Ville
Member Since 2018
Hi everyone, I only found about this forum earlier today. I should've thought of Googling in English instead of just in Finnish before! This looks to be a quite long first post, so apologies in advance!
[Because I realise both health and nutrition products, medical practices and regulations and so forth are probably very different in here compared to USA, I have included some relevant links at the end of this post.]
Background: I'm Ville, from Finland, and my 10-year-old cat Sulo was diagnosed with diabetes in the beginning of June. We took him to the vet because the poor fellow's walking became somewhat wobbly, and he was stepping on his hocks with his hind legs. He was diagnosed with diabetes and, at least at that time, there were no additional inflammations or anything else. He's still walking that way (a condition which I learned is apparently called diabetic neuropathy). Initially he was prescribed with 1 unit of Lantus which was subsequently raised to 2 units by the vet after I supplied them with the first one-day blood glucose curve done at home. I'm now doing the second curve (1,5 weeks after increasing the dosage, because I had to wait to get more lancets) today and given the fact that we've followed the instructions on insulin injections a layman like myself. As instructed elsewhere on these forums, there's a link to Sulo's home tests in my signature. Because the meter shows mmol/l, I simply multiplied the result by 18 after reading a guide on this site.
Sulo has no problem eating. In fact, if it was up to him, he'd be eating all the time (mostly wet food). He also drinks quite a lot of water and we're actually cleaning the litter box several times a day. He's never been overweight but, instead, very slim despite being quite tall and long, hitting 4 kg (8 lb I think?) for the first time in his life when weighted at the vet in June. (When the cat was younger I used to call him a ferret because of the slimness). He is 10 years old now and sterilised though, so I guess diabetes hitting him makes sense. The cat started being constantly hungry last autumn and was also very restless and hyper-energetic. We took him to the vet (in another city than where we live now), but after quite extensive examination and blood tests etc. they couldn't find anything and said it was most likely due to stress from moving to a new place. No sign of diabetes or high blood glucose levels back then.
Cause of worry: Despite higher dosage, and following the recommended diet (more about it below), Sulo's results are higher than they were before. In fact, they're about as high as they were for the first time before starting the insulin injections.
Sulo is eating Royal Canin Diabetic food for cats, the only diet food for diabetic cats available at the vet. One that we were also recommended. I tried to look for it in the pdf chart found elsewhere on this website (it's great btw. I still have so many resources to check), but couldn't find it there so I presume it's not sold in the US. He has around 3 - 3,5 100g bags of wet food per day (in portions of 1/2 or 1/4, except in the morning when he usually gets one full bag or 1/2 before and 1/2 during the injection) and additionally has dry food of the same brand available all the time (which he nibbles every now and then, but not continuously - he's always been a wet food eater first and foremost).
I usually do the injections as my partner has tougher time trying to inject above the hind legs (our vet said the insulin wouldn't necessarily be absorbed that well if injected to the neck area). Our daily rhythm is as follows: my partner gets up around 6 am and feeds the cat, then around 8 am when I get up I give some more food and do the morning injection. Then he gets his evening injection at around 8 pm. I say 'around' because there might be 10-15 minute difference depending on work and other stuff partially beyond our control. Sulo has been to the vet twice for control and had the fructosamine tested twice (urine test were done in the initial vet visit that led to the diagnosis). The cat is okay with both the injection and the lancet when testing at home.
1. Am I panicing too early? Why there seems to be no response to Lantus? The pen only allowes increases by one unit. I will hear back from the vet early next week I suppose, after sending them today's completed curve, but I'm frankly quite nervous about not seeing any progress after more than a month of insulin injections.
2. Furthermore, should I be concerned about the state of the muscles in Sulo's hind legs? He clearly isn't using them as much as before (mostly lying around - and he used to be a very active and curious cat) and their condition hasn't really improved.
3. Is the food suitable? I have no idea what is a 'low' carbohydrate content (compared to 'high').
Thanks!
Links:
The blood glucose meter we're using (WellionVet Gluco Calea), same they use at the vet's:
http://www.wellion.at/en/animals-products/wellionvet_gluco_calea_bloodglucosemeter/
Picture of the Lantus pen:
https://5.imimg.com/data5/SN/XL/MY-13396819/lantus-solostar-500x500.jpg
The wet food (Royal Canin Diabetic Feline, the site is in Finnish, but 'Raaka-aineet', the nutritional information, seems to be in English):
https://www.royalcanin.fi/tuotteet/tuotteet/ruoat-elaeinklinikoilla/vet-diet-feline/diabetic
[Because I realise both health and nutrition products, medical practices and regulations and so forth are probably very different in here compared to USA, I have included some relevant links at the end of this post.]
Background: I'm Ville, from Finland, and my 10-year-old cat Sulo was diagnosed with diabetes in the beginning of June. We took him to the vet because the poor fellow's walking became somewhat wobbly, and he was stepping on his hocks with his hind legs. He was diagnosed with diabetes and, at least at that time, there were no additional inflammations or anything else. He's still walking that way (a condition which I learned is apparently called diabetic neuropathy). Initially he was prescribed with 1 unit of Lantus which was subsequently raised to 2 units by the vet after I supplied them with the first one-day blood glucose curve done at home. I'm now doing the second curve (1,5 weeks after increasing the dosage, because I had to wait to get more lancets) today and given the fact that we've followed the instructions on insulin injections a layman like myself. As instructed elsewhere on these forums, there's a link to Sulo's home tests in my signature. Because the meter shows mmol/l, I simply multiplied the result by 18 after reading a guide on this site.
Sulo has no problem eating. In fact, if it was up to him, he'd be eating all the time (mostly wet food). He also drinks quite a lot of water and we're actually cleaning the litter box several times a day. He's never been overweight but, instead, very slim despite being quite tall and long, hitting 4 kg (8 lb I think?) for the first time in his life when weighted at the vet in June. (When the cat was younger I used to call him a ferret because of the slimness). He is 10 years old now and sterilised though, so I guess diabetes hitting him makes sense. The cat started being constantly hungry last autumn and was also very restless and hyper-energetic. We took him to the vet (in another city than where we live now), but after quite extensive examination and blood tests etc. they couldn't find anything and said it was most likely due to stress from moving to a new place. No sign of diabetes or high blood glucose levels back then.
Cause of worry: Despite higher dosage, and following the recommended diet (more about it below), Sulo's results are higher than they were before. In fact, they're about as high as they were for the first time before starting the insulin injections.
Sulo is eating Royal Canin Diabetic food for cats, the only diet food for diabetic cats available at the vet. One that we were also recommended. I tried to look for it in the pdf chart found elsewhere on this website (it's great btw. I still have so many resources to check), but couldn't find it there so I presume it's not sold in the US. He has around 3 - 3,5 100g bags of wet food per day (in portions of 1/2 or 1/4, except in the morning when he usually gets one full bag or 1/2 before and 1/2 during the injection) and additionally has dry food of the same brand available all the time (which he nibbles every now and then, but not continuously - he's always been a wet food eater first and foremost).
I usually do the injections as my partner has tougher time trying to inject above the hind legs (our vet said the insulin wouldn't necessarily be absorbed that well if injected to the neck area). Our daily rhythm is as follows: my partner gets up around 6 am and feeds the cat, then around 8 am when I get up I give some more food and do the morning injection. Then he gets his evening injection at around 8 pm. I say 'around' because there might be 10-15 minute difference depending on work and other stuff partially beyond our control. Sulo has been to the vet twice for control and had the fructosamine tested twice (urine test were done in the initial vet visit that led to the diagnosis). The cat is okay with both the injection and the lancet when testing at home.
1. Am I panicing too early? Why there seems to be no response to Lantus? The pen only allowes increases by one unit. I will hear back from the vet early next week I suppose, after sending them today's completed curve, but I'm frankly quite nervous about not seeing any progress after more than a month of insulin injections.
2. Furthermore, should I be concerned about the state of the muscles in Sulo's hind legs? He clearly isn't using them as much as before (mostly lying around - and he used to be a very active and curious cat) and their condition hasn't really improved.
3. Is the food suitable? I have no idea what is a 'low' carbohydrate content (compared to 'high').
Thanks!
Links:
The blood glucose meter we're using (WellionVet Gluco Calea), same they use at the vet's:
http://www.wellion.at/en/animals-products/wellionvet_gluco_calea_bloodglucosemeter/
Picture of the Lantus pen:
https://5.imimg.com/data5/SN/XL/MY-13396819/lantus-solostar-500x500.jpg
The wet food (Royal Canin Diabetic Feline, the site is in Finnish, but 'Raaka-aineet', the nutritional information, seems to be in English):
https://www.royalcanin.fi/tuotteet/tuotteet/ruoat-elaeinklinikoilla/vet-diet-feline/diabetic
(= What might this or that mean here?) Though the bottom line is, all I really care about is getting Sulo better again.
