A few questions

[AliciaG]

Hello, today my 9yr female cat Juliet was just diagnosed not only as a diabetic but is also having trouble walking and has arthritis. We are currently trying to improve her walking and have started to give her some serious pain meds to determine if the weak hind legs is just the arthritis or if it's a blood clot. I guess my big question is, can i start feeding immediately with low carb fancy feast while working on her pain before beginning to tackle the diabetes and will doing so create a large enough improvement to help ease the diabetes until being able to start insulin? I can't bear the thought of putting her down but i also worry about the costs with very limited funds.

 

[Voula]

Hello, today my 9yr female cat Juliet was just diagnosed not only as a diabetic but is also having trouble walking and has arthritis. We are currently trying to improve her walking and have started to give her some serious pain meds to determine if the weak hind legs is just the arthritis or if it's a blood clot. I guess my big question is, can i start feeding immediately with low carb fancy feast while working on her pain before beginning to tackle the diabetes and will doing so create a large enough improvement to help ease the diabetes until being able to start insulin? I can't bear the thought of putting her down but i also worry about the costs with very limited funds.

Hi Alicia. Welcome to the board to you and Juliet too. Yes you can start on a low carb diet before beginning treatment for the diabetes. Depending on Juliet's glucose levels it might be possible to control the diabetes with diet alone but you will need to be monitoring her glucose to know if this is the case. Regarding the walking issues it may well be arthritis but it could also be low potassium which can occur with diabetes and it may also be diabetic neuropathy so it may be some of these issues or all of them. For neuropathy a lot of people use a product called zobaline and have found it useful in conjunction with control of blood glucose levels but the walking issue might only be arthritis as you said. Of course you want to do the best for your Juliet and this board has many wonderful people who will support you and Juliet and offer suggestions as to how to minimise the costs of treatment too.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Welcome Alicia and Juliet.
I agree with Voula that you can start the low carb canned food straight away.
My cat Sheba has arthritis and she also had peripheral neuropathy in her back legs. Her back legs were very weak and she could not jump up onto chairs and her legs would slide from under her. I started her on Zobaline for cats and over time and with improvement in her diabetic numbers- she is now back to normal and can jump up on chairs etc.
Here is the site to order Zobaline.
http://www.ilifelink.com/zobaline-for_diabetic_cats-3_mg_x_60_tablets.html

Do you know what insulin you will be using? One of the long lasting insulins is best-Lantus or levemir. Pro zinc/PZI is also good but I know nothing about this insulin.
Can you tell us what country you live in as every country has different things/ names etc
Probably one of the best things you could do for Juliet,apart from low carb wet food is to get a glucose monitor and learn how to take her blood sugar levels. You will save a lot on vet bills by doing that and the wonderful people here will help you with dosing. It will be much safer for Juliet if you are monitoring her numbers.
Can you click on your profile and go to the information tab and in that is your signature. In that you can list Juliets age, insulin if known, country you live in and food. Later you can add other info. That will then appear at the bottom of your post.
Don't even think about putting Juliet down. Diabetes is a very treatable disease and the people here will help you with ideas to keep costs down. As far as I know, I think blood clots would come on suddenly and they are very painful....not like arthritis but acutely painful so I doubt it would be that. To me,it sounds like she has peripheral neuropathy. And as I said.... It can look really bad but it does get better.
We have many cats here that have been successfully treated for diabetes.. Some are even able to come off the insulin in time.
I know how stressful this must be for you....it is always hard in the beginning, but it will soon become old hat!
Ask Lots of questions.....no one minds answering them

 

[AliciaG]

Thank you so much for all the information and all the current and forthcoming support. Honestly, I am not sure the first step forward in regards to what supplies are needed and where to get them. I don't mind working with the vet, but anything and everything I can do at home I will strive for. Thank you so much everyone for your current and continued support.

 

[Jan Radar (GA)]

You've made an important first step by switching Juliet to Fancy Feast.
The next thing you might do is familiarize yourself with home testing on this site. There are many helpful tools and tips here in addition to lots of people who will help you get started. You will want to buy an inexpensive human glucometer and the strips to go with it. You will also want to help Juliet get used to the idea by touching her ears briefly at first followed by a yummy low carb treat. You can work your way up to massaging the ear. It's important to make this as stress free as possible and always follow with hugs, praise and something yummy. You will be getting your drop of blood for testing from the small capillaries in the ear. It sounds horrible when you first hear of this but it's really not as bad as your imagination would suggest. I hope this is helpful as you contemplate your next steps.

 

[BJM]

Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.