9/17/20 new member weight loss

My cat was diagnosed with diabetes back in June and we are having a hard time getting his insulin regulated. When he was first diagnosed we started with 1 unit twice a day. He seemed to be really sleepy. After two weeks I brought him back in and they said it looked like he was in remission. After two more weeks we brought him back in for a check and he was not in remission so we started 1 unit once a day. Blood test showed his numbers were in the upper 400 low 500 so we started on 1.5 unit once a day. Of course I’m shortening the sorry but the vet was doing all day GB curves and also checks mid-day.

I’m bring him into tomorrow morning because he looks awful, he’s lost so much weight. His fur looks dull and I can see quite a bit of hair around the house. He’s always been a thin cat but now he’s down right emancipated. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

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Feed him feed him feed him. Unregulated diabetics need 2x the amount of normal food. Underweight cats should get as much as they want.
He will not gain the weight back until he's regulated, since the inadequate amount of insulin prevents them from utilizing nutrients properly. Feed him as much as he wants and focus on getting his dosage correct.

What food and what insulin is he on? He needs low-carb food, most of us use Friskies Pate or Fancy Feast Classics, there are other options though. Prescription food is not suitable for diabetics.

Are you in the US? If so I would like for you to pick up a home testing kit from Walmart - glucometer, testing strips, lancets, and lancet device. We can teach you how to test.
A cat's insulin needs fluctuate weekly - daily even - so by not testing at home you are not able to keep up with his insulin needs. Glucose curves are expensive and stressful - and stress increases BG, making his readings falsely inflated. This is designed both to keep your wallet from bleeding dry and - more importantly - keeping your fella out of the ER and safe.

 

What Panic said, amen!!!

A good rule of thumb for daily calorie intake is 20 times ideal weight. So if he should be 10 pounds, he should be getting 200 calories a day at least. At least 20-25% more if he needs to gain. Diabetic cats lose weight because they can’t process the nutrients in food well so they eat but are still constantly hungry and lose weight. They also burn calories just by peeing since there’s sugar in their urine

 

Also most cats require insulin twice a day. Since you said you are only giving one shot per day that is also making it difficult to regulate the glucose levels. Can you tell us what insulin you are using? We can tell you if it is one cats respond well to.

Would you consider home testing? That is the best way to determine how well the insulin and dose are working.

 

Hello? Please don't be offended but your vet has some culpability here in saying he was in remission-unless proper testing at the vet of home was done this was merely a guess. It sounds like your kitty is a fighter and deserves a chance to actually go into remission-we on the forum can help you-we are family and understand the ups and downs-
We hope to hear from you.

 

We

We definitely would! We watched a video on the site and we figured we could do it.

 

The vet did do the BG curve but actually getting to sit down and talk with them has been almost impossible with Covid. Someone comes out To the car and gets him and then at the end of the day someone brings him back out and tells us what units he needs. I had to ask for him levels throughout the day.

 

We have him on the fancy feast pate classic seafood. He’s using the human insulin called Lantus Solostar.

We feed him a can in the morning and a can at night. He never eats the whole can at either time. He likes to come in and snack throughout the day. I do have Crave salmon kibble for him to snack on a bit during the day. It was one of the highest protein kibbles we could find. I’ve even caught him eating my dog’s food. This morning he drank for 15 minutes straight, wasn’t even interested in food. Usually we give him food and then his insulin shot.

 

Crave is going to be too high in carbs, you'll want to cut it out when it's safe - only do it when you're hometesting because high carb food increases insulin needs, so taking it away will lower his BG and you'll have to be aware of how much you need to reduce.

Feed him throughout the day PLEASE. Let him graze, only 2 meals a day is for dogs, not cats. No wonder poor dude is underweight only eating 2 cans.

Sorry I can't give more info, about to head into work. But let him eat whenever he wants!

 

Hi Kim. I am new myself and am also trying to get my cat to eat more. Please follow their advice, they have helped me so much.
One thing I can tell you is get all that extra stuff, dog food, high carb snacks/kibble out of the diet. I was putting some dry Hills Glucose Support that my vet prescribed to me on top of the FF. And it was shooting her numbers way up. Just look at my chart. I stopped using it 5 days ago and it made a huge difference.
I test at 7:45am and feed at 8am. She eats, walks away, comes back 20 minutes later. I pick up the bowl and put a plate on it so food stays fresh and 2nd cat doesn't get into it. Food goes back down at noon, 5pm, 8pm, 10pm, midnight. And I'll put it back down anytime she asks for it. If I could leave it out all day, I would.

I wish you all the best!

 

I leave the wet food out all day but he only eats a little at a time. Do you think I should give him a can morning, noon and night?

 

Yes, feed him as often as he wants to eat right now. A lot of new diabetic cats go through 3-4 cans of Fancy Feast or more a day until they start getting regulated.

Also--if he is eating the dog's dry food, that will effect his blood glucose values, as dog food is generally high-carb. Are you able to make any changes so he won't have access to the dog food?

 

I think it was dog kibble his former owners fed that gave Trouble diabetes.

 

Many of us give kitties food 4-8 times per cycle. If there's no other kitties/dogs that will intervene, I would keep the food out and available all day.

Fancy Feast Kitten food might be low carb. It has more calories in it. We don't like to use seafood much, it's not that good for cats to eat on the regular.

 

There are 3 cats all eating the food but there’s almost always leftover from the morning can that he eats throughout the day and then I put a fresh can out at 5 or so. He’s just not eating the wet food very much. We’ve started putting all of the other animals food away so only the wet food is available all throughout the day. What flavors of fancy feast do you think is the best?

 

Thank you so much for your help. I do leave the wet food out and he snacks throughout the day. He’s just snacking and doesn’t eat very much. Sometimes I swear all he does is lick the juice.

 

any FF pate will do all of them are 10% carbs or under. Fancy Feast isnt the only brand Friskies pates are low ansd they have the bigger cans.

 

Any Fancy Feast Classics variations are good, the Roasted varieties are as well. The kitten varieties are low-carb as well, I just checked. I think they all (minus Kitten) are same calorie count abouts.

 

It was so weird, he never ate the dog food until he got diabetes. He

its called Lantus Solostar

 

How do you know what the calorie count is? I’m looking at the label and it doesn’t list calories, just crude protein, crude fat, crude protein and moisture, ash and turine.

 

Sorry, we use this chart here! Dr. Pierson did a lot of the legwork for us.

Lantus is a great insulin btw!

 

I’ll look at the chart. Glad to hear the insulin is good.

I really appreciate all of your help.

 

Here's some extra information for you when you're ready:

Spreadsheet Instructions (if it's too confusing we can have a mod set it up for you)
Signature Instructions

Lantus Notes:

Lantus is an insulin that craves consistency, meaning it likes AM and PM doses to be the same, not a lot of changes (unless needed), and it works best when you are as exact to 12 hrs apart as possible. Keep within a 15 minute window when shooting, so if you give insulin at 8 AM/PM, don't shoot earlier than 7:45 or later than 8:15. When needed, like for Daylight Savings Time or just life throwing off your schedule, you can do a max of 30 min early/late every 24 hours. If you do more, it will be like giving OVER full dose, if you do less, it's like you didn't give enough. Each cycle affects another. Lantus is also slow-acting, so you can test/feed/shoot at the same time, unlike fast-acting insulins that require food already on-board prior to shooting.

Hometesting Kit:

Hometesting Tips and Tricks
ReliOn Prime glucometer - $9
ReliOn Prime test strips - $18 for 100
ReliOn Lancets 26 G (or 28 if unavailable) - $1-2 for 100
ReliOn Lancing Device (optional) - $5
Travel-size Vaseline - $1
Neosporin Ointment + Pain Relief (ointment only, NOT cream) - $6
Cotton Pads (optional) - $2
Rice Sock or Pill bottle w/ warm water (optional) - homemade

You can use any kind of human meter, however the one listed above is Walmart brand and has the cheapest strips available. Same goes for lancets. You do not need a lancing device if you prefer to poke freehand, it's just personal preference. Vaseline is for helping the ear to bead up, neosporin is for helping the ear to heal/prevent bruising after the poke. Just a little dab of each. Cotton pads are optional, some people like to use them as backing so not to poke themselves, then to hold the ear a moment after to prevent bruising and stop bleeding. You can use a paper towel or your fingers if you prefer. Rice socks can be used in the microwave a few seconds to heat up and rub on the ear to draw the blood to the ear; it can also be used as backing when poking the ear. A pill bottle with warm water in it is another alternative to warm the ear, whichever thing you prefer to use.

Hypo Kit Supplies:

Hypo Kit Toolbox
Karo Syrup - $3
Ketone Test Strips (Ketostix) - $6
A few cans of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Marinated Morsels/Sliced in Gravy/Grilled in Gravy varieties - $0.60 each (these are your medium-carb cans)
A few cans of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers/Medleys Tuscany/Medleys Gravy in Sauce varieties - $0.60 each (these are your high-carb cans)

Medium Carb is 11-15%
High Carb is 16%+

You can also search through the catinfo chart while you're at the store to check which cans available are the ones you need. They don't HAVE to be Fancy Feast but they're fairly easy to find.

 

I hear ya--I was there with Dre Saturday night for several hours as they had emergencies-I always ask for a copy and for them to email me all the notes to help any future Dx--