Introducing Jenna

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shadowbear

shadowbear

Member Since 2018
Hello Everyone!

My name is Rob and I am Jenna's waitstaff. (Also, for three other kitties.) Jenna will soon be 15. We've been together since she was a kitten.

Poor little Jenna has had a tough week. She stopped eating on Friday 07/06/18. I was only able to get her to eat a couple bites that whole weekend. We went to our vet the following Monday and she was diagnosed with diabetes. She got some fluids and some force-fed food, I was shown how to give her insulin, and we went home to start monitoring and with directions to bring her back the next day if she didn't eat on her own.

I gave her the morning dose Tuesday and within an hour she became barely responsive. Called the vet and was directed to go to the ER. There, she was admitted so she could be monitored closely and have frequent glucose checks. Evening check in yielded that she had been getting fluids, her glucose had dropped to 105, and she seemed to be doing a bit better.

At midnight I got a call that she may have liver failure and\or pancreatitis and\or kidney failure and\or a list of several other terrible things. Also, a diagnosis of ketoacidosis. (That was all kind of terrifying.) She needed an ultrasound. The nearest places with ultrasound facilities were all 30 to 50 miles away. We made plans to move her to one of those ERs in the morning - the current ER would call the new one to explain the situation and let them know we were coming and we should pick her up at 7:00am on Wednesday to take her there.

Pick up. Travel. Admit. Ultrasound. (That makes it sound a lot faster than it was.)

Ultrasound showed a couple minor highlights (maybe a bladder infection, etc...), but none of the major, horrible possibilities. Thank goodness! With no pending-doom diagnosis, we discharged and went back to our more local ER and got re-admitted.

I called in Thursday morning and she was doing better, had eaten on her own (WooHoo!), and was still under observation. Thursday evening, I visited her and she was looking much more her old self. They gave me food to give her, which she wolfed down. (That’s my Jenna.) Possible discharge Friday.

Actual discharge Friday about 10:00pm. So, she is home. Currently eating Hill’s Glucose/Weight Management m/d, which she is not even remotely impressed with. We’re doing ½ unit of Lantus (THAT was sticker shock!) twice a day and routine glucose checks . We go back to our regular vet on Monday for liver values, ‘official’ glucose check and to assess hydration and weight – and we get to see our favorite, trusted veterinarian who we’ve been with Jenna’s whole life. (So far, we’ve seen whoever was available because the situation was urgent.) We’re going to talk about tastier food, among other things.

And, this has gone on much longer than I intended. Thank you for listening. I have already learned so much from this forum, it really has made me feel so much more confident that Jenna and I can get through this and we’ll have many more years together.

-Rob
 
Welcome Rob and Jenna. I am so glad you found FDMB and are researching ways to help Jenna with her treatment. It's certainly been a rough week for both of you, and I hope things are going to get a whole lot easier quickly.
Regarding the food situation, a low carb wet diet is best for our sugar kitties, and many of us feed Fancy Feast Classics and Friskies Pates, less than 10% carbs. No gravies, sauces etc. The Hill's foods are too high in carbs to be good for Jenna.
There is a detailed food chart here on the board that you can look through, here is a link to the chart:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/page-2#post-2213517
There is a website devoted to feline nutrition by the veterinarian Dr. Pierson who created the chart: Catinfo.org. You might find that interesting.
Please bring your questions and concerns to the Main Health Forum so that more members can see and give you responses. We are here to help.
 
Welcome! Sounds like a stressful, scary week! It is great that you are doing glucose monitoring at home right from the start. If the vet actually encouraged that, you are very fortunate; many times, they do not mention it, or worse, recommend against it. (Which is completely absurd.) The starting dose also sounds great - again, you are fortunate; many times, people come here and tell us the starting dose that was prescribed and we all scream NO! So, you are off to a great start. :)

One not so positive note though is the food. Vets like to push the "prescription" foods, but they are usually not the best option. You did not mention whether she has the wet or dry hill's m/d. I hope it is at least the wet. Even if it is the wet, it is really too high in carbs at 13%. The dry is worse. You will learn that carbs have a direct impact on glucose. When Mia was diagnosed, I was sent home with Hill's m/d dry. I found in my research that it was not the appropriate diet for her so I immediately started transitioning both of my cats to a high-protein, low-carb wet food diet. I still had the Hill's dry food, and I gave a little of it to Mia on occasions when her glucose when too low - in other words, I used it to steer her glucose level UP, so not something you want to be feeding as the diet for a diabetic! There are also other issues with feeding dry food - catinfo.org will tell you all about that. Most of us never knew how bad dry food was until we got the diagnosis and started researching.

There is a link in my signature to a cat food database. This is the list compiled by Dr. Pierson but it is in a format that allows for filtering by desired parameters.. much easier to use than a list. Dr. P suggests, "start with protein minimum of 40, fat maximum of 50, carb max of 10, and for cats with kidney issues....phos less than 300." So no more than 10% carbs, and really, much less than that is best. If you start looking at and researching the ingredients in the "prescription" food, you will see it is less than ideal. I feed my girls Weruva Chicken Frick A' Zee which I highly recommend.. if not the chicken, Weruva has other varieties that are excellent choices as does Tiki Cat. Part of the equation is what your cat will actually eat. There are a lot of options to try.

Post any questions you have on the main health forum. You will get a lot of support and advice here.
 
Welcome. Such a stressful week for all of you. Once things settle down a bit, we can help with so much. One of the benefits of being here is where to get anything you need for the best prices. That includes the insulin. By the way if you store the insulin in the fridge on a shelf not the door, it will last for months. They probably gave you a vial so when you can you will want a back up in case it falls or gets dropped and breaks ( we've all had that happen) and it's usually on a holiday or weekend when you can't get more by next dose time.
 
Welcome Rob and Jenna. I must agree that it sounds like you are off to a great start: home testing, low start dose of insulin. Sounds like you have worked with some terrific Vets. You can buy cheaper Lantus from Canada; I recently had my first delivery of the Lantus Solostar pen; it arrived in good condition and within temperature. Marks Marine Rx in Vancouver. Best wishes on this journey!
 
Lots of great advice above so I'll just say welcome and that I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home. Home testing is the best way to keep your cat safe and find the ideal dose. Definitly switch off that high carb food.
 
Oh, my gosh! Thanks everybody!

I picked up from other posts here that Hill's probably wasn't the best plan for food. I've gone through Dr. Pierson's food chart and have a list to present at today's today's appointment.

Jenna is doing really well. I think I'm more traumatized than she is at this point. :)

Thanks for all the information!
 
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