Poopy joins the ranks

Hi everyone. I've been reading this forum like a fiend since this morning's news that my cat, Poopy, has diabetes. Thought I'd post an intro.

Poopy and I have been together almost 12 years, ever since he was a stray little fluff ball finding his way to his new home (with me, lucky thing that I am!). He had been losing weight fast so off to the vet we went. In hind sight I should have recognized the signs as I grew up with two diabetic brothers: increased appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, increased "dandruff", then the rapid weight loss. And here I thought he was pigging out readying for the fast approaching winter. Doi! When I say his weight dropped fast, we're talking an almost 20 pound cat (he's huge, by the way, big and tall huge) shedding weight within two weeks to weigh in today at 11 pounds.

The vet and I were extremely concerned about handling this due to Poopy's often violent reaction to other folks poking and prodding him, which leads to the vet's need to sedate him for exams. He much prefers momma's luvins, you know, not strangers poking him. Not only the initial visit cost, but the cost of the suggested repeat visits isn't comfortable, either, as money has been super tight with the economy the way it has been. I was thrilled to read of home testing but am also still in a state of shock. Not sure I'm ready for home testing quite yet, but financially may need to get ready quick!

Our first home injection went without a hitch! I was proud of myself for not landing on the floor, and for Poopy being such a trooper. The look on his face was along the lines of, "Did you do something? Couldn't feel a thing, mom". He seems to be reacting well to the insulin, but is still begging for more food. I'm supposed to feed him twice a day, followed in 30 minutes by a 1 unit shot of ProZinc. What a dessert! The vet wants a follow up visit in 1-2 weeks, and 4-5 more visits every 1-2 weeks until we know what amount of insulin works for Poopy. At $120 a repeat visit (half due to the sedation), I am not looking forward to it.

I know I'm jumping around, and it shows how my thoughts are progressing. *Sigh* The initial urine tests showed an over 400 glucose but no ketones. The more involved lab results won't be back until Monday or Tuesday.

I'll stop here as I'm overloading myself again. Need to remain calm for the Poopster.

Thank you all for your sharing as I am learning much.

 

i'm not up on prozinc, but i can address some of the other things you've mentioned.

first, a weight loss like that is a serious concern. a cat losing weight quickly can develop a clogged liver from the fat. so i would give as much food as is needed to stop that weight loss now. if he hasn't developed a fatty liver, you have been very lucky - but seriously, try to stop the weight loss before you have a second major problem.

are you feeding low carb canned cat food yet? that makes a huge difference in being able to regulate their blood sugar. with diabetics in your family, you probably know that food is directly related to the volume of insulin. so switching to low carb canned food right away will help you manage the blood sugar. we also usually give most of the food with & in the first few hours after the shot so the insulin is working when the carbs are there. we feed punkin 1 can of fancy feast classics food with his shot and 1/2 can 3 hours later. he weighs 13.5 lbs. then we repeat again with the evening. 12 hours is too long for a diabetic cat to go without eating, imo. I'd break it up and feed him at least 4 times a day.

i'm sure someone will give you the link to the low carb foods, but in general, friskies pate and fancy feast classics are all low carb - you want only the pate style (which means they come out in a chunk, the old-fashioned kinds.) you also want to prepare a kit in case of low numbers (less than 50). get maybe 3 cans of high carb cat food - that's any kind with gravy or gravy-lovers in the name. the gravy has lots of carbs in it. also you want a bottle of karo syrup - you don't absolutely HAVE to have the high carb food but kitties generally do well with it. the karo syrup/honey/pancake syrup - that is essential. liquid sugar or carbs will pull up their blood sugar within a few minutes.

you also need the supplies to home-test - which is safer than shooting without testing and will save you a lot of money over the vet doing the glucose tests. it's easy, although no one feels like it the first couple of days!

if $ is an issue, the best low-cost meter is the Relion Confirm from walmart. you don't want an alpha-track or an ipet - the strips are more expensive and harder to find. many people here use the relion confirm. we can send you a kit with the supplies to get started and we will hold your hand to teach you how to hometest. it's just like taking care of a child - you have to be convinced that this is essential for your furry little child for you to learn how to do it.

we've held lots of people's hands through this - just like others helped us when we arrived at this website, scared and worried about our kitters. my cat is so much healthier now than he was when we came in february! we'll help you get sweet little Poopy (hahaha on the name) feeling back to himself again.

welcome to the best place you never wanted to be. you're in good company!

 

Thank you for the feedback.

I was feeling horrid trying to ignore Poopy's demands for more canned food. I have always kept Special Kitty brand canned food on hand for the occasional treat to supplement the always out dry food, and started giving him more when I first noticed the weight loss happening. Poopy is happily snarfing as I type.

I'll have to pay attention to the dry food carb count (I have another kitty in the house and she actually prefers the dry). They have been eating the indoor kitty version of Purina. Neither the canned or dry mention carbs but the dry's first ingredient is corn meal. Ugh. Why have I never read the ingredients before? At least the canned has tons of meat products/by-products mentioned first.

I have honey, karo, and maple syrup on hand...and have been keeping an eye peeled for lethargy.

I'll be reading more in the days to come, I am sure, and shopping as I can. And, yes, I see in-home blood testing fast approaching. *Sigh*

Glad you like the name. He was such a precocious kitty my honey wanted to name him "lil sh*t". We settled on Poopy.

 

I really appreciate the welcome. I'm less stressed about it all now. Don't feel as overwhelmed. Poopy was a gain a trooper for his morning shot so I think we'll be okay on that front.

Talked to my brother this morning and he's going to give me one of his glucose meters he no longer uses (He is diabetic). Saves me a bit there at least. He suggested checking with local diabetic agencies for extra, no longer used glucose meters and thought I'd share that here. It might be an option for those of us on very limited incomes. He did say some agencies won't consider pet diabetes for the meters but others will. Good to know!

 

there's a welcome kit that's made up for any new member that wants one - i think they ask $5 for mailing - it includes the meter, some strips to get you started, a toy, a rice sock (which we use to warm the ear up because it bleeds better) and i'm not sure what else. if you want one, just say so.

when you're buying test strips, the cheapest way to get them is online. i try to buy local, but the strips are about 1/2 of what you'd pay in a store. my pharmacy friend says we're buying strips that are given out by the manufacturer as samples. my boxes always say "not for retail sale" on them. but they work just fine. cheapest sources include hocks.com, americandiabeteswholesale.com and ebay. i've never bought from ebay but i understand you make sure you check the expiration date and buy from a seller with a good record.

the thing about home testing is that the idea of it is far worse than the doing of it. cats getting into fights get their ears all torn up - far worse than a poke from a lancet. people told me their cats would come to be tested and some even purred through it. i was pulling punkin out by one arm from underneath the furniture to test him the first week, hoping i didn't dislocate his arm, thinking to myself that he would never be one of "those" cats. but he is. he not only comes from the basement when i call him, he comes before then and gets into the testing spot to be tested. all because he knows we have to do that step before he eats and he LOVES his food! :lol:

it takes about 2 weeks of poking before the cat's ears grow more capillaries and you get blood all the time. those first couple of weeks are hard, imo, i remember thinking on day 4 that for only 4 days, i wasn't doing too badly. you'll get there and we'll all help you. i don't know why vets don't encourage home testing - any parent would never give insulin to their child without knowing what their blood sugar was. insulin is a powerful hormone and you want to make sure your cat is safe through all of this.

if you can completely get rid of the dry food you will see an improvement in his numbers. think of it like this - if a diabetic person is eating candy they have to increase their insulin to compensate for the carbs. take away the candy and you've reduced a lot of the stress on the system. dry food is almost always incredibly high in carbs. some cats go off of insulin entirely by going to low-carb canned food. where we want to be careful in this, however, is you have a balance right now of the carbs in the dry food and the insulin. if we take away the dry food he may get too much insulin. the ideal thing is for people to switch to 100% low carb canned cat food before starting insulin. some cats then don't need any insulin. canned food is SO much better for them - i never knew. but thinking about what cats eat naturally - a mouse, a bird, or a snake - those have basically zero carbs. dry food often has more than 25% carbs. corn - no cat eats corn in nature. This site is written by a vet who often posts here on FDMB. it would be worth your time to read it.

sorry i've written a book! i've gotta head out for the day. you'll get there! keep asking questions and let us know how we can help you!

 

Wow. It's like you can read my mind! LOL

I was going to jump on here to ask how on earth one gets a blood sample from a cat. I was imagining Poopy fighting me tooth and nail for me to lance a paw (He HATES having his paws and belly touched - unless quickly and accidentally) and becoming an under-the-bed kitty. I also have been wondering, "What in the heck is a rice sock and what is it used for?" You answered both questions!

When I return home after work I'll have to check out the vet's site and get a newbie package ordered.

The glucose meter my brother gave me...came with 50 testing strips and about a dozen lancettes with lancer. I checked the cost of strips at the local market....they ranged anywhere from 2 strips for a dollar to two dollars a strip. Will do some online shopping next. Now I know I will also need lancettes so will check on those as well.

I am also going to be spending breaks at work checking out local vets for someone more involved with diabetic cats. I too am a bit leery of blindly giving insulin. When I was leaving the vets office, I overheard one of the techs saying something about them being bought out by a company (I would have paid more attention if I wasn't in a state of shock and worry). Makes more sense why the number one vet there (son of the original founder of the service) was no longer listed.

Now that Poopy is getting canned food regularly, my other cat has developed an interest in this "more than treat" substance and is also asking for it. Perhaps switching to all canned food WILL be much easier than I feared. I know I'll find it much easier to gage and control Poopy's food intake.

Again, thank you for your sharing. I feel like I can ask anything! Woohoo! Just not quite sure what to ask at this point.