Introducing Toby

[Daphne&Toby]

Hi all,

Our cat Toby (13 yrs old, male) was diagnosed with diabetes last Thursday while we were on our Honeymoon. Luckily, we had the best cat sitter ever who reported his symptoms to us and then took him to the vet with us on the phone for him to start getting care. We adopted Toby 3 years ago after he was given up because his previous human thought he needed too much attention. He is the sweetest boy.

We've been feeling very overwhelmed so far, as our vet was very encouraging of lots of testing and vet visits - Toby is very scared by the vet and thinks we are giving him up every time we take him out of the house. We are not willing to take him in for a day-long glucose curve and are instead looking to monitor at home. On our vet's direction, we have started him on 1 unit of Glargine every 12 hours two nights ago. So far, it does not seem to be making a big impact. At the vet, his blood sugars tested at about 500.

Our vet also prescribed him Purina DM wet & dry foods. He has historically eaten Friskies pates (he only likes to eat pates!), but recently was on a prescription biome regulation dry food because he had pancreatitis a month ago - the vet believes the pancreatitis may have led to diabetes. We are planning on going back to Friskies pates as we want him on an all wet food diet and we cannot afford to do so with the Purina DM wet food.

Any advice on an at-home blood glucose monitor (cat or human!) would be greatly appreciated. We are limited on funds but are dedicated to giving this our best effort for Toby! All other advice and/or encouragement is also appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome Daphne and Toby! I used to have a beautiful boy called Toby many years ago.
Very impressed with your pet sitter! Toby is a lucky boy to have so many people in his corner.
It is very normal to be overwhelmed in the beginning. But it will get much easier as you gain knowledge about feline diabetes.

It is a great idea to do hometesting and it is something we strongly advocate.
I’m not sure where you live but if you are in the US, you can get a ReliOn Premier glucose meter from Walmart for $9 and a box of test strips for $17.88. You will also need a box of 100 lancets. Ask for size 26 or 28. And some cotton rounds to hold behind the ear when testing.
Here is a link to HOMETESTING HINTS AND LINKS
With the testing: always test before every dose to see it is safe to give the insulin. And then test a couple of times during every cycle to see how low the dose is taking Toby. Glargine is a great insulin for cats and the dosing is based on the nadir or lowest point in the cycle.
So the routine is test, feed and then give the dose of insulin in that order.

And here is a link to HELP US HELP YOU which will give you the link to the spreadsheet and the signature and the hypo kit and other useful information. The signature appears below all your posts and tells us about Toby. once you start testing the blood glucose (BG) you can add the data into the SS and we can help you with the dosing and other issues.
Once you are hometesting there will be no need to go to the vet for any BG tests. Saves money and stress on Toby.

Our vet also prescribed him Purina DM wet & dry foods. He has historically eaten Friskies pates (he only likes to eat pates!), but recently was on a prescription biome regulation dry food because he had pancreatitis a month ago - the vet believes the pancreatitis may have led to diabetes. We are planning on going back to Friskies pates as we want him on an all wet food diet and we cannot afford to do so with the Purina DM wet food.

There is absolutely no need to feed prescription foods for diabetic cats. They are not low enough carbs for a start and are very expensive.
Pates are generally low carb, but I will give you a FOOD CHART you can check out and find suitable foods. Look for foods that are 10% carbs or under. Most of us feed around the 4-7%carbs.
Always give a good meal before the insulin doses each cycle and then give 2 or 3 snacks (one or two teaspoons of low carb food) each cycle mainly in the first 6 or 7 hours.

Keep asking questions. It’s a big learning curve in the beginning and then it is just routine.
Bron

 

[Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA)]

Toby sure is a lucky boy!!! He looks a lot like my Bobo. Black cats are the sweetest

Bron already gave you great info, the only think I’d add is that for the preshot tests, you want to make sure Tony hasn’t eaten at least 2 hours before so you know the bg result you get is not influenced by food and it’s a safe number to shoot. For the other tests, it doesn’t matter.

Any health issue that affects the pancreas can lead to diabetes because the organ is not functioning well and more likely to develop other issues. Feeding smaller meals throughout the day is easier on the already compromised pancreas and it also helps to avoid big sugar spikes.

It does take some time to start to see results and to get a cat regulated. Sometimes weeks, sometimes months. Insulin is a hormone that needs time to work and glargine requires consistency so make sure you’re giving the shot every 12 hours with no more than a 15 minute variance. We follow 2 dosing protocols here and we adjust the dose by 1/4 unit, not full units like most vets do. Once you have a spreadsheet setup and have been on 1 unit for a week, we can talk about next steps. The most important thing is to not try to rush the process. Feline diabetes is a marathon not a sprint

hang in there! It’s a learning curve but once you get the hang of it, it will all just feel like part of the routing like feeding him.