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Even though this first picture is two years old, it is one of my favorites. It just shows you how my cats (I have 6) are part of our family. My husband and I have a four year old and two year old triplets. You see their child seats here. The loveable orange tabby is Freckles Juice. Freckles is the best lap cat and snuggler in the house. He sleeps with us every night and follows us where ever we are.

Given our busy lifestyle I fell vicitim to the easy round the clock "food available" way of feeding my cats. Yes, they are all overweight. Yes, I know this is my fault. But I continued. Juice weighed in at 14 pounds and was the biggest. I know there are much fatter cats out there, so I thought we were okay.

I was wrong.

I noticed that in a few months he had lost some weight(turned out that he had lost 4 pounds). He also was thirsty. All the time...in the shower, drinking from the dog bowl, drinking from his water fountain...I made him an appointment at our vet. Sure enough, Diabetes. His blood sugar was over 500, it should have been around 100.

My vet told me some very positive news - if I was willing to make a lifestyle change. The first thing he suggested was no more dry food. It is heavy in carbs which is a big no no for diabetics. Also, no more round the clock food. I would have to check his blood sugar once a day and give him insulin twice a day. However, we had a 90% chance of controlling his disease and a very good chance of getting him off insulin.

So as soon as I got home, I took up the dry food. (I guess if there was always a bag of chips on the counter, I would eat them all day long...I understand...the cats need portion control. Just like we do!)

My kitties get fed wet food, low carb. Cats are carniverous by nature so it makes sense to try and feed them more meat. My vet gave me a list that had the carb count of grocery store brands. I can shop anywhere and find the appropriate food.
I'm very excited to report that in less than two weeks we were able to get his disease under control and he is now off insulin.
I will continue to check his glucose levels each week and keep a log.

If you notice that your kitty isn't acting normal - please have your vet check him out. If you can catch things early on, they have much better chances of recovery.

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