A new diabetic

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kitty cat burton

kitty cat burton

Member Since 2014
Hello everyone at FDMB. My kittys name is Burton. He was diagnosed with diabetes on Oct. 21, 2014. Since then his glucose has gone up, then now is starting to go down. At his last check, it was 440.
The vet has him on 6 units now twice a day. He was started out on 3 and has gone up 1 unit per vet visit. The vet put him on Hills M/D dry food. Is there a cheaper brand he could eat instead?
Everything has been costing so much for him. The vet told us we could check his glucose by sticking him in the gums. But we just couldn't do that to Burton. I have read here about doing it in his paw palms
or his ears. that sounds like it would be much easier, and hopefully less painful for him. Burton has still been drinking a lot of water, about 2 1/2 cups a day. When will he stop drinking so much water?
Any help will be appreciated. I know I will have more questions, as I am still not used to this yet.
 
Welcome.
I never heard of getting blood from the gum for BG testing. For cats the ear is typically used and sometimes a paw pad.
For dogs, the inner lip is frequently used.
Low carb, commercial canned food is best. Here is a listing of them:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=117688

What kink of insulin are you using? Six units twice daily is a high dose.
Most of use here record the BGs in a spreadsheet and. Here is how to set one up
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50130
 
Welcome!

That is a higher dose than we usually see on the forum - most cats are on 2 units or less. But, if he is eating Hills dry, that could account for his higher numbers. (I think it is 38% carbs and we try to stay below 10% carbs.) As Larry said, there are better, lower carb foods. If money is an issue, Friskies pates are among the least expensive. BUT we would urge you not to change foods until you are testing at home. We switched Oliver from dry to wet and he dropped 100 points overnight. If we hadn't tested before his shot the next morning and had given his usual dose, he could have hypoed. We can teach you how to test at home and how to do it inexpensively.

Check out the protocol we put together for ProZinc. It is in blue type at the bottom of my post.
 
The dry food is the problem. It is higher carb than he needs to have.
If you home test the blood glucose, you can safely change the food as you can monitor how fast it drops.

We support feeding low carb canned over the counter food such as Friskies Pates which has less than 10% calories from carbohydrates. For more nutrition info, written by a vet, go to Cat Info. Any food change should be made about 20-25% a day, to reduce the chance of diarrhea, vomiting, or food refusal.
 
Test your sweet kitty Burton by poking him in the gums!!!! Outrageous! That is only for dogs.

Cats have too many nerve endings in the gums or lips so we use either the ear or the paw. Much safer and less painful for your kitty.
 
I want to thank everyone that responded to Burtons food and checking his BG. My computer has been down the past few days and I haven't been able to get back to the food list, but
I picked him up a few cans anyways. He seems to be doing a little better. I am heading out to the store now to get him some more food. Has anyone heard of Priority canned food by Safeway?
Is it any good? He has his next vet visit tomorrow, Wed. at 3:30. hopefully all will be going better. Again thanks everyone.
 
I've not heard of the Priority canned food at Safeway.

Basically, look at the list of ingredients. You want to avoid most canned foods that contain any grains like corn, wheat, soy, rice, tapioca since they add carbs. Foods that are "In Gravy" are usually higher carb too so you want to avoid those. Fruits and vegetables in cat foods also add carbs so steer away from those too. Cats are carnivores, and don't need those fruits and veggies, unlike us "Beans" who need that varied diet.

Many pet food manufacturers will tout their "Grain free" products, but they simply replace the grains with something like potato or peas which again are high carb.

I wasn't able to find an ingredients list, with a quick look online so not sure what is in that Priority cat food you asked about. The above tips should help you see if it's a good food or not for your diabetic cat.
 
6 units is quite a high dose, even for a big boy.

My three or four cents on home testing... I found it's a lot cheaper if you can do the testing at home... not to mention safer for the cat (since you can better avoid giving too much insulin). A blood glucose reading is just for that one moment in time. A cat on insulin can have their blood glucose change by 200 points in less than an hour. So one data point each vet visit is not really enough to go by... not enough to say it's going up or its going down in the long run if you see what I mean. Doing several tests in a row two hours apart gives you an idea of whether the dose is correct and how long it is lasting so you can adjust and find the right dosage... and maybe even get your kitty off the insulin altogether!

If the vet does a fructosamine test that gives you an idea of how high or low the blood sugar has been on average for the past few weeks... but still requires a vet visit and lab test.

I poke my cats in the ear to blood test and neither of them seem to feel the needle. The only thing they don't like is having to sit still and have their ears touched for too long so I have to do it quickly (that takes a lot of practice!)

I hope that gives you a few good reasons to give home testing a try. It's hard at first but you and Burton will soon get used to it. And, hopefully the need is only temporary!

Cheers,
Lori
 
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