Introductions of a Newbie!

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FeltedChicken

FeltedChicken

Member Since 2012
Hi! My name's Chrissy M. & my sugarcat's name is Batman. We are brand new to this life, diagnosed on Wednesday, & I just wanted to thank the forum members for all the amazing info that I've learned so far, even in this short amount of time.

On the day we got diagnosed, we went into the vet to get a haircut & came home a Diabetic!! I had no idea what to think, questions to ask. I was overwhelmed & felt like a terrible mommy, but reading through this forum, I feel more confident that we will fight this & WIN!

Here's my sugarcat!

Batman-Kitty-Felted-Chicken.jpg
 
oh wow! LOOK AT ALL THAT HAIR! :-)

just wanted to say welcome to fdmb from a fellow so cal member. keep reading and asking any questions as you go along.
 
Welcome! Let us know how we can help. There is wonderful information here but it can easily become overwhelming. We all felt overwhelmed at first but it becomes a very manageable disease once you get the basics down.
 
Hi and welcome!

I was overwhelmed & felt like a terrible mommy
Click to expand...
The overwhelming part is the first few days, and it goes away pretty quickly. But you can forget the "terrible mommy" thing immediately if you haven't already. No time for blame or guilt, and really, who knew? I didn't even know cats could be diabetic. I just thought my cat was dying and had absolutely no idea why. I heard "diabetes" and was blown away. For me, this place was a Godsend.

You're in a good place. Let us help :smile:
and your kitty is stunning.

Carl
 
WELCOME, this forum is a great place to gain knowledge and really learn how to manage feline diabetes. By doing just a few things each day (that really won't take up much of your time at all), you won't need to worry about losing Batman, not where feline diabetes is concerned.

There are three key factors to managing diabetes: food/nutrition, home testing and insulin

1) Feline Nutrition: Now, as far as diet - definitely dump the dry food (if you are feeding any) and if the vet recommends purchasing prescription food like DM just say "no thank you". ALL cats, and especially those with diabetes, do best on a species appropriate diet that is high in protein and low in carbs. Dry food DOES NOT fit that bill and DM food, even canned, just really isn't that great as far as quality. Most here on FDMB feed low carb/high protein canned, raw bought from a pet store or they make there own.

Here great links, one is to a food chart put together by one of our board members that breaks down the carb % and protein % of most of the commercial brand foods. You want to keep the carb % below 10% and around 7% is great. The other link is to a site by a vet "Dr. Lisa DVM" ... who also posts on this board from time to time ... there is in-depth info. there about many things, including nutrition and how to make raw food.

Nutrition/food info

The good thing with feeding your diabetic cat this way, is that it is ALSO good for any non-diabetic cat too. All your cats can safely eat the same food without worry and it may save you some costs and headaches of having to do separate feedings and keeping track of what they are eating.


2. Home testing: It is impossible to convey the value of testing your cat's BG (blood glucose) level at home. Some vets will "suggest" this, but most won't even mention it. They will send you home with insulin and an amount to shoot and maybe some instructions about hypoglycemia (blood sugar dropping to a dangerously low level).

Well, the thing is, human diabetics don't EVER give themselves insulin without checking there BG to make sure it is safe to do so, so why shouldn't it be the same for our kitties. Here on FDMB it is. You will notice that the vast majority of people here test their cat's BG at least 2x/day (before giving each shot to make sure the level is safe enough) and periodically at other times to see how the cat is responding to the current dose. We use a human glucometer, test strips and lancets - which are all very readily available and easy to use.

Our kitties get lots of love and treats for "putting up" with this and most of them actually come out to be tested on their own 'cause they want those treats . Here is a collection of great links that "Carolyn and Spot" pulled together about hometesting. See what you think ... it truly is the best way to not only keep Your cat safe but also really get a handle on this disease and help him to live a healthy life with FD (feline diabetes).


Home testing Links

3. Insulin: There are several types of insulin available. Many people, myself included use Lantus or Levimer both of which are great insulins. They are gentle insulin and given twice (BID) per day in 12 hour increments. Or you could also choose PZI or the new version called Prozinc.

Please read up on the insulins available, here is a link to the Insulin Support Groups:

Insulin Support Groups

However, one caveat and again this shows how these three things are inter-related:

If you are feeding dry food or even a high carb food, BEFORE removing these foods, please make sure of your insulin dose as it will most likely need to be reduced, so as to avoid a possible hypoglycemic situation due to the removal of the dry/high carb foods that will lower the BG’s and reduce the amount of insulin required. Again, another reason why home testing is important.

I know this all seems like a lot, and that's because it is ... there is a learning curve here. But as long as you are determined and keep at it, you will have it down before you know it and you'll be seeing the results in Your cat' overall health and happiness. Ask all the questions you can think of - that's why we are here!
 
Thank You all for all the support! Batman has had good days & bad days, he's having a stubborn morning..... Giving shots seems to be getting easier, but the feeding part is just getting more frustrating!! He won't eat ANYTHING!! He acts like he's hungry, but then turns his nose up at everything I try & give him! Grrr...

I'm going now to search the forum for tricks to get a VERY stubborn cat to eat, if he doesn't eat, I don't want to give him his shot!!!

Thank You all!
 
Have you changed his food since being diagnosed? Is he use to eating only dry food and if so, have you taken that away and now trying to get him to eat canned? A kitty that doesn't eat is at risk of developing fatty liver (hepatic lipidosis) so.....if he was a straight dry food eater before and you've taken that completely away to feed only canned, he may very well refuse to eat. If that is the case with Batman, you may need to give him dry for now and go with the numbers you get on dry and then slowly try to transition him to canned. If this is the case, you will have to carefully monitor his numbers and insulin dose as he goes from dry to canned. Please let us know what Batman was originally eating and what you are feeding now.

He is one gorgeous kitty also :smile:
 
I agree with Hope- if he was a dry only changing him cold turkey to wet might be too much for him. Transitioning is good to do.

If, however, he had been eating canned before and is just being picky- sprinkle on some parmesan cheese to see if that will entice him to eat. Sneakers LOVES her parmesan!
 
He was eating Hill's W/D dry, and rarely mixed with W/D wet, which he ate. He's a very big boy, and has never had much problems eating!

Now, since the second day after starting insulin shots (Lantus, 2 units) he turns his nose up at EVERYTHING!

We've tried:

Hill's MD wet & dry -Didn't want anything to do with it...

Then we went & bought EVER yummy flavor of LC wet food (Merrick's, Wellness, Fancy Feast Classics) - wouldn't eat it, but did lick some off my finger... but not anymore...

Then we thought that he would definitely eat the W/D again, so got some more of that, nope...

Bought freeze dried chicken & turkey treats, no...

Sprinkled Parmesan Cheese on top, nope...

The only things he seems to be slightly interested in is a HC Fancy Feast Dry Food & Catnip. The catnip we found he will eat, & it's been good as a distractor & reward for the shots (but his did hiss at me the last couple times).
But even catnip sprinkled on top doesn't entice him to eat his food. I can get him to eat about a tiny handful of a mixture of food (mainly HC dry food) for his meal, so I give him his shot. It's taken about an hour per feeding & is getting frustrating.

I'm going to try to add some hot water to his wet food tonight & buy some baby food, those are about the last 2 options that I haven't tried. We have a BG Curve appointment set up at the vet for Saturday. I'm also hesitant to do the forced syringed feed (although I did buy a baby syringe just in case) because he is a fairly grumpy cat in general & I know will not like it. Luckily my husband & I are home all day so we have been keeping an eye on him & has shown no real signs of Hypo. He's lazy & sleeps all day anyways, so no real difference that we've noticed.

If anyone has any tips that I haven't tried, I'd love to hear them. He acts hungry, getting excited at feeding time, bugging me for food, but JUST WON"T EAT... STUBBORN!

Thanks for letting me vent!
 
Well, doing a curve at the vet on Sat. is not going to work if he isn't eating. He needs to get food into him so talk to your vet, today if possible, and see if he wants to give you some cyproheptadine to jump start his appetite. It doesn't take long for a kitty without food to go into heptatic lipidosis.

Do you have any Temptation treats at home? You could crush some of those up and sprinkle on the food.

Call your vet today as being tomorrow is a holiday....concerned about lack of food with Batman.
 
Thanks Hope!

I will grab some Temptations today too, I'm up for trying anything. I will also call the vet again. We stopped by yesterday & I left a note to have them call me because he wasn't eating much. The Doc didn't call me back till 10 pm!!! She didn't seem too worried on the message, but will call & talk to her today.
 
And consider this- curves done at the vet are really just a waste of time and money as the cat is stressed at the vet and will raise the numbers so getting a dose on that is not going to be accurate or possibly safe.

Once you learn to test you can do every curve you want to while Batman is home and comfortable- and A LOT CHEAPER! My vet charged me $11 each time he did a test. I have a Relion Micro with strips that cost $.36 each. And a true curve is a test every one to two hours in a 12 hour period (he never did more than 2 :evil: that wasn't a curve) for $132 price tag for every hour. Even having them do just 2 tests you should be able to get a meter and 25 strips for that much.

Its economical and better for the cat. (I do a curve just about every weekend- although it looks like every night sometimes :lol: )
 
So we kinda figured out how to get him to eat, after a very stressful night last night.

Tried EVERYTHING last night (baby food, Temptations treats, he didn't even want catnip). We were really worried & after he ate a tiny bit of HC food, I went to give him his shot & he about took my head off. So we didn't. I & he couldn't handle it last night. It is what it is...

So this morning my husband tried a few things, nothing worked, then I just threw a hand full of W/D down on his super hairy bed & HE ATE IT!! He chomped it down!! I could tell he was hungry, just being so stubborn.

SO IN CONCLUSION:
He doesn't like to eat out of his bowl, would rather eat off the floor. WHATEVER WORKS!!! SILLY CAT!!

So now that we feel a bit better about him eating, we are going to focus on getting him more comfortable with the insulin shot process. I'm going to go through the motions a few times today w/o giving him the shot. Then maybe tonight we can get back down to getting this thing under control.

Thank You all (especially Hope!) for all of your support. I'm going to try a few of the injection tips I read on the boards today. He is such a grumpy & difficult cat in general, but is lovely when he's in the mood!!

Thank You All! And I'll keep you updated...

... doesn't like his stupid bowls... :roll:
 
Just wanted to update everyone tonight...

OVERALL SUCCESS!!!

He ate about 1/2 his food (off the dirty floor, without me looming over him)...
then...
Shot was a Total Success!!

We did practice runs today, catnip treat, pinching the scruff of his neck, smelling the needle. Then I did a couple tricks that I read on the forum: Held the needle between my thumb & middle finger so I could push with my index, & Making sure the bevel of the needle was on top (had no idea that this made a difference, but think it made a big one).

No twitch, no hiss, no nothing!!

Today was a good day. Thank You.
 
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