I have two cats who were diagnosed recently a month apart (posted some info on the introduction page) so I will start here with some questions on them.
Lets start with Frank. He has been on Prozinc insulin for a a little over a month. I noticed he was drinking more water. His glucose was 565. He is 9 years, 16 pounds and would be considered overweight if you went by visuals on a body condition chart but the vet said he is a big cat and should be around 15 pounds anway. He has been up to 20 pounds before though. His vet did not instruct me to test at home and has seemed hesitant on relying on me to do an at-home blood curve. I expressed interest in testing anyway and at first Frank has been very difficult for this (bites), but with the help of my boyfriend we have gotten a few successful readings but the vet wont go by them. I have a walgreens brand human meter. I did take him in for a curve 3 weeks into his insulin and his readings were in the 400s on 1 unit 2x a day so she bumped him up to 3units 2x a day. I tested his blood sugar on Monday and it was 376 on my meter. She wanted another blood curve in around two weeks which I am going to attempt to do (with my boyfriends help) on Tuesday, instead of bringing him in, but I dont know how thats going to go over with the vet, I am waiting for her to call me to discuss it. Its also going to start robbing me blind financially over time relying on the vet.
Elvis was diagnosed 1 week ago. He is 5 years old and should be about 15 pounds, also a big cat but always very solid and muscular and I noticed muscle wasting so he went down to 13 pounds. His blood sugar was 533 at diagnosis. I took him to a different vet that is much closer because he gets stressed more easily. She started him on 2units Prozinc 2x a day and encouraged me to home test and try to get the blood curves (1st one 1-2 weeks in) so I am also going to try that on Tuesday. I tested him on Monday just to see how he would act and it read 366.
I had a cat who passed away at 16 last year that was diabetic but I left him with my dad when I moved so he is the one that dealt with that. That cat ended up going into remission and passed away to cancer. He used a mobile vet who also encouraged home testing and that cat responded well and could be tested daily. I would like to get a reading every day but so far I am not sure that will be possible with their behavior unless they start to get used to it. I am debating on taking both cats to the second vet as they seem more willing to work with me. I had always liked our first vet hospital but am starting to feel we are not on the same page.
Ok so now we will get into the food situation. I work in the pet industry and am very aware of proper nutrition as is part of my job. I am very aware at this point that wet food and scheduled feedings is the best case scenario and that is what I have wanted for him for the last 3 years. But I have failed with my own animals with this and now here we are. Yep, I let them graze on "junk" dry cat food and now I am kicking myself. The second vet told me that isnt why this happened to Elvis so young but I feel like she felt bad that this is happening. The reason for this first and foremost is because Frank has went into lipidosis twice. First about 4 years ago when I moved him from my dads to my boyfriends. He was in late-stage too. I was able to force-feed him out of it over the course of 2-3 weeks with monitoring from the vet. In May of last year he went into it again after I tried to change him to at least a limited ingredient food he apparently didnt really like (I also rescued a kitten from being eaten by a fox outside and the stress of the kitten was the last straw as the vet said). They also said his liver is on the small side. The vet told me not to change his eating habits yet for fear of lipidosis again. I diagree, I know they must be on low carb food, preferably wet, and thats probably why 3u insulin isnt helping enough but Im not the one with the vet degree. But I do agree we have to be EXTREMELY careful and strategic of messing with Franks food because if this. I have been giving him some wet food in the morning and evening at insulin time and he is still allowed to graze a bit of dry during the day. I am also switching them to Wellness Core as a start because atleast its much lower in carbs than the Purina One. I asked the company thats makes Evo a question and they told me they were discontinuing Evo, by the way. I have tried multiple times to get Elvis to eat wet food over the years. I have read all the tips and tricks and I will keep trying but he wont even taste it. He will not even eat baby food, tuna or lunchmeat or cooked chicken or anything. Wont even try it. But if you have buttered toast or a cookie in your hand he will try to steal it from you. It appears he doesn't like meat but I will keep trying. Because he is also underweight and not himself right now I dont know if I should wait a bit to try the "let him be hungry" method again. I am open to any advice here though.
Sorry that was long winded, but I wanted to be thorough and honest here.
Lets start with Frank. He has been on Prozinc insulin for a a little over a month. I noticed he was drinking more water. His glucose was 565. He is 9 years, 16 pounds and would be considered overweight if you went by visuals on a body condition chart but the vet said he is a big cat and should be around 15 pounds anway. He has been up to 20 pounds before though. His vet did not instruct me to test at home and has seemed hesitant on relying on me to do an at-home blood curve. I expressed interest in testing anyway and at first Frank has been very difficult for this (bites), but with the help of my boyfriend we have gotten a few successful readings but the vet wont go by them. I have a walgreens brand human meter. I did take him in for a curve 3 weeks into his insulin and his readings were in the 400s on 1 unit 2x a day so she bumped him up to 3units 2x a day. I tested his blood sugar on Monday and it was 376 on my meter. She wanted another blood curve in around two weeks which I am going to attempt to do (with my boyfriends help) on Tuesday, instead of bringing him in, but I dont know how thats going to go over with the vet, I am waiting for her to call me to discuss it. Its also going to start robbing me blind financially over time relying on the vet.
Elvis was diagnosed 1 week ago. He is 5 years old and should be about 15 pounds, also a big cat but always very solid and muscular and I noticed muscle wasting so he went down to 13 pounds. His blood sugar was 533 at diagnosis. I took him to a different vet that is much closer because he gets stressed more easily. She started him on 2units Prozinc 2x a day and encouraged me to home test and try to get the blood curves (1st one 1-2 weeks in) so I am also going to try that on Tuesday. I tested him on Monday just to see how he would act and it read 366.
I had a cat who passed away at 16 last year that was diabetic but I left him with my dad when I moved so he is the one that dealt with that. That cat ended up going into remission and passed away to cancer. He used a mobile vet who also encouraged home testing and that cat responded well and could be tested daily. I would like to get a reading every day but so far I am not sure that will be possible with their behavior unless they start to get used to it. I am debating on taking both cats to the second vet as they seem more willing to work with me. I had always liked our first vet hospital but am starting to feel we are not on the same page.
Ok so now we will get into the food situation. I work in the pet industry and am very aware of proper nutrition as is part of my job. I am very aware at this point that wet food and scheduled feedings is the best case scenario and that is what I have wanted for him for the last 3 years. But I have failed with my own animals with this and now here we are. Yep, I let them graze on "junk" dry cat food and now I am kicking myself. The second vet told me that isnt why this happened to Elvis so young but I feel like she felt bad that this is happening. The reason for this first and foremost is because Frank has went into lipidosis twice. First about 4 years ago when I moved him from my dads to my boyfriends. He was in late-stage too. I was able to force-feed him out of it over the course of 2-3 weeks with monitoring from the vet. In May of last year he went into it again after I tried to change him to at least a limited ingredient food he apparently didnt really like (I also rescued a kitten from being eaten by a fox outside and the stress of the kitten was the last straw as the vet said). They also said his liver is on the small side. The vet told me not to change his eating habits yet for fear of lipidosis again. I diagree, I know they must be on low carb food, preferably wet, and thats probably why 3u insulin isnt helping enough but Im not the one with the vet degree. But I do agree we have to be EXTREMELY careful and strategic of messing with Franks food because if this. I have been giving him some wet food in the morning and evening at insulin time and he is still allowed to graze a bit of dry during the day. I am also switching them to Wellness Core as a start because atleast its much lower in carbs than the Purina One. I asked the company thats makes Evo a question and they told me they were discontinuing Evo, by the way. I have tried multiple times to get Elvis to eat wet food over the years. I have read all the tips and tricks and I will keep trying but he wont even taste it. He will not even eat baby food, tuna or lunchmeat or cooked chicken or anything. Wont even try it. But if you have buttered toast or a cookie in your hand he will try to steal it from you. It appears he doesn't like meat but I will keep trying. Because he is also underweight and not himself right now I dont know if I should wait a bit to try the "let him be hungry" method again. I am open to any advice here though.
Sorry that was long winded, but I wanted to be thorough and honest here.
