New member 12/5/22

[egwv]

Hi everyone,
My name is Emma and my cat Kit just got diagnosed with diabetes today. She's almost 12 years old. Over the past couple months she lost a lot of weight (normally she's about 15-16lbs and she weighed in at 13.3) and was drinking and peeing more, so during her semiannual exam a few days ago the vet took blood and urine tests, and here we are.
My vet prescribed Lantus SoloStar glargine insulin, and recommended dry and wet food that's either Purina DM, Royal Canine Glycobalance, or Hill's Science Diet m/d. I ordered the Purina DM and now I'm seeing here that it's not the best option for dry food, whoops.
Just wading through all the info now and trying to not cry too much. Glad this community exists.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Hi Emma sorry no one has gotten back to you yet
The pic of Kit is so funny
Don't cry, you couldn't have landed in a better place , we have a lot of experienced members here who have helped me get Tyler into remission
There is no need to feed prescription food at all. They are all high in carbs
We like to feed our cats around 6% carbs and under
I will give you the food chart for you to look at
A lot of members feed Fancy Feast Classic Pate or Friskies
What were you feeding Kit before the vet suggested what to feed
Lantus is a good insulin to use
How many units did your vet suggest to start with?
We really don't like to feed any dry food at all
Did the vet run a fructosamine test to diagnose Kit?
Do you have the U-100 syringes with the half unit markings , with the pen you can inky adjust the dose by whole units , so we use the syringes and insert them into the gray rubber stopper and draw out the insulin. We adjust doses by 0.25 units at a time ,

I hope you will start home testing because it's the only way to keep Kit safe
If you want suggestions on what meter to use just ask.Most all of us use human meters, that's what our numbers are based on plus the test strips are so much cheaper than if you were to use a pet meter

Here is some information for you to read
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
It will also give you information about our spreadsheet that we use to track of cats BG numbers . If you need setting it up just ask we have a member who will happy to do it for you

Don't mean to overwhelme you , just keep asking any questions you might have

You can read about lantus here , read all the yellow stickys
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/

Food chart
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/

When I tap on the pic and then tap on your profile I get
This member limits who may view their full profile.
Would you like to fix that ?

@egwv

 

[egwv]

Hi Diane,
Thanks for your reply and the links. My brain is exploding with all the new info I've read in the past handful of hours. I've set up a spreadsheet (not sure how to link it in my signature yet) and ordered a ReliOn Premier meter, strips, and lancets. My insulin should be arriving by the end of the week and the vet's going to show me how to administer that, and they want me to run a blood glucose curve after the first week on insulin.

I was feeding both my cats an all dry food diet (Nutro Wholesome Essentials chicken and rice). I immediately switched Kit over to Nutro Perfect Portions while I'm figuring everything out, and will be switching my non-diabetic cat to wet food now that I've read up on wet vs dry, and low-carb diets. My cats get bored during the day when I'm at work so most of the kibble is for puzzle toys.

I've been reading posts and looking at other people's spreadsheets and seeing that people test their cats' glucose levels many times a day. I'm out of the house for about 11hrs a day so I'm nervous about Kit's levels while I'm away at work - if she ever gets a hypoglycemic episode I won't be there to help. What do other folks who have to be away from home all day do to make sure their kitties are staying healthy?

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

A lot of members get auto feeders and set them to open at certain times.

After your vet shows you how to give insulin I would suggest you start testing him this weekend both Sat and Sunday if all your supplies come in so you can get an idea on how he is responding to the insulin while you are at work

Can you add the meter you will be using to your signature

I guess you vet will tell you how many units to give?
They have ones that come with ice packs so the wet food doesn't dry out
If you must give them some kibble during the day in their toys you can get Dr Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken Flavor, it's around 5 or 6 % carbs
What time do you plan on giving insulin, lantus should be given 12 hours apart

I did a search on our site and found this so you can look up the carbs
Info on Nutro Perfect portions is oh pag41/42 of
http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Also found this posted by another member
I found that the Nutro perfect portions are low in carb.
The turkey and chicken cuts in gravy actually do not have any carbs. This is fromwww.catfooddb.com

Be sure to have these at home for your hypo kit

is

Such as
med and high carb wet food and some honey?
Such as

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart. Doesn't have to be Fancy Feast just an example about the med and high carb foods
And some honey in the house

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

QUOTE="egwv, post: 3022374, member: 37168"]I've set up a spreadsheet (not sure how to link it in my signature yet) a[/QUOTE]
@Bandit's Mom
Hi Bhooma , can you help her with this because I have no idea
Thanks Bhooma

 

[egwv]

Thanks for the tip on the auto feeders. I'll look into the ice pack ones. And thank you for letting me know about the Dr Elsey's kibble.

I'll check with my vet about the dosage Kit will be starting at. Hopefully all my supplies will come in before the weekend. I was planning on administering insulin around 6am and 6pm (my other cat has hyperthryroidism and gets a pill twice daily at those times). I'm kind of limited by my work schedule in the mornings. I also have the bad timing that I will be out of town over the holidays so I've got a little less than two weeks to figure out this new routine before abandoning Kit to the catsitters for 9 days. I have a licensed sitter coming for morning visits and my parents are coming for evening visits, but they are not spaced 12hrs apart. My vet said it's not ideal but would still be OK if Kit only gets one insulin injection a day while I am away if that's less stressful (she is comfortable with my parents, but the licensed sitter is new and I don't want Kit to go into hiding).

I found the info page on how to add my spreadsheet to my sig but my brain is too tired to do the admin logistics right now - I'll figure it out tomorrow, hopefully. I really appreciate your help with this new reality!

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum Emma and Kit.
The starting dose for Kit, if you are feeding some dry food would be 1 unit of Lantus. If you are feeding just wet low carb food, the starting dose should be 0.5 units.

If you are going to be away for 9 days and a cat sitter is coming in to feed and give the insulin, I would feed her what you know she will eat well until you get back home. The last thing you want to happen is for her to not eat.
An automatic timed feeder would be very useful for when you are away. Hopefully the pet setter will fill it each day.
Is anyone going to be taking the blood glucose when you are away? If not I would post here and ask about a vacation dose. We usually reduce the dose a bit when the caregiver goes away and someone else looks after the cat, especially if they are not testing the BG.
Cats often don’t eat as well when their caregiver is away.
Your parents are welcome to post here as well if they need some help. You might like to give them your details so they can use your username.
Did your vet check for ketones in the urine do you know?
Keep asking questions. It’s a big learning curve in the beginning but it does get much easier.
Bron

 

[egwv]

I checked with my vet and Kit will be starting with 1 unit every 12 hours, and not recommended to reduce while I am on vacation. My vet did check for ketones and they were not present (I am still reading up on what ketones are, sounds scary). Kit's blood glucose level last Saturday was 407. I'm going to stick to the plan of having my parents administer one shot a day while I'm gone since I think that will be less stressful for Kit. I'm planning on primarily feeding wet food to both my cats (I ordered automatic feeders), supplementing with some Dr Elsey's chicken kibble in the puzzle toys for stimulation.

I'm in a little bit of a holding pattern while I wait for my diabetes supplies and new food to arrive over the next couple days (my local stores were out of stock) but grateful I was least able get Kit on high protein wet food immediately, and I've got an appointment on Thursday to learn how to administer the insulin. I appreciate the generosity of this community!

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Are your parents going to be testing the blood glucose?

 

[egwv]

Are your parents going to be testing the blood glucose?

Newbie question, does checking the blood glucose mean monitoring it for a few hours after administering insulin? Or just checking the base level before the injection? I don’t think they will be able to spend multiple hours with Kit every evening, but I think they will be able to check her pre-shot insulin level. We are all going to vet together to learn how to do insulin and glucose stuff.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Newbie question, does checking the blood glucose mean monitoring it for a few hours after administering insulin? Or just checking the base level before the injection? I don’t think they will be able to spend multiple hours with Kit every evening, but I think they will be able to check her pre-shot insulin level. We are all going to vet together to learn how to do insulin and glucose stuff.

It can mean both. It’s always important to check the BG before the dose to see it is safe to give the insulin.
If you can check a few hours later, it can tell you have low that dose is taking Kit.
Because you are only going to be giving the one dose a day, that will mean that for 12 hours Kit will be in higher numbers because the insulin only lasts 12 hours in cats.
So most likely the BG is always going to be high when your parents test. Because no insulin was giving in the morning.
It’s also going to be really important that Kit eats well while you are away, as only giving the one dose a day and having a cat that is not eating well, is inviting ketones to form….as it is insulin and food that keeps ketones from forming.

 

[egwv]

Thank you for the explainer. I have so much to learn but I know more today than I did yesterday, so.... one day at a time I guess?

Kit loves her wet food so I'm hopeful that even with the stress of me being gone (after the stress of these next two weeks of so much change in diet and feeding schedules and injections and lancet jabs) she will still eat. I ordered two automatic feeders (5-chambers) so both my cats can have simultaneous meal times which I hope means my second cat won't eat Kit's food when I'm not there. Right now I'm spacing her food out as best I can around my work schedule, and shutting her in a room so she can eat undisturbed. My boss is letting me use sick leave to stay home from work on Friday when I put her on insulin for the first time on my own, so I can monitor her through the weekend and get her on a new eating schedule.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Thank you for the explainer. I have so much to learn but I know more today than I did yesterday, so.... one day at a time I guess?

Kit loves her wet food so I'm hopeful that even with the stress of me being gone (after the stress of these next two weeks of so much change in diet and feeding schedules and injections and lancet jabs) she will still eat. I ordered two automatic feeders (5-chambers) so both my cats can have simultaneous meal times which I hope means my second cat won't eat Kit's food when I'm not there. Right now I'm spacing her food out as best I can around my work schedule, and shutting her in a room so she can eat undisturbed. My boss is letting me use sick leave to stay home from work on Friday when I put her on insulin for the first time on my own, so I can monitor her through the weekend and get her on a new eating schedule.

That’s good your boss is letting you take sick leave.
When I first started to use a timed feeder, I fed Sheba all her meals in it so she would understand that was where the food would be. Once she ‘got it’ I went back to normal. She loved her feeder and the second she heard it start to turn (to the next meal) she would race to it from wherever she was in the house. Sometimes she would just lie beside it.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

@egwv
Hi Emma you should add to your signature you are feeding
Nutro Feed Clean Pate and Dr Elsey's kibble to your signature also, I saw you have it written the the remarks section on your SS

Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand instead of the lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
If you look at the lancet under a light you will see one side is curved upward that's the side you want to poke with

A video one of our members posted, she is using a pet meter ,strips too expensive plus you have to code it
A human meter is just fine, most of us use human meters ,that's what our numbers are based on


VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar

 

[chuckstables]

Thank you for the explainer. I have so much to learn but I know more today than I did yesterday, so.... one day at a time I guess?

Kit loves her wet food so I'm hopeful that even with the stress of me being gone (after the stress of these next two weeks of so much change in diet and feeding schedules and injections and lancet jabs) she will still eat. I ordered two automatic feeders (5-chambers) so both my cats can have simultaneous meal times which I hope means my second cat won't eat Kit's food when I'm not there. Right now I'm spacing her food out as best I can around my work schedule, and shutting her in a room so she can eat undisturbed. My boss is letting me use sick leave to stay home from work on Friday when I put her on insulin for the first time on my own, so I can monitor her through the weekend and get her on a new eating schedule.

Hi! Welcome. My cat (also almost 12 years old, sam, male) was diagnosed in August. He had gone from 12 lbs to 9.5 lbs in about 9 months, and was rapidly going downhill. Right before diagnosis I recorded him drinking a record litre of water in one day. He's doing way better now, so I'm sure Kit will be just fine.

With the jabs from the injections; sam doesn't even notice anymore. We suggest using 0.3 cc syringes (U-100 ones; lantus is u-100, meaning 100 units of insulin per ml of insulin) with half unit markings. This allows for hyperfine dose adjustments of 0.25 units. For testing; I only started last week and sam already accepts it. He went from absolutely refusing to let me anywhere near his ears (he'd recoil if my hand even grazed them) to letting my hold a warm pill bottle and wrap his ear around it, then poke him (sometimes several times, still new at it) without so much as a peep.

I got him to this point by testing in one spot that he is comfortable in, and doing the routine with him 10x a day without actually testing. I will bring him there, move him to the side he's used to, warm his ear up with the pill bottle. All while talking to him, petting him, and afterwards giving a low carb treat. After just a few days of this he's totally fine with testing. Give it time; kit will totally adapt to it and be fine. On some level it's like Sam knows that I'm trying to help him and accepts it because of it.

 

[egwv]

Hi! Welcome. My cat (also almost 12 years old, sam, male) was diagnosed in August. He had gone from 12 lbs to 9.5 lbs in about 9 months, and was rapidly going downhill. Right before diagnosis I recorded him drinking a record litre of water in one day. He's doing way better now, so I'm sure Kit will be just fine.

With the jabs from the injections; sam doesn't even notice anymore. We suggest using 0.3 cc syringes (U-100 ones; lantus is u-100, meaning 100 units of insulin per ml of insulin) with half unit markings. This allows for hyperfine dose adjustments of 0.25 units. For testing; I only started last week and sam already accepts it. He went from absolutely refusing to let me anywhere near his ears (he'd recoil if my hand even grazed them) to letting my hold a warm pill bottle and wrap his ear around it, then poke him (sometimes several times, still new at it) without so much as a peep.

I got him to this point by testing in one spot that he is comfortable in, and doing the routine with him 10x a day without actually testing. I will bring him there, move him to the side he's used to, warm his ear up with the pill bottle. All while talking to him, petting him, and afterwards giving a low carb treat. After just a few days of this he's totally fine with testing. Give it time; kit will totally adapt to it and be fine. On some level it's like Sam knows that I'm trying to help him and accepts it because of it.

That's awesome to hear - thank you for sharing your experience as another recently diagnosed caregiver! Great tips for getting Kit used to a new routine. I have a pretty good relationship with her in terms of trimming her claws or giving her eardrops so I think I will be able to gain her trust with this after the first new scary days are over. I'm glad I'm able to have a few full days home with her while we start to figure out this new normal.

I just looked at the ingredients list for Greenies dental treats which are my go-to cat treats and there's a lot of grain content. Has anyone tried Emerald Pet dental treats? Or other recs for low-carb treats (I'm googling this and searching the forum for this too)

 

[Chrispooky12]

That's awesome to hear - thank you for sharing your experience as another recently diagnosed caregiver! Great tips for getting Kit used to a new routine. I have a pretty good relationship with her in terms of trimming her claws or giving her eardrops so I think I will be able to gain her trust with this after the first new scary days are over. I'm glad I'm able to have a few full days home with her while we start to figure out this new normal.

I just looked at the ingredients list for Greenies dental treats which are my go-to cat treats and there's a lot of grain content. Has anyone tried Emerald Pet dental treats? Or other recs for low-carb treats (I'm googling this and searching the forum for this too)

Hi & welcome. I give my boy chicken for treats. I boil a chicken breast & tear it up into pieces, divide it into Tupperware containers & freeze what I don't need & pull one out as needed. He loves it & it's 0 carbs.

 

[egwv]

First glucose test and insulin injection down and recorded on the SS (we did them at the vet so they could show my parents and I what to do). Kit's glucose level was 252. I will test her again a couple times tonight. The vet tech had me lancet her paw pad, not her ear. Have people here had better success with one or the other? I think she'll sit still better if I prick her paw than her ear, but all of what I've read on here is for pricking the ear. I've got the next 4 days to give her lots of snuggles before I have to go back to work again.

 

[egwv]

Ok I just tried taking a 2hr reading and went through 4 lancets and test strips but I kept getting the "not enough blood" error message (I tried her ear twice and her paw pad twice). I don't want to do too many stabbings at once, so I might try in a couple more hours. Definitely a learning curve.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Most of us use the ear. A few use the paw but I haven’t heard of many.
The way I did it was…I got everything ready first including a small low carb treat for Sheba on a saucer.
Always do it at the same spot so the cat will get to know this is the place for the treat.
I then knelt down and then sat back down on my heals and put the testing equipment and the treat down on the floor to the side of me. I then put Sheba between my knees facing the same way as me so that if she backed away she backed into me. I held her gently with one hand on her chest so she couldn’t move forward and put the food in front of her. As she had her head in the food saucer, I tested her on her ear.
make sure you have warmed the ear and milked it towards the tip. Are you using size 26 or 28 gauge lancets?
Expect to have a few failures along the way. We all did. Only a lucky few never fail.

 

[egwv]

Great tips. Thank you. The lancets I have are 30 gauge so that is probably affecting my blood droplet. I'll look up larger ones. Would you suggest 26 or 28 gauge for a beginner? Kit is going to have three people fumbling over her these next couple weeks as we all learn our technique. I think I'm just going to try one more reading tonight right before I go to bed since it's been a high-stress evening.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

26 are the thickest but either those or 28 are ok to start with.
Definitely worth swapping to.

 

[Chrispooky12]

Ok I just tried taking a 2hr reading and went through 4 lancets and test strips but I kept getting the "not enough blood" error message (I tried her ear twice and her paw pad twice). I don't want to do too many stabbings at once, so I might try in a couple more hours. Definitely a learning curve.

You can use the same lancet unless you think it looks dull. It syringes that you don't want to reuse.

 

[egwv]

You can use the same lancet unless you think it looks dull. It syringes that you don't want to reuse.

Oh, good to know about the lancets (my default is "pokey things are single-use only"). For the test strips, if I don't get enough blood on one for a reading can I keep trying the same test strip on a new blood drop? They're fairly inexpensive but I don't want to waste them unnecessarily.

 

[Chrispooky12]

Oh, good to know about the lancets (my default is "pokey things are single-use only"). For the test strips, if I don't get enough blood on one for a reading can I keep trying the same test strip on a new blood drop? They're fairly inexpensive but I don't want to waste them unnecessarily.

No the test strips are no good after 1 use unfortunately.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I just looked at the ingredients list for Greenies dental treats which are my go-to cat treats and there's a lot of grain content. Has anyone tried Emerald Pet dental treats? Or other recs for low-carb treats (I'm googling this and searching the forum for this too)

I'm pretty sure from what I read by members here that the Greenies are too high in carbs
You can give any freeze dried treats they are all low carb
Tap on this blue link and read post #64 the post numbers are to the right of each post and you can read about the freeze dried treats I listed

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-to-this-i-need-advice.269452/#post-3007388

 

[chuckstables]

Hi everyone,
My name is Emma and my cat Kit just got diagnosed with diabetes today. She's almost 12 years old. Over the past couple months she lost a lot of weight (normally she's about 15-16lbs and she weighed in at 13.3) and was drinking and peeing more, so during her semiannual exam a few days ago the vet took blood and urine tests, and here we are.
My vet prescribed Lantus SoloStar glargine insulin, and recommended dry and wet food that's either Purina DM, Royal Canine Glycobalance, or Hill's Science Diet m/d. I ordered the Purina DM and now I'm seeing here that it's not the best option for dry food, whoops.
Just wading through all the info now and trying to not cry too much. Glad this community exists.

Welcome! For the good news; the fact she's still at a healthy weight is great. You caught it early! We generally suggest wet food only. It's better in every way than dry food. It reduces risk of urinary tract infections (which can be fatal and cost thousands in vet care), it reduces overfeeding/weight problems (which contributes to diabetes), and even the cheapest wet foods are way lower in carbs than the most expensive dry food.

I totally get the crying part. I did a lot of that when Sam was diagnosed. Diabetes is EXTREMELY treatable! Cats don't have any of the scary complications that people do because cats aren't in control of their diet like humans are (plus they just don't get certain things that human diabetics do, like ulcers or blindness, almost unheard of in cats). Sam was 9.5 lbs at diagnosis; he's now 13 lbs just 3 months later.

Literally all it is for Sam is a routine now. He wakes up (or wakes me up), I give him some nice scritches under his chin, get him playing with an interactive toy for 10 minutes, then test him and give him breakfast. Then if his test results are okay I give him his shot. The injections don't phase him at all anymore. I literally injected him the other evening while he was resting on the couch. He didn't even move at all, then went back to sleep.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

You can use the same lancet unless you think it looks dull. It syringes that you don't want to reuse.

I would not recommending using the lancets more than once. Apart from the risk of infection, they would have to be blunter after use.

 

[chuckstables]

I would not recommending using the lancets more than once. Apart from the risk of infection, they would have to be blunter after use.

Same. The lancets are dirt cheap too, but the very minor risk of infection isn't worth it. Like 9 bucks for 100. Where I'm from the test strips cost 40 dollars per 100 (80 CAD for 100 for the normal commercial ones; bravo is the cheapest by far).

 

[chuckstables]

That's awesome to hear - thank you for sharing your experience as another recently diagnosed caregiver! Great tips for getting Kit used to a new routine. I have a pretty good relationship with her in terms of trimming her claws or giving her eardrops so I think I will be able to gain her trust with this after the first new scary days are over. I'm glad I'm able to have a few full days home with her while we start to figure out this new normal.

I just looked at the ingredients list for Greenies dental treats which are my go-to cat treats and there's a lot of grain content. Has anyone tried Emerald Pet dental treats? Or other recs for low-carb treats (I'm googling this and searching the forum for this too)

I give sam baked chicken breast (plain, some oil on it to add some fat). I freeze it; he loves it. Treats like that are ideal for a diabetic cat; very low carb, high protein, moderate fat.

 

[egwv]

Thanks everyone! I ordered some freeze dried chicken (I have freeze dried shrimp which she will eat, but Kit's not crazy about them), and I have a bunch of Churu tubes which I read are low carb. (Somewhat ironically, I am vegetarian so I've actually never cooked chicken, but I might start now.) I'm giving her mostly primarily canned food (Purina Pro DM; 1.25 cans/day ~204kcal) with a tiny bit of Dr Elsey's Chicken kibble (.25c/day ~136kcal) in puzzle toys so she has something to hunt for during the day (though I think my other cat eats most of the kibble in the toys). I emailed my vet about how many calories she should be getting so I will adjust as needed once I get a response -- lots of math in switching from their old food to new food, and dry to wet!

Yesterday was first day of testing and giving injections and I think both shots were fur shots since her numbers didn't go down at the 6hr mark so that was frustrating (as compared to the shot I gave her Thursday evening under vet supervision, I saw a definite drop 5hrs after that). We are getting better at lancet jabs though, and Kit still came and sat on my lap and let me touch her ears so that is good. I just gave her today's first shot, and I'm really hoping I got it under her skin. I'm going to test her around 3 and 6 hours today (maybe 9hrs if she's up for it.