Greetings

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Galadriel

Member Since 2013
~O)
Good evening.

First of all, thank you so very much to the Facebook Feline Diabetes support group for introducing me to this site.

In December, our youngest cat, Moocher, was diagnosed with T-cell GI track Lymphoma. He is on COP protocol for his cancer.

In March, Ashley was diagnosed with eye cancer. As we were getting a pre-surgical chest x-ray where we discovered she had lung cancer. We treated with chemo, but the cancer was too aggressive. Ashley died 9 May 2013.

Recently, Rusty, our oldest (he is 15) was diagnosed with mass cell cancer in his spleen. When they removed his spleen, we were fortunate the mass cell cancer was gone. There was a secondary cancer, GI track lymphoma. Rusty takes 2 Leukeran pills a week & a steroid shot every day for his Lymphoma. Now Rusty has diabetes. He gets an insulin shot twice a day.

He is scheduled to have a glucose curve test done at PVSEC on the 19th.
The facebook page has been wonderful helping me.
We do not have a glucose meter yet for Rusty, though my husband has diabetes also.
Rusty has lost quite a bit of weight & is down to 10 lbs. He used to be a healthy muscular 15 lb cat.

Any & all advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Welcome! It sounds like your and your kitties have dealt with such difficult issues and heartache.

The best thing you can do to help your kitty is ti hometest. Curves at the vet are often much higher than they would be at home. Stress raises blood glucose levels and most cats are very stressed at the vet.

You may be able to use your husband's meter. We suggest meters that sip and take a tiny sample.

Here are some great tips and links for home testing.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

What insulin is your kitty on?
 
hey gala
glad to see you made it over here. you can start out here but you may want to also intro yourself to the tight regulation lantus board. be sure to read the stickies at the top of that board. tells you all about lantus and stuff.
good people here
 
Welcome to the board!

Sorry to hear about all the issues your cats are having, you have so much love and patience! Are the cats related?

Anyway diabetes is treatable. The steroids probably triggered the diabetes and since he has to stay on them, remission will be unlikely. However we can certainly control the disease with home testing and a good insulin. Let us know what insulin he is on.

Also food is a factor in diabetes control. What does he get to eat?

Wendy
 
Hi Gala and welcome to the FDMB!! Glad to see you made it here from Facebook too!

I know a lot of this has already been shared with you, but here it is again. What you feed is a big factor in controlling the diabetes. You want to stick with wet foods that are less than 10% carbs. Here's a list you can look at and find pretty much any food you can buy and it's carb percentage (Column C) Dr Pierson's Food Chart

Since you're already giving insulin, you should gradually cut out the dry food and work on learning to home test because just switching to low carb foods can bring the numbers down up to 100 points. You don't want to change quickly to low carb when you're already giving Lantus and have Rusty go too low.

Here's our "shopping list" (I know you've already gotten a lot of input on meters so won't go over that again)
1. Meter ie Walmart Relion Confirm or Micro.
2. Matching strips
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool.
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment with pain relief to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast

Here's How to set up a spreadsheet so you can track Rusty's readings as well as sharing the link with us so we can help you with dosages.

We're happy you're here and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. You already have a lot on your plate, and we'll be happy to help you any way we can!

For other advice givers...she is using Lantus, 1 unit BID...lives in the Philadelphia area and has already "hooked up" with other members who have offered to show her how to test :-D
 
Hi Gala -

Yes, it is good to see you over here on the board where you will get a lot of help from experienced people. Watch out for the "odd" one though :lol: :lol: :lol: (sorry Dian-couldn't resist a little tease).

Keep asking questions - that's what we are here for.

Robin
 
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