Introducing Titus - newly diagnosed FD

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Bella and Titus

Bella and Titus

Member Since 2022
Hello everyone,

My name's Belinda and my sweet 10 yr old orange moggy Titus was diagnosed on 12 July 2022 with FD, which was pretty upsetting but not 100% surprising given his age, sex and weight (we've tried for years to reduce his weight but are battling against his appetite and slow metabolism). He was hospitalised for three days, and a fructosamine test indicated that his BG was poorly controlled for at least three weeks prior.

He's back home with us now and fitted with a Freestyle Libre to help with monitoring. He's on Prozinc 2x daily with meals. Wasn't eating much at first (enough to dose but I had to give him some of his dry food) but is now eating wet mixed with shredded steamed chicken, and hopefully will take to the Purina Pro and/or Royal Canin DM wet I've ordered for him. Our vet clinic has been wonderful (Village Vet Hampstead for anyone based in London). They run an emergency 24 hr clinic so I can call anytime - which I have been doing!

Anyway, my lovely colleague introduced me to this page, which has already been so helpful as I'm such a newbie to all of this.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to interacting on this forum.

Belinda
 
Hi Belinda! And welcome to you and Titus.:)
My daughter Amanda told your colleague about this site. I am so glad to see you have posted!
Feline diabetes is overwhelming in the beginning but as you learn about it it will get much easier.

That is good you have had a sensor fitted so you can get used to the numbers and it will keep Titus safe.
You might like to think about hometesting the blood glucose so that after the sensor stops you will still know what the BGs are doing.
Sounds scary I know but you and Titus will soon get used to it. My cat Sheba would come running as soon as she heard me at the testing equipment as she knew she would get a treat.
Here is a link to HOMETESTING AND LINKS

You will also find this link helpful as it has the spreadsheet link and other useful information in it
HELP US HELP YOU
If you need any help with the SS I will get @Bandit's Mom to help you.
You will notice this site uses the US numbers while the rest of the world uses the mmol/l.
If you choose the world SS and enter the world numbers it will automatically transfer the numbers over onto the US SS….does that make sense? You find find information about the numbers and how to change them from one to the other in the link above called help us help you.

make sure you always test/check the blood glucose before you give the insulin to see it is safe to do so. And if you can test during the cycle around +4 to +7 that will tell us how well the insulin is working. I will tag @FrostD as she is a prozinc user.
What dose is he on twice a day.
Are you offering snacks during the day and evening? We recommend giving as well as the present meal, a couple of snacks say at +3 and +5 each cycle. It you could give +2 and +4. What ever works for you.

Here is some information about things in the UK
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-vit-b12-and-other-need-to-know-stuff.137376/

Here is some information about prozinc
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-the-prozinc-basics-please-start-here.164995/

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/prozinc-dosing-methods.225629/

I won’t bombard you with any more information at the moment as I don’t want to overwhelm you.
Please keep posting and asking lots of questions. There is always someone here to help you.
Bron
 
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Hi Belinda and Titus, welcome to the group. Titus is adorable! My wife loves orange moggies.

Can you shed more light on Titus' hospitalization? Being diagnosed with FD (feline diabetes) does not require hospitalization, what else was going on with him? Pancreatitis? DKA? (Diabetic Keto-Acidosis)?

If they did lab work, please see if you can post it for some of our expert guru people to pour over it can be very helpful.

Sounds like you are starting out well with the Libre monitoring, the folks here do also recommend that we learn how to do home BG (blood glucose) testing with a meter and a drop of blood, even if you have a Libre fitted on kittah. There are several reasons -- the Libre unit may malfunction, batteries might go flat, or kitty manages to remove it -- and you might be in a position where you need to shoot insulin and you should always, always, always know kitty's BG before you shoot so you know you are giving insulin safely.

Additionally, the Libre units are known to give readings that are not quite accurate especially at lower BG numbers. Learning how to do an ear prick with a lancet and get a blood drop onto a BG test strip isn't as hard as I thought it would be. My wife and I struggled at first but got the hang of it with help from the people here at the FDMB.

I see @Bron and Sheba (GA) has beaten me to the punch I took too long typing lol. Well anyway glad to see you here, I'm sure Titus will be well again soon if you stick around here and follow the advice from folks like Bron. I am no expert just a very thankful cat Dad as the people here saved my boy Hendrick. And my sanity. :bighug:
 
Hi Belinda and Titus! Welcome to FDMB :-)

Bella and Titus said:
hopefully will take to the Purina Pro and/or Royal Canin DM wet I've ordered for him.
Click to expand...
There's nothing in prescription food that miraculously treats diabetes. Many of them are expensive, too high in carbs (especially the dry ones) and the ingredients tend to be of low quality. Purina Pro Plan DM canned is low carb but the DM Savory Selects and the dry are NOT. Royal Canin Glycobalance (both wet and dry) is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat. You need not restrict yourself to prescription food. Any low carb canned food (or raw food) will do.

This is the link to the low carb food list available in the UK:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J5JpMe6TDXrHq_aTl9hUtHy6Gs9oRBqlz4nPGKxtySA/pubhtml
 
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