Help not my vet

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Victoria Reeves

Victoria Reeves

Member Since 2022
Hi all
My cat 9yr old DSH Jack was dianosed today.
Labs all good BG 390
UG +3 trace ketone
My question is because I'm not dealing with my personal vet, office it temporarily closed for remodeling.
Should I start my boy on insulin or give diet a chance. I have no experience with any of this. Vet is telling me HARD NO, pushing veterinary formula food. Will not use for my own personal reasons and does not agree with war oricking to test home sugars.
I'm so confused HELP!
THANKS IN ADVANCE
Jack and mom Vicky
 
Hi Vicky and welcome to you and Jack. I am new here as well, my boy Hendrick was just diagnosed on 1/5/22. What insulin has your vet prescribed and how much? Hendrick started on Lantus 1u 2x/day.

Personally, I would start dosing insulin, esp with the ketones. Ketones can develop when BG is high, and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) can kill a kittah very quickly and treatment is super expensive. Hendrick was hospitalized for DKA just 3 days after his diabetes diagnosis, and the bill was $3400 for two nights' stay. A trace amount of ketones can turn into a life-threatening amount very quickly -- 24 to 48 hours even.

home BG testing is essential though so you can test before you administer insulin. Also, so-called "veterinary formula" food typically has way too high carbs for a diabetic feline. I imagine your vet is saying feed Purina DM? The pate is 5% calories from carbs and the savory selects is 10%. 10% is considered a bit high to feed regularly by most of the experts here at the forums. And dry food is right out -- diabetic cats need to be fed a canned food diet that is low-carb, or a raw food diet.

This group is very numbers driven, in order for them to help you can you setup a spreadsheet with Jack's BG test values and link it in your signature?

See this:

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Also can you put some basic info in your signature such as insulin type, your cat's name, weight/breed, recent lab work or diagnosis, food type (see mine below for an example)

Again -- welcome to the best place for all the answers you need to help Jack get better. Good luck on your journey!
 
Last edited:
one more thing -- the ear pricking -- my vet also said it was not needed. What a load of crap, it is super-important if you want the best chance for Jack to improve.

have you had any luck yet doing it? I really struggled in the beginning but I've got it down now thanks to the people here and all their tips and tricks.

Such as:

Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up

Here is a video one of our members did
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
Click to expand...
 
Hi Victoria,
With ketones in the urine, I would definitely start the insulin.
What type of insulin are you going to give and what dose?
I would also strongly recommend hometesting the blood glucose. If you live in the US you can get a ReliOn Prime glucose meter at Walmart for $9 and 100 test strips for $17.88. You will also need some cotton rounds to hold at the back of the ear when you test.

With ketones in the urine insulin and food and fluids are very important as they all will help get rid of the ketones.
so feed lots of food, add some warm fluids to the food if he will eat it…..like a teaspoon each snack.
Feed well before the dose and then snacks every couple of hours.
There is no need to feed prescription food. Low carb is the way the go. Also make sure you have some high carb food in case of low numbers.
I would buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and test the urine every day for ketones. You want no ketones at all in the urine.

this link HELP US HELP YOU will give you good information to get started. Ask lots of questions.
 
Hendrick's mom and dad said:
Hi Vicky and welcome to you and Jack. I am new here as well, my boy Hendrick was just diagnosed on 1/5/22. What insulin has your vet prescribed and how much? Hendrick started on Lantus 1u 2x/day.

Personally, I would start dosing insulin, esp with the ketones. Ketones can develop when BG is high, and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) can kill a kittah very quickly and treatment is super expensive. Hendrick was hospitalized for DKA just 3 days after his diabetes diagnosis, and the bill was $3400 for two nights' stay. A trace amount of ketones can turn into a life-threatening amount very quickly -- 24 to 48 hours even.

home BG testing is essential though so you can test before you administer insulin. Also, so-called "veterinary formula" food typically has way too high carbs for a diabetic feline. I imagine your vet is saying feed Purina DM? The pate is 5% calories from carbs and the savory selects is 10%. 10% is considered a bit high to feed regularly by most of the experts here at the forums. And dry food is right out -- diabetic cats need to be fed a canned food diet that is low-carb, or a raw food diet.

This group is very numbers driven, in order for them to help you can you setup a spreadsheet with Jack's BG test values and link it in your signature?

See this:

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Also can you put some basic info in your signature such as insulin type, your cat's name, weight/breed, recent lab work or diagnosis, food type (see mine below for an example)

Again -- welcome to the best place for all the answers you need to help Jack get better. Good luck on your journey!
Click to expand...



Thanks Im new here to what is Signature?
 
Most if us feed Fancy Feast Classic Pate or Friskies Pate
Here is the link to our food chart, try and stay under 5% carbs
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/
Or you can look at other foods listed on the food chart
I see you live in Illinois so you should be able to pick up the Relion Meter at Walmart


For your hypo kit if Jack ever drops too low and you need to bring his BG up

Med and High Carb food



Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart
And some honey
 
The signature is the information at the bottom of each member's post. It gives us basic information about your kitty so we don't keep asking you the same information repeatedly and annoy you to death!

Ask the vet what the percent of carbohydrate is in the prescription food. Some of the brands of canned food are OK; none of the dry food is low in carbs. We consider low carb to be under 10% although most of us would feed in the 5% range. If you want some information on feline nutrition, the link is a good place to start. It's a web page written by a vet who is quite knowledgeable about diet.

I agree with what others have noted, with even trace ketones present, it can be very important to start insulin. You do not want to see a higher level of ketones or it can quickly become a life threatening emergency -- and a costly stay at an emergency vet.
 
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