Hi -- Sarah here from the bay area in CA. Hello and thanks to all of you for being such a wonderful community!
My kitty Miko was diagnosed with diabetes last week. He's about 10, neutered male, indoors, has already been on raw diet (primal and rad cat) for about the past 18 mos., and he's been lean and active his whole life. He very likely is part burmese or siamese -- I have to suspect genetics, although he did eat kibble for most of his life until a couple years ago when I learned better and slowly transitioned to canned and then raw diet.
He didn't have any steroids or anything else that could have brought it on. His diabetes manifested after switching from Primal to RadCat, but I think that's probably a coincidence since RadCat is only 2.5-3% carbs. Just in case I've reintegrated Primal again, too, along with Nature's Variety from NZ (my other kitty is IBS and needs a lot of variety to stay stable).
Miko's been started on 1 unit BID of Lantus. Insulin injections went better than I expected. He was a feral kitten who has never gotten comfortable with being picked up or handled, so he can be very hard to manage. He's the kind of cat who stays away from me for a good month after a flea treatment.
So that being said, next big hurdle is the at home glucose testing. I just got an AlphaTrak2 today, and I'm hoping that you lovely people might have some suggestions. I'd love to be able to distract him with his favorite treats, but it doesn't look like many people glucose test while the cat is eating, I guess because the head needs to stay so still. Miko is small and skinny with tiny ears, too. I think the only key to my having success with this will be to make it a comfortable and rewarding experience for him. I see some people have used towels, but if I do that I can almost guarantee Miko won't come near me again for days on end (which will also endanger my ability to give him insulin).
He is a kibble addict, so even though I don't want to go crazy on that, he's very bribe-able with the lure of a few pieces of grain-free kibble. I'm terrified of hypoglycemia, so I would feel a LOT better being able to do frequent glucose testing and knowing exactly what is happening. Any advisement, tips or tricks you all can offer are so very appreciated.
Purrs to you and yours,
Sarah
My kitty Miko was diagnosed with diabetes last week. He's about 10, neutered male, indoors, has already been on raw diet (primal and rad cat) for about the past 18 mos., and he's been lean and active his whole life. He very likely is part burmese or siamese -- I have to suspect genetics, although he did eat kibble for most of his life until a couple years ago when I learned better and slowly transitioned to canned and then raw diet.
He didn't have any steroids or anything else that could have brought it on. His diabetes manifested after switching from Primal to RadCat, but I think that's probably a coincidence since RadCat is only 2.5-3% carbs. Just in case I've reintegrated Primal again, too, along with Nature's Variety from NZ (my other kitty is IBS and needs a lot of variety to stay stable).
Miko's been started on 1 unit BID of Lantus. Insulin injections went better than I expected. He was a feral kitten who has never gotten comfortable with being picked up or handled, so he can be very hard to manage. He's the kind of cat who stays away from me for a good month after a flea treatment.
So that being said, next big hurdle is the at home glucose testing. I just got an AlphaTrak2 today, and I'm hoping that you lovely people might have some suggestions. I'd love to be able to distract him with his favorite treats, but it doesn't look like many people glucose test while the cat is eating, I guess because the head needs to stay so still. Miko is small and skinny with tiny ears, too. I think the only key to my having success with this will be to make it a comfortable and rewarding experience for him. I see some people have used towels, but if I do that I can almost guarantee Miko won't come near me again for days on end (which will also endanger my ability to give him insulin).
He is a kibble addict, so even though I don't want to go crazy on that, he's very bribe-able with the lure of a few pieces of grain-free kibble. I'm terrified of hypoglycemia, so I would feel a LOT better being able to do frequent glucose testing and knowing exactly what is happening. Any advisement, tips or tricks you all can offer are so very appreciated.
Purrs to you and yours,
Sarah
He did get a tiny bit of Megaflex Glucosamine, MSM & Sea Cucumber joint supplement a few times a week and the last ingredient of that is maltodextrin -- I've discontinued that for now.