Advice please

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felixtommy

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My beautiful 13 year old cat Tommy was diagnosed with diabetes today. He has been ravenous since April this year, we moved house 4 weeks ago,so it was not until I kept him in for 2 weeks I realised how much he was drinking. Vet seems to think he could only have been diabetic for a couple of weeks as would not be alive, but I think he has been diabetic for longer. Vet has given me the weekend to decide how to proceed with Tommy, as a single Mum on benefits, I really want to try Tommy with treatment, but am too shellshocked to think straight really. What are the success rates for treating diabetes? Do cats generally respond well to the insulin? What kind of diet would Tommy need if I proceed with treatment? I really want to keep my Tommy, but have to look at the overall picture and the financial side as well. Any advice or previous experiences please would be v gratefully appreciated. Thank you. Bee
 
You have come to the right place...we can help you keep Tommy, manage his diabetes, and do so without going broke.

First, as to what Tommy needs to eat: Your boy needs to be on a low carb diet, and this means he really cannot have dry food as most are very high carb. Your vet may have or will recommend some very expensive cat food - not only is this not the best food for Tommy, it is very expensive. I encourage you to take a look at Janet & Binky's food chart here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. As you can see, low-carb food is available in Friskie, Fancy Feast, etc., all of which cost a fraction of what food recommended by your vet will cost.

As to insulin, and particularly since it sounds like Tommy may not have been diabetic for very long, you may want to consider Lantus. There is an entire forum on this board for Lantus users that you may want to look at. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9 In particular, read the "stickies" at the top of the forum.

As for supplies, you will need to purchase syringes to give Tommy insulin, and the supplies necessary to hometest his blood glucose. We have "newbie kits" available that contain supplies, and you may want to look here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=19541

As you check things out on the board, I'm sure you will have a TON of questions and you should feel free to ask. We are all here to support you and Tommy. Believe it or not, this will work out just fine, so relax and let us help you help Tommy.
 
Welcome Bee! The good news is that diabetes is pretty easy to work with, not terribly expensive and sometimes cats do go into remission. The other news is that your job is to research and educate yourself, so you can be the best possible advocate for your Tommy.

We feed our kitties wet lo carb food - just like a good lo carb diet for a human diabetic. And this would be a good place to start as you contemplate what you are able to do. We pick a food that is between 8-10% carbs, staying away from feeding fish more than once or twice a week. Jana gave you the food chart. Economically, Fancy Feast and Friskies are the best choices. t Sometimes a change in diet can make an amazing chance in insulin needs; some kitties go off insulin with a diet change.

The next and most important part of what we advocate is to test Tommy's blood glucose at home. Just like a human diabetic, we test before each shot to make sure it is safe to give insulin. And we keep track of what the levels are. Many people send these numbers to their vets for dosage advice. As Jana said, we have free kits for newbies. To see what it involves, here is a good beginning website: http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/harry/bgtest.htm and here is a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zE12-4fVn

The last part of this is insulin. There are inexpensive insulins like Humulin, but they are hard to regulate with. They tend to be harsh and not last long. Most people here use Lantus, Levemir or PZI. All three last about 12 hours and are much milder on the cat. We urge you to start low and go slow - usually beginning at .5 or 1 unit twice a day.

So start reading and printing off information. Ask lots of questions. It is a very doable disease and we will be glad to help you!
 
hi there and welcome aboard.

as far as if they respond well to insulin, oh definitely :-) diabetes is not really that hard to treat. a proper diet and some insulin are basically your main concerns if kitty is otherwise healthy.

My Mousie was diagnosed in September 2006 and been on insulin every since. If she could speak our language she'd probably say "huh? what do i got? hmmm, i didn't know that." You'd never know she had a disease if you saw her.

Now don't go thinking OMG I GOTTA DO THIS FOR 4 YEARS??? :-) most kitties are type 2 diabetics and it's not unusual for kitties to go into remission or otherwise be known as diet controlled diabetics. my Mousie is of course an oddball and has to be type 1 so that is why we're still on insulin 4 years later.

as far as finances go, believe me, there's been thousands pass thru here over the years and if there's a way to do this and save money, someone here knows it.

as far as food goes, yes there's a special diet they need but it's special in that it is low carbohydrates. you don't have to buy the "special" food that costs an arm and a leg. there's plenty of brands out there with numerous low carb varieties that are affordable. for instance, a lot of us feed foods ranging from walmart's special kitty brand to 9lives to friskies to fancy feast and on up to stuff like wellness, etc....

i go thru approximately 600 or so cans of food a month at my house so you dang well know i find ways to keep costs down :-D

you're gonna hear about hometesting and there's affordable ways to do that and even stuff like syringes you can get info here about where to get them cheaper and such. for instance, i recently got some from walmart and i think they were about $13 or so for 100 of them.

do some reading and ask questions over the next couple days and we'll help you with whatever we can so you can make the most informed decision you can :-)
 
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