Hello, new here and feeling overwhelmed

[kbrack]

Just got the news that my cat Truman has diabetes. I have an appointment with the vet soon to talk about a treatment plan and such but right now I've been reading about it and feeling pretty overwhelmed.

He's only 7, and I adopted him when he was 5. I feel like a terrible pet owner. He was overweight when I got him, and I've been reducing his food to get him to lose weight, which has been happening slowly but steadily, but now I'm learning that this might just be a symptom of diabetes. I'm wondering if I should have reduced more to try to get him to lose weight more quickly, or given him nicer food with more protein, or played with him more to give him more exercise. I feel like I must have done something very wrong as he had a clean blood test this time last year.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to provide the level of care required. I work long hours at my job so I just don't see how it will be possible to do two insulin shots a day at consistent times. Thankfully money isn't really a concern.
I've also gotten accustomed to being able to leave him alone for a night every so often, which seems like it won't be possible now. For longer trips I'm sure I can find someone to take care of him or board him at the vet, but it feels like I'm going to be stuck committing to be home at certain times for a long time going forward, so I won't be able to do weekend trips. I guess it's selfish but this feels like so much more commitment than I signed up for.

Sorry for the venting, I have a lot to get off my chest. I'm glad this community exists.

 

[Idjit's mom]

Welcome to you and Truman. Please don't beat yourself up for how you cared for Truman "then". You haven't done anything wrong, and many of us thought we were taking pretty good care of our furkids. You can't change a thing about yesterday, but you have today and the promise of tomorrow. I think you sound like a pretty darned good pet parent in that you are trying to learn and figure out the next steps in this "sugar dance" we are all doing here.

Your life may indeed change, but that's the basis of life really. I remember reading somewhere "The only constant is change." We will do everything we can to help you figure out the whys and hows along the way.

I suggest you read the Getting Started and the Education sections on the Home page. It's very good information for beginners and helps you understand what feline diabetes is and what effective treatment entails.

I hope after your vet visit that you will tell us what treatment plan the vet recommends, and tell us what you need help with initially. When is the vet visit scheduled? We primarily work to attain effective treatment with proper diet of low carb wet food, insulin therapy and home testing to ensure it's safe to "shoot" (inject the insulin) and to see how the insulin is actually affecting the blood sugar levels.

Can you tell us what kind of food Truman eats now? Perhaps we can help with the first steps of learning about a good diet for a sugar cat.

Feel free to look around on the board. Get familiar with where things are in general. Then going forward it might not feel so strange.

 

[AmandaJean]

You will be ok and so will your kitty! My cat, Nikko, was diagnosed earlier this month and I got light headed at the vet hearing about treatment and realizing I had to completely rearrange my life. I live alone, work full time and am also dealing with some health issues. I was actually about to go on leave from my job but the sudden expense with Nikko's diabetes diagnosis meant having to stay to make some more $ to cover these unexpected costs.

I didn't think I can do it - and I'm doing it. You're going to have some bumps along the road but you'll surprise yourself with just how capable you really are!

What motivates me is knowing cats can go into remission and this is not necessarily a forever plan. Like I said, I'm less than a month in and my cat is already seeing some good numbers and I'm very, very hopeful that he will go into remission and we can tuck this away as a rough patch that we got through. Of course, he'll always need to be on a good diet and I know there's risk of the diabetes returning but we can park the daily shots. But I know to get there, I need to put a lot in right now.

 

[kbrack]

Thanks for all of the kind words! Right now his vet appointment scheduled for next Friday but I'm going to try to move it sooner.

Currently Truman eats a mix of wet and dry nulo. I've been hesitant to remove all dry food as he already has dental problems, but from what I've been reading it sounds like all wet food is the way to go.
I've been having a little trouble understanding nutrition facts- for example, this is something I might feed him today: https://www.nulo.com/our-food/cat-food/freestyle-cat-and-kitten-salmon-and-mackerel-recipe/ which is apparently only 11% protein, so I guess way too low. However, something I thought would be better like this: https://www.nulo.com/our-food/cat-food/medalseries-cat-and-kitten-chicken-and-chicken-liver-recipe/ doesn't seem to have any more protein. Am I missing something? I'm looking through the diet resources on the site but they seem to be pretty outdated.

 

[Idjit's mom]

kbrack, I haven't used the Nulo brand canned food, and will refer you to Dr. Lisa Pierson's food chart that she has compiled and shared with us here. https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
You can use the filter for Nulo and find the different percentages of carbs, protein etc. I am getting a different protein percentage than you have: 38%.
Dr Pierson recommends " start with protein minimum of 40, fat maximum of 50, carb max of 10, and for cats with kidney issues....phos less than 300." www.catinfo.org is Dr. Piersion's website about feline nutrition and is worth a visit to find great information.

I would like to suggest we move further questions and information sharing to the Main Health forum HERE, so that more members can see and respond. This Introduction forum is only the welcome mat, so to speak, and more members monitor the Main forum to read posts and answer questions and concerns. I think that opening the discussion to a wider forum will get you the information you are looking for much faster and give more members a chance to meet you and Truman.