Well shoot, meant to edit and somehow deleted the original post. Anyway, what I wanted to add was if the diet change does not work, ask the vet about lantus as it really does seem to cause remission in many animals.
As for the food, I tried EVO canned with ours and they initially ate it, but turned their noses up at it after a few weeks. They've consistently liked the canned Wellness, so if yours are picky about EVO, you could always switch to that.

This post was edited by petra on Thu, Jul 18, 13 at 21:34

I say, from experience, absolutely no to dry food, any kind of dry food, for diabetic cats. I cannot stress that enough. I am speaking from experience of having two diabetic cats. In fact, one of mine went completely off insulin and his blood glucose levels returned to normal when I took him off of dry food.

I'm sorry to say this, but if your vet is still touting dry food for diabetics, he or she is way behind the times. Read up. Google FDMB or feline diabetes message board. My cats lived long lives thanks to the information that the wonderful people that post on that board taught me.

In fact, I changed vets because mine was totally against doing home testing, because he said it would be too difficult. It wasn't. He insisted upon dry diabetic food. Fortunately the vet that I switched to was willing to partner with me, and agreed with what I was reading on the FDMB. I can't stress enough how good it is to get information from that messageboard.

You will likely get responses from people saying that their cats did great on the diabetic dry food. Purina DM, is one of them. Well, perhaps they did. But, I urge you to read more.

And remember, this is very, very manageable. Even if you do have to give shots, it is not a big deal. I promise you that.

don't know a single thing about diabetes in cats, but:

You can indeed cook for your handsome guy.

For many years, my sister-in-law cooked chicken, turkey, or fish -can't remember if she ever fed Baby beef or liver or duck or venison- every day for her Chihuahua (a dog, but still...), & she was very happy with the routine & with her dog's health.

He's a very handsome kitty.

I too know nothing about feline diabetes but I understand approaching it by reducing dietary carbs, the same thing is sometimes done with humans.

There's lots of internet information from seemingly well-intentioned but potentially clueless people about homemade preparations. Dogs and cats only eat what's in their dish. Whether you like them or not, pet food companies are careful to insure that vitamins, minerals, and everything needed for good health and complete nutrition is contained in the food. I'm skeptical that those who advocated a home-prepared approach have a clue.

If your vet doesn't hear your views and show an interest in working with you, find another one. Good luck to both you and your kitty.

I had a diabetic cat for only a short time. He was also diagnosed with two types of cancer which took him quickly. It was easy giving insulin. Such a very tiny amount in a small needled syringe, I don't think he felt or minded it. My cat was unusual in that he would pee on plastic that I laid outside the litter box as he was standing in the box. This enabled me to check his urine for sugar instead of doing blood testing. I just had to watch him carefully to see when he was heading to the litter. My cats all liked moist and not dried food so we didn't change his diet.

Look for a yahoo feline diabetic support group. They will help you in many ways. I belong to a feline/kidney disease/anemia one. I just bought the discount rx card Walgreens offers for $20 per year to use on my cats prescriptions there. Saved great to see all the positive comments on this condition!

My kitty was diabetic in 2010 - between feeding Wellness grain free canned and Friskies canned, NO dry food and injections of Lantus insulin for two months we were able to achieve remission for our sweet kitty. At the time we had five cats - all five got switched to the new food system (canned Wellness for breakfast and canned Friskies, mostly chicken for dinner)- we used to put down dry food for them to free feed - they adapted to the change quite well. Stogie is still in complete remission - I check his blood glucose every two/three months just to be sure. I've kept the same diet of Wellness and Friskies. I'm including a link to the FDMD - it's a board on feline diabetes and the people there are absolutely a godsend to a newly diagnosed sugar baby mommy. Lots of information and help. This is another useful site - http://www.catinfo.org/felinediabetes.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Feline Diabetes Message Board (FDMD)

King is a beauty! Or should I say "handsome one?" I love the way his front legs are stretched out. Very cute. Good luck with the diabetes treatment.

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement.
Last night I stopped to talk to the vet and he was not in. He is supposed to call me today to answer some of my questions.
I decided to get the dry food just to get moving in the right direction and not delay his diet change.

I fed all 3 last night and this morning the dry kibble. They are not happy with me and I could tell the were confused because we always have cans in the morning...and we have a little ritual.

Today I spent a good bit if time time researching foods and I want to propose to him using EVO. The have no grains. I would like to do partial wet and partial dry. ( the dry is very high in protein and half the carbs of Purina "prescription"- which is what he had - not Hills like I was expecting)

I really don't see how the food he gave me will significantly alter his sugars in 2 weeks.

Purina DM first 5 ingredients:
Poultry by-product meal, soy protein isolate, corn gluten meal, soy flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E),

guaranteed analysis
Crude Protein (Min) 51.00%
Crude Fat (Min) 15.00%
Crude Fiber (Max) 3.00%
Moisture (Max) 12.00%
Vitamin A (Min) 18,000 IU/kg
Vitamin E (Min) 100 IU/kg
Carbohydrate* (Max) 18.00%

EVO first 5:
Turkey, Chicken Meal, Chicken, Herring Meal, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a Natural Source of Vitamin E)

Crude Protein (Min) 50.00%
Crude Fat (Min) 22.00%
Crude Fiber (Max) 2.00%
Moisture (Max) 10.00%
Carbohydrates NFE (Max) 7.00%
Linoleic Acid (an Omega-6 Fatty Acid) (Min) 4.00%
Magnesium (Max) 0.10%
Vitamin E (Min) 300.0 IU/kg
Taurine (Min) 0.20%
Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) (Min) 500.0 mg/kg
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Min) 0.40%
DHA + EPA (Min) 0.10%
Total Microorganisms (Min) 90.0 CFU/lb

Wellness brand is very close to the same as EVO

I am very confused about exactly what I should do....King is really not himself. I wish I could snap my fingers and make it all go away!
All of my cats are litter mates, 9 years old...so i guess I am setting myself up for multiple problems.
I just had Lucky in about 8 weeks ago for urinary infection.

Suzieque...I do not want to stay on a dry food diet...I cant see anyway for that to be good long term

Goldedger thanks for the links...I am learning a lot!

I think I am going to get some fresh meat tonight at the store...I wish the vet woudl call already!

My advice again - don't do EVO dry. Don't do any dry. Fancy Feast (not the gravy kind) works great. Look up Feline Diabetes Message Board and read. Home test (it's not difficult at all); don't leave it up to the vet to test (curves) periodically. I'll say it again - NO DRY.

What suzieque said.

Vet said dry food, you didn't think it sounded right & posted here.

Heed the advice of these wise & knowledgeable women.

My Smulan also got a diagnosis of diabetes this week. I live in Sweden where things are a bit different, not as easily available.

I have studied 8 hours a day after receiving the info that she could be diabetic.....almost 3 weeks ago. I changed her to low carb (very low carb) immediately. I bought a glucometer and found very high sugar in her blood.

Don't feed dry food even for 1 meal once you find out. Not even before you find out. It can be deadly for a cat. Even the prescription dry food is not healthy. If you have more than one cat, the best thing for the non-diabetic cats is to get them off eating all day long and down to NO dry food, exactly like your diabetic cat. If necessary, feed them in separate rooms all at the same time and there will be no problem with them eating each others portions.

I started Smulan on way less food (she is a bit overweight) and got her from grazing for food all day for 12 years, to eating at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., the times when I will be starting her insulin injections this week. I give her a bit of super low commercial canned and also raw (moose meat, fish, chicken). She is on about 2/3 raw meat now and is eating well.

I also recommend the Feline Diabetes Message Board. It's got a lot of info about FD that even vets don't know. You can feed your cat whatever you want to.....he/she belongs to you, not the vet.

Thanks everyone.
Yes, dry food did not feel right to me, I only bought the dry because I did not have time to research and didn't want to delay getting him some relief. They have only had 2 cups between the 3 cats over a 24 hr period.

But last night I stopped at pet store and bought 4 cans of Wellness brand, no grain, canned food.

They all turned up their noses...walked away looking at me as if to say "really???...what else ya got??"
So i gave them each a couple treats and hid a couple more in the food...sneaky, but I got them all to eat last night and this morning.

So now I have a $32 bag (6lb!) of dry cat food sitting on my counter. I guess I will just mix that in with the stuff I put out for the strays.

I am not going back to dry.

I do need to figure out how much to give them. It is a 5.5 oz can. There are 3 cats. Should I give them 1 can in the morning and 1 in evening...(split 3 ways).
One can is 218 calories. The information I found in the forum FAQ says 15-25 calories per pound. (they are all pretty lazy) If I split 2 cans per day, 3 ways, it would be about 170 calories each per day.
Pretty accurate for Lucky and Shadow, maybe not enough for King. He is a big guy, maybe a little overweight, but not a lot.
King is 17 lbs
Lucky is 13 lbs
Shadow is 10 lbs

Do you think 2 cans a day is sufficent? I might have to look at supplementing with my own food. 2 cans a days will be over $100 a month.

The doc wants me to try to change his diet for 2 weeks before we start insulin.
He still hasn't called me back. I am calling this morning to find out what his numbers were on Wednesday.
I also am going to request a different vet in the firm...I want the one I started with. I know he also has a diabetic cat.

Thanks again for all the encouragement!

I buy the wellness by the case from Mr. Chewy dot com (12.5 ounce cans). Depending on the flavor, the price runs from $27.99 to $28.99 per case. They also sell 24 packs of the 5.5 ounces. Over $49, shipping is free and pretty fast. They also have lots of other food brands. There are lots of codes for 15% off your first order if you google, so that will save you some money. As for amounts to feed, for 6 kitties we feed two of the 12.5 ounce cans daily, so for 3 cats, one 12.5 ounce can should be fine, with the extra going to King. We do put a bit of dry food out for them to munch on, but they barely eat any of it.