Introducing...Thomas!

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Sonya

Sonya

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Hello,

My cat's name is Thomas and he was diagnosed just yesterday with diabetes. It was unexpected, although he had typical symptoms. Increased thirst and urination, and increased appetite with weight loss. However, he is only 5 and was not an overweight cat to begin with. He's 10.6 pounds and was 11.7 previously. Our vet recommended a blood test, she seemed to think it would be his thyroid. Nope, nothing wrong there. His blood sugar was 430. So now we are switching him to prescription M/D and he will be starting 1 unit of insulin on Monday morning. Monday because the vet's office is not open on weekends and we would not be able to contact them if there is a problem.

Oddly enough, we have a friend with an older diabetic cat that we have injected previously. But her cat was used to it and into the routine! I'm worried about how it will go with Thomas.

So, is he unusual? Only 5 and not overweight?

Also, we are a two cat household. We are thinking it would be easiest to feed both of them the high protein, low carb food. Our other cat is on the chunky side (hopefully she isn't reading this) so we thought it wouldn't hurt her to switch to higher quality food and lose a bit.

How do others deal with mulitple cat households?

Thanks for listening!

Sonya
 
Sonya and Thomas...welcome! You've found the greatest place, full of friendly knowledgeable folks who live with this day in and day out. I would have gone nuts without them. (Ok, so I may be a little nuts anyway! ;-) )

I can't address the age question but can sure share about the multiple cat feeding. Poopy is my sugar kitty. Mia, his playmate, is a supposedly normal cat. (I say supposedly because she really is a weird little thing.) I digress.

When I switched Poopy over to the wet low carb foods (I didn't go the prescription diet - too many options on the grocery store shelves with low carbs that better fit my budget, thank you very much! :smile: ), Mia was stuck with the same stuff. It did take her a couple of days to realize it wasn't just a treat as she was used to and began eating with gusto. :-D

Will you be home testing? Might want to go ahead and order the newbie kit, or pick up a meter, strips, and lances when you drop by the store. :smile: Home testing is very much recommended to better keep an eye on how our sugar kitties are doing with the insulin we give them. :smile:

Don't know how to home test? No problem! There's lots of folks here who freely share their experience and before you know it you'll be a pro!

Welcome again, and feel free to ask any questions!
 
Hi Sonya

Thomas is slightly unusual but certainly not rare. I'm wondering what you have been feeding your cats previously. If it was dry food please be aware that you're likely to see a significant decrease in BG just from the change in diet alone, in fact some cats don't need insulin at all once their diet has been fixed!

I would also highly recommend home testing, I would not feel safe giving my boy insulin without knowing where his BG is at. Although pretty much everyone here home tests not many vets seem to have clients that do so so it's not an option suggested by most vets - in fact some actively discourage it for reasons known only to themselves, if I were to be cynical I would say its because they won't get as much money out of you if you're doing your own curves! Certainly I have never heard of a vet that has come up with a valid resaon not to. As well as saving you money and making things safer for Thomas it will take the stress factor out of the BG reading you are getting and therefore be more accurate than a BG taken at the vet clinic.

I think you will find that low carb canned foods off the supermarket shelves will work better for you (for both cats and financially). Not many cats take to the MD over the longer term and it is much higher in carbs than many of the supermarket options. I have discussed this with my vet who has admitted that they cannot recommend anything that isn't scientifically tested and made for vets but he did have to admit that the food I am giving looks like it has better ingredients for a cat, i.e. no cereal and fruit/veg ingredients.

Great that you have found the FDMB so quickly. You will have many many questions as you learn all about FD so please keep posting them. There are so many good people here with so much experience who will be very happy to help you and Thomas.

Serryn
 
Hi Sonya and Thomas!

I had a cat named Thomas when I was little. He was a black and gray tabby.

Coincidentally, I found out that my cat Henry has diabetes yesterday as well. Aren't we having a great weekend?

I'll be looking forward to hearing more about Thomas' progress. Best of luck with him, Stacy
 
Our vet did suggest home glucose testing and is willing to show me how. She wanted us to start him on the insulin, just the one unit, for a week then bring him in again and then is looking at doing a glucose curve to see where he is at. I don't want to second guess our vet, but it from what I'm reading, is it possible that just the change in diet alone could put him into remission? I hope that is the right word.

I was thought I was getting him good food by spending a little extra on the Purina O.N.E. Now I find out it was horrible for him! Not to mention the canned food with gravy! He so liked to lick the gravy off.

I've been checking out the lists of canned and dry foods that are on the site. We may try those. Right now my husband is pretty insistant that we spend the extra on the prescription cat food. He won't admit it, but he's grown rather attached to Thomas. The cats came with me when we married, but Thomas had definitely become his cat. They are best buds.

Sonya
 
Sonya,

Perhaps hubby could join you in finding what works best for Thomas? Including the food chart with all the different flavors and options? :mrgreen:

Just a thought. :lol:

As far as the vet, not all vets are inexperienced when it comes to day in and day out care of sugar kitties. There are some good ones out there. Unfortunately, there are more ignorant (when it comes to the 24/7 living and dealing with kitties with diabetes) than wise. :cry: I hope you're one of the lucky ones to have a wise vet. :-D It makes everything so much easier! And it sounds like you do have a vet with wisdom for suggesting home testing! Woohoo! You'd be surprised how many not only frown at the thought, but read the riot act for even mentioning it!
 
Hello and welcome Sonya,Thomas, and dh

Sonya was the blood test just a regular blood test or was it a fructosamine test?? fructosamine test is the same as human A1c and checks to see what the average bg was over a two week time frame , if it was just a regular bg check then if Thomas gets stressed by going to the vet that will affect his numbers ( stress does not affect fructosamine test)

my callie is diabetic and her sister is not but they are treated the same ( except for insulin :lol: ) and ear testing which I think testing bg is a must if you want to give Thomas the best care possible, we use freeze dried chicken treats for every poke cat_pet_icon

I feed my girls fancy feast classics !

It is also good to read and print out what to do if Thomas hypo's and have a kit ready and waiting In mine I have high carb treats, higher carb food , karo syrup !

again callie, tesse, and I welcome you to the FDMB :YMHUG:
 
i'd encourage you and your DH to read http://www.catinfo.org to learn a bit about feline nutrition. i think many of us thought we were doing the best thing for our cats, only to find out there was a better way. oh well - that's life!

i feed fancy feast low-carb also - ridiculous little cans but they have ended up being perfect for portion control. the fancy feast classics are all between 2% and 8% carbs, so acceptable for a diabetic cat. the m/d is more expensive and has a liver base, which a lot of cats get tired of. then you've got an expensive food your kitter won't eat. i feed both my diabetic cat, punkin, and my non-diabetic cat, anya the same foods. that way if punkin gets into anya's food it's not a crisis.

what kind of insulin is the vet starting you on?

you can get a free newbie kit from the link at the top of the page or you can pick up one at your local store. if you do that, avoid the meters with 'true' in their name - none of them have tested very well for accuracy on the consumer reports testing. the walmart relion confirm is the cheapest reliable meter and strips. many of us buy supplies online once we get the hang of things - it will cost you far less that way than in your local store. i'm a fan of buying local - except for this.

welcome - we're glad you're here and we'll do our best to help you learn what you need to know to keep Thomas safe and get him back feeling good again. you'll get there!
 
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