Nutritional management of diabetes mellitus in cats

DIET, GLUCOREGULATION AND INSULIN IN CATS⁴

Although carbohydrates are an important energy component in foods, cats have no absolute requirement for carbohydrates:

• Cats are obligate carnivores, their natural diet is low in carbohydrates and their metabolism reflects a low reliance on carbohydrates as a source of glucose.
• Cats lack the enzyme glucokinase; they are unable to handle a high glucose load efficiently.
• Under natural conditions, cats obtain most of their glucose from gluconeogenic amino acids providing a slow, steady release of glucose from the liver.
• Ingestion of gluconeogenic amino acids stimulates the release of insulin from pancreatic ß-cells in the cat.
• Low carbohydrates and relatively high protein/high fat diets have been shown to reduce postprandial hyperglycaemia in cats and reduce insulin concentrations.

CONTROL OF OBESITY

Managing obesity and maintaining optimum body weight is a vital part of managing feline diabetes.

• Controlling obesity leads to reduced insulin resistance and exogenous insulin requirements.
• Initial management of obesity should aim to reduce bodyweight by 1-2% each week.
• This can be achieved using either Feline DM or Feline OM.

CLINICAL ADVANTAGES WITH THE USE OF FELINE DM

Feline DM is an ultra-low carbohydrate diet providing proven high efficacy in the nutritional support of cats with diabetes mellitus with the ability to improve glucoregulation, and induce remission of diabetes in a proportion of cats.

Since the feline metabolism is designed to derive most of their glucose needs from protein rather than carbohydrate, and because restriction of dietary carbohydrates can control blood glucose and insulin concentrations, this has been used to provide very significant control of feline diabetes. Studies have clearly shown that the very low carbohydrate, and relatively high protein and fat content of Feline DM can lead to:

• Improved clinical control of diabetes mellitus.
• Significantly reduced exogenous insulin requirements.
• Significantly increased rates of diabetic remission (four-fold).
• Significantly better control of diabetes compared to the 'traditional' approach of a moderate carbohydrate diet combined with a high fibre content.

The use of Feline DM in cats with stable long-term diabetes has been shown to reduce insulin requirements by more than 50% on average, with up to 30% of cats going into diabetic remission¹.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Diabetes mellitus in cats, as in other species, is associated with increased damage from oxidative stress⁵. Feline DM is specifically formulated to help manage this with enhanced vitamin E level.