Bacardi the devon rex

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BacardiTheGreat

BacardiTheGreat

Member Since 2018
Hi people, let me introduce my kitty here too :) His name is Bacardi and he is a soon to be 12 years old devon rex. He is super feisty and has his opinion on everything, he used to love to cuddle and talk before his diagnosis 5 months ago. Now he knows that every touch means a needle and is not so friendly anymore. I really hope I'll get him back soon!

He is a big fat teddy bear, so our journey is going to be losing some weight togetther with managing his diabetes.

I am glad that my spoilt kitty is now in good company of all your furbabies here!
 
And a little story about his diagnosis: I was living abroad and Bacardi stayed with my ex partner. We Skyped a lot, that's when I noticed Bacardi didn't look so good. I was told that he had a cold. But it never got better and within two months he lost almost half of his weight. I was told that his diet was finally working (he had been on a diet because of his infinite appetite and being overweight) - I wasn't there personally to check on him, but was really worried..I called my mum to come and get him and when she did, she noticed that Bacardi started to lose his fur! He went almost bald in a week! My mum took him to the vet immediately, at the time he was on the verge of starving, my poor baby. The vet gave him an anti vomit injection and sent him home with antibiotics!! It took my mum another 3 visits to finally get the vet to test his blood. It was only then when we finally received the diagnosis. Now I returned home to take care of him and am determined to help him get well again :)

He now has his fur back, and unfortunately also all his weight :) We are still struggling to keep his BG stable, he's gone into a hypo couple of times and sometimes he is still over 30..but we keep fighting :)

It has been a rocky road from the beginning, I am only hoping for a happy end!
 
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Hi and welcome to you and Bacardi to the forum.:)
We can definitely help you here but we will need some information from you first.
Are you feeding a low carb (10% or less carb) canned/wet food diet?
What type of insulin are you using? And are you giving it twice a day 12 hours apart?
Are you home testing the blood sugars? If so what type of meter are you using?
We recommend you start home testing the blood sugars if you have not been doing so. It is much safer for Bacardi and will avoid any hypo episodes. Getting tested at the vet every so often is not safe. We can help you get started with the home testing. It sounds scary but is not hard and honestly the kitties don't mind, especially as they get a small low carb treat after each test.
If he has had hypos and also jumping up to the 30s (540) he could be bouncing which is normal in newly diagnosed cats or he could be getting too much insulin. Only way to find out is to home test the blood sugars to see what is going on.
Have a look at this link about home testing

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

You mention that Bacardi thinks every touch means a needle. I would give him lots of cuddles when he is not getting needles and when you are giving the insulin you could let him be eating so he is distracted

Could you fill out your signature which will appear at the bottom of all your posts and will save everyone having to ask you the same questions over and over. Here is the link and info about what to do.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Come on over to the Main forum where there are a lot more people who would love to help you. This is a very friendly community who all love their kitties and have a wealth of knowledge about feline diabetes.:)
Bron
 
Hello Bron, thank you for your reply! I am so overwhelmed by all of this, I just spent hours reading about food. I can't believe that all the prescription dibetes diets are so high on carbs! I live in Europe (just moved back from Australia) and literally haven't found anything yet.

Diagnosis: He was diagnosed approximately half a year ago when living with my mum - she managed to get him back on track (well, not dying to be precise), but did not measure him very often apart from the initial period. So, although he has been in treatment for a couple of months, we are still at the beginning as for getting everything right.
Food: He is not on a low carb diet at the moment (long story about my mum having 9 cats in the house while working full time and not enough time to deal with him separately), but I want to change it asap - as soon as I find what to order for him. He is fed twice a day together with insulin. I'd love to be able to feed him more often, as he loves to eat and basically begging for food is all he does.
Insulin: he's on caninsulin, 5 units twice a day. It seemingly worked for him and saved him from a certain death, but now when I measure him I don't believe thats his correct dosage. I wrote in the forum about our current situation: he went from a hypo to very high, then to really low (so low, that I did not inject him) to so high that my meter did not measure him. So, a lot to do here.
Testing: We just started testing regularly, twice a day before shots, but I want to test more often - I need Bacardi to get used to it (and me too, I think I am more anxious and worried about me hurting him than he probably is lol).

I am sure he will get used to me touching and injecting him, but we were apart for almost a year now - so I need to gain his trust again, which will take time. He hates changes and now is used only to my mum injecting him (he comes to cuddle with her though, so I am sure we'll work on it). I am going to move houses in a week or two, which I fear - he robably won't even let me touch him for a while. Well...it's a process ;)

So, my plan is:
- getting the right food (ANY help here would be very, very appreciated - I am even willing to cook/prepare raw for him)
- start measuring him 3 times a day - morning before food, then 6 hours after insulin and then evening before food (do you think it's enough for starters?)
- making the spreadsheet once I figure out how ;)

Thank you so much for your message, I felt so anxious and afraid and incompetent and evil (preventing him from eating, poking all the time - that is so paiful to watch) and now with reading the forum and your nice words I am sure that it's the way to go, way to help him and there's no need to worry. We'll get there
 
I see you have your signature done...that is great. It helps a lot and people who help you will look to that and your spreadsheet first to get an idea of what is going on. BTW Bacardi is gorgeous!
I see you are in the Czech Republic, having recently returned from Australia.....I have no idea of what food is available over there but I am sure we will be able to find someone who does. I live in Sydney Australia. Any canned food would be better than any dry food for a start until you can find out the low carb foods.
A word of warning though..........changing over to a low carb diet must only be done if you are testing the blood sugars frequently during the change over because the low carb diet can lower the blood sugars up to 5 or 6 mmol (100) points. So when you find the food and are ready to do the change over, post and we will help you with the change over.

5 units of insulin is a lot....do you know how they arrived at that dose? We increase or decrease the dose by 0.25 (1/4) unit increments as it is much safer and we are unlikely to go past the best dose. I'm not sure what insulins are available where you are but if you could get Bacardi changed over to Lantus, Levemir or Prozinc, they are longer acting and gentler insulins for cats.
As far as testing goes....test before every shot of insulin to make sure it is safe to shoot. Then test between 4 and 6 hours later (vary
the time each day to get an idea when the nadir (lowest point in the cycle ) is, and try and get a before bed test each night to see you don't need to test later as most cats drop lower at night.
Here is the link to the spreadsheet ....if you have any trouble setting it up, post and ask for help.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Cats that are unregulated are always hungry as their bodies can't absorb all the nutrients. It is fine to feed at other times during the day, especially around the nadir as it helps keep them safe from too low blood sugars. Most of us feed at shot time and then a few hours later during both cycles as it is better for the pancreas to get smaller meals than two large meals. The one thing we don't do is feed for the 2 hours before the insulin shot so that the blood sugar level ( BSL) is not food influenced.

It is a steep learning curve in the beginning and can be overwhelming..we all started off there so understand.:bighug:.......but you will soon get very used to it all and before you know it, you will be the one helping a newbie! You have definitely come to the right place. We are one big community here with the wellbeing of our kitties at the entire of it. Safety of our kitties is our first priority.

What I would do now is go over to the main forum and post asking if anyone can help you with food in Europe. We do have members who live in Europe so someone is sure to be able to help. The other alternative is a raw diet....which I feed, but see how you go asking first. In your subject line put something like..." new member needs help with low carb food in Europe (or Czech Republic)"..Here is the link to the main forum
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/
Bron
 
BacardiTheGreat said:
I am so overwhelmed by all of this, I just spent hours reading about food.
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Welcome Bacardi and Kate! A diabetes diagnosis is incredibly overwhelming, but you've come to a great place for support and great information to get Bacardi on track. I love that you have a plan!!
As a newbie , I don't venture to offer advice but I am happy to share my experience. When Coco was diagnosed in June she needed to lose a few pounds. There was just so much and I couldn't tackle it all at once! After talking to Mr. Vet, we agreed that transitioning Coco to wet food and getting her BG numbers under control were higher priority than the weight loss so that's where we started. Once I found a low carb wet food she would eat, it became much easier. Coco and I are still learning but it is very manageable. You and Bacardi can do this!!
 
Thank you Kerri :) When Bacardi was diagnosed, he was at half of his weight, just skin and bones (for the first time in his life), so the vet did not offer any advice on weight loss. I was actually never happied to see him getting big again, because I knew that it was going to be better. It's good to know that your vet thinks that it's more important to manage Coco's blood sugar - it just confirms what I thought. And I hope that putting him on proper low carb diet might help with his fluffy bubber too - althought they are sooo cute in their greatness, aren't they ;)
 
They are definitely above average!! And Coco isn't afraid use her weight to her advantage.
In a perfect world she'd lose 2-3 pounds and get back to her ideal weight but the diabetes diagnosis changed all that. Mr. Vet wants me to monitor her weight to make sure it remains stable (translate: pudgy) so I'm looking for a baby weigh scale. :rolleyes: If she starts losing, we would need to re-evaluate and likely go back on insulin.
 
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