Hello from Tiffany and Jadi

[Jadi & Tiffany]

Hi there,

My cat Tiffany (11 years old) was diagnosed a few weeks ago after being in the hospital for a bad kidney infection. Her ultrasound showed that her kidneys were in bad shape. Not sure if she will fully recover, but as a result has diabetes. Lantus was the first insulin...my vet kept increasing the units and then switched her to Levemir. She is on 4 units twice a day. She has had some lower readings but is still not stable. Some of her readings are in the 400s, but did have a 175 last week. She is following the 12-hour feeding schedule with the high protein low carb diet. Her vet is allowing a small amount of DM dry snack to get her through her 12-hour feeding. She has always loved food.
I feel really bad about having to test her blood. Last week....she hid in the closet from me. We have spent over 6k on two hospital stays...and vet bills. I admire everyone here who is dedicated to their pets...we adore our cat, but this is a HUGE undertaking...totally overwhelming.

Jadi

 

[JanetNJ]

Hi there,

My cat Tiffany (11 years old) was diagnosed a few weeks ago after being in the hospital for a bad kidney infection. Her ultrasound showed that her kidneys were in bad shape. Not sure if she will fully recover, but as a result has diabetes. Lantus was the first insulin...my vet kept increasing the units and then switched her to Levemir. She is on 4 units twice a day. She has had some lower readings but is still not stable. Some of her readings are in the 400s, but did have a 175 last week. She is following the 12-hour feeding schedule with the high protein low carb diet. Her vet is allowing a small amount of DM dry snack to get her through her 12-hour feeding. She has always loved food.
I feel really bad about having to test her blood. Last week....she hid in the closet from me. We have spent over 6k on two hospital stays...and vet bills. I admire everyone here who is dedicated to their pets...we adore our cat, but this is a HUGE undertaking...totally overwhelming.

Jadi

I'm so sorry for your diagnosis, but happy you found this site! If you have any specific health question please ask in the main health forum or Levemer forum.

I want to say a few things whole I have you here though. First 4 units is an extremely high dose for a cat just diagnosed a few weeks ago. It makes me wonder if the dose was raised too quickly or by whole units instead of 0.25-.5 units at a time. Be very careful with this dose and have honey and gravy food ready in case of hypoglycemia.

So glad you are testing at home. We have lots of tips on making that process easier. Make sure you ate poking the sweet spot, and not the vein. The vein is more painful. Also keep a little neosporin gel with pain relief in your testing kit to put on her ears. Most cats don't like the sound of the Lancet device, so it's usually better to freehand poke. Always give a low carb snack and lots of affection afterwards.

What food specifically are you feeding? The idea that they can only eat twice a day is "old school" approach. It has been observed that most cats on insulin do best with several small meals spread out throughout the day. Just no food 2 hours prior to shot time so the preshot test is not food influenced. Just so you know the prescription dry food is s medium carb food at around 15%. Ideally diabetic cats should eat food less than 10 %. Most people on here feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate. All are under 10%.

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Welcome!

 

[Jadi & Tiffany]

I'm so sorry for your diagnosis, but happy you found this site! If you have any specific health question please ask in the main health forum or Levemer forum.

I want to say a few things whole I have you here though. First 4 units is an extremely high dose for a cat just diagnosed a few weeks ago. It makes me wonder if the dose was raised too quickly or by whole units instead of 0.25-.5 units at a time. Be very careful with this dose and have honey and gravy food ready in case of hypoglycemia.

So glad you are testing at home. We have lots of tips on making that process easier. Make sure you ate poking the sweet spot, and not the vein. The vein is more painful. Also keep a little neosporin gel with pain relief in your testing kit to put on her ears. Most cats don't like the sound of the Lancet device, so it's usually better to freehand poke. Always give a low carb snack and lots of affection afterwards. View attachment 27096

What food specifically are you feeding? The idea that they can only eat twice a day is "old school" approach. It has been observed that most cats on insulin do best with several small meals spread out throughout the day. Just no food 2 hours prior to shot time so the preshot test is not food influenced. Just so you know the prescription dry food is s medium carb food at around 15%. Ideally diabetic cats should eat food less than 10 %. Most people on here feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate. All are under 10%.

 

[Jadi & Tiffany]

Thank you for your encouragement!
The vet who is giving my vet direction and consulting with her is supposed to be a highly recommended specialist with Cat Diabetes, but yes after reading to go slow, I do think they raised very fast and changed to Levemir within one week! I was told to feed prescription DM, but my cat hated it, so am doing Fancy Food classics because she loves them. Will try some others too...Tikki. I was told not to give insulin if my cat does not eat a full meal. I am so confused about the 12 hour feeding rule....what do you give for a low carb treat?

 

[Kris & Teasel]

Welcome to you and your lovely girl!

I do think they raised very fast and changed to Levemir within one week!

I agree. It takes much longer than a week to know if an insulin is working well or not.

so am doing Fancy Food classics because she loves them.

Many of us feed Friskies or Fancy Feast pates (no sauce/gravy types) and they work as well or better. Easier on the budget too.

I was told not to give insulin if my cat does not eat a full meal.

Not true for these insulins. Yes, they need some food but both Lantus and Levemir (especially Levemir) are gentle and fairly slow in onset. Also the 12 hour feeding rule is nonsense and doesn't work well for most kitties. Some of us feed multiple small meals a day, some kitties are free feeders. The important thing is to test AM and PM before feeding and giving insulin (no food at least 2 hours before) to see if the planned dose is too high and test at least one other time mid day or before bed to see how low the BG is going. We all feel bad poking kitty's ears but it's the essential tool in keeping your fur baby safe.

Please post in the Lantus/Levemir forum where you'll get more experienced eyes on your message.

 

[Jadi & Tiffany]

Thank you!
I will post there.

 

[JanetNJ]

Thank you for your encouragement!
The vet who is giving my vet direction and consulting with her is supposed to be a highly recommended specialist with Cat Diabetes, but yes after reading to go slow, I do think they raised very fast and changed to Levemir within one week! I was told to feed prescription DM, but my cat hated it, so am doing Fancy Food classics because she loves them. Will try some others too...Tikki. I was told not to give insulin if my cat does not eat a full meal. I am so confused about the 12 hour feeding rule....what do you give for a low carb treat?

I give treats such as chicken, ham, roast beef, or catnip.

The 12 hour rule is not necessary. It is good to make sure the cat is willing to eat, and not refusing like when they have dka or pancratitis, but not necessary to limit food to twice day. I personally feed wet twice a day... And leave extra out to graze on, as well as free feed young again zero carb and Evo Cat and Kitten.