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Nutrition for the diabetic cat
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Diabetes mellitus can have far-reaching effects on the body’s metabolism; Dr. Vandendriessche offers a common-sense approach to the patient and reviews how careful dietary choice, along with lifestyle changes, can help achieve optimal control of the problem.
Veerle Vandendriessche
DVM, Dip. ECVCN
A 2005 graduate of the Ghent University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Vandendriessche worked in private mixed practices for 8 years before completing a residency in companion animal and equine nutrition at Ghent University in 2016. She became a European board-certified nutritionist in 2017 and currently works as a nutritionist with a feed company.
Key Points
- Feline type 2 diabetes is a very common illness, but successful treatment requires a holistic approach which includes both insulin therapy and attention to diet.
- The diet for a diabetic cat should be designed to allow gradual weight loss whilst ensuring satiety and good glycemic control.
Introduction
Diabetes mellitus is probably the most common feline endocrinopathy, with type 2 diabetes being much more frequently encountered than type 1, being diagnosed in up to 95% of diabetic cats. Each new feline patient that presents with diabetes is a challenge for both the veterinarian and the nutritionist, because it requires us to take into account many different factors with the ultimate goal of achieving euglycemia and improving both the patient’s quality of life and life expectancy.
Not only does the correct medical treatment – with a long-acting insulin – need to be initiated, the nutrition and the overall management of the feline patient must be adjusted in order to both reduce (and, ideally, eventually eliminate the need for) insulin dosage and enable the cat to reach its ideal body weight. All these changes have to be implemented in agreement with the owner’s abilities and the cat’s preferences; otherwise compliance with the proposed alterations is unlikely to be successful. As both a practicing veterinarian and a board-certified nutritionist, I hope to supply you with hints, gained from my experiences throughout the years dealing with such patients, in a way that will help you to tackle such cases with more confidence in the future.
Obesity and diet
Many cats with type 2 diabetes have a mild to severe form of obesity (Figure 1). It is therefore necessary to change their diet to a food which is specifically designed to make them lose weight; however, it is essential that weight loss is achieved in a controlled manner, so that the cat remains healthy, yet the diet chosen must limit the glycemic load. Such a diet is typically low in energy, high in fiber and protein, and low in soluble carbohydrate; it should also be enriched with anti-oxidants and L-carnitine. A diet that is low in energy will allow the owner to feed a larger volume of food, which will help to maintain satiety between meals; this is aided by the increased amount of insoluble fiber in the diet. The soluble fiber fraction in the food will slow the uptake of nutrients, thus helping to control the glycemic load. The high-protein content is necessary to avoid muscle breakdown due to the caloric restriction in the food; this has a synergistic effect with increased activity levels (see below) which together helps improve lean body mass development. Anti-oxidants will counteract the negative effects of obesity-related chronic inflammation, and L-carnitine will facilitate the use of fat – rather than glucose – as an energy source by the cells. [...]
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