Introducing Chiqui

[Daniel Jerónimo Tobón]

Hi, everyone.
Chiqui is a little black beauty that has been with my wife and me since for the last 12 years. Last week she was diagnosed with diabetes, after a series of test due to polyuria, polydipsia and a rapid loss of weight, accompanied by a ravenous appetite. We initially attributted these symptoms to a prednisone treatment and change to a weight managment diet, but after some vomiting we did a full bloodwork that confirmed diabetes (and also, it seems, some kind of thyrod disorder).
The veterinarian tried novolin the first day, but we did some research and suggested lantus (which is easiliy available here), and began measuring glucose at home. We are now in the proccess of adjusting the dosage.
We are also changing his diet from Hills I/D to canned food, but it's not easy here. There aren't that many options and it is difficult to know the carbohidrate content of the ones we can get our hands on. And to keep it away from our other cat, Cora, a 15 y/o female with renal disease.
Chiqui seems to be responding well to the treatment: she drinks less and isn't hungry all of the time, and her energy seems to be improving, altough her numbers are still high and we'll probably have to increase the dosage. So there's hope.
Thanks to everyone that contributes to this website. The information you provide has been invaluable in deciding how to deal with this.

 

[Idjit's mom]

Welcome Daniel, lovely wife and Chiqui to FDMB. I'm so very glad you have been researching and found this message board so that you can learn more about effective diabetic treatment for Chiqui and get answers and support while you are learning the sugar dance.

Yes, it's always a challenge to find appropriate low carb diet in other countries, but hopefully we can help with some carb calculators, and perhaps some suggestions for a homemade diet. Both kitties might benefit from the diet change, as some of our sugar cats are also affected with chronic kidney disease and/or renal issues.

However, your research has also led you to request Lantus and you have been home testing the blood sugar. Two more huge steps in the right direction! Thank you for caring so much about Chiqui that you have made these efforts.

Please let us know if you are using a human or pet glucometer to home test, you can edit the signature and add that.

Thank you for setting up the spreadsheet. This spreadsheet shows you, and us, the trends and patterns of how the insulin is working for Chiqui. And on the basis of that information, recommendations can be made about dosage. I know this is going to sound odd, but it really is true..sometimes too much insulin looks like not enough, so please continue to get the data in the ss, and see what's going on before you begin increasing an insulin dose.

Looking at the spreadsheet you dosed 4 units on the 19th, and Chiqui had some lower "lime" BG numbers and you skipped that PM dose. Then you decreased the dose to 1 Unit these last three cycles. The experienced members in the Lantus forum are going to be able to advise you further as you get more data, and see how the 1 Unit is working during the next cycles as the insulin depot is built up. They will need to see how low the blood sugar is going because Lantus dose is based on the lowest BG, or nadir, in the cycles. Getting mid-cycle tests between injections is going to provide the information needed to make those judgments.

You are doing your best to keep Chiqui safe, and again, thank you for that.

Please read the yellow tagged stickies at the top of the Lantus forum. This is all great information that is going to be very valuable to you.

Going forward, please post general health questions and concerns (eg. diet, feeding schedule and amounts, testing, etc) in the Main Health forum HERE.

Please read this also: New? How you can help us help you
Looking forward to following along on Chiqui's journey and getting to know all of you.

 

[Sarah&Soph]

Welcome to you and gorgeous Chiqui! I’m quite partial to black kitties myself

Please feel free to post on the main forum if you need suggestions for canned foods that are available to you, or with any other questions you may have!

 

[Daniel Jerónimo Tobón]

Hi, Lou, and Sarah&Soph.
I will dive into the Lantus forum (didn't know there was one, so thanks for that). The homemade diet is another possibility I hadn't consider, and that would make sense for both Chiqui and Cora (the older one). I'll start looking into that, and also will start inquiring about the canned foods that I do have access to here.
Your warmth and your willingnes to help are really touching, so thanks again for that.

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

Tagging @Veronica & Babu-chiri who has some knowledge of S. American foods.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Hi and Welcome!!

You've arrived at a great place, and I'm guessing that you have pretty much the same issues in Colombia that I have in Mexico, insulin and syringes are easily available and not to expensive but food is complicated and way way pricy and since the food companies are really not obliged to disclose most of the food content information we are somewhat limited.

At some point you will probably need to use the same diet for both your cats which means a low carb low phosphorus diet for both, actually the one with kidney problems will benefit from a low carb diet and your diabetic cat will also benefit from a low phosphorus diet

I'm not sure what foods you have available probably similar that the ones we have in Mexico, I've managed to gather some information with time, I have to admit it is not as precise and accurate as Dr. Lisa's List but we have had to work with the information available most of the information is based in guaranteed analysis because we haven't had access to the as fed values ( not even with companies that in the US do give it) so is not quite accurate but it does give you an idea about foods

The best food I've been able to find is Instinct, here we have the chicken original recipe and limited ingredient turkey both of which are ok for diabetics but only the turkey limited ingredient is ok for both kidney and diabetes (and their information is quite good and they are even on Dr. Lisa's list) but is quite expensive although not as much as hills i/d

On a more economic line Felix and Whiskas do have some that apparently are low carb and we do have some of the fancy feast varieties that are also low carb (mouse de pollo, terrina de pavo)

 

[Daniel Jerónimo Tobón]

THanks to @Red & Rover (GA) for the referral, and to @Veronica & Babu-chiri for the advice. You saved us a lot of work. We have added your recommendations to my shoplist, because some of the foods you mention are in fact available here too. There are some others, like evolve, that we can also get my hands on. Instinct, however, seems impossible to find. We will also start researching on complements to make our own food. Any advice on those complements one could find in México or Spain would be most welcome, or if anybody knows where to ask about that or can point us in the right direction.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

THanks to @Red & Rover (GA) for the referral, and to @Veronica & Babu-chiri for the advice. You saved us a lot of work. We have added your recommendations to my shoplist, because some of the foods you mention are in fact available here too. There are some others, like evolve, that we can also get my hands on. Instinct, however, seems impossible to find. We will also start researching on complements to make our own food. Any advice on those complements one could find in México or Spain would be most welcome, or if anybody knows where to ask about that or can point us in the right direction.

Dr. Lisa Pierson ( the doctor that actually made the food list we use here in the board ) has an amazing recipe for home cooking and she explains the supplements to use, how to prepare it etc. (her recipe is not for cats with kidney issues but is perfect for diabetics ) this is the link
https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/

And I usually get all the supplements from iherb.com or vitacost.com they both ship internationally so you will probably be able to get what you need from them

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Regarding the evolve check Dr. Lisa's list for them they are actually low carb but a bit high in phosphorus so not so good for kidney issues

 

[Daniel Jerónimo Tobón]

Thanks, Veronica. Yeah, I checked Dr. Lisa's list and, indeed, Evolve is too high in phosphorus. I am currently looking into a local brand that seems to be making good food (meat, low carb, some raw options), but they have yet to send me the info on phosphorus content. We'll see. Anyways, Dr. Lisa doesn't advise her recipe for CKD cats, so I would be interested in knowing what how do you manage that. Have you tweaked it?

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Thanks, Veronica. Yeah, I checked Dr. Lisa's list and, indeed, Evolve is too high in phosphorus. I am currently looking into a local brand that seems to be making good food (meat, low carb, some raw options), but they have yet to send me the info on phosphorus content. We'll see. Anyways, Dr. Lisa doesn't advise her recipe for CKD cats, so I would be interested in knowing what how do you manage that. Have you tweaked it?

Not exactly, a few years ago I actually had a consultation with Dr. Lisa and she was amazing and kind enough to help designing a special diet for my kitties ( they have a whole bunch of issues besides diabetes and CKD)

 

[Daniel Jerónimo Tobón]

Thanks for your answer, Veronica, and sorry for the tardy response, these have been busy days. Best wishes,

 

[Cris-Merlin(GA)& the pack]

Daniel y Chiqui bienvenidos! have you looked at mix-ins? I live in PR and have had moments like that where finding things seem to not be available here as they are in the states. the forums have a lot of suggestions and hopefully you can find some of the food available there or in a way you can get it easily. Dr. Lisa's list is a great one. Also try out mix-ins, I have had at times issues with my current civie not wanting a specific meal and back when the old boy was around he was super fussy at times. Both cases i usually solve with mixing in either treats (whole or crushed and sprinkled depending on the situations) or things like chicken fillet, even some cheeses at times. You can add less and less of the mix-in with time and slowly transition Chiqui. Also try mixing some of the wet and dry food as you transition? You can do the same, little by little adding more wet food than dry. Hopefully Chiqui cooperates! Bienvenidos y muchas bendiciones a Chiqui y a ti!