New and Unsure

[Caroline351]

I have a 10 year old Himalayan kitty named Salem. She normally gets groomed twice a year, a bath in December and a lion cut in May. We had a baby in December so the schedule was thrown off. Salem was a mess so we had her shaved in April. This turned out to be a blessing because on Easter after I put the baby to bed, I picked up Salem for much needed snuggles and found her to be bones. Basically, having her shaved saved her life. She was in the hospital for days and was found to be diabetic. We changed her diet and began insulin injections.

For probably the last 7 years Salem has eaten Purina One Urinary dry food, with a moist packet of food on Sundays. The vet recommended ProPlan DM. We continue the dry with weekly wet. It's time to buy more dry and I found this board and now I'm wondering if we should switch to completely wet. Will feeding her occasional wet help or should we be giving her more?

We just increased her insulin to 3, twice a day. We're almost to the sweet spot and I'd hate to mess that up by switching up her food. But, at the same time, I'd love it if we could manage this thing without the shots (Lantus is crazy expensive).

We don't home test because I didn't know that was a thing! We live literally 5 minutes from the vet so I know we can be there quick in an emergency, but should we be testing? I'm new to this and am realizing there's a whole lot more to this than I thought. Thanks for the help!

PS. That's naked Salem. She always looks pissed, but she's not. Also, the vet said her hair May never grow back because she wad so sick.

 

[apple]

Welcome.

Yes to home testing

Others will come along to welcome you, give you info to set up your signature, spread sheet and help you get started in the main forum for asking questions.

It's a great place to get information and support.

Welcome.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Welcome to the FDMB!! This is the best place you never wanted to be!!

Will feeding her occasional wet help or should we be giving her more?

Getting her onto a low carb canned diet is the best thing you can do...it doesn't need to be expensive either....Most of us feed Fancy Feast Classics, Friskies pates or 9-Lives ground. Here's a list of pretty much all the common foods and their breakdown....you want under 10% carbs

BUT....you don't want to reduce the carbs until you're home testing because when you reduce the carbs, the need for insulin can drastically go down too! It's like a human eating potato chips all the time and then switching to carrots....without testing, their blood glucose can go too low very quickly due to the reduction in carbs.

(Lantus is crazy expensive).

It sure is! That's why most of us are buying from Canada now!! This "Insulin from Canadian Pharmacies" post will give you the details about where most of us are buying from now

should we be testing?

Absolutely yes!! The only way to know what's going on is to home test......tests done at the vets office are "under stress" and can be up to 200 points higher than at home.

If you live in the US, you can go to WalMart and get the Relion Confirm or Micro meter....they take the tiniest sample size and the strips are affordable ($35.88/100) They are both popular meters here

 

[JanetNJ]

Welcome! That's great you are considering home testing... have you started home testing yet? It's the best way to keep your cat safe and find the ideal dose. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC.

 

[Caroline351]

Thanks everyone! I talked to my vet about my plans and he was pretty indifferent about my plans. Where do you order from in Canada? I'm pretty skeptical about ordering and some direction would be awesome! Thank you!

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Where do you order from in Canada?

All the information is in this "Insulin from Canadian Pharmacies" post

I've bought from them 4 times now and once I found them, I know hundreds of others have too....nobody has even had any problems that I've heard of

 

[Pepper & Kim]

Welcome! That's great you are considering home testing... have you started home testing yet? It's the best way to keep your cat safe and find the ideal dose. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC.

I will be home testing soon..just watched your video & feeling much less anxious but I can't imagine Pepper will be as mellow as your CC is...what a nice kitty!

 

[JanetNJ]

I will be home testing soon..just watched your video & feeling much less anxious but I can't imagine Pepper will be as mellow as your CC is...what a nice kitty!

The first few weeks she wasn't as compliant, but she quickly learned that I gave her a treat (deli turkey ham or roast beef).... It was the only time she got a treat so it didn't take long before she was ok with it. I used to have to do the prick quick and if she wanted to leave is scoop the drop onto my nail and test from there.