Speaker 1: You were listening to petlifradio dot com and.
Speaker 2: Good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you're living
on this glorious Sunday. This is doctor Jeff Forber and
you are here with me for the next thirty minutes
on Ask the Vets with Doctor Jeff. Pet Life Radio
is only live call in radio show. That means it's live.
I'm here sitting in my home studio. Last week as
you would call if you were listening, I was on
the slopes in Park City, Utah and having a great time.
The snow was good, wasn't great, but the runs they
were open were fantastic. And I'm back to reality here
in Los Angeles at nine am and hope you're going
to enjoy this Sunday. If you like football, you should
have a good day ahead of you. And anyway, we're
here talking about pets. That's what I do. So if
you have any questions about your pets, call in at
eight seven seven three eight five eight eight A two.
You can log in join us in on the conversation.
Just go to petlifradio dot com. You can click on
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and you can just join in on the conversation.
Speaker 3: It's that easy.
Speaker 2: And lastly, you can just send us an email to Drjef.
That's doctor Jeff at pet Life Radio, and Mark, our
wonderful producer in studio now will go ahead and forward
it to me live on air and we can get
you taken care of. So lots of ways to get
a hold of us, if you've been following us, We've
been doing a lot of work. I'm trying to make
some of these many disease conditions that our pets seem
to suffer from, many.
Speaker 3: Of which we do too.
Speaker 2: And try to make some sense out of them. Help
you sift through all the specifics, help you with decisions
what to do, how to treat, and just give you
equip you with a little bit more knowledge so you
can have that more intelligent conversation with your veterinarian and
to possibly offer some alternative treatments or alternative treatment plans.
So it's not always and doesn't always have to be
the way your veterinarian wants to do it.
Speaker 3: I would trust their opinion.
Speaker 2: But the more you know is the expression goes knowledge
is king. I want to make sure I can equip
you with a little bit more knowledge. So we have
been going through various endocrine systems over the last several weeks,
and we talked about diseases like Cushing's disease and Addison's disease,
and thyroid disorders, the hyper thyroid in the cat, the
hypothyroid and the dog, and then we got into the
diety that we're starting, the diabetes. So last week we
talked about diabetes melodists in the dog, which.
Speaker 3: Is type one.
Speaker 2: And the type one diabetes, if you were called, is
the same diabetes that kids get juvenile onset diabetes, even
though dogs it doesn't always onset as a juvenile. They
can get it when they're six, seven, eight years old
or older. But it's the type of diabetes that.
Speaker 3: Is insulin dependent.
Speaker 2: So these are the dogs that are going to have
to get insulin shots every day, usually twice a day,
depending on the insulin you elect to try and depending
on the dogs degree of diabetes. There are some other
modifications that can be done as well, but it's going
to be an insulin dependent problem.
Speaker 3: Now I want to move on to cats.
Speaker 2: And it's very interesting because cats, on the other hand,
they get the type of diabetes that older adults get
and usually and here's the key. I'm not pointing any
fingers at anybody, but it's overweight people. And it's the
type of diabetes that obese adults often get in this country,
more prevalent than it should be because of the obesity.
And that diabetes is not always an insulin dependent diabetes.
In other words, it can be treated with diet restrictions
and modifications, It could be treated with some medications. So
our goal with our cats is, first of all, we
have to go way back to when our cats were kittens.
And a big mistake that we make in this country
and probably in many other parts of the world, is
our tendency to do a few things. Number One, we're
all under the oppression that, oh, no cats, they'll eat
just as much as they need and then they're gonna stop.
So we all free feed our cats, which is not
necessarily the case. And if you have a couple of
cats like I do, they're pretty big and they like
to eat, and you cannot free feed, like literally free feed.
Have that automated feeder, you know that the food is
dropping out all the time whenever they want it.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, No.
Speaker 2: The second problem is not just how much our cats
are eating, it's what we're feeding them. And for many reasons,
convenience one cost being another, we go ahead and we
buy that dry food and that's all they need. That's fantastic,
and we go ahead and just let them eat until
they are stuffed and they are getting heavy, and then
down the road we are going to have.
Speaker 3: A type two diabetic.
Speaker 2: So a couple of basics when treating or preventing, because,
as in many cases, if we can prevent a disease,
it is so much better than trying to treat it.
So we have to go back and a lot of
research has been done in this area and there are
few things about our cats that we have to appreciate
and understand. Number One, cats are obligate carnivores. Say one
more time. Cats are obligate carnivores. They need to eat meat.
It could be meat from a fish, it's got to
be animal meat, animal protein. Dogs, on the other hand,
are omnivores. Even if you're vegan, and even if you're vegetarian,
suck it up.
Speaker 3: If you're gonna want to have.
Speaker 2: A cat, they need to eat meat. And not only
do they do. They need to eat the meat, they
need mice. The amount of carbs their systems can't handle it.
And when we feed our cats these dry foods, which
are fine as far as the protein content. Cats need
higher protein than dogs, but we overload them with the
carbs as well, and this is what messes up. They're
pancreas and this is what can predispose them over time.
We're not talking on one meal where this is talking
over time two type two diabetes. So I often say
you can feed your dog cat food, probably more protein
than need for a little puppy, young hell popy will
be fine until their kidneys started getting affected or they
get get older and the kidneys can't handle all the protein.
But you can't have a cat live on dog food.
It's not enough, not enough protein and too many carbs.
So so much has gone in to better understanding the
problem with our cats and type two diabetes that they
are now very special diets. A lot of work has
been done in this arena. Doctor Elizabeth Hodgkins, who was
doing her nutrition at UC Davis when I was there,
has put a lot of effort into really understand You
can go online and look up her articles on feline diets,
what and how we should be feeding our cats, but
for many of us, we are doing it imply, so
I avoid problems down lit like this in the future,
it would really be a good idea to read up
on some of these feline dietary issues that affect our cats.
And I mean just to mention another condition that is
often also linked to diet in cats, and that's the FLUTD,
the feeline lower urinary tracked disease. And again there's a
lot that we've learned over the years, and it used
to be, oh, that's the one because the ash content.
So I'm going to look at my can of food
and I'm going to see what the ash content is,
And the reality is if not really that way anymore.
Speaker 3: It's not the ash per se.
Speaker 2: Now it's involved in a sense, but it's not the
ash content. So don't kick yourselves in a thinking if
I feed my cat food that's lower in ash, then
I'm going to solve our problems with feline lurinar attract disease.
So very similarly, we have to be very sensitive to
what and how we're feeding our cats.
Speaker 3: And they like cantedfood.
Speaker 2: So what I do, for example, with my fairly large
crew of felines sharing the home with my home with
me is I will feed them an appropriate canned meaty
mushy food, which, by the way, they love. Those are
their two meals during the day. And then because they
do like to as I say, nash during the day
and they like to graze a little bit, then I
will give them some a controlled amount of dry food
and once that's gone, that's gone until the next meal
because I'm becoming very very sensitive. As I said, two
of my cats are on the rather large side. Well
I have three actually that's pretty large, but one my
main coon or reaching forest.
Speaker 3: Cat cross, he's just huge. He's a big boy.
Speaker 2: But interestingly, as I mentioned when we were talking about hyperthyroidism,
my one cat at sixteen that was diagnosed as hyperthyroid
had their radioactive iodine treatment and he's doing really well.
He has not put all of his weight back on.
He was twenty two pounds now he's like eighteen. I'm
gonna try to keep him around here. I think that's
just a for him.
Speaker 3: It's a good weight. So what are you gonna notice
in your cat?
Speaker 2: So you have a cat that's gonna be overweight, I
can't promise it, but knowing them as I do, knowing
this disease probably gonna be overweight, you're gonna notice your
cat like a few diseases we talked about in dogs,
like cushings and diabetes, they're going to be drinking a
lot of water, and I mean a lot of water.
When you go to clean his or her litter box.
You're also gonna notice god appetites might also be increased
again because of what they're eating, and the pancreas being
tricked in a sense.
Speaker 3: They think that they're starving for sugar, so sugar is air.
Speaker 2: And if you test such a cat, their blood tests
too much glucose in the blood, too much glucose in urine.
But the still eating is as if he's starving because
of the diabetes. So it's time for that quick break,
and I hope to be a quick break. So stay tuned,
stay where we are once again. If you have any
questions about this, give me a call at eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight eight two once again
eight seven seven three eight five eight eight A two,
or join us in here in pet Life Radio and
we'll answer your questions. Don't go overy right back.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
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Speaker 3: Ask the Bets with Doctor Jeff. I am your host,
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or just kind of log into pet Life Radio Ask
the Bets with Doctor Jeff and join in on the conversation.
We're talking about diabetes melodis type two, which is the
type of diabetes we see in cats, typically overweight cats,
mirroring the adult onset diabetes in obese adults that we
see with us and very similar. And what's interesting is
that so before the break we were just talking. But
you're gonna see your cat usual. It's gonna be a
heavy cat. No, not always, but most often a cat
that starts by drinking a lot of water and therefore
a lot of urination. You're gonna see huge clumps in
the litter box. If you have indoor cats, they are
drinking and peeing and drinking and peeing, and drinking and peing,
and that's kind of what their life becomes. And of
course eating a lot continually because now though there's plenty
of sugar and glucose from that which they eat, the
lack of insulin is not allowing the glucose to get
where it belongs inside the cell. So in a sense,
they think they need the nutrition, they need the glucose.
The body is telling them we need more, we need more,
but unfortunately there's plenty there. It's just not getting to
where it needs to go. So what makes the type
two diabetic a little differently? It's not always insulin dependent.
Just through dietary modification, through some medications that will help
reduce the production of the body's own glucose, we might
be able to get these cats under control without insulin,
though sometimes, especially during crisis, we need to start insulin. Now,
what makes a cat more challenging, Well, if you have
a dog, and hopefully many of you have both cats
and dogs, as do I.
Speaker 3: With my dogs, especially my Labradors, there's really no challenge
in getting them to eat.
Speaker 2: In fact, with my black lab Grover, I often say,
you know, most dogs will kind of take a sniff
or two of something and then if it's okay, then
they'll eat it. My friendsies are amazing at that, it's
hysterical almost, But my lab is the opposite. He eats
first and then says to himself, Ooh, I wish I
should have known what that was, because he will eat
everything that's not bolted down or doesn't eat him first.
So what's so interesting is that he with dogs because
of that's fairly the typical all right presentation. What we
recommend typically doing is giving that first insulin shot in
the morning and then waiting about ten or fifteen minutes
and then feeding, and then likewise afternoon. But with a cat,
and cats, as we know, did not get the reputation
of being finicky for no reason. You can get the
cat that your cat's doing great, everything is perfect. You
put its food down one morning, it looks if you're like,
I'm not eating that. So the problem that if we
have a cat, a diabetic cat, that we're relying on
the food to be digested and absorbed and that glucose
absorbed into the cells, but they don't eat, but you've
already given the insulin, we run the risk of creating
what's called hypoglycemia or a hypoglycemic shock, because all the
blood sugar that was already circulating from the disease gets
sucked into the cells, but we haven't replenished that with
a meal, and we could be in trouble. And that's
why I'm sure if any of you have known diabetics,
they know when that kind of weird feeling, that weakness
comes on and they're told to carry some honey with them,
or a chocolate bar, or get a glass of orange juice,
something that has fairly high sugar content. If any of
you have given blood before and you're sitting there in
that chair and they just took a unity of blood,
good for you, and so what happens is they give
you some orange juice. So it's very important therefore to
have some sugar in their body. So with cats, what
I recommend is we're going to feed the cat first,
make sure they eat their meal, and then given their
insulin injection. So if you have or usually early in
the course of the disease, we do need to start
some insulin. And of course you'll talk about the different
types with your veterinarian. There are some that are like
geared for the cat that cats seem to do very well.
There have an insulince that have come and gone off
the market. There are insulins now that have.
Speaker 3: Gotten so expensive also, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: I mean, it used to be you could buy insulin
for ten to fifteen bucks a bottle, and now some
of the insulins we have to use are a few
hundred dollars. It really has gotten out of hand. But
depending on you, your cat's lifestyle, and the success you're
having in managing the condition without injection is going to
determine whether or not and how much incident be needed. Now,
as with any diabetic cat or dog or person, early
in the game, we start very slow. We have to
do a number of what we call glucose checks or
glucose curves kind of to see where we're at. And
what's also interesting is that, again what makes cats such
more of a challenge is that cats tend to stress
when they are put in that carrier.
Speaker 3: Take it to the veterinarian.
Speaker 2: Hopefully many of your veterinarians have created or have sort
of joined on this fear free concept to make your
hospitals that you take your pets to very pet friendly,
cat friendly, dog friendly, very simple things that could be
done to really put your pets at ease. And one,
for example, is you should have when you have a
cat that's going into your veterinarian you should you think
about some we're getting off track here, but just little things.
We'll talk about this one day. Actually, fact, what I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna have a guest doc on
with me who's gonna we're gonna talk all about this
fear free of concept. But the truth is that they
get stressed out and that affects It's all works together.
As we mentioned earlier, if you were paying attention that
oftentimes we'll see dogs, for example, that have cushions disease,
and concurrently diabetes and it makes it so much more
difficult to treat because stress plays a huge impact on
our insulin delivery and our absorption. So when we have
these cats that come in and all stressed out and
we're trying to measure them to see what is their
blood sugar, and their blood sugar is off the charts
high again, you're gonna scratch your head and.
Speaker 3: Take wait a second, but we're on insulin, We're doing
everything right.
Speaker 2: It's because the stress so then what happens is you
in error, we go ahead and we increase the dose
of insulin for fear that we don't have enough, and
then we send these poor animals into insulin shock. In
other words, we create that hypoglycemia again. So it really
is a dance, and it takes time. We have to
work very, very very diligently but cautiously as we're trying
to treat our pets and cats with type two diabetes
are very difficult.
Speaker 3: But the beauty is that many of these cats.
Speaker 2: Can either be treated with as I said, just medication,
just dietary modification, and many of them, believe it or not,
can reverse. Once we get them to lose their weight,
we get their pancreas working again, because I remember, unlike
the type one diabetic, but the cells, the islet cells,
the islet of langerhand cells are actually no longer functioning.
Speaker 3: With the cat, it's different.
Speaker 2: There's often inflammation, they are sort of taken a rest
because of what we've doing to the body. We have
that carb overload. But once we fix all that, we
can get this cat back to normal.
Speaker 3: So it's very important to keep this in mind.
Speaker 2: But as they mentioned earlier, in the show, the best
way to deal with your type two diabetic cat is
to not let him or get that way in the
first place. So speak to your veterinarian about proper diet exercise.
I say, there are a number of things because is mentioning.
A lot of the urine attack problems are also linked
to feline diets. And you know, the great part is
we are learning so much more about the needs nutritional
needs of our pets.
Speaker 3: And be very cautious.
Speaker 2: You know, you go to a pet store and you're
hit with all of these kind of crazy diets, whether
it's the natural and the organic and the raw.
Speaker 3: There's no one solution for every cat, every problem. So
what I recommend is take it all in. Listen to
the seventeen year.
Speaker 2: Old high school student who's going on commission at the
pet store. But before you make any changes, speak to
your veterinarian. Go online to some of the websites that
are more approved, and that's how we're going to get
the proper information. Don't make switches. And my feeling in
general is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If
things are just smooth and your pet's doing great, and
the stools are normal and theirs the litter box and
they're eating well.
Speaker 3: Don't even think about changing the diet.
Speaker 2: Stay exactly where you are and take them in for
their routine physicals. The bloods come back seven after six
or seven or eight years old, whenever your veterinarian likes
to and if all is well, leave it alone anyway,
Hope we equipped you with enough good stuff. If you
have any questions about any of the things we talked about,
any of the endocrine diseases to date, we still have
a few more to go. Diabetes, melodists, thyroid disorders, cushions
disease addisons which are adrenal disorders, please contact me at
doctor Jeff Dr Jeff at pet Life Radio. You can
send come on to the show anytime eight seven, seven, three,
eight five, eight eight eight two and we will be
looking forward to having you next week.
Speaker 3: Have a wonderful Christmas.
Speaker 2: Hope those of you are having a great Kanka as
we speak, and we will see you next week.
Speaker 1: Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
dot com.