Diabetic Cat Care: How does it impact your life?

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oreosmom

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Greetings,

As you might have probably seen my notes all weekend, we have just started caring for our newly diabetic cat. Our vet said many people do it and it is an entirely manageable disease. That didn't seem too bad. After the last four days, our lives are consumed by exhaustion, worry, incompetency, and doubts. My husband and I both work...me, usually at home.
As I have been following your posts, it appears that diabetic cat care is all-consuming. What I want to know from you is this:

HOW DOES DIABETIC CAT CARE IMPACT YOUR LIFE? Questions like: Are you able to work out of the home, what is your daily cat-care schedule like? How much time is involved in caring for your cat? Do you feel like you are running a cat hospital? Do you get much sleep? Has it affected your social life...can you travel? Financial impact? etc.

I really look forward to hearing back from you... the FDMB members.

Warm Regards,

Carol...Oreo's Mom
 
My cat is off the juice now ( thanks to a switch to canned food) but while he was on the insulin, we had a strict schedule of shots at 8 am and pm. Fed him at 8 2 and 8. We are retired, so that made a huge difference.
Travel was the biggie - we had to board him once and it cost a fortune, he didn't eat at all and they had to take him off the insulin. I am of the opinion that he'd have been better off at home with the cat sitter just feeding and doing the litter drill. REally.

If you can find a vet tech to come in and care for him, you're good to go. This of course takes a lot of effort to find someone you trust to do the job and to hold a key to your domain. Maybe even a neighbor can be trained to give the shots. As to bgt testing, this gets a lot more involved.

Yes, you will feel overwhelmed fora while. We all went thru it.

I used the frozen cat food serving if we were going to be out of the house at the 2 pm feeding.
 
Carol.

In the beginning I'm not going to kid you..it is stressful, there is worry and a steep learning curve, but then you get the steps down, establish a routine and it becomes like brushing your teeth each morning.

I, personally, have 14 cats (3 are diabetic) and a large dog, as well as a husband...in the beginning yes, it impacted life a lot. But now we have a routine and it is like raising a large family of human children. I get up in the morning, roll over and test Musette (she sleeps with us) then go find Autumn test her. While I am testing, hubby takes the dog out to go potty. After both girls are tested I start feeding the animals, all the cats eat canned food so they are fed first, I feed Autumn, and give her insulin, then feed the non-diabetics, then feed Maxwell & Musette and give Musette her insulin...Now while Maxwell is also diabetic, he is in remission now for almost a year so he is like caring for any other cat, except he can never have dry food again...but then again none of mine get dry food. Then while hubby gets ready for work I start his breakfast and feed the dog. All of this takes me about an hour out of my morning. That's it, I wake up at 6:30am and I'm done by 7:30am.

Then I take hubby to work if I'm going to need the truck for the day to run errands etc. (I work from home most days) By 8:00 am I'm back home and I do the breakfast dishes, clean the litterboxes and start my day. At 1pm I test both cats and feed everyone lunch, go about my day, run my errands, walk the dog and usually crack the books as I'm also a vet tech student. Somewhere between 4-6pm I go pick my husband up from work and bring him home, start dinner for the humans, at 7pm I test and feed and give insulin. Again done by 8pm and ready to do the evening dishes and settle down for the night or go out. My husband is also a bass guitar player for a local for cover band so on the weekends I usually go with him to their performances. On those occasions I test before I leave and again when I get back at around 2am. Otherwise I get my last test of the day in right before I go to bed. I also usually feed the cats one last time either right before bed or right before I leave to go listen to the band, I just put it down frozen so the can nibble on it as it thaws out.

So no it really hasn't effected our social life much, we just have to take a few extra steps as we probably would if our kids were human and we were leaving instructions for a babysitter. As far as travel, we haven't done that since we started having pets because of having a dog that needs to go out to potty and be walked, cats that need litter boxes cleaned etc so no real difference there either, just because of the sheer numbers in our household. But we do get away for evenings out for dinner or to hang out with friends. In fact even our friends have been great they completely understand when I have to leave briefly to go "shoot the kitties" and have even stopped looking at me funny.. :lol:

As far as sleep goes I haven't missed much more sleep than I normally would have, the only difference now with 3 diabetics in the household is there is no sleeping in on the weekends, I still roll out of bed at 6:30am but on the weekends if I want to I get up test feed, potty the dog, and shoot insulin and then crawl right back into bed, or I'll do what I need to do and go take a nap. As far as feeling like I'm running an animal hospital, well.....yeah, but that didn't start with my diabetics, I just happen to have a lot of animals and there is always someone that needs something since they are all rescues, I have one that as allegies and gets meds for those in the spring, I have my insulin dependent diabetics, right now I have a little girl that I'm treating for an eye infection because she got a scratch on it from playing in the garden. Pet meds just always take up part of my medicine cabinet. They are just staples of owning pets.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
I don't find care to be all that consuming at all. I've been doing this for years and now am owned by several diabetic cats and an amazing CH kitty who has neurological problems.

Both my husband and I work away from home. I test my diabetic cats before each shot, I am able to come home during the day and feed, so my kitties get canned food four times a day. I sometimes test at night before bed, sometimes I may get a few tests in on weekends.

I'm more relaxed than most because I can't always give shots right at 8am/pm, I don't get angry with myself if I have to give a shot at 8:30 or 7:45, it is what it is, there are times I will be late. I've even skipped shots when I've had to. Most recently I had surgery and I was supposed to stay overnight at the hospital. I did go home but went straight to bed and my husband forgot to give the insulin. Life goes on, we just got back on track after that.

In the beginning you will test more and be more stressed because you are learning but that's okay. I promise that in time, you will feel like an old pro at this. You will be able to see signs that your kitty may need a test because of the way your kitty is acting. You will have learned to see these signs because you'll have been testing blood sugar and know how your kitty is at certain numbers.

As for finances, my non diabetics cost me more. Since I home test I save money there. I buy my syringes on line and the last batch of Levemir I bought I got through Canada so it was much cheaper.

Keep posting here and ask questions. Someday you'll be the one writing to a new person telling them about your own experience.
 
Well, I still consider my cat, Tip to be recently diagnosed as she was diagnosed on valentine's day(that's the day the results were in, though I did not get them until the day after, wednesday, during work).

I do not work out of the home, I work at my college, as a lab monitor, so that isn't too exhausting, just sitting in the back, making sure nothing gets stolen and rules are enforced. But, what I really consider my 'full-time job' is that I go to college as a full-time student, a computer science major. Since Tip was diagnosed, I've been getting tons less sleep out of worry, since when I'm worried, I absolutely cannot sleep. The shots and tests and feeding times(she used to be free-fed dry) do take quite a bit out of my day, because I feel like there isn't much homework I can do between the test, then food, let her be for half an hour, then to track her down. This is because most of my homework involves either long math problems or writing a program. Thankfully, during the summer I neither have homework nor my job to worry about(My work schedule was Tue, Thurs- 9am-12:20pm, Wed- 3pm-6pm, so it was part-time).

I don't exactly feel lie I'm running a cat hospital, maybe a zoo, but not a cat hospital. This might be because I'm already a little used to one of my birds, who had cancer(and is probably still fighting it a little), and had a tumor that she removed herself, forcing her to spend a week at the vet. I mean, Tip does cause a bit more strain, but not that much.

I get less sleep than I did before, but I always make sure I have at least 3 hours of sleep so that I can somewhat function the next day. But I have sleep problems anyways, so it isn't like that is much different to me.

Yes, it has affected my social life, quite a bit, actually. As when I'm out with friends, since they are night people, they want to go out and hang out with me anywhere from 6pm-4am and for Tips nighttime shot at 7-7:30pm, and needing to be up at 6:30 in the morning, that doesn't leave me much room to go with friends. And then there's the issue of visiting my dad. I usually spend the night at my dads, and my grandfather has alzheimers, so even though it isn't his fault, I feel as though I shouldn't leave Tips shots and tests in his hands.

In regards to spending the night at my dads, I have worked out a schedule for that. I have my dad wait to let me give Tip her evening shot before I go to his house, Tip misses her morning dose the next day, but my dad takes me home before her evening shot, so she only goes without one shot, rather than 2. I am very concerned actually about a recent trip I want to make to Illinois, but I've also been training my younger sister to test and give the shots, and I'll likely hire her to take care of Tip the whole time I'm gone, which shouldn't be more than a few days. It's almost to where she's as good as me at giving shots. :) Next up on my list to teach her is how to test. I figure since I've got a little over a month to prepare her, that that's plenty of time for her to get really good at taking care of all the pets.(I have 3 cats and 2 birds, one of the birds had/has cancer, Tip's sister has seasonal allergies)

Overall, I do feel a bit overwhelmed, but each day gets easier. So it isn't like it's going to constantly be this way. :)
 
When I had a diabetic, it was a little time consming at first but it soon got easier. I worked a full time job and was able to adjust my work hours to fit into my cat's insulin schedule. A typical day would be this: feed/test/shoot, set timed feeder, off to work, come back around +10, maybe test bg, feed/test/shoot, maybe a mini snack or two and a bg test or two by +4, fit in playtime and grooming somwhere, go to sleep, repeat the next day. Having a diabetic cat didn't really affect me in any way. On occasion I did have to decline invites to weddings and parties because I didn't have anyone to care for my cat. And because of my housing situation at the time, I was not comfortable with having a sitter come over. Finance-wise... my cat waited until just after I got a good paying job to be DXd with diabetes @-) Guess where my new bigger salary ended up going towards? ohmygod_smile And I also had health issue-prone gerbils at the same time so sometimes it did feel like I had a mini vet clinic and my salary was just paying one vet bill after another another or for FD supplies or cases of food.
 
Hi Carol,
As you might have probably seen my notes all weekend, we have just started caring for our newly diabetic cat. Our vet said many people do it and it is an entirely manageable disease. That didn't seem too bad. After the last four days, our lives are consumed by exhaustion, worry, incompetency, and doubts. My husband and I both work...me, usually at home.
As I have been following your posts, it appears that diabetic cat care is all-consuming.

I have seen and posted in a couple of your threads this weekend. What you are experiencing is what just about everyone who joins the board has experienced. I will tell you that you do have a big advantage over me, because on the days after Bob was diagnosed almost a year ago, I didn't happen upon FDMB. Bob also required emergency vet treatment in the first week, so I was REALLY overwhelmed and freaked out, and Bob came close to dying. But I can completely understand the feelings of exhaustion, worry and especially incompetency. I learned how to do the BG tests and shots, and three days later my cat is almost dead and in the ER and I'm thinking "what is wrong with ME? I'm going to kill him!" In the time he was at the ER, I found some internet help. I found this place, but it seemed so large and daunting to me, so I didn't post, I just read a lot. I felt just like you - "This is going to take over my life, and these people are doing a 24/7 job that I can't possibly do!" I joined another board, much smaller, and read a lot there too. Reading and learning a whole lot is what enabled me to start to believe that I could, dammit I would "beat this thing" and I got past feeling incompetent. I also learned that it doesn't have to consume your life, it isn't something you have to worry and stress over 24 hours a day. It's just a disease, and once I learned more about the disease itself, it wasn't as scary as I first thought.

As far as the treatment went, I was in it alone. If your husband is taking an active role with you with Oreo, you have an advantage over a lot of people here as well.
I found that it helps if you understand that insulin is NOT a drug. It's a hormone that Oreo is either not processing enough of by himself, or his body can't correctly use the insulin he is producing correctly. So all you are doing is providing extra insulin so that his body can function correctly to remove glucose from his blood and let his cells absorb it.
The other thing that helps is if you understand that ECID we say all the time here. Oreo is different that any other cat in the world. There are no magic solutions that worked for me that are going to work for you. Every Cat is Different. Just because Bob reacted a certain way to treatment doesn't mean Oreo will. Things that didn't work with Bob can work with Oreo. But I will tell you that there is a zero percent chance that anything you go through with Oreo will be something that someone here has NOT dealt with. That's the beauty of this site. There are so many people here, and so many cats, that at least one person will be able to say "Hey, I know the answer to that question", and be able to help you out.

Diabetic cat care doesn't not have to be all-consuming. It is a lot more consuming at the very start. How consuming it is in the future is strictly up to you.

Are you able to work out of the home, what is your daily cat-care schedule like? How much time is involved in caring for your cat? Do you feel like you are running a cat hospital? Do you get much sleep? Has it affected your social life...can you travel? Financial impact? etc.

Working out of the home - I was lucky in that I live and work on a small island, so while I was working I was never more than 5-10 minutes away from the house, and could stop by and test or shoot as needed. If nothing else, that set my mind at ease. Bob's insulin schedule was roughly shots at 6am and 6pm when he would get his BG tested, get fed, and get his shot. I allowed 15 minutes for that, but it usually took less time than that. Beyond that, I tested when I could fit it in to my day or night. I did not test anywhere as often as many people here do. If Bob was tested twice a day or night outside of shot times, it was a the exception to the rule. I also would stop by and feed him once in between shots around 5-6 hours after the morning shot. Then I would feed him just before I went to bed. So he got two shots a day, and four meals a day. And 2-4 tests per day.
How much time is involved in caring for your cat? That is a completely personal decision. You HAVE to test his BG at shot time every time. You have to do the test/feed/shoot routine every 12 hours give or take a few minutes. With practice, 10 minutes tops, twice a day. You use Lantus, so you will also want to do whatever you can to manage getting another test around nadir during at least one of the cycles per day. So another 5 minutes of your time. Getting the nadir test is the only way you will be able to determine if the dose is right. So, all told, as long as Oreo is on insulin, you have to commit 30 minutes per day to treatment. Anything beyond that (and this will more than likely be contrary to what you hear from most people) is your personal choice. The more you test and gather data, the easier it is to manage the disease. But at minimum, and for the well-being and safety of Oreo, you must test three times a day, and always test before giving insulin.
Do you feel like you are running a cat hospital? At times, especially when I was administering twice a day sub-q fluid treatment to Bob, yes, I kind of felt that way. But overall, no, I just felt like I had to do a little bit more than before he was diagnosed, and I just made it fit in with my schedule.
Do you get much sleep? - I didn't get any less sleep while Bob was on insulin than I did before he was diagnosed. Since joining this board, I get less sleep than I did before I joined ;-) but that is 100% my choice. I love it here, I love the people here, and I love helping people if I am able to. Feline Diabetes changed my life for the better, and this community has just become a huge part of my life.
Has it affected your social life...can you travel? Bob was only on insulin for 10 weeks, so travel or lack of travel wasn't an issue. I didn't have any vacations or trips planned that diabetes interfered with. But I have seen lots of people work around the disease and still be able to vacation or go on business trips. Vet techs or neighbors can be "hired" to do the tests and shots if you are away. There is a newer member in PZI who joined about a month ago who just returned from a 9 day trip to Europe, and she was able to get someone to test and shoot while she was away. You can still go out on date, out to eat, etc. You just have to work around that. Shot times can be adjusted accordingly with pre-planning. Diabetes isn't a death sentence for Oreo, and it isn't a prison sentence for you and your husband.
Financial impact? - You have the cost of insulin, and test strips. If you are home testing, you won't need to worry about vet costs for that. Unless something abnormal happens there aren't really big additional costs in treating diabetes. You might spend a bit more on food depending on what you fed before vs. what you feed now. When I figured food, strips and insulin, I came up with a couple bucks a day is what it cost me. The initial costs (diagnosis, ER care, subsequent vet vists) were pretty expensive, but those were outside of "normal" and unique to Bob. But I figure I would have incurred that expense no matter what the illness or emergency happened to be anyway, because if Bob needed to go the vet, he was going come hell or high water.

Hope this helps,
Carl
 
I work two jobs and was going to grad school (graduating this week :smile:) when Bandit was on insulin, and it was overwhelming at first. It took me about 3 weeks to really get settled into a routine. Bandit was on Lantus, which works best on 12/12 schedule, so I did make sure I was shooting exactly 12 hrs apart (most of the time--there were unavoidable early/late shots once in a while). I made the decision early on to do tight regulation with him, since that had the best chance of remission and I figured it would be the safest way to treat him as well. I would shoot at 7am, immediately leave for work, and get home around 7pm (I have an hour commute to and from work). I had an auto feeder release food at 1pm so that he had a snack in case his blood sugar dipped a little low. Since TR requires a nadir test during one of the cycles, I would get a test before bed at around 11pm, and then set and alarm and get up for 5 minutes at 1am to test and feed Bandit, and then go right back to bed. I did curves on the weekend when I was home during the day, and I worked late on weekend nights so I would test again when I got home. I did that for the good part of a year, and then Bandit went into remission, so there are no more shots and testing only once every couple weeks or so.

It was a pain at first to get up in the night to get those tests, but after a couple weeks my body adjusted and it was fine. It was 100% worth making that sacrifice in the short term to do TR with Bandit and get him into remission, which now is paying off for me big time in the long term. There is an 84% remission rate with Lantus for newly diagnosed cats when the tight regulation protocol is followed. That number gets closer to 100% if there are no medical complications other than diabetes, and TR is started close to diagnosis.

I know that sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn't. Once you and your cat get used to testing, it takes about 5 minutes. Add feeding times to that (diabetics do best with multiple small meals) to that and I maybe spent a half hour weekdays testing, feeding, and shooting insulin? Curve days took longer, of course, but that was only once a week.

I didn't go away much when Bandit was on insulin, and when I did I arranged someone to take care of him. My brother moved in with me a few months before he went off insulin, and I taught him to home test and trusted Bandit with him when I needed to go away for school or to visit someone. I also taught my boyfriend how to test him, and a few other friends who were willing to help out with him if I needed someone to take care of him for a few days. At one point I even taught a college kid to test him, and traded free admission to shows at the music venue i work my second job at in exchange for him coming over and testing Bandit 2-3 times during the week at 1pm-ish while I was at work.

The costs were completely manageable for me, despite my limited income (hence the two jobs). My vet had me home testing from the start, so I never paid for any vet tests apart from the tests for his diagnosis. My vet also told me that the prescription food was unnecessary, so I was feeding Fancy Feast from the start as well. The two major costs were test strips and insulin. If you're having trouble managing costs, I would suggest getting the Relion Confirm meter from Walmart, also called the Arkray Glucocard on American Diabetes Wholesale. The test strips are the cheapest I've been able to find anywhere, through the American Diabetes Wholesale website: http://www.americandiabeteswholesal...lucose-test-strips_4050.htm?source=SiteSearch. For insulin, I saved money by getting the Lantus pens instead of the vial, which is way more cost effective. With the $25 off coupon that's online, they come to $219 at Walmart, but they will last you a year or more if you handle and store the insulin properly. You can also order insulin from Canada, where it's way cheaper. Again, the pens are more cost effective: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1FCnrPxpYD02Gp5hWtEIbhLXm0VOyaZlAT_qeCjlx-Js&pli=1

Now that Bandit's off insulin, there's nothing to do for his diabetes other than feed him a low carb diet and make sure he doesn't break into the garbage and eat food he's not supposed to.
 
It absolutely gets easier, even with my husband and I both working full-time. We're in a routine now--my husband feeds Lily when he gets up at 7:30, then when I get up about an hour later I test her blood (usually) and give her a shot. I leave out food during the day, so she basically grazes all day. Then test and shot at 8:30 p.m.

If we have something that's going to keep us out late, and not let us be home at 8:30, if it's important, we will skip the shot. That's only when we know she's been pretty stable and BGs have been in the 200s or lower. (The last few days she's only been needing one shot per day.) I know it's not ideal, but if it's important--say, a wedding--we make the decision to skip the shot, since she's mostly doing pretty well.

Also, re. financial impact--if we can make this bottle of Lantus last at least six months, then the cost for insulin will be 20 bucks a month--not bad! And the Relion meter uses cheap testing strips. And we re-use syringes once.
 
grapey said:
Also, re. financial impact--if we can make this bottle of Lantus last at least six months, then the cost for insulin will be 20 bucks a month--not bad! And the Relion meter uses cheap testing strips. And we re-use syringes once.

Reusing syringes is NOT a good idea--it's not sterile, you can contaminate the insulin, and the needle will be duller, causing the shot to be more painful. Also, with the small doses cats generally get, it can cause inaccurate dosing. Syringes are one of the cheaper parts of treatment--I got them for 11 bucks for a box of 100 at Walmart.
 
I will say that while my cats consumed some of my time, and limited my 'social life', I regard my cats as others would their children. I will also say that I adopted another diabetic cat 6months after my first was diagnosed. I knew about what was needed and not needed by then, and all the worry/stressful/overwhelming feelings were long gone. It's all in how you look at it.

If you take the time to pat your cat, it takes the same amount of time to test.... you are already right by the cat's ear, so why not? There are no set times you must test, and every test is additional data that lets you know how YOUR cat is reacting. So long as you test before each shot to be sure it's safe to give the shot, the rest are all gravy. The before bed test is a good one because many cats go lower at night.
You can easily set up a 5section timed feeder and not have to worry about food while you are away, and the feeder also spreads out the food which helps to keep the BG numbers level.

I worked away from home and many days during the usual Mon-Fri, I would be gone almost the entire 12hrs, but like so many others, you test in the am before shot, feed, go to work, come home, get an in-the-door test, then test before pm shot, feed, and have your evening which could be out... and if you sleep at home, then no problem to get a before-bed test, after all, you ARE home so why not? On the weekends, do a curve here and there, and you have a good picture how the dose is doing.

For vacations, people do it. They can arrange for a sitter or relative or vet tech to come in twice a day for test/shoot/feed, or even just the shots and food. Some even board their cats. If you have 2 cats who are not diabetic, you would still have to make arrangements for someone to feed them and scoop litter, so the diff would be someone who can give shots as well as all the rest. Many people take their cats with them! You can travel and stay at pet friendly places, and you can even take them camping!

Once the 2 of you settle into a routine, it becomes just that: a routine. You know, the cat knows, life is good.

How does it impact your life? In the most positive ways possible. I don't know about the others, but I feel so lucky and so very close to my 2 diabetic cats because of their conditions. I do love my other 2, but the closeness that developed with the diabetics enriched my life immensely.
 
i'm still only 5 weeks into this whole thing, and although i'm still learning and being extra careful, the first month did alter our lives but thankfully me and hubby work opposites. he works days, i work nights. so it works out ok.... in the beginning we missed a few social opportunites due to one of us having to be home. but i was fine with that. i'd rather be here right now to watch my baby. BUt with that being said.... it has gotten alot easier, and we are settling into a routine, and i don't freak out as much about certain things, haha.

Financially is a different story :lol: we've had to put our wedding planning on the backburner the past month, and have had to put off buying things for the wedding because of the stuff we've needed to buy, and medication etc. i almost thought about pushing our wedding date back by a year!!!! but i don't want to do that. We are really set back right now financially, but i know it will get better. we are just tapped out right now.

when it all comes down to it..... Annie is my baby, i've had her since she was a month old... and it's up to me to look after her, she has noone else to do it!

Caring for Annie and researching Diabetes has made me change the way i eat!!!! go figure! i have decided i was going to eat better, because seeing how diet has affected my kitty, it's no different for humans.... your diet plays such a big role in soooo many things. plus, i don't want to end up diabetic... :shock: so yea, i've been eating alot healthier the past 3 weeks. :cool:
 
HAPPY MONDAY, Carol -

My story sounds much like other replies I've read. In the beginning, it felt all-consuming. Almost 4 months later, it just feels routine...'normal.'

HOW DOES DIABETIC CAT CARE IMPACT YOUR LIFE? Questions like:
Are you able to work out of the home? I haven't had a paying job for almost 18 years, so it didn't hinder that. ;-)

what is your daily cat-care schedule like?
When we were BID: We usually shot at 2:30. So, we'd test/feed/shoot 2:30am. Test/feed 8:30am. Test/feed/shoot 2:30pm. Test/feed 8:20pm. Some days, I'd test more often and would try to sneak in a test here or there, just to get an idea of what might be going on with Hershey. (He can be a 'tricksy little hobbit.')

How much time is involved in caring for your cat?
You can invest as much time as you want/have.

Do you feel like you are running a cat hospital?
Not at all, unless it's one of those hypo-times and there are bits of tissues, testing strips, lancets, etc scattered all over the testing table. :lol:

Do you get much sleep?
Every day is different. It's been years since I really slept on a regular basis. I worked and raised my kids, plus for almost 22 years have had a husband with a rotating schedule. So, some nights I get uninterrupted sleep. :-D

Has it affected your social life...
hmmm...My kids don't think parents are supposed to HAVE social lives! With Doug's schedule, our social life has always been limited. That said, the BID schedule (with ProZinc) is pretty flexible for short events: plays, concerts, dining out, etc.

can you travel?
That's more difficult. In March, we wanted to go visit relatives in SC. We found our options for kitty care were limited. Back when they were on dry kibble and just needed someone to come peek in on them, we had one person who would do that. Testing/shooting? That's a different story. We knew we could board him, but our vet doesn't agree with the way we're doing things, even offered to help us 'transition' from the wet to dry Purina DM (how kind :roll: ), so that didn't seem an option. Hershey ended up staying with a nice lady on this forum who offered to take care of him while we were gone. We kept in touch via telephone, so I always knew how he was doing.

Financial impact? etc.
You know, I haven't figured it up. I felt like I made a commitment to Hershey when I gave him a home with us 10 years ago. I did shop around to find the best prices for lancets, syringes and food, which I order on-line. I'm sure the wet costs more than the dry, plus the FD supplies, but even as a one-income family of four (two are in college) I don't think it's set us back financially.

Honestly, Carol, the day-to-day is not how my vet explained it to me. I didn't truly understand what I was getting into. Of course, she said I could home-test - if I wanted to, every couple of weeks. Give the shots of 1 - 2u every 12-hours and feed the dry DM. Sounded simple enough...but, thankfully I learned not the safest or the best for him. Would I do anything differently since I learned his diagnosis? Besides starting him on insulin sooner. I waited about 6-weeks hoping he'd be diet controlled.

I hope it helps you to know you're not alone. You're in a great place with wonderful friends who are walking this road with you. Together, it makes it easier for us all...

Libby (and Hershey, too!)
 
oreosmom said:

HOW DOES DIABETIC CAT CARE IMPACT YOUR LIFE? Questions like: Are you able to work out of the home, what is your daily cat-care schedule like? How much time is involved in caring for your cat? Do you feel like you are running a cat hospital? Do you get much sleep? Has it affected your social life...can you travel? Financial impact? etc.



1. how does it impact my life? in all honesty, i think it's kinda cool. it's amazing how many people don't know cats can be diabetic so when i am talking and i mention "my diabetic cat" or "my foster kitty" there is more often than not an immediate increase in their curiosity level so i get to educate people a little and hopefully, down the line somewhere, that education helps someone or some kitty. they often think "wow, so much trouble" but if they give me 5 minutes to say a few words about it they are often in awe.

and it has taught me soooooooooo much more about cats than i knew before. and i thought i knew alot before Mousie was diagnosed back in 2006 :-)

2. am i able to work out of the home? do you mean at home? if so, nope, haven't figured out how to obtain that luxury yet :-) if you mean away from home, yes. we are self employed and work 20 miles away from our home.

3. my cat care routine for the day? LOL! get ready for this. i get up, flip the switch on the coffee maker, get myself cleaned up and ready for work, grab a bunch of cans of cat food and mix up the various concoctions for the day (one gets his mixed with phosphorous binder, one is getting l-lysine in his right now, etc....). i grab a couple bags and start cleaning the litterboxes. take those out to the trash outside. go back in and start feedings with the non-diabetic associated kitties. go back to kitchen and draw up insulin for 2 diabetics, test and shoot them, log it in their notebooks. feed the diabetic associated kitties (those diabetic and those who eat with them). while they're eating i get our lunch ready and packed and fiance's breakfast ready to start cooking. by then a couple of the kitties who take oral meds are done eating and ready for their pills so i dole out the oral pills to my youngest kitty (2 1/2 yr old) and my oldest kitty (18 yrs old). check and fill all water bowls. yell at fiance it's time to get up and get ready. start cooking his breakfast as soon as i hear him stirring, get the coffee ready to go in the travel mugs. at this point i have about 15-20 minutes of free time to do anything i want or see that needs done like putting dishes away, sweeping, putting laundry away, getting on the internet, getting the mail, taking out trash, taking my medicine, etc..... when i hear the shower shut off i then get in the freezer and grab my bags of frozen kitty food of which i put 2 frozen cubes in each food dish around the house. put on my shoes and go over everything in my head to make sure i got it all done and off to work i go.

in the evenings, it's pretty much the same routine except i make dinner instead of lunch and do sub-q fluids..... get home, take off shoes, draw up insulin, test & shoot 2 diabetic kitties, feed everyone, clean litterboxes, do sub-q fluids on 2 of my kitties, give oral meds to the two kitties again, any little cleaning i see that needs done, pour a glass of wine, check out the internet for a few and then relax with the kitties.

that's my workweek schedule. weekends are a bit different, i.e. less stringent time schedules, more household chores and errands, etc.....

3. how much time is involved in my cat care? if you mean outside of the time spent giving them attention via playing, sleeping with them, brushing them, just sitting with them and holding them, i would say on a daily basis, the actual care (tests, shots, pills, fluids, boxes) takes me maybe an hour to an hour and a half. the playing, brushing, nail trimming, hair trimming, sleeping, etc....is not work to me. that stuff is joyful to me, relaxes me, and i wish i could do more of it most of the time :-)

4. do i feel like i am running a cat hospital? sometimes. but not because of the diabetics. my diabetic has rarely ever needed more from me than my non-diabetic kitties as far as out of the norm care. in the nearly 6 years since she was diagnosed, she's had one urinary tract infection right after diagnosis, some chin acne once we had to deal with and an ear infection once that scared us some but other than that, she's been easy. i even took in a foster kitty for DCIN about 2 months ago so i'm treating 2 diabetics right now.

i have 2 diabetics in my house, 2 CRF kitties in my house, one of whom is also blind and has a perinephric cyst, 1 little kitty that was born with a heart of a dead man, a crippled middle aged lady kitty, and a kitty who suffered pretty severe brain trauma as a youngster that has made him just slightly "special". along with a handfull of perfectly healthy kitties. out of all of that the only time i feel like i'm running a cat hospital is when one is nearing the end of their lives as that requires round the clock care and me spending every moment i can with them before i lose them.

5. do i get much sleep? i get the same now at 41 years old as i have for the last 20 years since moving to california. probably actually a little more in the last year or so for whatever reason. to be honest though, i've always thought of sleeping and going to the bathroom as such a waste of soooooooo much time. i've always thought we waste 1/3 of our day if we sleep like they say we should. i don't want to sleep my life away. :-)

6. has it impacted our social lives? in all honesty, no. it actually is helpful sometimes, i.e. we're tired and want to go home from whatever social thing we're at, i.e. weddings, dinners, birthday parties, etc....and you can always use the cat needs it's insulin as an excuse.

7. can we travel? if we wanted to badly enough we would but in all honesty, as we've gotten older, all that running around stuff has naturally left our systems it seems. anymore it just seems like work to go somewhere too far away and we work our butts off with our business so much so that if i could take a week's vacation, staying at home for a week would be good enough for me .

8. financial impact? the diabetes actually isn't that expensive for us. i will say i grew up poor so i naturally am always on the lookout for a way to save money. i get my lancets for free because our government is out of control and shoves testing supplies down our senior's throats it seems, syringes are cheap at walmart, and i peruse ebay for deals on test strips where i will pay no more than about 33% of regular retail price for them just because i know with diligence i can find them for that or less. i would say food is my biggest expense but that is not due to the diabetes so much as the number of kitties i have. my crf kitties over the years have cost WAAAAAAAAAY more than my diabetics but that illness to me is just like my grandparents getting older and sicker, a fact of life, and i'm not going to have these cats for 15+ years and dump them because their bodies are doing what they naturally do. i don't have human children, never planned to nor ever plan to, but to me, my cats are the same to me as human children are to many, only in alot of cases i could say i do a better job raising my cat kids than people do with their human kids :-)

boy, i feel like i wrote a book. gonna have to read my own post to remember what i said :-)
 
Hey, Cindy, in your "spare" time, I'd suggest you do write a book. You have dealt with so many cats and so many issues and have a great sense of humor about life in general. I'd buy it!
 
Cindy + Mousie said:
6. has it impacted our social lives? in all honesty, no. it actually is helpful sometimes, i.e. we're tired and want to go home from whatever social thing we're at, i.e. weddings, dinners, birthday parties, etc....and you can always use the cat needs it's insulin as an excuse.

Lol, I've done this :)
 
grapey said:
Cindy + Mousie said:
6. has it impacted our social lives? in all honesty, no. it actually is helpful sometimes, i.e. we're tired and want to go home from whatever social thing we're at, i.e. weddings, dinners, birthday parties, etc....and you can always use the cat needs it's insulin as an excuse.

Lol, I've done this :)

I've never done this, but probably will in the future! :lol:

Libby (and Hershey, too!)
 
get this, my fiance even used it a week ago this past friday without me even knowing it.

a guy wanted us to go out to dinner with him but we've done that before and we were never more embarrassed in our lives. a few years ago, before the diabetes diagnosis, he wanted to treat us to dinner but he is unfamiliar with the area so we chose our most favorite japanese restaurant to go to with him. OMG! he was rude, disrespectful, racist, and about everything else you could imagine a diner to be. no way in heck would we ever do that again and we apologized for weeks to the girls at Yoshi's.

soooooooo, apparently when he was in town a week or so ago, he wanted to take us to dinner to that same restaurant and fiance knew better. and apparently he told the guy that "cindy has a diabetic cat we have to get home and take care of 'cause it needs insulin and special food". roflmao!!! all i could say when i found out is "you learned good!" :lol:

and you know what? we didn't even go straight home after work. we went out to eat. just like we do every friday night after work. we just chose a different restaurant across town :lol:
 
Cindy + Mousie said:
6. has it impacted our social lives? in all honesty, no. it actually is helpful sometimes, i.e. we're tired and want to go home from whatever social thing we're at, i.e. weddings, dinners, birthday parties, etc....and you can always use the cat needs it's insulin as an excuse.

Yep been there, done that...lol And now my friends have stopped looking at me strange when I say I have to leave to shoot the cat...lol But then again they also will start conversations with ....how are Musette's and Autumn's numbers?

Mel, Maxwell, Musette, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
ohiogal said:
Julia & Bandit said:
grapey said:
Syringes are one of the cheaper parts of treatment--I got them for 11 bucks for a box of 100 at Walmart.

What brand do you get? Does the syringes have half-unit dosage marks?


fwiw, i buy the relion brand at walmart. a box costs me $12.58 plus tax for 100 of them, no prescription required. and yes, they do have the 1/2 unit marks on them. i just go to the pharmacy and tell them "i need a box of your brand syringes, 3/10cc, 5/16" needle, 30 or 31 gauge whatever you have" and they hand me a box or two. i have never had to ask for the half unit markings but they always seem to have them on there.
 
ohiogal said:
Julia & Bandit said:
grapey said:
Syringes are one of the cheaper parts of treatment--I got them for 11 bucks for a box of 100 at Walmart.

What brand do you get? Does the syringes have half-unit dosage marks?


Same here--Relion Brand from Walmart. I get the 31g, 5/16" needles, .3cc with half unit markings. My Walmart is often out of them and has to order the right ones, but they always come in within a day or two. Make sure you check before you leave the store that they have half unit markings--once they ordered the ones without half unit markings and I was lucky I caught it before I left the store.
 
in the beginning, it was awful. i felt like i had a ball and chain around my ankle all the time. but that was when i was still overwhelmed with information, still struggling to do ear pokes and shots, etc. eventually everything just got easier and now it's just second nature. it's a lot easier when you have someone to help you though, i have a sleep disorder which makes it really tough for me to always be able to do the 12/12 shots, so my boyfriend fills in when i can't do it. HOWEVER, i know this will probably change when we are working. i am sure we will manage somehow. fortunately we are on DCIN's assistance program so finances are not so much of a concern for us. i don't even want to think about where we would be if we didn't have them. traveling is definitely a PITA too, mostly because petsitters here charge obnoxious rates (upwards of $50 a day) to come over multiple times, do shots, monitor glucose etc. so we just pack up Scooter and take him with us when we can. as far as social life goes, i don't even know what that means any more, so i would say it has had little to no impact at all ;-)
 
Reply From Carol: Oreo's Mom

Dear All That Wrote,

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your personal stories about how living with your diabetic cat has impacted your life. I know you have taken lots of thought and care in sharing this information with me and other readers. It is good to see that I am not alone and what I am feeling now ( overwhelmed and worried) is pretty-much what most of you have felt going through this. Oreo also has GI lymphoma which certainly complicates things...but the diabetes care is the most time consuming part. There is so much to learn...about the disease, the cat and ultimately about yourself. You all have my whole-hearted respect for all that you do for your dear cat-friends.

God Bless,

Carol and Oreo
 
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