Ferdinand

Hello to all of you! I may not know anybody anymore since it’s been years since Pelusa left this world. I came as I may need to be part of this wonderful group again with my cat Ferdinand. Ferdinand, a gorgeous 14 years old male, was not diagnosed with diabetes (yet) but he has IBD and has been on steroid (Budesonide) since last August. We started on 2mg daily, then 2mg every other day and are now at 1mg every other day. I’m afraid he’s starting to show signs of diabetes (drinks more water so bigger pees, some dandfruffs and dull hair). No loss weight though and not really increased appetite.

I have a family of 5 cats who all eat Nutrience Subzero Fraser Valley flavour dry food and Friskies turkey pâté wet food. All free fed in dry, none of the cats has weight issues.

We’ll run different tests at his next vet visit to figure out if diabetes is near, and installed or just a fear of mine. I did some random testing on him with a glucometer I borrowed from someone and he tested in high normal range. I’ll get myself a glucometer and testing strips to do more random testing. What human glucometer is recommended these days? Note that I’m in Canada if it makes a difference.

May you all have a great day!

PS: is there a way to change my username to replace Pelusa with Ferdinand?

 

Welcome back but sorry you had to come back. Waving from Ontario.

Meter strips in Canada have not gotten any cheaper. I used the FreeStyle Lite and paid for strips with PC Optimum points. Some meters come with a few free strips.

There is the Bravo meter but there are some drawbacks.
1. It needs a large drop of blood.
2. You can only get strips through online ordering. No running out to the drugstore late at night to buy strips.
https://diabetesexpress.ca/products/bravo-meter
Strips run about $40/100 plus shipping.

Tagging @Ti-Mousse (GA) and Pepe who lives just outside Montreal and knows where to source locally.

If it is impossible to get Ferdinand off dry food, Dr. Elsey's Complete Protein dry is not available in Canada.

Tagging @Wendy&Neko regarding IBD.

To change your username, go up to the top right corner and click on your user name. Then click on PERSONAL DETAILS. On the lefthand side, right at the bottom, click on CHANGE USERNAME.

 

Thanks a lot! I’ll do my research on test strips/glucometers. I remember with Pelusa that I was ordering the test strips from the US for my Bayer Elite (which does not exist anymore, I’m sure!)

It would be complicated to remove dry food from diet. I have 5 cats (and recently went through divorce so budget is quite low…).

The analysis of the dry I feed (Nutrience Subsezo Fraser Valley) isn’t that bad I think (but I know it’s not ideal)

Crude protein min. 42.0%
Crude fat min. 20.0%
Crude fiber max. 3.5%
Moisture max. 10.0%
Ash max. 7.5%

I’ll refresh my memory on diabetes in case I need to be back on this journey with Ferdinand.
I’ll update my info later today!

Thanks again!

 

There is also Young Again that can be bought here:
https://jlcm-enterprises.myshopify.com/

 

The dry food you're using is roughly 17% carb which puts it in the high carb range. Getting Ferdinand on a lower carb diet may mean he won't need insulin.

Given the IBD, have you been feeding your cat a novel protein diet? You might want to see if switching all of your cats to a raw food diet would be economical. There are pre-mixes (e.g., EZ Complete from Food Fur Life) that's a powder that you mix with water and is added to the raw protein. This site, Raw Feeding for IBD Cats, is also quite helpful.

 

The Dr. Elsey's Clean protein dry is available at Petsmart, in chicken and salmon versions. There are other novel protein options. Ziwipeak makes air dried meat crunchies, and there are many freeze dried meat options out there now, with varying degrees of crunch if that's what kitties are looking for.

Some people use eBay as a cheap source of test strips, for whatever is their favourite meter. The Freestyle mentioned above needs a minimal blood drop size.

In Canada you can also get a premix from TCFeline, which is cheaper than the EZ Complete. It's made on Saltspring Island in BC.

 

Sorry poor little Ferdinand with IBD! As for diabetes supplies, I get my strips (FreeStyle Lite) on eBay as they are extremely expensive otherwise; I get the insulin and the syringes at Walmart Blainville which was the best price around; you'll have to shop for a good place in Montreal.

As for food, I'm feeding wet, raw, freeze dried and Smack raw dehydrated which is just like pieces of crunchy kibbles, made in Canada and mostly organic.

The site Sienne gave you is wonderful, it helped me so much! There is also those two which talk about food and diseases (IBD); people are very helpful!
Feline Nutrition - Feed cats like Cats
Feline Nutrition org

 

Thank you all for your advice and recommendations. With respect to food, I don’t think I could afford any of them with 5 cats… I know it is unfortunate but I’m really doing my best.

I went to the pharmacy today to get a meter and test strips and was told I couldn’t get them without my cat being on insulin or having a vet prescription! I couldn’t believe that. I got pissed off and ordered a Freestyle Lite online which was free with the purchase of strips, no questions asked. Should Ferdinand become diabetic and in need of regular testing, I’ll definitely look at EBay for test strips.

Could you please tell me how much you pay your insulin? Is is Lantus? In 2008 I was getting the pack of 5 cartridges and just used them as a vial as it was cheaper that way. I guess it would still be the way to go.

Thanks again!

 

Have to go out, will get back to you.

 

The 5 pack of Lantus cartridges is still the way to go.

 

In Quebec, you can buy insulin without a prescription; if you say it's for you, you can get it depending on the pharmacist and it will be tax free. Unfortunately, most are reluctant to do it even if it's legal! Otherwise, you will be charged tax because they will assume it's for an animal; all this depends on the pharmacist; I go to the same pharmacy and depending who's on duty, it's never the same.... They will give you the insulin, prescription or not, it's just a matter of charging taxes.

Very glad you got the free meter online! Right now, I get the insulin at Blainville, 5 x 3ml cartridges Levemir for $120.60 tax free unless the pharmacist on duty thinks it's not for me, then he'll charge me tax which will come to $138.66.

Go on eBay for your test strips, they'll be more than half price!
Hope all will be OK for our new comer little Ferdinand !

 

Thanks a lot! If we ever need to go the insulin route with Ferdinand, I’ll definitely need to shop around as I don’t think my own pharmacist would sell it to me after not wanting to even sell me test strips and meter without a script! Oh well… We’ll see! I’ll start testing randomly as soon as I receive my meter and see what’s going on.

With respect to food, as I said, I can’t afford what was suggested (and even less if we need to go on insulin) but I’m willing to try homemade. Not raw though. I’ve been making raw cat food years ago for quite a while and then something went bad. I ordered TCFeline samples and will try it with cooked meat. At least the first time and see why the cats think about it! I’ll need to read more on that. Is there a specific part of this forum on that matter of homemade cooking for cats? I’d like to see what others do… If not, I’ll do more research.

Edited to add: Ferdinand is all but little! He’s a tall and massive cat (but not overweighted at all)! I tried to add a picture but it didn’t work.



Thanks again!

 

Nothing specific on this forum, but a page on the catinfo site deals with making your own food, and that's without a premix. https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/

 

This link I gave earlier Feline Nutrition - Feed cats like Cats will help you, it's very complete and full of information. You have sections on canned food, homemade cooked, homemade raw, premix-completers, health issues and many more.

To get my cats used to TCFeline, I started with very little premix and I increased slowly.

To insert a picture, you can do Copy/paste; I think the Upload is not working.

Hope everything will go fine with Ferdinand!

 

Thank you! I had missed the link earlier (this board is quite small on a phone…). I requested to be added to the group.

Bonne journée!