My name is Roy. My cat, Cane, has just been diagnosed with Feline Diabetes. Cane is about 10 years old and has been losing weight over the past few months. I took him to the vet yesterday when I did research on some of his obvious symptoms and after some blood work the Vet told me he has Feline Diabetes. Luckily, Being former military, Ican handle most things life throws at my me and my kids. I gave him his first Insulin shot this morning and he seems to be reacting well to the change. I have to take him back to the vets next friday to have him monitored to see how he is handling the insulin. Currently giving him one unit a day.
Hello there
- Thread starter NavyIC1
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Anonymous
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hi roy, welcome! are you planning on testing cane's blood sugar at home?
which insulin are you shooting?
and...did your vet discuss diet changes?
which insulin are you shooting?
and...did your vet discuss diet changes?
Hillary & Maui (GA)
Very Active Member
just to add to the questions:
how much insulin are you using?
how often are you shooting?
If you learn to home test, you will be able to save time and lots of money by not taking the cat to the vet for testing. We find that vet testing is pretty useless as stress is a major factor that can affect the glucose levels and therefore, give you a false reading and false sense of what is really going on with your cat.
Also, basing a dose on vet readings can put your cat in dangerous situation with hypos.
So, if you are willing to learn how to home test, we can teach you. you will find that you are much more in control of the situation and will be better able to manage and monitor his diabetes from home.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287
As Lori mentioned, food plays an important role in diabetes - getting rid of all dry food, including treats, canned foods with gravy and going for low carb canned food options will help manage the diabetic process.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=115
If your cat is a dry food junkie, here are tips transition to wet/canned food:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=956
Oh and if you tell us where you are located, we may have members in your area that can provide in person support and teaching.
So are you game?
how much insulin are you using?
how often are you shooting?
If you learn to home test, you will be able to save time and lots of money by not taking the cat to the vet for testing. We find that vet testing is pretty useless as stress is a major factor that can affect the glucose levels and therefore, give you a false reading and false sense of what is really going on with your cat.
Also, basing a dose on vet readings can put your cat in dangerous situation with hypos.
So, if you are willing to learn how to home test, we can teach you. you will find that you are much more in control of the situation and will be better able to manage and monitor his diabetes from home.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287
As Lori mentioned, food plays an important role in diabetes - getting rid of all dry food, including treats, canned foods with gravy and going for low carb canned food options will help manage the diabetic process.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=115
If your cat is a dry food junkie, here are tips transition to wet/canned food:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=956
Oh and if you tell us where you are located, we may have members in your area that can provide in person support and teaching.
So are you game?
tuckers mom
Very Active Member
Hi and welcome.
Sounds like your kitty is in good hands
1U of insulin, I'm going to assume that's once per day. If so, you should be shooting twice per day on insulin. Cats metabolize insulin faster than humans so even the long lasting insulins need to be given 12 hours apart.
Others have already mentioned food and hometesting, was anything else seen by the vet? Teeth okay, anything else off?
Sounds like your kitty is in good hands
1U of insulin, I'm going to assume that's once per day. If so, you should be shooting twice per day on insulin. Cats metabolize insulin faster than humans so even the long lasting insulins need to be given 12 hours apart.
Others have already mentioned food and hometesting, was anything else seen by the vet? Teeth okay, anything else off?
Wow, lots of questions. Well...The vet recommended Lantus (insulin glargine). I am injecting 1U/once a day. I will be taking Cane to the vet this Friday for testing so they can check how he is handling the Insulin. I have four cats and the only eat dry food so far. The vet did recommend a Diabetes Controled specific cat food. My cats have always been Free Easter (I keep food down for them all the time,, they eat when they are hungry.) My vet did not say it needed to be changed. The only thing I do differently now is pick up the food when I go to bed so the cats eat after I give my cat his Insulin. The vet said he was in good health other than the diabetes. Ideal weight ( about 14 lbs) and good coat condition.
Canes is the only cat in the house that does not try to eat "People" food. Even if you try and give him some, he just is not interested. My vet actually said she does not recommend giving wet food to diabetic cats. I would rather test his Blood sugar at home, He does get so stressed when we go to the vets. I live about 10 minutes from Raleigh, NC.
Canes is the only cat in the house that does not try to eat "People" food. Even if you try and give him some, he just is not interested. My vet actually said she does not recommend giving wet food to diabetic cats. I would rather test his Blood sugar at home, He does get so stressed when we go to the vets. I live about 10 minutes from Raleigh, NC.
Hillary & Maui (GA)
Very Active Member
Wow, lots of questions. Well...The vet recommended Lantus (insulin glargine). I am injecting 1U/once a day. I will be taking Cane to the vet this Friday for testing so they can check how he is handling the Insulin. I have four cats and the only eat dry food so far. The vet did recommend a Diabetes Controled specific cat food. My cats have always been Free Easter (I keep food down for them all the time,, they eat when they are hungry.) My vet did not say it needed to be changed. The only thing I do differently now is pick up the food when I go to bed so the cats eat after I give my cat his Insulin. The vet said he was in good health other than the diabetes. Ideal weight ( about 14 lbs) and good coat condition.
Canes is the only cat in the house that does not try to eat "People" food. Even if you try and give him some, he just is not interested. My vet actually said she does not recommend giving wet food to diabetic cats. I would rather test his Blood sugar at home, He does get so stressed when we go to the vets. I live about 10 minutes from Raleigh, NC.
Lantus is an excellent insulin so kudos to the vet for suggesting it. But that's the only kudos the vet gets. Your vet is off target on several things.
1) cats need insulin twice a day not once. Cats metabolize faster than humans and therefore, need to have insulin twice a day.
Please visit the lantus support group so you can read up on this insulin and how best to work with it.
Do you keep it in the fridge? If not, please put it in the fridge. Lantus will last longer when cold. Also - DO NOT shake, roll or rattle the insulin - it's very delicate and doesn't require any of this.
2) you can free feed your cats wet food. I do and so do many others. My cats used to eat dry food and after the diabetes diagnosis in 2009. we are a wet, low carb only household.
We highly recommend that you read up on how bad dry food is for cats and the importance of a low carb wet food diet. The great thing with this diet, it's good for all your cats. I provided the links in my previous post.
3) you don't need a prescription cat food. all it serves to do is put money in the vet and manufacturer's pockets. you can get better quality food for lower prices at the local pet store- all you need to do is purchase low carb foods under 10%, even 3-5% carbs is better. don't waste your money on prescription foods. Check out Binky's chart (again in the previous post link) and you will see that the ingredients in prescription food isn't all that great and is actually higher in carbs than you want to feed.
4) you need to learn to home test, it is the only way you will be in control and know what is going with your cat. While 1 unit is a good starting dose, without home testing you don't know if it's too much or too little insulin and once you change the food, you really need to test as the food (low carb) will lower the BG levels and you don't want a hypo situation.
Think about it like this - if it were you, your spouse or child that were diabetic, would you test before shooting insulin? Yes, right, then why is it different because we are talking about a cat and not a human.
I can't tell you how many people risk the safety of their beloved animal by not home testing.
Oh and don't get me wrong, there are many vets who don't encourage or support home testing. Why I don't know, my former vet was that way - she actually forbade me from home testing - she said if I didn't bring my cat in daily for testing, she refused to take any responsibility in treating Maui. Of course when I asked the silly question about, well you aren't open every day or on holidays then what happens - she didn't want to hear that question and continued to forbid me from testing her.
Had I followed this vet's advice, I probably would have killed Maui by dosing her too much. If you look at Maui's spreadsheet, you will see that she never went above 1 unit and actually very quickly was at microdosing amounts.
I just don't understand this philosophy and strongly encourage you to learn to home test, you will save yourself a lot of vet bills!
We have people in your area, let's see if we can find someone local to come out and help you in person. What do you say - you up for this?
Canes is the only cat in the house that does not try to eat "People" food. Even if you try and give him some, he just is not interested. My vet actually said she does not recommend giving wet food to diabetic cats. I would rather test his Blood sugar at home, He does get so stressed when we go to the vets. I live about 10 minutes from Raleigh, NC.
Lantus is an excellent insulin so kudos to the vet for suggesting it. But that's the only kudos the vet gets. Your vet is off target on several things.
1) cats need insulin twice a day not once. Cats metabolize faster than humans and therefore, need to have insulin twice a day.
Please visit the lantus support group so you can read up on this insulin and how best to work with it.
Do you keep it in the fridge? If not, please put it in the fridge. Lantus will last longer when cold. Also - DO NOT shake, roll or rattle the insulin - it's very delicate and doesn't require any of this.
2) you can free feed your cats wet food. I do and so do many others. My cats used to eat dry food and after the diabetes diagnosis in 2009. we are a wet, low carb only household.
We highly recommend that you read up on how bad dry food is for cats and the importance of a low carb wet food diet. The great thing with this diet, it's good for all your cats. I provided the links in my previous post.
3) you don't need a prescription cat food. all it serves to do is put money in the vet and manufacturer's pockets. you can get better quality food for lower prices at the local pet store- all you need to do is purchase low carb foods under 10%, even 3-5% carbs is better. don't waste your money on prescription foods. Check out Binky's chart (again in the previous post link) and you will see that the ingredients in prescription food isn't all that great and is actually higher in carbs than you want to feed.
4) you need to learn to home test, it is the only way you will be in control and know what is going with your cat. While 1 unit is a good starting dose, without home testing you don't know if it's too much or too little insulin and once you change the food, you really need to test as the food (low carb) will lower the BG levels and you don't want a hypo situation.
Think about it like this - if it were you, your spouse or child that were diabetic, would you test before shooting insulin? Yes, right, then why is it different because we are talking about a cat and not a human.
I can't tell you how many people risk the safety of their beloved animal by not home testing.
Oh and don't get me wrong, there are many vets who don't encourage or support home testing. Why I don't know, my former vet was that way - she actually forbade me from home testing - she said if I didn't bring my cat in daily for testing, she refused to take any responsibility in treating Maui. Of course when I asked the silly question about, well you aren't open every day or on holidays then what happens - she didn't want to hear that question and continued to forbid me from testing her.
Had I followed this vet's advice, I probably would have killed Maui by dosing her too much. If you look at Maui's spreadsheet, you will see that she never went above 1 unit and actually very quickly was at microdosing amounts.
I just don't understand this philosophy and strongly encourage you to learn to home test, you will save yourself a lot of vet bills!
We have people in your area, let's see if we can find someone local to come out and help you in person. What do you say - you up for this?
MommaOfMuse
Very Active Member
Hi Roy,
Hillary has already hit the high points and where your vet is completely wrong, so I'm just going to add a little information about my diabetic cats. My original diabetic was Muse (thus the screen name). I found this group when she was first dxed, but unfortunately it was too late for her, she passed shortly after finding out finally what was wrong with her, due to cancer, since diabetes was only the tip of the iceberg for her. But I hung around and started gleaning all the information I could from these wonderful folks as I never wanted to get the kick in the gut that I did with my lovely Muse. You see I had at the time 8 other cats, that I wanted to keep healthy and happy. Since that time, our furry family has expanded some, with the addition of 3 more non-diabetics and through this board a wonderful 12 year old fellow named Maxwell. I adopted Maxwell with only 24 hours left to live as he had been surrendered to a vet to be put to sleep when his owner went into a nursing home and her family didn't want to be bothered with caring for him. Maxwell was in rough shape when he arrived at my house, he had been shaved naked because he was so matted, he was a walking skeleton at 10.5 lbs (he's a very large framed cat), and did very little jumping or playing. This was on October 15th last year, within 2 weeks of changing his diet (along with all my cats) to a low carb, high protein diet, Maxwell was in remission and completely off insulin where he remains to date. And all 10 of my other cats look better than they ever have. Their coats shine, they are sleek and muscular, with abundant energy, they run, they jump, they wrestle, and even my one that had cronic diarrhea stopped and another one with severe food allergies had those disappear and went of the daily pred that he had been on for nearly 6 months.
However, if I hadn't been testing Maxwell at home, I could have seriously hurt him, because he was so new to me at the time of him going into remission that I wouldn't have catch the subtle personality shifts that signal the onset of hypo, I didn't know what was normal for him. In fact I didn't learn what was normal for him until several months later once he was off insulin and regained all his weight back. He is my only senior cat, at the moment, but today you can't tell the difference in him and any of his younger housemates, except for the fact that he actually will sleep at night with us in the bedroom, while the kids are up and prowling around the rest of the house, he is still just as playful and active as the rest of the fur gang here. In fact his best friend is my Lady Jane Grey, who isn't even a full year old yet.
If fact this is such an easy disease to treat at home, that I'm waiting on transport right now for my second adopted diabetic kitty, who I will again be putting on an all canned low carb diet (she is already being switched in her foster home), and testing her religiously at home, and with any luck will once again be back here celebrating her going off insulin as well.
Her name is Musette and her foster dad has been sending me her weekly testing results, so you call look at both Maxwell and her spread sheets in my signature and see how quickly her numbers are starting to fall with less that 1u twice a day and a change in diet. Musette just has a harder road to hoe than Maxwell did, as Maxwell was in pretty good condition and was a fairly new diabetic when I adopted him. Musette has already been through DKA in March, and is currently being treated for a UTI, which is making her a little harder to regulate.
I feed everyone here exactly what my diabetic eats, Friskies Pate style canned food, because out of 9 cats when Muse was first dxed not a single one of them would touch the prescription stuff, and I have one that is an ex-feral and will raid a trash can like a dog, and even he turned his nose up at that stuff. Now I am home with my furry kids all day so I feed them four times a day, but when I have to be gone over their normal feeding times, I simply freeze their canned food with a little bit of water mixed in it and leave that for them to nibble on as it thaws.
Mel, Maxwell & The Fur Gang.
Hillary has already hit the high points and where your vet is completely wrong, so I'm just going to add a little information about my diabetic cats. My original diabetic was Muse (thus the screen name). I found this group when she was first dxed, but unfortunately it was too late for her, she passed shortly after finding out finally what was wrong with her, due to cancer, since diabetes was only the tip of the iceberg for her. But I hung around and started gleaning all the information I could from these wonderful folks as I never wanted to get the kick in the gut that I did with my lovely Muse. You see I had at the time 8 other cats, that I wanted to keep healthy and happy. Since that time, our furry family has expanded some, with the addition of 3 more non-diabetics and through this board a wonderful 12 year old fellow named Maxwell. I adopted Maxwell with only 24 hours left to live as he had been surrendered to a vet to be put to sleep when his owner went into a nursing home and her family didn't want to be bothered with caring for him. Maxwell was in rough shape when he arrived at my house, he had been shaved naked because he was so matted, he was a walking skeleton at 10.5 lbs (he's a very large framed cat), and did very little jumping or playing. This was on October 15th last year, within 2 weeks of changing his diet (along with all my cats) to a low carb, high protein diet, Maxwell was in remission and completely off insulin where he remains to date. And all 10 of my other cats look better than they ever have. Their coats shine, they are sleek and muscular, with abundant energy, they run, they jump, they wrestle, and even my one that had cronic diarrhea stopped and another one with severe food allergies had those disappear and went of the daily pred that he had been on for nearly 6 months.
However, if I hadn't been testing Maxwell at home, I could have seriously hurt him, because he was so new to me at the time of him going into remission that I wouldn't have catch the subtle personality shifts that signal the onset of hypo, I didn't know what was normal for him. In fact I didn't learn what was normal for him until several months later once he was off insulin and regained all his weight back. He is my only senior cat, at the moment, but today you can't tell the difference in him and any of his younger housemates, except for the fact that he actually will sleep at night with us in the bedroom, while the kids are up and prowling around the rest of the house, he is still just as playful and active as the rest of the fur gang here. In fact his best friend is my Lady Jane Grey, who isn't even a full year old yet.
If fact this is such an easy disease to treat at home, that I'm waiting on transport right now for my second adopted diabetic kitty, who I will again be putting on an all canned low carb diet (she is already being switched in her foster home), and testing her religiously at home, and with any luck will once again be back here celebrating her going off insulin as well.
Her name is Musette and her foster dad has been sending me her weekly testing results, so you call look at both Maxwell and her spread sheets in my signature and see how quickly her numbers are starting to fall with less that 1u twice a day and a change in diet. Musette just has a harder road to hoe than Maxwell did, as Maxwell was in pretty good condition and was a fairly new diabetic when I adopted him. Musette has already been through DKA in March, and is currently being treated for a UTI, which is making her a little harder to regulate.
I feed everyone here exactly what my diabetic eats, Friskies Pate style canned food, because out of 9 cats when Muse was first dxed not a single one of them would touch the prescription stuff, and I have one that is an ex-feral and will raid a trash can like a dog, and even he turned his nose up at that stuff. Now I am home with my furry kids all day so I feed them four times a day, but when I have to be gone over their normal feeding times, I simply freeze their canned food with a little bit of water mixed in it and leave that for them to nibble on as it thaws.
Mel, Maxwell & The Fur Gang.
MommaOfMuse
Very Active Member
Hi Roy,
Hillary has already hit the high points and where your vet is completely wrong, so I'm just going to add a little information about my diabetic cats. My original diabetic was Muse (thus the screen name). I found this group when she was first dxed, but unfortunately it was too late for her, she passed shortly after finding out finally what was wrong with her, due to cancer, since diabetes was only the tip of the iceberg for her. But I hung around and started gleaning all the information I could from these wonderful folks as I never wanted to get the kick in the gut that I did with my lovely Muse. You see I had at the time 8 other cats, that I wanted to keep healthy and happy. Since that time, our furry family has expanded some, with the addition of 3 more non-diabetics and through this board a wonderful 12 year old fellow named Maxwell. I adopted Maxwell with only 24 hours left to live as he had been surrendered to a vet to be put to sleep when his owner went into a nursing home and her family didn't want to be bothered with caring for him. Maxwell was in rough shape when he arrived at my house, he had been shaved naked because he was so matted, he was a walking skeleton at 10.5 lbs (he's a very large framed cat), and did very little jumping or playing. This was on October 15th last year, within 2 weeks of changing his diet (along with all my cats) to a low carb, high protein diet, Maxwell was in remission and completely off insulin where he remains to date. And all 10 of my other cats look better than they ever have. Their coats shine, they are sleek and muscular, with abundant energy, they run, they jump, they wrestle, and even my one that had cronic diarrhea stopped and another one with severe food allergies had those disappear and went of the daily pred that he had been on for nearly 6 months.
However, if I hadn't been testing Maxwell at home, I could have seriously hurt him, because he was so new to me at the time of him going into remission that I wouldn't have catch the subtle personality shifts that signal the onset of hypo, I didn't know what was normal for him. In fact I didn't learn what was normal for him until several months later once he was off insulin and regained all his weight back. He is my only senior cat, at the moment, but today you can't tell the difference in him and any of his younger housemates, except for the fact that he actually will sleep at night with us in the bedroom, while the kids are up and prowling around the rest of the house, he is still just as playful and active as the rest of the fur gang here. In fact his best friend is my Lady Jane Grey, who isn't even a full year old yet.
If fact this is such an easy disease to treat at home, that I'm waiting on transport right now for my second adopted diabetic kitty, who I will again be putting on an all canned low carb diet (she is already being switched in her foster home), and testing her religiously at home, and with any luck will once again be back here celebrating her going off insulin as well.
Her name is Musette and her foster dad has been sending me her weekly testing results, so you call look at both Maxwell and her spread sheets in my signature and see how quickly her numbers are starting to fall with less that 1u twice a day and a change in diet. Musette just has a harder road to hoe than Maxwell did, as Maxwell was in pretty good condition and was a fairly new diabetic when I adopted him. Musette has already been through DKA in March, and is currently being treated for a UTI, which is making her a little harder to regulate.
I feed everyone here exactly what my diabetic eats, Friskies Pate style canned food, because out of 9 cats when Muse was first dxed not a single one of them would touch the prescription stuff, and I have one that is an ex-feral and will raid a trash can like a dog, and even he turned his nose up at that stuff. Now I am home with my furry kids all day so I feed them four times a day, but when I have to be gone over their normal feeding times, I simply freeze their canned food with a little bit of water mixed in it and leave that for them to nibble on as it thaws.
Mel, Maxwell & The Fur Gang.
Hillary has already hit the high points and where your vet is completely wrong, so I'm just going to add a little information about my diabetic cats. My original diabetic was Muse (thus the screen name). I found this group when she was first dxed, but unfortunately it was too late for her, she passed shortly after finding out finally what was wrong with her, due to cancer, since diabetes was only the tip of the iceberg for her. But I hung around and started gleaning all the information I could from these wonderful folks as I never wanted to get the kick in the gut that I did with my lovely Muse. You see I had at the time 8 other cats, that I wanted to keep healthy and happy. Since that time, our furry family has expanded some, with the addition of 3 more non-diabetics and through this board a wonderful 12 year old fellow named Maxwell. I adopted Maxwell with only 24 hours left to live as he had been surrendered to a vet to be put to sleep when his owner went into a nursing home and her family didn't want to be bothered with caring for him. Maxwell was in rough shape when he arrived at my house, he had been shaved naked because he was so matted, he was a walking skeleton at 10.5 lbs (he's a very large framed cat), and did very little jumping or playing. This was on October 15th last year, within 2 weeks of changing his diet (along with all my cats) to a low carb, high protein diet, Maxwell was in remission and completely off insulin where he remains to date. And all 10 of my other cats look better than they ever have. Their coats shine, they are sleek and muscular, with abundant energy, they run, they jump, they wrestle, and even my one that had cronic diarrhea stopped and another one with severe food allergies had those disappear and went of the daily pred that he had been on for nearly 6 months.
However, if I hadn't been testing Maxwell at home, I could have seriously hurt him, because he was so new to me at the time of him going into remission that I wouldn't have catch the subtle personality shifts that signal the onset of hypo, I didn't know what was normal for him. In fact I didn't learn what was normal for him until several months later once he was off insulin and regained all his weight back. He is my only senior cat, at the moment, but today you can't tell the difference in him and any of his younger housemates, except for the fact that he actually will sleep at night with us in the bedroom, while the kids are up and prowling around the rest of the house, he is still just as playful and active as the rest of the fur gang here. In fact his best friend is my Lady Jane Grey, who isn't even a full year old yet.
If fact this is such an easy disease to treat at home, that I'm waiting on transport right now for my second adopted diabetic kitty, who I will again be putting on an all canned low carb diet (she is already being switched in her foster home), and testing her religiously at home, and with any luck will once again be back here celebrating her going off insulin as well.
Her name is Musette and her foster dad has been sending me her weekly testing results, so you call look at both Maxwell and her spread sheets in my signature and see how quickly her numbers are starting to fall with less that 1u twice a day and a change in diet. Musette just has a harder road to hoe than Maxwell did, as Maxwell was in pretty good condition and was a fairly new diabetic when I adopted him. Musette has already been through DKA in March, and is currently being treated for a UTI, which is making her a little harder to regulate.
I feed everyone here exactly what my diabetic eats, Friskies Pate style canned food, because out of 9 cats when Muse was first dxed not a single one of them would touch the prescription stuff, and I have one that is an ex-feral and will raid a trash can like a dog, and even he turned his nose up at that stuff. Now I am home with my furry kids all day so I feed them four times a day, but when I have to be gone over their normal feeding times, I simply freeze their canned food with a little bit of water mixed in it and leave that for them to nibble on as it thaws.
Mel, Maxwell & The Fur Gang.
Hillary & Maui (GA)
Very Active Member
so glad there is someone close by who can help you out. I highly recommend taking Kim up on her offer to help.
so what can we do to help you?
so what can we do to help you?
Ok: Vet visit number two happened on Friday. I had a different vet and this one agreed with the notion of using wet food for Cane. I also have to give him 1u/twice a day now. His Bood Glucose levels did not change from the first visit. Taking him back next Friday to see how his levels are.
Hillary & Maui (GA)
Very Active Member
what about home testing? are you willing to do this?
It will save you the time and money to take him back to vet for testing - which honestly is useless information - as the cat may be stressed and the levels can go up 200 points just for this reason alone.
And as I've mentioned before, if this were you or your human child - you would be testing before shooting - it's no different for the cat.
if you don't home test, then you are shooting blind and can cause a hypo situation and not even know it, as your cat may OR may not show any symptoms and the only way you will know is by home testing.
I can't stress this enough, how vital it is - especially if you changed to low carb wet food.
And Kim is close by to you - she is willing to help teach you how to test, why not take her up on this offer and really do what is best for Cane.
How about enlightening us as to why you are reluctant/unwilling/not wanting to home test?
It will save you the time and money to take him back to vet for testing - which honestly is useless information - as the cat may be stressed and the levels can go up 200 points just for this reason alone.
And as I've mentioned before, if this were you or your human child - you would be testing before shooting - it's no different for the cat.
if you don't home test, then you are shooting blind and can cause a hypo situation and not even know it, as your cat may OR may not show any symptoms and the only way you will know is by home testing.
I can't stress this enough, how vital it is - especially if you changed to low carb wet food.
And Kim is close by to you - she is willing to help teach you how to test, why not take her up on this offer and really do what is best for Cane.
How about enlightening us as to why you are reluctant/unwilling/not wanting to home test?
doombuggy
Very Active Member
My cat was diagnosed on 4/22 (a Friday). I immediately changed his food from fancy feast to Blue Buffalo Wilderness (canned & dry) and wellness canned. the gang here hammered at me to get rid of the dry food all together. My vet has been pressuring me regarding dry, and he's happy that Cedric is now off of it altogether. I took it away on 5/19 and his numbers dropped right away (see spreadsheet below). Within 2 days his numbers were normal, and he has not needed insulin since 5/21, after taking it for about a month. I started hometesting on 4/26. I went to Wal-Mart on Easter Sunday on my way home from work and got the reli-on Micro meter - about $9, but couldn't buy the strips as the pharmacy was closed - went back Tuesday. It's tough for me to get the blood sometimes - had quite the issues last night - but it's worth it. I have a toy that my step-mom gave to Cedric that had a heating "pad" inside. I heat it up for 25 seconds and use it to heat up his ear. If I am lucky, I get blood on the 1st or 2nd prick. Being from the Navy, YOU CAN DO THIS! [insert pic of your DI yelling this at you].
My vet's office is amazed that I was able to get Cedric into remission so quickly. Part of it is that I think we got on it early (luck, since I noticed some things and he was scheduled for his annual visit anyway), we just moved into a new townhouse the week before, so he's getting some exercise, and the help from this group. We went to the vet for his annual checkup on 4/21 and I mentioned about him drinking all his water a couple of times in the past 2 weeks, and they did some tests. The felt he had FD, but would be getting back to me the next day. While I was waiting, I got in the net and found this site. The timing wasn't great for me, with just buying the new house, my sister's graduation in CO, and my planned vacation with a sick friend here at WDW, but we got thru it (my checkbook is still hurting though!)
It will be tough to get your cats off that dry, but I feed Cedric 4 times a day, and I work 7 days a week. I bought a C20 Cat Mate auto feeder for Cedric to eat when I am not home. I started using it yesterday (after testing it twice when I was at home). It has an ice pack for the bottom of the 2 dishes, I put a cold portion to pop open 4-5 hours after his first feeding of the day, then a frozen portion (which I froze the night before in a container) to pop up about 5 hours after the first pop up. I then feed him in the evening. It's working.
Oh, I give him an Evo grain free, high protein treat when I test him. I also bought some chicken treats from Drs Foster & Smith, which is on one of the lists that is ok to give him. It's really crunchy and he loves it. I think that this helps with the testing. He's not crazy about being pricked, but he wants those treats!
This reminds me that I need to get my cousin's address at Camp Leatherneck (he's on his 3rd tour, 1st in afghanistan, been in since 1992 and former DI at parris Island, first day of work there was 9/10/01), so I am off to call my uncle (30 years USMC). Thanks for your service to our country and welcome to the boards!
My vet's office is amazed that I was able to get Cedric into remission so quickly. Part of it is that I think we got on it early (luck, since I noticed some things and he was scheduled for his annual visit anyway), we just moved into a new townhouse the week before, so he's getting some exercise, and the help from this group. We went to the vet for his annual checkup on 4/21 and I mentioned about him drinking all his water a couple of times in the past 2 weeks, and they did some tests. The felt he had FD, but would be getting back to me the next day. While I was waiting, I got in the net and found this site. The timing wasn't great for me, with just buying the new house, my sister's graduation in CO, and my planned vacation with a sick friend here at WDW, but we got thru it (my checkbook is still hurting though!)
It will be tough to get your cats off that dry, but I feed Cedric 4 times a day, and I work 7 days a week. I bought a C20 Cat Mate auto feeder for Cedric to eat when I am not home. I started using it yesterday (after testing it twice when I was at home). It has an ice pack for the bottom of the 2 dishes, I put a cold portion to pop open 4-5 hours after his first feeding of the day, then a frozen portion (which I froze the night before in a container) to pop up about 5 hours after the first pop up. I then feed him in the evening. It's working.
Oh, I give him an Evo grain free, high protein treat when I test him. I also bought some chicken treats from Drs Foster & Smith, which is on one of the lists that is ok to give him. It's really crunchy and he loves it. I think that this helps with the testing. He's not crazy about being pricked, but he wants those treats!
This reminds me that I need to get my cousin's address at Camp Leatherneck (he's on his 3rd tour, 1st in afghanistan, been in since 1992 and former DI at parris Island, first day of work there was 9/10/01), so I am off to call my uncle (30 years USMC). Thanks for your service to our country and welcome to the boards!
Hillary & Maui (GA)
Very Active Member
Roy,
Once you learn and get the hang of home testing. It really only takes seconds to do. OK, if you have a squirmy cat, it may take minutes. Or if you have a cat like mine, her "treat" for testing was getting brushed and she demanded lots of brush time! ;-)
Seriously, once you see how quick and easy it is, you will wonder why the reluctance and it takes less time to test the cat, than it does to brush your teeth.
Take Kim up on her offer to help you in person. It is well worth it and you will be in control.
Once you learn and get the hang of home testing. It really only takes seconds to do. OK, if you have a squirmy cat, it may take minutes. Or if you have a cat like mine, her "treat" for testing was getting brushed and she demanded lots of brush time! ;-)
Seriously, once you see how quick and easy it is, you will wonder why the reluctance and it takes less time to test the cat, than it does to brush your teeth.
Take Kim up on her offer to help you in person. It is well worth it and you will be in control.
Julia & Bandit (GA)
Very Active Member
NavyIC1 said:
I so understand time, because I work two jobs and go to grad school. However, testing only takes a minute once you get the hang of it, and you won't need all those vet visits once you start testing. Bandit only went to the vet twice before remission--once for diagnosis and once for a dental. I shared my data with the vet for everything else.
The way I did it working some much is that I got 3-4 tests in daily--once before each shot, one 6 hours after the pm shot, and usually one 4 hours into the pm cycle as well. Then once a week on a Sat. or Sun. I did a curve--a test every 2 hours during the am cycle.
80+% of newly diagnosed cats go into remission with the combination of tight regulation through home testing, low carb wet food, and Lantus. Just think about the time you'll save when you don't have to shoot insulin or arrange your schedule so that you're doing the strict 12/12 shots, or constantly take him in to the vet for testing. My cat has been in remission for 9 months now, and the only extra thing I do is test him once a week to make sure his bg is normal.
MommaOfMuse
Very Active Member
Roy,
One other thing I would add about all the trips to the vet's for testing is this, all cats areunder stress when at the vet's, (strange noises, barking dogs, weird smells etc). Stress raises BGs, so if dosing is being made off the numbers the vet is seeing in the office, then more than likely the dose is too high once kitty is back home and relaxed in their home environment. By testing at home you have a clearer picture of what his numbers really are, and thus can make the call on what dose to shoot based on those numbers.
One of the most profound things one of my instructors told my class (I'm a vet tech student) is no vet or vet tech truly knows what a resting heart rate is at the office. She even encouraged those of us with pets at home to snuggle up to our pets when they were hanging out with us on the couch and listen to their heart rates, and resperation rate then to get a clearer idea of what a true "resting" rate looked and sounded like. Especially with cats, as by and large cats aren't exposed to a lot of different stimulus. We don't take them to the park, or out on walks, or for that matter many don't even go outside, were they are exposed to contantly changing sights, sounds and smells. We don't take them with us to friend's houses or on play dates with other cats, like some dog owners do. So for a kitty, trips to the vet cause lots of excitement and stress.
I adopted Maxwell on October 15 2010, as a diabetic, he has been to my vet exactly once, and then it wasn't as a patient, it was so we could teach them, how to teach other clients to home test. There has been no need to take him for anything else. I still test him every couple of weeks even though he has been in remission, I still email my vet his spreadsheet every couple of months just so they have it on file, but everything else I do for him at home, and with the support of the folks here.
This coming Saturday I will be bringing my second diabetic cat home, that I have just adopted. Unless something arises that requires a vet trip, i.e. infection, ketones, dental etc, I don't expect to take her to the vet's either until it is time for her annual physical. There isn't going to be a reason to, she has been fully vetted, she is spayed and I already know she is a diabetic. However, she will be home tested from the minute I get her in the house. I will keep her spreadsheet up to date, in fact I already have one set up for her and have been plugging in numbers from her foster dad.
Please take Kim up on her offer, she can help you see how truly easy it is, and it is absolutely the best way to keep your kitty safe while on insulin and give you the very best chance on seeing him into remission.
Mel, Maxwell and The Fur Gang.
One other thing I would add about all the trips to the vet's for testing is this, all cats areunder stress when at the vet's, (strange noises, barking dogs, weird smells etc). Stress raises BGs, so if dosing is being made off the numbers the vet is seeing in the office, then more than likely the dose is too high once kitty is back home and relaxed in their home environment. By testing at home you have a clearer picture of what his numbers really are, and thus can make the call on what dose to shoot based on those numbers.
One of the most profound things one of my instructors told my class (I'm a vet tech student) is no vet or vet tech truly knows what a resting heart rate is at the office. She even encouraged those of us with pets at home to snuggle up to our pets when they were hanging out with us on the couch and listen to their heart rates, and resperation rate then to get a clearer idea of what a true "resting" rate looked and sounded like. Especially with cats, as by and large cats aren't exposed to a lot of different stimulus. We don't take them to the park, or out on walks, or for that matter many don't even go outside, were they are exposed to contantly changing sights, sounds and smells. We don't take them with us to friend's houses or on play dates with other cats, like some dog owners do. So for a kitty, trips to the vet cause lots of excitement and stress.
I adopted Maxwell on October 15 2010, as a diabetic, he has been to my vet exactly once, and then it wasn't as a patient, it was so we could teach them, how to teach other clients to home test. There has been no need to take him for anything else. I still test him every couple of weeks even though he has been in remission, I still email my vet his spreadsheet every couple of months just so they have it on file, but everything else I do for him at home, and with the support of the folks here.
This coming Saturday I will be bringing my second diabetic cat home, that I have just adopted. Unless something arises that requires a vet trip, i.e. infection, ketones, dental etc, I don't expect to take her to the vet's either until it is time for her annual physical. There isn't going to be a reason to, she has been fully vetted, she is spayed and I already know she is a diabetic. However, she will be home tested from the minute I get her in the house. I will keep her spreadsheet up to date, in fact I already have one set up for her and have been plugging in numbers from her foster dad.
Please take Kim up on her offer, she can help you see how truly easy it is, and it is absolutely the best way to keep your kitty safe while on insulin and give you the very best chance on seeing him into remission.
Mel, Maxwell and The Fur Gang.
doombuggy
Very Active Member
Hey Roy, how's it going?
I hear you about the "no free time" thing. I work a f/t job M-F, so I am only free in the evenings. I go to the chiropractor one day a week (that's about 20 minutes) to keep my migraines away. I work at disney on Saturday and Sunday, so I am putting in 6 to 8 1/2 hour days there, plus the 45 minutes or so travel time each way. When I was testing Cedric twice a day and giving him the injections, I would get up about 10 minutes earlier than usual to have time to test then inject the insulin. I tried to stay on a 6am/6pm schedule, but had problems with that a couple of times when I was scheduled to work at Disney at 6am (so he was getting insulin at 5am when I left for work). Our office was invited to one of our client's location to view the last shuttle launch (this was 4/29 and the shuttle ended up not launching that day). I REALLY wanted to go, but passed due to Cedric. who would give him his 6pm injection? While the shuttle was supposed to launch in the afternoon, Cape Canaveral is about an hour from here and they were expecting 700,000 people....traffic he**, I'd say.
I hope everything is working out for you...
I hear you about the "no free time" thing. I work a f/t job M-F, so I am only free in the evenings. I go to the chiropractor one day a week (that's about 20 minutes) to keep my migraines away. I work at disney on Saturday and Sunday, so I am putting in 6 to 8 1/2 hour days there, plus the 45 minutes or so travel time each way. When I was testing Cedric twice a day and giving him the injections, I would get up about 10 minutes earlier than usual to have time to test then inject the insulin. I tried to stay on a 6am/6pm schedule, but had problems with that a couple of times when I was scheduled to work at Disney at 6am (so he was getting insulin at 5am when I left for work). Our office was invited to one of our client's location to view the last shuttle launch (this was 4/29 and the shuttle ended up not launching that day). I REALLY wanted to go, but passed due to Cedric. who would give him his 6pm injection? While the shuttle was supposed to launch in the afternoon, Cape Canaveral is about an hour from here and they were expecting 700,000 people....traffic he**, I'd say.
I hope everything is working out for you...
Melissa & Tarragon
Very Active Member
Welcome! You definitely should start home testing as soon as possible. My cat's sugar levels go up by about 100 - 150 when we go to the vet due to stress, so they don't really get a good curve on him there. They also base the dosage on those higher numbers and I have had problems back home when his levels come back down and he is on a higher dose than needed.
It is also very expensive to have the testing done at the vet and it only takes a few minutes at home.
Welcome again! The Lantus specific board is below for you to check out when you get a chance.
viewforum.php?f=9
It is also very expensive to have the testing done at the vet and it only takes a few minutes at home.
Welcome again! The Lantus specific board is below for you to check out when you get a chance.
viewforum.php?f=9
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