Introducing Billy

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Juls and Billy

Juls and Billy

Member Since 2019
Hello all! I'm Juls and my cat Billy was diagnosed diabetic on Dec 28th. Billy's always had a weight problem, which was not helped by steroid shots for his asthma. When he was young, he was getting a shot every month. Now, he takes Zyrtec and a rescue inhaler, and only has a steroid shot 2-3 times a year.

He's 16 lbs. I think he would look good at @12, so that's our goal. Right now, we are concentrating on getting him to eat at all. He was very ill, and his blood sugar at the vet when diagnosed was over 500. He also had a low level infection and was treated with antibiotics.

I am so thankful for this forum! So much information, and I'm soaking it up. I've got our 911 emergency kit put together and made Billy's spreadsheet. We're feeding LC wet diet only (thank goodness he loves wet food.) The vet prescribed Hill's dry, but I took one look at the ingredients and said no way. Searching for a proper diet is how I ended up finding this forum.

I'm testing his blood before every shot. He's on ProZinc insulin and we've got a ReliOn meter. I haven't done his Nadir reading yet, but I will soon, now that I am getting more adept at drawing blood. (Poor patient Billy. I notched his ear trying to do it by hand. Now, we have a clicky-click. Huzzah!) Giving his shot is not a problem, as I've done kitty shots before.

Just wanted to say hello and tell you how thankful I am for this group. You've made such a scary situation into something we can totally manage to sort out.

Juls and Billy

Edited to add: Our vet prescribed 2 units if he was eating and 1 if he wasn't. He didn't even suggest testing blood at home. Now, I love my vet, but no way I am injecting insulin without testing first. That is why you will see on the spreadsheet 1 unit doses and 2 unit doses. I read here that 2 units is high to start, but he seems to be doing all right. I will get that Nadir reading today to check his low though. Happy to get group advice on his dosing.
 
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Hi Juls and welcome to sugardude Billy.

Anything we can help you with right now?

My best advice for stress relief is calming breaths. Deep breath, hold, release, repeat as needed.
Second best advice is to visit the Community Off topic forum here for laughs. We get kind of crazy over there, so be warned.

Thank you so much for doing the SS (spreadsheet) and signature already. Helps us so much.

Most of us are not vets or vet techs. What we are is a group of people that have cared for diabetic cats and found what works best for us and our budgets. Lots of experience in the daily management of feline diabetes.
 
Hello, great job reading and getting started.

Keep in mind that although Prozinc may have a “typical” nadir, cat’s are notoriously non conformists and you can see some variation. They job is to keep us on our toes. Almost any mid cycle data has some value, including the night time cycle. Many cats go lower at night.
 
Thanks Deb and Wink! We're doing well so far, but the first two days were hard. He wasn't eating at all and he was so sick. Now, he's still low-key, but much more his usual self. Not eating enough, but eating!

The stress is no joke. The first night I tried to do his blood draw was a complete circus. Did everything wrong. Cried a bit. Finally got it figured out thanks to advice here and videos. Now we have a rice sock and everything. So much better! I've got mid-level anxiety. It's a blessing and a curse in situations like this. Drives me to get good information and do things the best way I can, but I did have a wee panic attack that first blood draw night. My fiance Brian got up and helped me figure it out. Made him tired for work the next day, but was totally worth it. Billy, me, and Brian are all doing better now.
 
Thanks Wendy and Neko! I have been reading about that and will absolutely keep it in mind.

You know, my Mom is diabetic, and I had a brief bout of type II myself before I kicked it to the curb. I know it's not the same in cats, but I do feel blessed that I was at least used to testing and the numbers and stuff. Made it less scary.
 
Are you testing for urinary ketones? If you haven't got them already, Ketostix, or equivalent, should be on your shopping list. The lack of eating and lethargy can be a concern, especially combined with an infection.
 
Hi Juls,

Know you're feeding LC wet, but you said that Billy wasn't eating much. Read through this article on Transitioning Feline Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food to see if there are ideas here to help your cat eat the wet food.

Document is geared more towards getting a dry food addict (like my Wink was) to eat canned food. But there are a lot of great ideas there to get ANY cat to eat more when their appetite is not the greatest. A lot of these tips work to get a cat to eat more wet food too. Hope there is something there to help Billy to eat more.

I think I used every single one of those ideas to get Wink off the dry food and eating wet low carb. I swear he was a charter member of FDFAA (Feline Dry Food Addicts Anonymous).

Using a cat's natural sensation of hunger can be a big help. So free feeding may need to change to several meals a day. My cat gets 4 meals a day and a couple of small snacks. Trial and error to find what will work with your cat. ECID (Every Cat is Different).
 
Thanks Deb! I will look over that article. Billy loves wet food, and has had FF before. I think our main problem was his illness making him not want to eat. Vet gave him an antibiotic and an anti-nausea on the 28th. We've been encouraging him, and he's eating a little more each day. Right now, we are offering wet food almost constantly, except the two hours before injection and testing. He eats a few bites every time offered. Loss of appetite was why he ended up at the vet in the first place, then the next two days he refused to eat at all. He's doing much better now, but I'm looking forward to when we can settle into multiple small meals a day, and he is back to his chow-hound self.

On a funny note, I always ask Bill if he wants me to "magic up his food," then I fluff it up with my finger. Then he's like, "Oh, yes, now it's completely different! Nom nom nom." :D
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Are you testing for urinary ketones? If you haven't got them already, Ketostix, or equivalent, should be on your shopping list. The lack of eating and lethargy can be a concern, especially combined with an infection.
Click to expand...

We have not yet, but I have my eye on the ketone blood monitor. The vet tested his urine, and had nothing to say about his ketones, but showed Brian the sugar results. We're going with the blood monitor instead of the urine strips because Billy is a shy pee'er. When he used to have urinary troubles, we never could get a urine sample. The second we tried to put anything at all under his butt, he would leave the box and refuse to pee. Same with newspaper in the box instead of litter--he refused to pee. Blood test strips for us. The strips are pricey, but it's not bad if we only test like once a week.
 
Glad to see that's on your radar.

Antibiotics can mess with tummy flora, making kitty feed off their food. You might want to consider a probiotic - given at least two hours apart from the antibioticl
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Glad to see that's on your radar.

Antibiotics can mess with tummy flora, making kitty feed off their food. You might want to consider a probiotic - given at least two hours apart from the antibioticl
Click to expand...
Will do! The antibiotic was an injection at the vet, so he isn't taking further doses.
 
Wow! That cefazolin is an antibiotic normally used for serious infections. Hope Billy didn't get diarrhea from it, but as Wendy & Neko said a couple of posts back in this thread, some probiotics may help.
 
He did not get diarrhea, so at least we got that going for us. I'm guessing our vet just didn't want to take any chances since Bill had multiple issues at the time.

Billy is doing so much better, it's awesome. He's back to his normal self, talking up a storm, and asking for food. He's still not eating as much as he should, but we're getting there. He eats a little more every day.
 
So 1 Relion glucometer for testing the blood pre-shot times and during nadir. Second blood/ketone monitor to check at least once a week for ketones. Sounds like a plan.

I see you managed to get a couple of BG tests in last night during mid-cycle. Good job!
 
Deb & Wink said:
I see you managed to get a couple of BG tests in last night during mid-cycle. Good job!
Click to expand...

I think Billy was having a bounce. Number today was much improved, but now we want to do Nadirs again to make sure it doesn't go too low. This time all four! Ketone meter has been ordered and should arrive next week. Billy is pretty much back to his old self, even meowing for food! He still needs to eat more, but every day we are seeing big improvements.
 
Quick fix for your SS. I think your most recent entry should be dated 1/1/2020 instead of 12/1/2019.
 
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