Hello, I'm new here.

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heatherovka

heatherovka

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Hi everyone,

I'm so glad I found this community. My Ember was diagnosed 2/1 of this year. We had a great veterinarian who retired a few years ago and I am realizing now that I don't love the practice I picked that we have been at since.

Ember has had a rough couple of years. Around Thanksgiving 2019 she had pneumonia which seemed to come out of nowhere and had a really hard time kicking it. Multiple vet visits, multiple rounds of antibiotics, steroid shot at least once... It went on for months. I could tell something was not quite right and she never seemed to be feeling well for very long. She often seemed more ravenous than she used to and peed a LOT. I noticed she began walking funny, with floppy feet (neuropathy, I suspect, but hers is mainly front feet) and I took her back in to the vet. Finally they must have done the more extensive blood panel and she was diagnosed with diabetes.

So we started out on 1.5 units and worked up to 2 units, twice a day, and they say it is well managed with that. She's had fructosamine tests run twice. I think they have a hard time getting blood from her, poor girl. I took her in a little early for the last fructosamine test because she had stopped eating - it had been a little less than 24 hours and I did not give insulin. The vet wanted to test for pancreatitis, but they were out of the tests. He also couldn't get any urine. She got an antibiotic shot and a B12 shot. The vet recommended a low carb diet, and of course gave me a couple of prescription samples. I asked if I should do home testing. He said no. It would be traumatic for her and they can manage it fairly well so it would be unnecessary. She did start eating again the next day.

I did some research and decided I didn't want to do the prescription food. I found Dr. Lisa's catinfo.org and food chart, and went about selecting a low carb canned food. Ember currently gets dry kibble in the AM, and canned in the PM (both fairly high in carbs). I want to at least get her off the dry food. So I called the vet and told him and he told me if I didn't want the rx food, he would rather just take her down to 2 units just once a day and see how she does. What I think I gathered is that he doesn't believe it would be worth changing her food if I don't choose rx. I felt completely dismissed and disempowered. Sooo now I guess I will be looking for a new vet.

Luckily I have a OneTouch Ultra glucometer, test strips, and lancets from back when I was pregnant and the doctors thought I was developing gestational diabetes. And I even found a new button battery to go in it! So I'll be reading the tutorials and all of the information here and empowering myself to learn how to take care of my girl. I adapted to having to give the shots fairly easily, so I think I've got this.

It is also a great comfort to know you all are here too, and I'll have some support. Thanks in advance! ;p
 
Hey! Welcome to the site, you're doing the right things asking questions and looking for info. You've done a great job setting up the signature! Once you get a spreadsheet going, that would be very helpful to include too.

Here, we highly recommend home testing. When you test at home it's important to test before the AM shot and PM shot, and at least once per cycle. It doesn't have to be traumatic, especially if treats are involved. ETA: NEOSPORIN IS NO LONGER RECOMMENDED FOR USE WITH CATS. I apologize for any confusion I might have caused. Warming up ears with a rice filled sock that was heated slightly in the microwave helps with blood flow (Moo Moo didn't like the sound of that so I just rubbed her ears a lot before a BG test)

There are lots of really great members who can help get you on your feet! If you have any questions, let me know :D Also, I love the profile pic :)
 
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Thank you so much! I started the BG testing today... she's putting up with me so far. I don't like having to poke her even more, but I also really did not like the... going at this blindly approach. *I* feel like I have so much more control with testing I can do myself. I wish it was easier to find a good vet. I've asked for recommendations but people around here tend to recommend the big practices, and I'm pretty sure I'd prefer a smaller one with (hopefully) more personal attention.
 
Oh, and I will definitely get some of the pain relieving Neosporin! I could tell she did feel the pokes, and maybe I will try a little smear before poking her.
 
Hello and welcome. It's good that you are being proactive and thinking of testing and switching to a lower carb food. Wait until you've started tested before switching the food, as insulin needs can drop quickly. I partly agree with your vet on reducing the dose. But instead of going to 2 units twice a day to once a day, it'd be much safer to go to 1 unit twice a day. Prozinc doesn't last 24 hours, and you'd still be hitting her with too much insulin when you give the 2 units.

You could start a new post here, titled something like "looking for vet recommendations is <name of city>". That might get some responses.

Please don't get the Neosporin. There is new information that one of the ingredients in it is not good for cats. Check out this post:
Warning about Neosporin
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Hello and welcome. It's good that you are being proactive and thinking of testing and switching to a lower carb food. Wait until you've started tested before switching the food, as insulin needs can drop quickly. I partly agree with your vet on reducing the dose. But instead of going to 2 units twice a day to once a day, it'd be much safer to go to 1 unit twice a day. Prozinc doesn't last 24 hours, and you'd still be hitting her with too much insulin when you give the 2 units.

You could start a new post here, titled something like "looking for vet recommendations is <name of city>". That might get some responses.

Please don't get the Neosporin. There is new information that one of the ingredients in it is not good for cats. Check out this post:
Warning about Neosporin
Click to expand...

I'm so sorry, I hadn't seen anything about the Neosporin, thank you for saying something! I will edit my reply as well
 
Thank you, Wendy! I haven't quite decided what to do yet on the (speed of) changing food and/or reducing insulin - although I think your approach does sound a bit safer. It seemed so arbitrary when he said that... I feel like he just disagreed with me changing her food if I didn't want to do it 'his way' with the prescription stuff. I honestly don't think any of them at that practice are bad vets, and I don't think his advice was necessarily bad. But they always seem so busy, I don't feel listened to very well, and this practice just isn't a good fit. I need a vet more willing to listen to me and work with me and not just tell me what to do. I ran out of the canned food they were eating, and now have the Weruva (which Ember loved when I gave her a sample taste!), and I'm also getting the Fancy Feast chunky delivered tomorrow. In any case I need to make decisions soon. I wanted to go slowly but I only have one can of the old food left (and plenty of dry kibble). I have only been giving a 1/4 can of the higher carb canned in the evenings. I only just realized that she gets most of her calories with the morning kibble feeding. I'm also leaning toward at least three meals per day, quantities adjusted of course. I feed Ember two meals a day right now (7am and 7pm) and she gobbles them up right away. She's developed a rather unpleasant habit of waking me up at 5 or 5:30am, just ravenously hungry, so I am particularly curious about her BG prior to her morning meal, which is yet to be determined.

Thanks for the info on the Neosporin, that's too bad. And, no problem phakewishard. <3
 
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