Introduction for Nanner

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nannersfriend

nannersfriend

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Hello I am Paula and I am helping care for a diabetic shelter cat named Nanner. Nanner's family could no longer afford to keep him and took him to the vet to have him put to sleep and the vet talked them into letting the shelter take him. It's a small independent shelter for cats only, and I am a volunteer there. My husband and I previously had a sugarcat named Flash (GA) so we are helping with testing and shots. I'm not sure of Nanner's age, but I would guess he's under 5, and he is some sort of Siamese mix. His points are black and brown tabby, he has longer than normal fur for a Siamese, the prettiest blue eyes, and one flopped over ear. My husband and I are owned by four furbabies Lucy, Hope, Buck, and Coco. Lucy and Hope are older ladies and Buck and Coco are about a year old, were adopted from the shelter last fall and are BFF's.

Nanner is on 7U of Pro-Zinc am and pm, and on Hills W/D dry 1/3 cup am and pm. I know this is not an ideal situation and was absolutely shocked when I saw how many carbs are in the W/D. I got Flash off the insulin and maintained him with a canned only diet only for about 5 years, I also converted our vet at the time (we moved). Nanner seems to be doing OK, but I haven't gotten a successful test on him yet. I ran into a couple of problems, first Nanner's ears are dark and I had a hard time seeing where to go. Second, his ears are pretty furry and when I finally DID get a good poke it the fur soaked it up before I could get the test strip to his ear. Nanner was an absolute angel about the whole thing. and he's really good about getting his shots too. Any suggestions about how to get a good sample from a little guy with dark ears and a lot of fur? What gauge lancets seem to work best for cats? I've got 32's - I'm borderline diabetic myself and it's what I use, but I'm wondering if a little larger lancet wouldn't work better for Nanner.

Paula and Nanner
 
Bless you for taking on a shelter diabetic kitty. It sounds like you have the knowledge and experience to really make a difference in his life.

A larger gauge lancet can definitely help - 25-27 gauge would be good. Oliver had furry black ears so we poked on the inside of his ears. A thin smear of Vaseline where you are planning to poke will help the blood bead up.
 
Welcome Paula and Nanner,

My first diabetic was a himmie so I can completely understand the problems with dark fluffy ears, and my current diabetic boy is also long haired, what has worked with both of them to get a sample without losing it in the fur, was to put a light smear of vaseline on the ear prior to poking as it helps the blood bead up. Also with my first girl it helped to put a flashlight behind the ear to help see the pokey spot and to poke low on the ear just above that little double flap of skin. Or poking on the inside of the ear as opposed to the normal outside of the ear.

Any change of getting Mr. Nanner's to accept an all canned diet? It doesn't have to be very expensive food, we have lots of commerial brands that are low in carbs, high in protein and don't break the piggy bank, even Wal-mart's store brand Special Kitty would be better for Nanner than the dry food. But as you know you want to be testing first, because that is a whopping dose of insulin for a cat.

And of course since Mr Nanner is looking for a furever home, a pitcure or two of him would be lovely. We have several folks here that have been known to adopt these extra sweet kitties from this board right here. My own Maxwell is such a cat, I adopted him as a diabetic from a situation much like Mr. Nanner is in, and I have a big soft spot for meezers (owned by 3 atm), especially the longer haired ones...lol

Mel, Maxwell, and The Fur Gang
 
Hi Paula, I'm glad you made it here. I'm Jennifer, from the DCIN page.

For dark ears I usually keep a flashlight in the crook of my neck but that's hard for many. Years ago I would have my vet shave part of my late Sadie's ear (also black) and then I'd use my husband's flashlight from the garage that stood on it's own and could be positioned behind her ear so I could see the sweet spot.

These days, with my newest adoption, Ebony, who is all black I put her on the counter under a strong light. For the fur soaking up the blood you could either ask the vet to shave that area, or I believe many people put a smidge of neosporin on the ear, or possibly even vasolene, this would keep it slick and not soak back up. Again, in my old days, I used to have fingernails so I actually sopped up the droplet onto my fingernail and tested off that sometimes. (reading this I realize I do many things differently now :lol: )

7U ProZinc may be too high. Generally a high dose like that is if a cat is insulin resistant, but it could be the simple fact that ProZinc isn't working and switching to Lantus would do wonders.

Are you changing Nanner's diet? If so, drop the dose immediately especially if you can't hometest, you want to avoid a hypo. Any thoughts on food? We use canned Fancy Feast pate varieties, but many use Wellness canned, Friskies or even 9-Lives, pate varieties.

While I agree that a larger lancet could help, I actually had to switch to a really tiny guage lancet for Ebony and Kiki, they did not like the ear strike from the lancet, we are now using the One Touch Delica and it's very fine 33 gauge lancet. These two are both shelter cats who weren't used to my home and testing, so using the fine lancet and lots of treats has been key for us.
 
Thank you all for the hints. We are going to try again to test soon, I'm going to pick up some larger gauge lancets this afternoon. It's hard with Nanner at the shelter to find a time when my husband or another volunteer can be there to help hold Nanner, necessary since Nanner and I haven't known each other all that long. My husband is going to set up a time so he and I can talk to the vet that is treating Nanner, I will know more then. I hesitate to change his food until I've talked to the vet, I want to make sure there isn't some other reason they put him on the w/d dry, we need whatever medical history they have. I don't know if they tried to manage him with diet or if they just went straight for the insulin.

Another question, does anyone know if metformin is something that can be used in cats? I am borderline diabetic myself and take metformin, so was wondering about that. Metformin is pretty cheap and doesn't require the same type of BG monitoring insulin does.

Paula
 
nannersfriend said:
I hesitate to change his food until I've talked to the vet, I want to make sure there isn't some other reason they put him on the w/d dry, we need whatever medical history they have. I don't know if they tried to manage him with diet or if they just went straight for the insulin.
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I can't think of anything that would make you want to keep a diabetic cat on that food. It's a weight loss food that is really high carbs, and I guarantee you that the reason why he needs 7u of insulin is because of the w/d. Definitely lower the dose when you switch him to a wet diet.

I'm convinced that w/d is what caused my cat's diabetes to begin with. I don't think many cats can sustain such a high carb intake over a period of time without burning out the pancreas beta cells.
 
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