good reason.

Just saying that things are maybe not so simple.

We have 4 cats and one of them has been fighting diabetes of about 4 years now. He has a raft of other problems too, most notably he's blind. It's a result of being FIV infected, we think. He was on insulin for a few weeks, but since then we've controlled it just through diet, with mixed results. Still see him drinking far too much water once in a while, which tells us to cut back on the dry food, which seems to be the problem.

Our guy is about 18, although it's starting to look like this is his last year. But he had a good run, he was 1 when we pulled him in off the mean streets of Somerville MA, he was all torn up from a fight, probably where he picked up the FIV.

Speaking of FIV, that scares some off. Our other male also is positive. The other 2 females are not. They've all lived together happily for a long time. Don't let that scare you off if you're looking to adopt. Yeah, you'll have to deal with complications later in life, but it's worth it.

How did you diagnose Muppet's diabetes? I have an older cat, but I wouldn't know how to tell if she were diabetic.

I never knew that dogs could be diabetic until a year ago when mine was diagnosed. Since then it's been special diet food from the vet and shots twice a day. About two months ago my mother's dog was diagnosed as diabetic. Is this something new we're seeing?

Jon,

I think people should "check it out," too. I certainly would if I had a diabetic cat. But the article you link to in the comments says that most cat diabetes is caused by obesity (not too many carbs, but too much food); the goal of the diet is to reduce body fat (so maybe your experience-very quick cure-isn't the norm), and that the standard diabetic diet got 40% of cats off insulin (less than the high-protein diet, but still significant). So I think that it's more complicated than carbs are bad for cats.

Your cat is beautiful- HOw nice you saved him, picking him up off the the streets.

Jonathan ->
http://comedieus.blogspot.com/2008/04/no.html

Jon,

So, the Cheney alien is really a vampire. I had wondered about that. Dear god, what if that's true, and he really has died all the times he's been taken to the hospital, and then resurrected? Are any hospital employees missing?

And not only drinking, but eating. Their appetite goes off the chart, at least in my experience.

After a round of too much drinking and peeing, my girl Mycah was diagnosed as diabetic a little over two years ago. She was initially, for about two months, on a tiny daily dose of insulin, but diet alone has controlled the condition since then.

She's almost 13 now, and probably doesn't have too many more years (she's had cancer, and it may recur) but it's not going to be the diabetes that gets her.

I have some friends who feed their cats a raw food diet . . . i.e. raw meat. seems to work well for them and more importantly since they have six cats, the house does not have that annoying cat stink.

My senior cat Rajah (aka Razzle) was diagnosed with diabetes about four years back; after a year of insulin shots I decided to try the high-protein ("Catkins") diet and it worked wonders-- her glucose levels returned to normal and she went from obese to svelte. As a side benefit, my junior cat Murphy's Law (aka Murphle-- I got a black kitten on Friday the 13th) has grown up on the high-protein food and is my first ever cat to avoid obesity entirely. Both are healthy and happy, and I swear by the high-protein diet-- I use Hills m/d prescription food.