Mischa & Peri
Member Since 2021
Hello, my name is Mischa, my cat's name is Periwinkle (Peri for short), and she is 13, newly diagnosed with diabetes. I got her when I was 17, she is my first kitty, and I had no clue what I was doing. She's been an outdoor/indoor cat her whole life, and she was always very active, curious, and adventurous.
About 5 years ago she began over-grooming on her belly, but the vet dismissed it as stress or her pudgy belly rubbing up against stuff. Also around this time she had a pretty intense roundworm infection. She has always had a very healthy appetite, so it went unnoticed until far too late. It is shameful to mention, but due to barely scraping by financially, I was not able to consistently afford the monthly parasite medication, and her roundworm infection was largely due to my own neglect. We have been more consistent with this since! I mention this detail because I suspect, due to the severity of the infection, this may have had some impact on the development of her diabetes.
About 3 years ago, her activity level began to decline, and within the last year she has developed noticeable back leg and tail weakness, and her over-grooming increased. We had moved around this time and started living with 2 other cats, so I assumed her increase in over-grooming was just due to changes and stress, and the decline in activity and back leg weakness due to old age and arthritis. In October 2020 we went to the vet for a check-up, they did bloodwork, noted that her glucose was high but dismissed it as stress during the test. January 2020 her over-grooming had stretched from her belly to down her legs, and I felt something was wrong, so we went back to the vet.
They tested her urine, her blood, and her fructosamine, and she was given a diagnosis of diabetes about 1 week ago. We were started on 2iu caninsulin 2x daily. She has been very easy to shoot, plop her in front of some wet food and she doesn't notice a thing.
At the same time as getting the diagnosis, I discovered this site, and switched her from Orijen Cat & Kitten dry food to LC wet (various brands, less than 6%), and Tiki Cat Born Carnivore Deboned Chicken & Egg (~11% carb). She consumes mostly wet now, but will snack on the dry.
We went back to the vet yesterday for a glucose curve, and they found that the insulin was dropping her too low (3.5 nm/L) and they had to intervene with syrup. It upsets me to think that she may have been dropping into hypo this last week and despite me checking on her as much as I could I did not notice any significant distress! They reduced her dose to 1.5iu 2x daily, but I'm still concerned that is too high!! We go back for another glucose curve in a week.
I'm grateful that she is responding to the insulin, albeit too well, and there has been a noticeable drop in her glucose even over the last week. Last week when they tested her they said her PSAM was 26nm/L, and this week it was 17nm/L.
We just acquired Accu-Chek Guide meter yesterday, and I'm going to make a real effort to start home testing her this weekend. I suspect she will be a bit of a challenge to test but she has always been incredibly food motivated so we'll work it out.
***I'm soooooo grateful for all the information on the feline diabetes website, the message board, and the catinfo.org site. Without it I would be so hopelessly lost, getting the diagnosis was stressful and made for many tears, and having a place where I can find an answer to literally ANY question I might have has been SUCH A RELIEF. Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!***
About 5 years ago she began over-grooming on her belly, but the vet dismissed it as stress or her pudgy belly rubbing up against stuff. Also around this time she had a pretty intense roundworm infection. She has always had a very healthy appetite, so it went unnoticed until far too late. It is shameful to mention, but due to barely scraping by financially, I was not able to consistently afford the monthly parasite medication, and her roundworm infection was largely due to my own neglect. We have been more consistent with this since! I mention this detail because I suspect, due to the severity of the infection, this may have had some impact on the development of her diabetes.
About 3 years ago, her activity level began to decline, and within the last year she has developed noticeable back leg and tail weakness, and her over-grooming increased. We had moved around this time and started living with 2 other cats, so I assumed her increase in over-grooming was just due to changes and stress, and the decline in activity and back leg weakness due to old age and arthritis. In October 2020 we went to the vet for a check-up, they did bloodwork, noted that her glucose was high but dismissed it as stress during the test. January 2020 her over-grooming had stretched from her belly to down her legs, and I felt something was wrong, so we went back to the vet.
They tested her urine, her blood, and her fructosamine, and she was given a diagnosis of diabetes about 1 week ago. We were started on 2iu caninsulin 2x daily. She has been very easy to shoot, plop her in front of some wet food and she doesn't notice a thing.
At the same time as getting the diagnosis, I discovered this site, and switched her from Orijen Cat & Kitten dry food to LC wet (various brands, less than 6%), and Tiki Cat Born Carnivore Deboned Chicken & Egg (~11% carb). She consumes mostly wet now, but will snack on the dry.
We went back to the vet yesterday for a glucose curve, and they found that the insulin was dropping her too low (3.5 nm/L) and they had to intervene with syrup. It upsets me to think that she may have been dropping into hypo this last week and despite me checking on her as much as I could I did not notice any significant distress! They reduced her dose to 1.5iu 2x daily, but I'm still concerned that is too high!! We go back for another glucose curve in a week.
I'm grateful that she is responding to the insulin, albeit too well, and there has been a noticeable drop in her glucose even over the last week. Last week when they tested her they said her PSAM was 26nm/L, and this week it was 17nm/L.
We just acquired Accu-Chek Guide meter yesterday, and I'm going to make a real effort to start home testing her this weekend. I suspect she will be a bit of a challenge to test but she has always been incredibly food motivated so we'll work it out.
***I'm soooooo grateful for all the information on the feline diabetes website, the message board, and the catinfo.org site. Without it I would be so hopelessly lost, getting the diagnosis was stressful and made for many tears, and having a place where I can find an answer to literally ANY question I might have has been SUCH A RELIEF. Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!***
