Adopting a diabetic cat

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tecwmn

tecwmn

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Hi everyone! I just adopted two special needs cats (brother, Fin and sister, CC). CC is very shy and needs socialization and Fin is a diabetic. I have already been visiting them and transferring scents from my dog by leaving a toy and leaving my shirt for my dog after hanging with the cats. From what I understand, these two have been with the shelter for three + years and have been fostered by a kind lady for two years. Their current foster mom free-feeds them dry food because she is gone for about 12 - 14 hours a day. Obviously, I will be changing over to a set schedule and a healthy wet food diet (Fin is a little heavy).

Having read everything I could find online, I now have some questions and would like advice on my 'plan of attack'....I bring them home next weekend. nailbite_smile

Glucose meters....I understand I can use a human one, but not being a diabetic how would I get supplies without a doctor's consent....so I am looking at the GlucoPet and AlphaTrak. Can anyone give me their experience with these two?

Here is my game plan...please let me know if I have forgotten anything or you want to give me advice. Understanding the seriousness of what I am going to undertake (food switch with a diabetic) is making me really nervous.

1. Bring them home, place them in the small guest room with all their stuff and leave them be for a bit
2. Establish normal glucose for Fin
3. Start twice daily feedings (monitoring glucose during this process and adjusting insulin accordingly - when would be best to test?)
4. Start mixing wet food with dry food at feedings
5. Over the course of a week, completely switch over to wet food (closely monitoring and adjusting all the while...)
6. Establish new normal glucose for Fin
7. Fin loses weight over period of time
8. Fin's need for insulin is reduced or eliminated by a healthy, tightly regulated diet (hurrah!)

Now, I know that there is a good chance that things will not go as fairytale like as I described above...but, one can hope!

Please know how much I appreciate the guidance and advice over this very scary terrain.

Warmest,

TecWmn
 
Bless you for taking in these two kitties.

I will answer your question about meters.

Avoid the special 'vet' ones. They are way expensive, especially the test strips.
And you can only buy the strips at the vet. What if you run out over the weekend.

Just get a human meter at any pharmacy. No prescription is required.

You want one
that uses a very tiny amount of blood ( 1 micro-liter up to 3 micro liters).
You want one that uses 'sipping' strips.

Also, the
test strips are the most expensive part of the BG meter business, so look for a meter
that has inexpensive test strips.

Some here use the Reli-On BG meter...Walmart.

Also, you will need a lancet device and some lancets. Reli-On fine (not ultra-fine) lancets are OK.
 
If you are not using a human insurance company, you do not usually need prescriptions for supplies. Some states require prescriptions from your vet for syringes tho.

You are an angel, thank you so much for taking these 2 in.
 
tecwmn said:
Hi everyone! I just adopted two special needs cats (brother, Fin and sister, CC). CC is very shy and needs socialization and Fin is a diabetic.
Click to expand...

Good for you!!! You are an angel.

Glucose meters....I understand I can use a human one, but not being a diabetic how would I get supplies without a doctor's consent....so I am looking at the GlucoPet and AlphaTrak. Can anyone give me their experience with these two?
Click to expand...

The strips for the pet glucometers are very expensive and only available from vets and maybe vet supply companies. No scripts needed for human glucometers and strips. Karen suggested Reli-on, which is what I buy for the cats in the Diabetic Cats in Need program. There's also the Maxima AST, available from Hocks.com. Those two have the least expensive strips, sometimes even available on EBay, and the Relion strips are usually in stock at Walmart pharmacies.

3. Start twice daily feedings (monitoring glucose during this process and adjusting insulin accordingly - when would be best to test?)
Click to expand...

Many of us feed more frequently than twice/day. What insulin will you be using. The twice/day feeding is old protocol, when fast-dropping insulins like Humulin N were more common. Diabetics (cat or human) have more level blood sugar levels with small frequent meals.

5. Over the course of a week, completely switch over to wet food (closely monitoring and adjusting all the while...)
Click to expand...

Don't be disappointed if it takes longer than that. Dr. Lisa's site has good info about transitioning from dry to wet.

7. Fin loses weight over period of time
Click to expand...

Dr. Lisa's site also addresses feline obesity. It is important to take weight loss slowly, so that there are not liver problems.

8. Fin's need for insulin is reduced or eliminated by a healthy, tightly regulated diet (hurrah!)
Click to expand...

Best of luck!! We'll be here to help.
 
Bless you!

Lantus or Levemir are the best insulins for most cats. You might try to get a prescription for one of those (3 ml cartrigdes or pens, NOT the 10 ml vial).
 
Hi and welcome.

What a wonderful gift you are giving these two cats. They are lucky you have found them.

Others have already given you great advice on insulin and meters, I just wanted to say hi and also agree with what's been said. The food transition may take a bit longer, no need to stress them or yourself in the beginning. As the food changes, Fin's need for insulin should naturally get lower. Less carbs usually bring about lower need for insulin, so great that you will be learning to hometest.

When you find out the type of insulin, let us know and we can help you with that.

Be sure to print out the hypo instructions and get things ready for the just in case, hope you never need it, hypo tool kit.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1122

We can also help you with syringes and things like that. I buy my syringes online from Hocks.com, you'll see a button for them up above, by clicking through that button FDMB gets a small amount to help keep this site running. Hocks has great prices too and loyalty rewards that earn cash back to be used on future purchases.

Looking forward to getting to know you, Fin and CC.
 
Welcome to FDMB! Usually I say sorry that you had to find us. But, to you, I have to say thank you, thank you for adopting these two special needs cats.

I would wish you lots of patience as you begin your journey in sugar land. Sometimes food transition can take a while. Other times, cats are very happy to see warmed canned food. Take care to do it gradually to go easy on their digestive tracts.

I second the use of a human glucometer and the tips on choosing one. It happens that I am diabetic, so I had one in the house. Now, I have one for me and one for each of my five diabetic cats. The Aviva has a memory that can be downloaded to the computer. So, everyone needs their own. (Trying to sort my BGs from the cats' bgs would be fun.)

Either Lantus or Levemir is a very gentle insulin that produces good results with cats.

Good luck socializing CC/ Bringing an adult along is a major task as I know. I just took back a kitten born in my house in 2004. He is scared of everything, and would spend all of his time under the bed if he could.

Bless you for caring enough to take these two cats. Wishes for everything to go smoothly.

Claudia
 
Wow, thanks for all the fabulous advice! I will post again once I find out what insulin Fin is on. Going to get all the supplies for their homecoming on Saturday night....I am so nervous! I go tomorrow to learn to give the shot and do the monitoring. The vet is going to show me on a fake stunt-kitty. ;-)

Again, thank you all so much for the great advice!!
 
Over on the PZI board there are a lot of ProZinc users so feel free to come on over. Lots of helpful people!! Welcome and Bless You for taking in 2 extra special kitties.
 
Hi there and welcome.

Yep, we've heard of it :-D

We use ProZinc too. Many here use it with success - even some kitties have gone off insulin on it here recently. It is considered a type of "PZI" insulin.

3u is not that high of a dose.

I might change the plan this way:
1. Bring them home, place them in the small guest room with all their stuff and leave them be for a bit
2. Start home testing
3. Track your testing in a spread sheet and profile put together [instructions in the Tech Support forum in the stickies at the top here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=6
4. Start mixing wet food with dry food at feedings - convert to all wet low carb in a few days days or less. Some make an immediate jump.
5. Free feed - normal cats should eat 10-20 small meals per day. If your kitty is overweight and needs to lose weight or is a "hoover" and is overweight prone then the closest approximation to free feeding is optimal. Some use timed feeders in their efforts with their "Hoover" kitties. Please ask about timed feeders if you have an interest in them.
6. Monitor blood glucose during this process and adjusting insulin accordingly - testing at least before ever "pre shot" or "PS" as it is known in these parts) To start with, you should also be getting some mid-cycle numbers. Please read about curves and mini-curves here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-minicurve.htm
http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-curves.htm
7. Fin loses weight over period of time

When you switch to a low carb wet ONLY diet the insulin needs can drop - sometimes dramatically. The usually recommendation is the drop back to 1u and re-regulate once the switch has been made. Sometimes it can take 3-7 days for the initial changes to be noticed and up to a few weeks for the big changes to happen. Then even beyond the three weeks positive changes can still occur.

There is PZI "Insulin Support Group" specifically for PZI users located here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=24
You are more than welcome to join us.

Please read the info at the top of the PZI forum. There is PZI specific info in there that will help you.

Please make sure you are feeding a low carb, wet ONLY diet. Low carb = below 9-10% carbs in this table:
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html
The prescription diets are not needed and generally have very average ingredients.
 
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