Introducing Gromit (and his freaking out parent)

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shethumb

Member Since 2014
Good morning!

My fourteen year-old ginger tom Gromit was diagnosed about ten days ago with diabetes, and we immediately did all the stuff our vet said (spending over $600 in vet, pharmacy, and food), and are now trying to figure out a routine. It's not entirely working and I'm starting to panic that I've gone through all this and he's not going to tolerate it, and I'll end up losing him anyway. Unfortunately at the same time, he was also diagnosed with a UTI, (why would a vet make banana flavored antibiotics for a cat!!!), and has symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. We've now got a five month supply of Lantus (we have the injector pens), about six weeks worth of kibbles, and about two months worth of canned food.

Gromit has two brothers and a sister, and they're all used to breakfast and dinner of wet food with kibbles out all the time. We had previously split a can of Fancy Feast four ways, which gives them all about a tablespoon of wet food, and they tend to eat about 2 cups of kibbles throughout the day collectively.

Our vet prescribed Hill's w/d food, so I bought it through chewy.com (which our vet didn't like, apparently all the online retailers sell counterfeit food!?), but I did some reasearch and feel confident that it's the real thing. They all love the W/D Chicken kibble, but Gromit won't eat the wet food. He takes a bite and walks away, so Rasputin runs right over and polishes it off. It seems everyone loves the w/d wet food EXCEPT Gromit. I think I'm going to take a step back with it and add a bit of the w/d to his usual Fancy Feast and taper down. Maybe that'll help.

The biggest problem is now that he runs from me every time I go anywhere near him. My husband and I have to corner and catch him to give him his shots and antibiotics. Thankfully today is the last dose of the antibiotics, so I'm really hoping that makes things easier.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had this problem, can someone please tell me he's going to get used to the shots and once the antibiotics are done that he'll mellow out! Should I worry about him not eating the wet food and just give him kibbles?

When we started all this, we told the vet that we're not going to torture him, that if it seemed like he wouldn't tolerate the treatment we'd let him go, and this morning I'm beginning to think we might be forced to go there. Boy, I don't want to do that!

I'm glad this group is here! Thanks for reading my long panicky post!

:) Stacey
 
I have an incredibly difficult kitty who is really intolerant of people messing with her. She will let you pet her to your heart's content, but try to force a pill down her throat, corner her, put a collar on, or anything else, and you're likely to deal with hiding, hissing, frantic escape attempts, and claws. (I have a couple of nice scars.) So I think if anyone's cat was going to be resistant to shots, it would be mine. She really doesn't mind the insulin shots at all. Many people have posted here that the cats don't feel them. My cat doesn't seem to. She doesn't really like it when I grab her scruff, but she purrs through the whole process as long as I pet her first and doesn't try to get away. You'll get there once you're done with the antibiotic. Bribes can help with the transition, though. We give her a wet food she really likes right before she gets her shot, and a tiny treat afterwards.
 
Welcome! You've definitely found the right place. People here are fabulous and they got my 12yo cat into remission! :-D

Stacey, your story matches mine almost EXACTLY. Lantus, w/d food (dry - I got mine from Chewy.com, too!), and a huge heap of vet bills for the original dosing testing and equipment.

The first thing I will tell you is that you should, without any doubt, start testing his blood glucose levels at home. Get an inexpensive human meter, lancets, and test strips. Most people use ReliOn monitors if they have a Walmart nearby, or the same monitors from American Diabetes Wholesale (an online company), which are sold under the Arkray brand. But, any human meter will work. Look at the cost of the strips in particular when you're selecting one because that's where the real cost of the unit comes in. The human and cat meters both measure the same thing, but on a slightly different scale. Fortunately, someone did the research to determine how they compare so that you can use either on your cat!

The second thing I will tell you is that the W/D food is not good for diabetics and it turned out to be what was actually keeping my cat on insulin. We switched her to all wet, non-prescription food, and she was able to go off insulin within a few weeks and is now diet-controlled only. Our vet told us that was extremely unlikely, but I would assume that all her experience was that doing so is extremely unlikely on that prescription food (which is true).

Folks around here feed their cats low-carb diets rather than low-fat diets. For diabetics, the rule of thumb is to stay below 10% carbohydrates, though I think most of us feed something around 5%. The cat food composition chart on this page is the bible of info on the subject because carb % is NOT listed on the food cans.

But, do NOT transition food in any way without starting to home test first. Mona dropped from 3units of Lantus to none within a week and a half when we changed her food from W/D. Not testing multiple times a day when changing foods can kill your cat when they're on insulin, so get comfortable with testing as your first priority.

The shots are totally easy. I would guess that most of the struggle is the antibiotics and also your own newness to the process. Now that I'm comfortable with the shots, Mona doesn't even seem to notice that I'm doing it. I tend to give them while she's eating.
 
Oh, and I got all my money back from Chewy.com when I called them and said that we had been told to use a different food for our cat than the W/D. They didn't even want it back, but refunded me and told me to donate it to a local shelter or vet's office if possible, or to just chuck it if I couldn't find someone who needed it.
 
Welcome to FDMB.

Emphasis: changing to a low carb diet may drop the glucose level 100 mg/dL and/or the insulin dose 2-3 units quickly. My Spitzer dropped to 1 unit from 3 units when I changed the food ... overnight. I ended up testing most of the night and giving him Karo syrup with food to keep his glucose level above 50 mg/dL.

And those Lantus pens - refrigerate them and withdraw the insulin with a U-100 syringe. Each pen may last until its empty. Yes, it says on the package 1 month. That is only how long it was tested and submitted to FDA. We've found that you can use almost, if not all, of it. The U-100 syringe which is 3/10 mL (cc), and has half unit markings is what you want to get, with a 30 or 31 gauge needle. WalMart has them. Some states require you to get a prescription; some don't.

Also, if you get the Clavamox tablets, you can put one in an oral syringe, suck up some water and maybe a tad of mushy food, shake well until dissolved and mixed, and give that way.
 
Oh the joys of our furbabies who don't like to get poked!

I have found the best way for me to get Skooter his insulin is to do it while he is eating....he is a man on a mission when it comes to his fuds and doesn't seem to care much of anything I do when he is eating.

You and your fubaby will be grand! It can be a bit difficult to get a routine going, I have only been at this a few months and I really dont' remember not doing this now....
 
Hi Stacey,

My Saoirse was recently diagnosed and I was really worried about her not liking the injections. I wandered round YouTube to learn more about administering insulin and I found this gem:-

Insulin shots have become a treat for this diabetic cat

This video helped me a lot. I incorporated the ideas in the video and it really made a difference for Saoirse, especially being groomed with a nice soft bristle brush. Also, I consistently administered her insulin in a single place (definitely not one of her favourite spots) so that she would know that everywhere else was OK to be. Low carb treats (always after dose administration) helped to make it a more positive (ok - less negative!) experience for her.

I did similar with Saoirse's BG testing station. Saoirse was never wild about getting her insulin (Caninsulin was very hard on her system while it was at peak effect) but she sits waiting for me to test her now. More often than not she purrs the whole way through (which greatly surprised me).

Hope the vid helps.
 
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