diagnosed yesterday

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Mazonne

Member Since 2014
Hello everybody.

My best friend is yes....a cat. She was the naughty kitten from my mums cats litter. I watched her come into this world, and been with her almost every day. 6 years ago on 03/11/08, she was run over, but walked away with a bruised shoulder, vet said she was one lucky cat. Yesterday, 03/11/14 exactly 6 years on, Jay came in and seemed rocky on her back legs. I took her sraight to the vets, as I feared another car argument. Our vet checked her over, and said she would like to check her blood and urine. 20 mins later, I got the news.....Jay has diabetes. Omg, please dont put her down, the vet sat me down with a cup of tea, (very British), and said, she is perfectly healthy, apart from she has diabetes, which is treatable. I brought Jay home, and sat staring at her like she had 2 heads, she purred away. I had to take her back to the vets that evening, to be shown how to give her insulin injections. Im trying to be as chilled with it all as she is. She is 9 years old and acts like a kitten. I need to know everything about whats best for her. Like diet, exercise, going out, (her not me). Its going to be helpful knowing this site is here to help.

best wishes

Maz and Jaycat
 
I, too, am very new to this. Big hugs to you, I know all too well how overwhelming this can feel. To get everyone started on being able to give advice-how much insulin did your vet recommend you give? How often? What kind? Did the vet advise going slow with the first couple of doses? Also, what does your cat currently eat? How much, how often? Did your vet talk to you at all about home testing? (don't worry if s/he didn't, my vet wasn't too keen on it either) It's going to be a big part of your life going forward. It's very important. It sounds like Jay is either an outdoor cat, or at least a partially outdoor cat-is that right? You might want to consider changing that so that Jay can be properly monitored during all of this.

The good news is that cats can go into "remission" with diabetes. So with the proper care, for the amount of time that is just right for your kitty, you may be able to put all of this behind you. :)
 
Welcome to the FDMB Family

You are now in the best place you never wanted to be to help you help your best friend.

First a couple quick questions...

What insulin and at what dose?
And what is her current diet?

Now we need to get you home testing as this will be an invaluable tool to keep Miss Jay safe while on insulin. Also since you are saying "Very British" where in the world (generally) are you located as we have members all over the world and with a little general location info I can go hunt down someone in your corner of the world that will be able to help with things like good diet for the Miss and what are the best meters available in your area and maybe even a little local hands on help should you need it. :-D

I, personally, have 3 diabetic cats all of which were adopted after they were already diabetic. 2 of those are in remission and no longer on insulin and the 3rd on a very low dose although she probably always will be insulin dependent. Now if that wasn't enough, I also have 13 other non-diabetic kitties, this isn't a tough disease to treat if it was I certainly wouldn't have done it 3 times with 13 healthy and happy kitties at home. :-D But I won't lie to you either in the beginning it is very frustrating, not because its hard, but its new. Its new to you and its new to her and that takes time to get use to, but before you know it, you will look back and wonder what you were scared of, because now it is so routine it is like brushing your teeth or making your bed each morning.

Thank you for loving your girl enough to decide to treat her. And we will be here to answer any and all questions, so just keep asking. The only stupid question is the one that goes unasked.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Hi,

yes Jay is a indoor/outdoor cat. Depends on how much sun she can get. She is on what the vet called the lowest dose, level 1, twice a day. The vet said to start low, then monitor over the next few weeks to regulate it. I have changed her diet to raw meat, (beef, lamb). Steamed fish or sardine in olive oil, and then a prescription wet food. I alternate between these foods to give 4 meals per day.
I use a vetpen to administer her insulin, which the vet loaded and primed for me, so I don't know what the name of the insulin is.
She showed no signs of diabetes, before I took her to the vets yesterday, so the vets recons we caught it very early. She was a big cat, she lost some weight last month, but I put it down to the old lady who Jay used to visit, passed away, so no more extra yummies from her.
I am trying to find out if she can eat maybe cooked liver. The vet said no chicken. Thats her favourite too.

thank you
maz and Jay
 
One thing to caution is just plain cooked meat doesn't have all the nutrients that she needs, it can make a great low carb snack especially when testing. But not as a complete diet. If you would like to cook for her then http://www.catinfo.org has a great recipe for a raw cat diet that will give her all the vitamins and minerals she needs and my cats go nuts for it.

Wonder why the vet said no chicken? As that is probably the best food in the world for a cat to eat, afterall they are bird hunters and a chicken is an overgrown sparrow...lol

One thing you will want to do maybe even before starting her on insulin is to get a glucometer and learn to test her levels at home. Not only does this keep more money in your pocket as you can run your own curves and share the information with your vet, you will have better numbers to base dose changes on as they won't be influenced by vet stress and no on is ever really happy to see the doctor and stress will inflate the blood glucose readings. But you will also be able to know if she is high enough to safely give insulin to in the first place, and have the peace of mind if she is acting off that you can catch a hypo long before it becomes dangerous to her and walk her safely back to stable numbers with food. Any human meter works just fine, the expense will be in the test strips so you want to find one that takes the smallest blood sample as possible with test strips that fit your budget. Here I use the Relion Micro from Walmart, it takes a tiny blood sample no bigger that a pencil point, and the strips are reasonable priced (100/$50). But any human meter works just have to find what is available near you. The pet only meters are outrageously priced and don't do any better job at monitoring Miss Jay. Same with the prescription foods, nothing magical about them except their ability to make your wallet emptier faster. In fact there are lots of better ingredient commercial canned cat foods out there that are just as low if not lower in carbs than the prescription stuff and much kinder to the wallet.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Welcome to FDMB, Maz and Jay,

Mazonne said:
I use a vetpen to administer her insulin, which the vet loaded and primed for me, so I don't know what the name of the insulin is.
Click to expand...
Vetpens are used with Caninsulin. It's the first insulin vets must prescribe in the UK in line with drug cascade rules. If you check the insulin cartridge inside the Vetpen, you should see the name 'Caninsulin' printed on it. It would help if you could check and confirm this in one of your posts.

I use an Alphatrak II pet glucometer and as Mel advised above it takes a lot of £££s to feed it. Some UK people use Accu-Check Aviva meters. I am sure other members will advise you about other brands.

Home testing is the best way to keep Jay safe on insulin and you can get lots of help here as you learn.

I'm also a bit surprised by the 'no chicken' rule. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
 
I'm an extreme newbie as well - my cat was diagnosed six weeks ago. I am still very overwhelmed with it all. My vet has been very helpful in that she has listened to me when I brought forth ideas I found on here - for instance methylcobalamin for his back legs which are very weak. I sourced some from Vitacost which wasn't too expensive and I should get it next week.

Does anyone know how long it takes to make a difference?

I am going to attempt to do my own glucose curve myself this weekend. Another tip I found on here that has saved both my nerves and my kitty is to warm the ear first. I bought a magic bag that I put in the microwave then warm his ear. No problem. I am not looking forward to having to prick his ear several times on Saturday.

Does anyone know - how many tests is required for a proper curve? When should you start - ie before the morning insulin dose or after? How do we record the results - on excel program?
 
A true full curve is testing every two hours between shots so you test amps (morning preshot) then +2, +4, +6, +8, +10 and pmps (evening preshot) that's it that is a full curve.

Then you can also do a mini curve which is testing every 3 hours between one shot to the next.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
MommaOfMuse said:
A true full curve is testing every two hours between shots so you test amps (morning preshot) then +2, +4, +6, +8, +10 and pmps (evening preshot) that's it that is a full curve.

Then you can also do a mini curve which is testing every 3 hours between one shot to the next.

Mel and The Fur Gang
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will do this on Saturday. When I went to pick up my cat from the vet last Saturday after his curve he looked miserable and I am dreading having to give him another horrible day. How do others' cats handle the full curve? Do they object to 7 ear pricks all day??
 
Well at least mine think its just another day, as she is routinely tested anywhere from 4-8 times a day depending on her numbers and occasionally even more often if she is running extremely low. And she will even come looking for me if I'm late for one of her standard test times. The key is rewarding them with a tasty low carb treat every time you test. My girl would crawl over broken glass for chicken so she gets just plain boiled chicken breast without any spices added as a treat for her tests. If we really have to test a lot or I want to give her a special treat for being a good girl I'll switch it up by either giving her little bites of raw chicken or some plain boiled cocktail shrimp pieces. (those are also her holiday treats).

Cats are very smart and while it might be true you can't train a cat you can certainly make them think its their idea..lol.

If you look at Autumn's spreadsheet every one of those numbers were done at home. And if you click on the second tab that will take you to a lot of past data , she gets tested A LOT, and her ears are still just as lovely as the day we met, in fact unless there is a tiny bit of dried blood in her fur I would defy anyone to tell what ear I just tested on.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Hi, yes you are right, it is caninsulin, 1 unit twice a day. With reference to the chicken, when the vet asked what food she eats, after I gave her Jays menu, she asked if I stayed away from chicken and turkey, I said thats jays evening treat, when the dogs get fed, as thats what they eat. She did say why chicken should be avoided, but I was flapping so much by this point, that I had caused her to be ill by giving her chicken every evening, that I can't remember what she said.
 
I seriously don't think you can possibly have made your cat ill by feeding her chicken. Many people on here feed their cats chicken and they've not suffered for it. I also don't think you have a compassionate vet if he/she is telling you that you've made your cat sick when it's clear you're already upset and dealing with the diagnosis.

I've been close to tears many times at the vet. Sure she must think I'm an unstable cat lady. But it's very distressing when your pet is ill. I hope it's a one off that you weren't treated well. My cats are my sole companions and people don't understand why I am spending so much time and money on a sick cat. I ask them if they would do less for their child!

Hoping things get easier for you.
 
it'll help us help you if you put a few details in your signature. This will be added to the bottom of each of your posts.

Go to the top left of the screen.
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your name, cat's name,
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date of Dx (diagnosis)
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