HELP NEW MEMBER

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tyler r

Member Since 2024
Hi, I’ve been meticulously reading this forum, I appreciate the great advice and tips.

My cat was diagnosed last week and spent the prior Thursday at the vet getting his first insulin dose and curve. He is on 1u/12 hours of ProZinc.

Since bringing him home it’s been increasingly hard to lure him out from under the bed for shots, let alone blood glucose tests. He’s pretty much been under the bed for 4 days. His quality of life is awful, he’s terrified of me and anything outside of the bed.

He is getting more scared over time and I don’t know what to do. He’s never been a very cuddly cat and hates being constricted or going to the vet.

The insulin seems to be helping his urination frequency but it makes me so sad that he’s just hiding and I’ve been unable to give him a shot tonight.
 
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@tyler r
 
tyler r said:
Hi, I’ve been meticulously reading this forum, I appreciate the great advice and tips.

My cat was diagnosed last week and spent the prior Thursday at the vet getting his first insulin dose and curve. He is on 1u/12 hours of ProZinc.

Since bringing him home it’s been increasingly hard to lure him out from under the bed for shots, let alone blood glucose tests. He’s pretty much been under the bed for 4 days. His quality of life is awful, he’s terrified of me and anything outside of the bed.

He is getting more scared over time and I don’t know what to do. He’s never been a very cuddly cat and hates being constricted or going to the vet.

The insulin seems to be helping his urination frequency but it makes me so sad that he’s just hiding and I’ve been unable to give him a shot tonight.
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@tiffmaxee
@Bandit's Mom
@Angela & Cleo
 
I understand what you are going through. Several years ago I adopted an untreated diabetic cat. She was very nervous because she was in a new home with a stranger and hid constantly under the bed. I had to take the bed out of the bedroom in order to limit her access to where she could hide so I could reach her. I am not saying this is what you need to do.

You will need to help him learn to associate with getting tested and shots with something pleasant. If you can keep him contained in one room, this may make it easier for you.

First, whenever you interact with him, reward him with a low carb treat. A good treat is freeze dried chicken. You can find it at your pet store, but look in the dog treat section. It is actually less expensive there. The only ingredient is chicken. Whenever he approaches you, you test him or give him his shot, reward him with a treat. The goal is to get him to associate the things he is scared of with something good. Even if you are not successful in testing him, still give him the treat.

Next, he is also probably picking up on your nervousness. This is a normal for owners to be nervous when they first start caring for a diabetic cat. Unfortunately, our cats are very sensitive to your feelings and if we are nervous, they respond the same way. One trick we recommend is to sing a silly song when you are testing or giving him his shot. Nursery rhymes are a good example, but any song that makes you feel good will work. Yes it sounds crazy, but it works. It is hard to be nervous when you are doing something silly.

Things will get easier for both of you. It takes time and patience, but it will happen.
 
I'm sorry you have to be here but there is a wealth of information and knowledge to help. :bighug::bighug:
I'll let @Diane Tyler's Mom give the link to creating your signature and spreadsheet.
I can relate to an uncooperative kitty :rolleyes:. Is there something that he really likes? My cat is food motivated so luring her out of hiding with snacks was (eventually) successful. She also has an affinity for the laser pointer. I would play with her with the laser pointer for 5-10 minutes before shot/feed time to get her to eat and get her injections. Its sort of like replicating the hunt-catch-kill-eat instinct :).
I'm sure others will chime in.
 
Thank you all for the positive words!

He does like lickable treats and freeze dried chicken but even those can’t lure him out all the time.

I just feel like every time I shoot him or try to test him he grows even more scared of me and the loop continues.

I’ve been nervous of hypo so I’ve let him free feed on a little bit of purina DM dry food in between Purina DM wet servings pre-shot in the AM/PM. But he’s not always super hungry for the wet food so I worry about if he’s eating enough.

Thanks again,
T
 
Angela & Cleo said:
I'll let @Diane Tyler's Mom give the link to creating your signature and spreadsheet.
Click to expand...

Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help

If you need help setting up the spreadsheet just ask
 
One additional suggestion is to get rid of the dry food. Despite it being labeled as "diabetic", it's very high in carbohydrates. It's not helping Thomas' blood glucose numbers.

The 24 may be a result of what we term a bounce. When your cat's numbers drop to a range lower than what he's become used to, his liver and pancreas release a stored form of glucose along with counterregulatory hormones. This causes the nmbers to spike upward.
 
The original poster, @tyler r, said:
"I’ve been nervous of hypo so I’ve let him free feed on a little bit of purina DM dry food in between Purina DM wet servings pre-shot in the AM/PM. But he’s not always super hungry for the wet food so I worry about if he’s eating enough>."

@Thomas’s mama - you are responding to information that is not directed to you. You need to start a thread for you and your cat. If you are used to posting on the FDMB Facebook site, the FDMB board does not work in the same way.
 
Thank you! This may be anecdotal since we haven’t been going that long, but my cat seems to be the most outgoing when the insulin is wearing off, but maybe it’s just because he’s hungry. Is this heard of?

I know i need to test to see if he’s too high or too low but I haven’t been able to bring him out of hiding very much and when I do he resists the test

@Sienne and Gabby (GA) @Diane Tyler's Mom
 
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