Diagnosed 6 June 2019 (Overwhelmed)

[Robert Vittetoe]

Our cat Pinot (named after the dictator) 15 years old was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday. His blood sugar was 607. We will try to start him on Prozinc 2 units every 12 hours today. The wife and I have some experience with diabetes. Both my kids are insulin dependent diabetics and we’ve had two dogs with diabetes that have since pasted. We’ve always said our biggest nightmare would be if Pinot got diabetes. He is not a very friendly cat and gets very aggressive. I have to put on motorcycle gloves just to get him in his carrier for vet visits. We have never been able to give him medicine at home. Luckily a few years ago he had all his teeth removed. I’m a little overwhelmed thinking of trying to give him shots twice a day. Our initial plan is to try while he is eating. If that doesn’t work my only option may be to corner him and hold him down but that will be traumatizing on us and him. I don’t ever foresee doing a blood test on him. The vet recommended periodic visits to got a snap shot of his sugar levels. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Djamila]

Hi Robert, and welcome. I have so much empathy for you. My cat was just shy of feral when he was diagnosed and it was quite a process. Please do not try to hold him down. You are absolutely right that it won't work.

I think your first step will be getting the food switch taken care of. Pinot is going to need to get on a low carb wet food in order to have success bringing those numbers down. If he already eats wet food, that shouldn't be too hard. If he's a kibble addict like my guy was, you will still get him on wet food, it will just be a little more of a challenge. Most of us use Fancy Feast Classics or Friskies Pate. Don't let your vet convince you to buy the expensive prescription food. It's no better than anything else, and the kibble is insanely high in carbs - well beyond what a sugar cat can handle.

Let us know the current food situation and we can help you figure out next steps.

You'll also want to get treats. They are an essential part of training a wild cat to accept all of this. Anything that is just plain, freeze dried meat is fine. Don't get any of the Temptations type treats. We use those to treat hypoglycemia since they are so high in carbs! PureBites is a good brand that is fairly easy to find in most pet stores.

As for the shots and tests. Most cats are actually really good about the shots. The tests can be more challenging, but you'll get there.

In my signature (the grey text just below this post), you'll see blue words for "food list" and "profile" If you click on the Profile part, and scroll towards the bottom, you can read about the process I used to train my cat to accept testing. It certainly wasn't overnight, but we got there, and in the process managed to more-or-less tame my wild child. He's now really sweet, but still has his fire too!

This is going to be a journey, but you're going to be fine, and we're here to help.

 

[Robert Vittetoe]

Thanks! We are leaving shortly to get the initial insulin and supplies. Right now he does eat the fancy feast small cans but also free feeds on hard Frisky Seafood sensation which he eats a lot of. We will start cutting that back with the goal of zero. We will also pick up some treats today. I really appreciate your response and will read all of your links.

 

[Sharon14]

The dry Friskies Seafood Sensations is very high in carbs. If you start insulin before you cut out the dry, please be sure to be home testing as the switch to a low carb diet can drop the bgs significantly. If there are no ketones in the picture, you may even consider the food switch before you start insulin, especially since Pinot is a bit hard to handle.

 

[Robert Vittetoe]

Well the wife and I managed to get his first shot done last night and another this morning. We were able to distract him will brushing him on my lap and the wife was able to get the shots done by sneaking up behind him. I know sneaking won’t last forever. He will figure us out. My big concern is there is no way to get him to let us home test him yet. Without testing I won’t know his level before injecting. I guess we will just continue with 2 units twice daily and see how it goes. Pretty scary. As suggested I read the details from you Djamila on how you trained your cat for testing. I will give it a try. Right now I can see getting to the point of poking his ear but he will never stay put for me to get a drop of blood on a test strip. I’m hoping to find a few links on here from people who have the had to handle cats and what they are doing.

 

[Idjit's mom]

My husband and I have to work as a team to test Idjit. He's not onery but he's big and strong and I can't handle him by myself. My husband holds him and soothes, I warm Idjit's ear and do the test, then one of us rewards with some poached chicken breast. I hope you can find a way to manage so that you know how the insulin is working and to know that it's safe to inject.

 

[Djamila]

The desensitizing training is so helpful for difficult-to-test cats. I remember when I joined and watched the videos of people testing these calm kitties who just lay there and I laughed/cried knowing that would never be my reality! (it actually is now, but it took a couple of years for Sam to be that calm about it).

Some folks have luck with a kitty burrito - they wrap the cat firmly in a towel, with just their head showing. Some cats find it comforting and it holds them in place. I would have been skinned alive if I'd tried to constrain Sam that way, but lots of folks have had success with it.

One thing I found helpful was testing him on a corner of the kitchen counter where he couldn't just jump off the front because i was standing there, one side of that section was the sink, and the other two sides were the raised bar. So he wasn't exactly constrained, but it also wasn't super easy to walk away from me. So you might look for a place in your house (maybe a table? bathroom counter?) where it feels kind of open, but also is a bit limiting.

I also found it helpful to have something in front of him that he liked. A pot of cat grass worked well. A catnip toy, one of his stuffed mice, one of my hoodies.....Just something in front of him that he could pay attention to while I was testing.

And a trick I learned from the vet - a hand very gently on their throats will often help keep them still. It sort of approximates a submission hold that cats place on each other. Obviously don't squeeze or cause any harm! It's about the placement, not the force.

And finally, keeping myself calm and confident. That took a little learning. But the more I communicated to him that this was not optional, but also was not scary, the easier things became. That was a process for both of us though!

Really great job getting the shot done! And having a cat that's motivated by brushing can be super helpful since that's a calming/soothing activity for you both that creates positive association. You can definitely use that in place of treats if that's more motivating for Pinot. Sam is treat motivated, but my other cat is brush motivated. All ihave to do is tap his brush and he'll come running!