Cat Diabetic

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Kimberly Anderson

Kimberly Anderson

Member Since 2020
My cat Jack is 9 and never really brought him to the vet. I never had the money. I was told today that he has high Glucose and they want me to pay another 90.00 plus to test to see if he has full blown diabetes. They also want me to pay 269 for GI panel because his digestive enzymes are elevated, which I can not afford now. I have recently changed his food to a RX food and my question is if he has full blown is there anything we can do on my own to help him , I probably won't be able to afford the insulin plus all the check ups she said goes along with it.
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
My cat Jack is 9 and never really brought him to the vet. I never had the money. I was told today that he has high Glucose and they want me to pay another 90.00 plus to test to see if he has full blown diabetes. They also want me to pay 269 for GI panel because his digestive enzymes are elevated, which I can not afford now. I have recently changed his food to a RX food and my question is if he has full blown is there anything we can do on my own to help him , I probably won't be able to afford the insulin plus all the check ups she said goes along with it.
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WELCOME TO FDMB! Glad you found us! If Jack does have diabetes he needs insulin. There are no effective home remedies for this disease. Sadly it does come with some cost. Have you looked into Care Credit? They make payment doable and give you time to pay. I suggest that for a start.
You dont need to have the vet check his levels you can do this yourself. Its a bit of a learning curve but its cheaper and Jack wont be stressed by going to the vet. This of course is JUST for his diabetes. If he has other issues as well he will need those tests.
There is NOTHING special about RX food except the price. Diabetics need a low carb food and there are plenty on the market that fit that bill and are affordable. Fancy Feast pates are one. Friskies(pates) is another.
I will let others address you other concerns

Please hold on for more replies.
jeanne

This is the place for answers and I hope we can help you and Jack.
 
What was the reason you took him to the vet? Is he not feeling well? If there are others issues going on, then yes, a blood panel is necessary. For examples, one of the enzymes is an indicator for pancreatitis (which does immediately require vet treatment) I'll let more experienced members chime in on the digestive enzymes.

I'm assuming you are in the US.
Get a cheap glucometer from Walmart. Relion Prime is inexpensive and the strips are cheap.
You can order the insulin Lantus from Canada – aprox $180 buys you a years supply of insulin. You just need to fax a prescription. Quite a few people here order from Canada. This is a reputed company.
Rx food is special because it is Rx, nothing else. Fancy Feast pates and Friskies pates are affordable. It has to be the pates because they are the lowest carb. You only use Fancy Feast gravy in the event of hypoglycemia. It can be used to carb up the cat. Corn syrup and honey can also be used.

If you are concerned about food dye, there are other low carb options to check out.
Here is a food list compiled by a renowned vet. You are looking for food under 10% carbs.
Insulin syringes are relatively inexpensive.
 
I took him bc he is almost 19 pds I guess he had diabetes. I will be able to get the blood panel next month. I only know she said the digestive enzymes are elevated.
Thank you for the Canada site. Regarding the fancy feast, are you saying to dump the gravy out? (they love the gravy lol) So my dad is diabetic and has a glucose monitor , I can use that? Are the numbers the same for the cat?
 
Ohhh hes a BIG BOY! :D

No, dumping out the gravy wont do. lol I know he loves it but its FULL of carbs. If he had a hypoglycemic episode THEN you can feed him the gravy food. Hypoglycemia is when his blood glucose numbers drop dangerously low. It CAN kill. I dont want to scare you. There are ways to get his numbers up and out of danger. Thats when you would feed the gravy and or Honey/Karo

Like Kel says, if there are other issues (besides needing to lose weight) Those will have to be addressed.

Let your vet know that you can get Lantus cheaper from Canada so you will need a script for it. The Vet should provide that for you.
Lantus is one of the better insulin's for cats. Prozinc is another.

Keep asking questions we love questions.
jeanne
I'm sure others will want to chime in on this. ;):coffee:
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
My cat Jack is 9 and never really brought him to the vet. I never had the money. I was told today that he has high Glucose and they want me to pay another 90.00 plus to test to see if he has full blown diabetes. They also want me to pay 269 for GI panel because his digestive enzymes are elevated, which I can not afford now. I have recently changed his food to a RX food and my question is if he has full blown is there anything we can do on my own to help him , I probably won't be able to afford the insulin plus all the check ups she said goes along with it.
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Sorry for the diagnosis... I know it's so scary. Initially all the testing for the diagnosis is expensive, and getting all the supplies at once is pricey, but you won't run out of everything at the same time. Insulin lasts 4 -6 months if kept in the refrigerator.

So I'm guessing the 90 is for a fructosamine test. What that does is show what his average glucose has been for the past couple of weeks. Do you remember what his blood glucose number was?

The best insulins that will get you the greatest chance of regulation and remission are lantus (cheapest through Marks Marine Pharmacy in canada) or Prozinc ($105 if you order through chewy.com)

The food: I agree, skip the perscription stuff. too expensive and no benefit. What you want is fancy feast classic (it doesn't have gravy), or friskies pate foods. If you need food without dyes, consider something from weruva. Their food is more expensive then the store bought stuff, but high quality. My cat loves the BFF PLay line. Also the paw lickin' chicken.

If you test at home there will be no need to keep returning to the vet for check ups. Once I started checking my cat's BG at home I just emailed my vet the numbers every so often and didn't go back for a year. (now that's she's a super senior we go a lot, but more for her kidney's and thyroid then for the diabetes.)

If you are really in a financial bind, I suggest you see if you can get a little support from Diabetic Cat's in Need. I will tag a member who might be able to tell you more about that. @Chris & China (GA)
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
I took him bc he is almost 19 pds I guess he had diabetes. I will be able to get the blood panel next month. I only know she said the digestive enzymes are elevated.
Thank you for the Canada site. Regarding the fancy feast, are you saying to dump the gravy out? (they love the gravy lol) So my dad is diabetic and has a glucose monitor , I can use that? Are the numbers the same for the cat?
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YES, you can use your dad's monitor and strips!! :) I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home. FF classic doesn't have high carb gravy in it.... just a little juice to keep it moist.
 
Hi Kimberly :) Can you tell us what was her BG number? You should do the tests if your vet recommend it. Insulin is not that expensive in canada (a Prozinc bottle is 126$ and last almost 3 months for my cat). The expensive stuff is the syringes, testing strips and the wet food. About Fancy Feast, you only buy the Pate (i recommend the turkey & Giblets)...there is no gravy or dye in it. You can split a can but you will have to find the amount of calories that your baby need. My cats are 10 pounds and eat 2 3oz cans/day or half of a 6oz
 
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JanetNJ said:
If you are really in a financial bind, I suggest you see if you can get a little support from Diabetic Cat's in Need.
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DCIN helps low income caregivers with the costs involved in treating (and sometimes diagnosing) diabetes so kitties can stay in their loving homes instead of euthanizing or re-homing.

If you'd like to apply, please fill out one of our applications for assistance. We're here to help!
 
JanetNJ said:
The rule of thumb is about 20 calories per pound of ideal weight. Is 19 a good weight for him, or is he overweight?
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He is overweight. My issue with feeding is I have 2 cats and one is not much overweight. They both like to eat and hang out in our bedroom. It can be hard to tell who is eating what. I can't babysit them all day. They also do not like to eat a lot at one time. The vet said feed jack twice a day every 12 hours but I am feeding him a little bit probably 3 or 4 times. I have not got the amount of food down to a science yet. Also, what is exactly insunlin lancent? Doesn't insunlin come in a little bottle and the Lancet is the needle? Do I need one or 2 rx from vet
 
The lancet is for testing his blood glucose number BEFORE you admin insulin. Thats what we use to pick the ear to get a drop of blood. You do not need a script for lancets. ;):coffee:
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
He is overweight. My issue with feeding is I have 2 cats and one is not much overweight. They both like to eat and hang out in our bedroom. It can be hard to tell who is eating what. I can't babysit them all day. They also do not like to eat a lot at one time. The vet said feed jack twice a day every 12 hours but I am feeding him a little bit probably 3 or 4 times. I have not got the amount of food down to a science yet. Also, what is exactly insunlin lancent? Doesn't insunlin come in a little bottle and the Lancet is the needle? Do I need one or 2 rx from vet
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The Lancet is what you poke the ear with to do a test. I use a 28 gauge. The needle to inject the insulin is a syringe.
 
I appreciate all your help and I wish I took better care of my cats before, I spoil them way too much but not for their good. Also , is there a chart somewhere, where I can figure out how much my cat should weigh. That way I can feed them properly if I am shooting for a number.
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
Sorry ONE more lol... I saw that lots of ppl are feeding Frikies, so grain free is not a big deal? I got crave for them but if I start giving them just soft food then Friskies would be cheaper
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Grain free is not necessarily low carb. Instead they will put in stuff like peas or potato which are high carb. Many people here feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods. I feed weruva foods because my cat needs lower phosphorus too. Crave has about 21% carb so better than most dry but still too high.
 
Oh I see TY! I will get some Friskies but right now they have Crave and I found a cat calorie counter , I put in he is 19 pds and I was shooting for 15 pds(for now) and it said he gets 266 calories in food and 30 in treats... Well the crave can has 39-49 calories depending on flavor. That would be like 5 or 6 a day is that correct?
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
Oh I see TY! I will get some Friskies but right now they have Crave and I found a cat calorie counter , I put in he is 19 pds and I was shooting for 15 pds(for now) and it said he gets 266 calories in food and 30 in treats... Well the crave can has 39-49 calories depending on flavor. That would be like 5 or 6 a day is that correct?
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Oh you feed CANS of crave? I assumed dry. That's probably lower in carb. I would probably set the first weight goal at 17 so he's not too hungy.
 
Kimberly Anderson said:
Oh I see TY! I will get some Friskies but right now they have Crave and I found a cat calorie counter , I put in he is 19 pds and I was shooting for 15 pds(for now) and it said he gets 266 calories in food and 30 in treats... Well the crave can has 39-49 calories depending on flavor. That would be like 5 or 6 a day is that correct?
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Ok just looked. If you are giving crave pate it's about 7-7.5 carb so it's OK to feed. :)
 
I'm just looking at the crave chicken one. Each of those little servings are about 45 calories.... So 90 for both sides. So 17lbsx 20=340. So at 45 Cal per serving that would be 7.5 of those mini servings. If you give treats other than the crave maybe 7 of those half cans. Make sure the treats are low carb..... Avoid party mix or temptations. My cat loves purebites freeze dried chicken treats.
 
If you want to go cheaper, the Friskies pates are low carb enough for our sugarcats too. A few of their flavors have a tiny bit of rice, but its such a small amount that they still come in at under 10% carbs.

Along with restricting calories, you need to add exercise to Jack's daily regime (Awww mom!!....do I really have to do push-ups?....LOL)

Does he like chasing laser lights? My China didn't so I went through what seemed like $1000 trying to find something she would play with. Finally found "Da Bird" that really drove her nuts. She'd chase that thing until she literally would have to stop to catch her breath (and they do need to be that tired to really do any good). If Jack is more driven to catching things on the ground, I highly recommend The Ground prey wand. The "prey" jerks and jumps along the floor making a motion most cat's cant resist.

You can even go really cheap! I know one person who just attached a string to her shoe and her cat chased her around the house all day and another who tossed a tiny treat to the bottom of a staircase and her cat would race down the stairs to get it, then race back up to get another treat.

Anyway, just like human weight loss, it's never just counting calories....you have to burn some too!

If you can find a baby scale, they're great for keeping track of your progress. I bought this one but you can sometimes find them for good prices at yard sales that have baby supplies. I could either put a towel down on it for her so she felt more secure or the best trick was putting it on the floor with a box on top.....cat gets into box, and BINGO, you've got a weight!

Weigh once a week and hopefully Jack will be able to fit into those tight jeans again....you know the ones.....that make his bootie look so cute?.....LOL
 
First, I just want to thank everyone for being so helpful so far.

My first experience with the vet did not go good. After, I done my own research on here I highly been disagreeing with the vet; in addition after the exam fee and the blood work she will not give me the insulin if I do not pay for a visit to have her show me how to administer and get educated. First, she wanted me to get free style the device instead of checking myself(I did not know any better so agreed) then when I picked up the insulin and she would show me how to use it the appointment would cost nearly 300.00 i think that included the insulin of 121.00. I called and told her that I bought supplies at Walmart and just wanted the insulin . But they refused. She also don't agree that carbs are bad for him so since she don't know what she is takling about , I am bringing Jack somewhere else. So here is my question lol.. I got the records and it says recommended dose of ProZinc 5ML. From what I am understanding from you all is that to start off should be 1 or 2 at the most. If my new vet says the same thing what do I do?
 
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