Introduction - newly diagnosed

[bassy]

Hello, my name’s Christie and my cat Sebastien (Bassy) was diagnosed with diabetes about 2 months ago. My situation is a little bit different from some of the others I have seen on the forums here and I feel a little bit isolated and unsure of exactly what the right thing to do is. My cat Bassy is 12 years old and I brought him with me from Australia to live with my husband in Japan. At first he had an eye infection that just wouldn’t get better. After numerous trips to the vet, his eye started weeping blood filled fluid at the beginning of the Golden week holidays. Our regular vet was shut for the holidays and not knowing where to turn, I asked my mother in law for help and she took us to her friend who happened to be a vet. The vet decided to keep Bassy in for observation and consequently discovered that he had diabetes. It was at this point I had not control of the situation, all the information was coming through a relay of the vet to my mother in law, to my husband and finally to me.

Despite requesting numerous times to either visit or pick up Bassy, we were told to he wasn’t well enough and maybe next weekend would be ok. Needless to say I was getting extremely frustrated and anxious to find out exactly what was going on, but didn’t want to cause problems for my husband with his family. Finally we were able to pick him up this weekend and I was completely shocked at his condition. When I’d left Bassy at the vet, his weight was about 6kgs and he’d been quite energetic, when we picked him up he was 4.1kgs, quite lethargic, his fur was completely matted and his ears were black with dirt. The vet then told us that we should feed him one can of Hills Prescriiption Diet m/d for cats and half a cup of Royal Canin diabetic/weight control for dogs per day, combined with 2 units of insulin given once every three days. This seemed to contradict all the research that I’d been doing online about feline diabetes, plus giving a cat dog food?? I decided right then that I wanted a second opinion!

We went straight to our regular vet, who was also shocked at Bassy’s condition and performed a full physical examination. His blood sugar level was 491 so obviously his diabetes was not under control. Luckily his kidneys and the rest of his results were healthy. They also advised us not to shave (this is the only option to get all the matted hair out at this stage) or wash him because his condition is so poor. They recommend feeding him two cans of m/d per day or one can combined with diabetic control dry food, along with one unit of insulin given twice a day in the morning and at night. All in all I feel like their explanation were thorough and they also went over the danger signs and what we should do in the case of his blood sugar levels falling too low.

We decided to go ahead with our regular vets advice and have our next appointment scheduled for Friday, where Bassy will go in for a full day observation to check his blood sugar levels each hour and determine if the insulin dosage is too high or too low. When my husband informed his mother of what we’d decided to do, her comments and reaction were not helpful or supportive at all! It’s hard enough to know if we are making to right decisions for our pet’s care, but I also have the language barrier and need to rely on my husband to translate the medical terminology and to make sure I understand exactly what’s going on when visiting the vet.

At the end of the day, I think we’ve made the right decision. We now have Bassy home with us and after just a couple of days on the new insulin and feeding regime he’s already more energetic and alert. cat_pet_icon

 

[Blue]

It sounds like you have had a pretty rough start on your journey with Bassy, but I think now you will get some good support from the people on this site.

A couple of questions need to be asked so that you can get the best advice.
1. What insulin are you giving Bassy, dose and how often, plus do you know what Bassy was given at the other vet's home?
2. How is Bassy's eye doing now and do you have any meds for it or any other health conditions.
3. Would you be able to get a meter and strips for home testing or are you already home testing.
4. Would you be able to cut out ALL dry food you are feeding and just feed the wet food? The dry food is contributing to Bassy's high BG, and would you be able to state what other wet cat food brands are available in your area?

I sure hope Bassy starts to feel a bit better day by day. Please post often and ask all questions you may have; someone will be able to give you an answer.

 

[Charliemeow]

holy moly! what the heck was that first vet doing with him?! I'm sorry you both had to go through that. I'm glad to hear that Bassy is feeling better so far. I agree that following your normal vet's advice is a good plan. You can home test to get more accurate numbers (stress raises bg levels), and we can help you learn how to do that. It's also MUCH cheaper We all test our kitties before every shot of insulin just to make sure that their blood glucose isn't too low. We also adjust our dosing based on those numbers. What kind of insulin did they put him on? I agree with Gayle to do away with the dry food. You can get cheap wet food that is low in carbs that is much better for diabetics. I'm not sure what wet foods are available in Japan, but there is a list at this site http://binkyspage.tripod.com/nonusfd.html of non-US foods and their carb content that you can check out. Hopefully that will help. We like to keep the carb content below 10%. I really have no idea if that link is gonna work. If not, I'm sorry!! :YMHUG: ((hugs)) to you, cat_pet_icon scritches to Bassy

 

[doombuggy]

Hello & welcome! Wow, what a story. I am glad that you are getting the right care now. I agree with the "cut out the dry" comment. I was slow to do this but when i did, Cedric numbers dropped 100 pts and two days later they were normal and he stopped needing the insulin. Granted, I completely changed his diet and he is also getting more exercise, but taking away the dry really helpped. I tested Cedric before each shot/injection (with the exception of the first 3 days). He was mostly in the 200 range, but did read in the high 300s at the vet.

This is a great group - I am glad you found us. Praying that your baby gets better quickly! I hope remission is on your horizon! :YMHUG:

 

[bassy]

Hello everyone and thank you for your messages of support, I really appreciate it.
It's been a very busy week so far and we are all still getting used to the insulin injections.
Gayle, we are now giving Bassy an insulin called Lantus twice a day, with a dose of 1u each time. The previous vet gave us Novolin N and wanted us to give him one dose every 3 days of 2u, this is apparently what she had been giving him for the previous month that he was in her care. Bassy's eye is now shrunken and whitish, there is no longer any infection (that we can see) but I'm very sure that he has lost the sight in that eye. We have some eye medication to keep it hydrated, but the immediate focus is on getting his weight back up and the blood glucose numbers down. As for home testing, we tried to find a meter at the chemist but weren't able to. Our vet is looking into prices for us and will give us some options on Friday when we take Bassy in for his curve test.
Actually Bassy refused to eat the dry food samples we had, so it looks like we'll be going down the wet food only route after all. Charliemeow, thank you for the link! I'm trying to see if I can get any of those brands here in Japan, unfortunately there only seems to be mostly local varieties here and I'm still learning how to read the nutrition guide! @-)
Overall Bassy is still quite lethargic, but seems more alert and interested in what we are doing around the house. cat_pet_icon

 

[Ann & Scatcats]

I live in Sweden, so we are also very isolated here as being one of the few members who does, and nor do we have any of the wet foods on the binky list, so we have to make do with what we got available and shot the insulin accordingly to that.

We've also gone through the long walk with the animal hospital here. Simba got diabetes in 2006 and at first home testing wasn't recommended nor low carb food, so we came in once a week and did one day curves. We were also prescribed the Insulatard NPH insulin at first and it worked fine, because after a few months Simba went into remission, and that inspite of eating high carb dry food. So he was diabetes free at the beginning of 2007. Initially I had also asked a researcher, Tove Fall, here in Sweden, about how long to expect Simba to live after diagnosis, and gotten the reply avarage survival was 2-3 years, but it has been 5 years now and Simba is still alive and kicking, in his 15's and well according to the latest blood works. By August in 2007 he had gotten the diabetes back, however, and the animal hospital had just starting using the Lantus insulin so they put him on that, and also gave me a Bayer Ascencia Contour blood glucose meter so I should start to hometest. But no food recommendations still. From the researcher Tove Fall, I had already gotten the website address to here in end of 2006, but I didn't come here until January 19th 2008. At first it was a language barrier, my English didn't contain of all that medical lingo used here, so not only have I learnt a lot of new things, I also have had to get accustomed to a whole array of new English words.

But down the road the animal hospital here have adjusted to better care for diabetics, and their golden rule is now:, Lantus, home testing and low carb food.

So you have come to the right place and hope we can break you isolation and get Bassy off to feeling better.

 

[Jen & Squeak]

given the lethargy, could you please buy some ketostix from your pharmacy and test Bassy's urine for ketones? They are a nasty side effect of poorly regulated diabetes and not something you want to miss treating.