Wet Cat Food And Exercise: How They Can Help an Old Diabetic Cat

Author: K. Marie Altoby K Marie Alto Updated 3 min read

Wet Cat Food And Exercise: How They Can Help an Old Diabetic Cat

Not all wet food is created equal

The prescription diabetic wet food was a bust, Moosie hated it. Thankfully there were a ton of resources available to help me compare the contents of OTC canned food.

My vet essentially said any wet food will be an improvement over dry food because of the carbohydrate content.

I began learning about brands I never knew existed and quickly narrowed down my preferred list to high-quality protein options with very low carbs. I reviewed the options with my vet and found a local specialty pet food store that carried the brands.

Winner winner chicken dinner

After getting over the shock of the price per can and the fact that we just spent hundreds of dollars on insulin supplies and vet visits, I knew I was going to have to convince my husband the cheaper brands of wet food weren’t going to cut it.

I was certain if I got the best food we could afford, I could get Moosie off the insulin. My husband wasn’t fully convinced. We were able to come to an agreement… we would try the expensive food for a few months and if his glucose didn’t improve we would switch to a less expensive brand of wet food.

So I took a deep breath, drove to the store, and purchased several options. As they say, winner winner chicken dinner, I found a high-quality chicken-based wet food that my boy loved!

Over the course of a week, we slowly transitioned Moosie from his weight management dry food to a full diet of almost 65% protein wet food. He was in his glory and I was too! This wasn’t going to be so bad. We also incorporated mandatory playtime every day.

I bought a baby scale and we began doing weigh-ins once a week and regularly checked with the vet to adjust his food intake along with his insulin dosage. This was a stressful time.

As Moo lost weight his glucose level also began to drop so it was extremely important to test his levels before injecting to avoid a hypoglycemic event that could cause seizures and even death. It was a balancing act, but my vet was there to support me and I couldn’t be more thankful.

Watch out diabetes, Moo is gonna beat you!

Over many many weeks, Moo was able to safely cut his weight from 20 lbs to a very healthy 14 lbs. I didn’t realize he had slowed down so much until I saw him in his new slender body running around like a nut! He was like a kitten again!

The best part of the diet change… he was able to stop the insulin. Here I thought this was going to be needed the rest of his life, but a simple diet change changed everything.

My Moo beat diabetes! Hmm… now what to do with the girls who were still on dry food?

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One more thing, if you are feeling like getting a little special something for your fur baby that is unique, made right here in the USA, 100% pup and cat safe, USDA certified organic and brought to you by a US company, check out Toe Beans online pet supplies store!

K Marie Alto
K Marie Alto

K. Marie is an animal lover, wife, kitty mom, dog auntie, writer, and co-founder of Toe Beans, a proud American family-owned online boutique pet supplies store focused on the improvement of the life of furry family members via pet parent education, better products, and advocacy. She has over 20 years of experience as a pet momma. She loves sharing her personal journey and experience as a pet parent via her blog and Facebook page where she currently has more than 50K followers (@furrytoebeans) and counting :-). Read more

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