FatCatToby
Member Since 2017
Hello all!
My big 'ole cat Toby was diagnosed with diabetes around 3 weeks ago. He's a 10.5 year old DSH and weighed a whopping 9kg up until diagnosis (he's a tall boy too, like a giant of the cat world!). I noticed something was wrong when he started drinking excessively, lost interest in food, and looked a lot slimmer around his shoulders. He also has urinary tract disease and was on Royal Canin Urinary s/o dry food for most of his life, so I thought it may be related to that. I took him to the vet and found out he has diabetes... yay!
He's on Lantus at 0.6u once a day. Our vet suggested only doing it once a day as it would be hard measuring 0.3u at each injection. We're giving him Royal Canin diabetes wet food satchels ~2-3 times a day, but that is proving really difficult at the moment.
It's been an enormous challenge with him so far, and I'm assuming every one has felt this way too in the beginning. Injecting him is tough. Because he is such a big boy he's strong as well. Despite all the love and affection we give him, he also is a lot more aggressive than other cats (he is known for being notoriously lovable yet unfriendly at my vets!). When injecting at 7:30am, I have to put him in his carrier and get my mother to scruff him at his neck so he can't move or attack us as instructed by our vets. This makes it hard to rotate site injections as I have limited space to work with. I've tried treating him etc. but it doesn't work with him. He does however run back to me after we're done to get his reward!
I also fear that I'm not injecting him properly. I use the smaller needles, tent the skin, inject at the base etc. - trying to follow the advice of my vets and everyone here. I just worry I'm not doing it right at all. I think I've done a few fur shots before, I could smell it on his fur when I patted him afterwards. I didn't feel anything wet though so it's confusing... I'm an animal scientist so I've vaccinated animals before, mainly livestock, but I feel so inept at doing it with my boy.
Trying to get him regulated has been painful as well. He's very, very fussy. He's a kibble junkie so only having wet food to eat must be tough for him. After the first week I noticed a lack in appetite and lethargy so I took him to the vet again. He was given an appetite stimulate (boy did that work!), and a ketone (?) test which was negative. They said his readings were a little high and to just continue with our routine hoping that him eating again would regulate him - and it did for a little while...
His appetite picked back up for a week, but the past two days he's lost his appetite again and is acting withdrawn. Called the vets this morning and they told me to give his injection despite him not eating prior, monitor him today, and bring him in tomorrow if he's refusing to eat. This is all so worrying and I feel so sorry for my boy. Our vets hope that his diabetes is purely weight related, and once he looses the pounds he can regulate himself just on diet alone. Knowing that there's hope in sight but being faced with all this is really disheartening...
Well there's my long story, ha!
It's nice to have a place like this where all of us cat parents can come together and just talk!
My big 'ole cat Toby was diagnosed with diabetes around 3 weeks ago. He's a 10.5 year old DSH and weighed a whopping 9kg up until diagnosis (he's a tall boy too, like a giant of the cat world!). I noticed something was wrong when he started drinking excessively, lost interest in food, and looked a lot slimmer around his shoulders. He also has urinary tract disease and was on Royal Canin Urinary s/o dry food for most of his life, so I thought it may be related to that. I took him to the vet and found out he has diabetes... yay!
He's on Lantus at 0.6u once a day. Our vet suggested only doing it once a day as it would be hard measuring 0.3u at each injection. We're giving him Royal Canin diabetes wet food satchels ~2-3 times a day, but that is proving really difficult at the moment.
It's been an enormous challenge with him so far, and I'm assuming every one has felt this way too in the beginning. Injecting him is tough. Because he is such a big boy he's strong as well. Despite all the love and affection we give him, he also is a lot more aggressive than other cats (he is known for being notoriously lovable yet unfriendly at my vets!). When injecting at 7:30am, I have to put him in his carrier and get my mother to scruff him at his neck so he can't move or attack us as instructed by our vets. This makes it hard to rotate site injections as I have limited space to work with. I've tried treating him etc. but it doesn't work with him. He does however run back to me after we're done to get his reward!
I also fear that I'm not injecting him properly. I use the smaller needles, tent the skin, inject at the base etc. - trying to follow the advice of my vets and everyone here. I just worry I'm not doing it right at all. I think I've done a few fur shots before, I could smell it on his fur when I patted him afterwards. I didn't feel anything wet though so it's confusing... I'm an animal scientist so I've vaccinated animals before, mainly livestock, but I feel so inept at doing it with my boy.
Trying to get him regulated has been painful as well. He's very, very fussy. He's a kibble junkie so only having wet food to eat must be tough for him. After the first week I noticed a lack in appetite and lethargy so I took him to the vet again. He was given an appetite stimulate (boy did that work!), and a ketone (?) test which was negative. They said his readings were a little high and to just continue with our routine hoping that him eating again would regulate him - and it did for a little while...
His appetite picked back up for a week, but the past two days he's lost his appetite again and is acting withdrawn. Called the vets this morning and they told me to give his injection despite him not eating prior, monitor him today, and bring him in tomorrow if he's refusing to eat. This is all so worrying and I feel so sorry for my boy. Our vets hope that his diabetes is purely weight related, and once he looses the pounds he can regulate himself just on diet alone. Knowing that there's hope in sight but being faced with all this is really disheartening...
Well there's my long story, ha!
It's nice to have a place like this where all of us cat parents can come together and just talk!
