JayJay Von MeowMeow and me, an introduction!

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Hi all!

First and foremost I want to say how thankful I am to have found this board. My JayJay was just diagnosed this past Thursday and I have done pretty much nothing but read and research every moment that I'm not at work or taking care of the lil guy.

JayJay is a 9 year old long haired tuxedo that I rescued from a shelter 8 years ago and (like a lot of the stories that I've read on here...) I've had him on indoor cat dry food since the day he got home. He was 18 pounds - but so fat and cute about it I never worried. We did have a bout of sickness roughly four years ago - the poor guy refused to throw up hairballs and ended up tangling up his insides from mouth to bottom but after surgery and much attention he pulled through and hasn't had another health problem until recently.

I noticed a few months ago I thought he was drinking more water and outputting more urine but it was summertime in Florida so I didn't pay as much attention as I should've *guiltguiltguilt* :oops:

A few weeks ago he seemed to start dropping weight like nobody's business and I got scared and called the vet. Bad news :( Pancreatitis (spelling!) and a blood sugar level of 573. My little boy is SICK.

I have an amazing vet whose office is actually a reconfigured Winnebago and she's a mobile vet so she comes to the house so I don't have to worry about stressing him with trips to the vet - she's been an unreal support system, we're blessed to have found her. But even the best blessings sometimes don't help the worry and the over thinking and the fear and right now I have all of that.

What we've found out so far: The diabetes is most likely caused from the Panceatitis and since it's not acute, it's just something that we're going to have to deal with along with the diabetes.
We started him on 1cc of lantus on Tuesday morning but the vet had to come to the house again by Tuesday afternoon due to JayJay not acting... well, like JayJay. Now that I've done so much reading here, I think that he was plain old nauseous. (She gave him a high does of antibiotic on Monday evening just in case of infection.) Sleepy, licking his lips, coughing up spit etc... I didn't really sleep so much as sit and stare at him last night. I'm pretty sure he's super annoyed at me at this point.

When the vet came out on Tuesday evening she checked his blood sugar and it was already down to 270 (from 573!!) after just the one dose. So there's that.

She gave me a prescription for Hills food so I went and bought a mix of the canned and dry... thankfully JayJay doesn't really care what he eats, as long as he's eating... so changing diet is not a big deal. (I once found him on the counter lapping at butter!) But with further reading here I think perhaps I shouldn't feed him the dry food and go only with the wet? I was going to mix the two together. I don't know.
I also give him teeny-tiny bits of boiled chicken throughout the day. Tomorrow morning I'm going to try giving him a quarter of a Pepcid to try and help with the lip licking, slight burping and hard swallowing. Poor guy.

So, that was far more long winded than intended and Hello!

Thanks again to everybody on this board. I am open to all suggestions, cajoling, finger wagging and greetings that anyone has! Just reading here for the past couple of days has done so much to help my fears.
 
Hi Rea, and welcome aboard!!

I found this site about 3 weeks ago and am still reading and learning all the time...lol

One of the first things I was told was to stop feeding the dry food and switch to low carb cand food. Here is a link for a list of can cat food that show the carb count... http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html I usually try to feed Casey the ones that have a carb count of 7% or less. If you had to purchase the prescription dry food, you should be able to return it. The next thing was be to start home testing.

Wow, what great results already!! Since you started treating JayJay right away, perhaps he will be OTJ (Off The Juice) in no time...

I am sure people with more experience with be around soon.

Roberta
and Casey
 
Good for you - you have done lots of research and got the important points. I will tell you from experience that there are 3 keys to managing diabetes well.

1. Diet: As you pointed out already, dry food is not good for cats, and especially not good for diabetic cats. Lo carb wet canned food is the very best diet for a cat - it somewhat mimics the cats natural food. And since cat are normally not heavy drinkers it is a good idea to add water to the canned food to about apple sauce consistency. That way, you can leave food out during the day for several small meals or for grazing and the food won't dry out and go yucky. If you look in the FAQ, you'll find (with a little digging) links to Janet and Binky's food lists. These lists contain data on many of the commercial and some prescription foods. Choose something below 10% carbs that suits his taste and your wallet.

2. Home testing: With a human glucometre, we test before every shot to be sure that it is safe to give insulin. Then we test at odd times between shots to see how the insulin is working for the cat. Again, there are lots of videos and advice that we can offer on this topic.

3. Insulin: Your vet has already chosen a gentle, long acting insulin (Lantus) and a low starting dose (1 Unit - not cc). Giving insulin is necessary for a cat whose pancreas is not well. Have you had a chance to check the Lantus insulin support group? There is a lot of information about how Lantus works, about the 'shed', and the dosing protocol.

And with a supportive vet, you are well on your way. Questions? Ask away!
 
We were on Lantus for a month before his numbers reached the normal range. If you look at Cedric's spreadsheet below, you will see his numbers stayed pretty much int he 200 range until I stopped the dry food. Then they dropped (May 19-21) and he hasn't needed insulin since 5/21. I previously feed him 1 3oz can of fancy feast (all kinds) per day plus 1/2 cup of dry (blue buffalo weight control, which did not control his weight at all - he was 18 lbs last year). he was 17.6 lbs in april at dx and last Friday weighed in a 15.14. He gets only canned food of Wellness, Evo, BFF and a couple of new brands I have been trying out. I have bought him some of the classic fancy feast flavors and his BGs have been find. i bought a meter at Wal-mart - Relion Micro ($9) with test strips at 50 for $19.95.

Where in FL are you?
 
Welcome Rea & gorgous JayJay! You have found the BEST SITE EVER!

I wanted to say that you can start testing very reasonably by going to walmart and purchasing the relion! Probably under 20 for all to get started....I changed my Sugar Beans food to just wet, and her last shot was 5/24!!!!! GO BEAN GO! She almost hypoed because I wasnt testing first and changed her food! eeeeks - I know what you mean about the gilt gilt gilt feeling nailbite_smile !!!!

She eats wet only, and anything off the Binky list that is 10 carbs or under....We are trying a few new products to see if she likes them, some are ok, some are not at all...otherwise she eats f. feast from the list.......I purchased some tuna flakes - petco brand for her treat when we test (pokey poke)... She does not mind really and mommy is better at the task now and she loves the treat....We test every other day due to some home stress, otherwise, she gets pokey poke about once every two weeks now.

I am sure you know about the home testing importance if you have been reading and learning, so I wont get to far into it!

Just big hugs, welcomes and support!!
 
Thank you all so much for the warm welcome and replies! (We're in Tampa, btw.. :) )

I've already put the dry food back to take to the store for a refund and have decided to do a more over the counter wet food as JayJay's stomach seems to not be taking to the m/d food the vet prescribed. In fact the poor little guy had such a rough morning this morning with throwing up that I haven't given him his insulin and we're currently waiting for the vet to come over because I'm afraid that he's way dehydrated after such a rough start to the day. :(

(Meanwhile I'm trying to remain calm so I don't stress him out even more but it's HARD!)

Did anyone else have an issue of getting things regulated in the beginning like this? The vet thinks it could be the pancreatitis but he didn't have any of these issues before putting him on the insulin. I will most definitely be getting him a meter this weekend.
 
Mr JayJay & mommy,
I never had an issue with Bean throwing up but I do know no food, no insulin! Poor Baby, hopefully he will get to feeling better! Thank goodness you will be getting a meter quickly. If you completely change his food to the low carb., his numbers could drop to where he could hypo if given insulin.....

When do you plan to switch 100% on the food? I would not until you start testing as he could be in trouble....I did that with my Bean girl, took up dry grazing, shot and tested +2 hours after and she was ONLY 27!!! The wonderful ppl here kept posting, Lori stayed with me over the phone for 4+ hours trying to feed hi carb food to increase her numbers....she finally arrived at 43 and mommy calmed down and went to bed...I will say that I made a BIG PROMISE to my girl, that I would never ever shoot again unless I tested first! I was soooo scared!

Hugs to you both!
 
Rea and JayJay said:
I've already put the dry food back to take to the store for a refund and have decided to do a more over the counter wet food as JayJay's stomach seems to not be taking to the m/d food the vet prescribed. In fact the poor little guy had such a rough morning this morning with throwing up that I haven't given him his insulin and we're currently waiting for the vet to come over because I'm afraid that he's way dehydrated after such a rough start to the day. :(


Did anyone else have an issue of getting things regulated in the beginning like this? The vet thinks it could be the pancreatitis but he didn't have any of these issues before putting him on the insulin. I will most definitely be getting him a meter this weekend.

Hi Rea!

Good for you returning the dry food. It'll do nothing but give you problems regulating JayJay.

As for he stomach problems, a couple things could be going on. It's possible he's nauseous from the high dose antibiotic you said he's on. If it's clavamox, that's notorious for causing vomiting and diarrhea. It also might be the food change. One thing you can do to help both of these problems is pick up some Fortiflora, which is a probiotic. You can get it at any vet's office (you don't need a prescription so you can just walk into any vet and ask to buy some--they don't need to see your cat to sell it to you). If you mix it in with JayJay's food, it might help things settle down with both the antibiotic and the food change.

You also might want to ask your vet to take him off the antibiotic and see if it helps, since no infection was ever confirmed. Usually a vet will do a culture before prescribing an antibiotic for an infection. What kind and how long did she put him on the antibiotic?

I would definitely pick a different low-carb food other than the Hills M/D wet, especially since it seems to be causing problems with JayJay. Even the wet is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat, and the ingredients are very low quality. You can get a much better quality commercial food for half the price. Many people here feed the low carb, grain free flavors of Fancy Feast: http://felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm.

1u is a nice, safe starting dose of Lantus. I would not raise the dose higher than that until you can start home-testing. That 270 he got on Tuesday was likely a natural number and not from the insulin--it usually takes about 24 hours for Lantus to start working on blood sugar numbers because it has to build up a depot under the skin.

Welcome! You're off to a great start. :smile:
 
ohbell said:
When do you plan to switch 100% on the food? I would not until you start testing as he could be in trouble....I did that with my Bean girl, took up dry grazing, shot and tested +2 hours after and she was ONLY 27!!! The wonderful ppl here kept posting, Lori stayed with me over the phone for 4+ hours trying to feed hi carb food to increase her numbers....she finally arrived at 43 and mommy calmed down and went to bed...I will say that I made a BIG PROMISE to my girl, that I would never ever shoot again unless I tested first! I was soooo scared!

JayJay is only on 1u of Lantus right now, so I think it is reasonably safe to change the diet. You don't want to shoot 1u if he's not eating, but 1u to start on a wet diet will doubtfully cause a hypo incident immediately.

However, Rea, you do want to start home testing as soon as you can, though, because changing to a wet, lo carb diet can (in some cases) completely eliminate the cat's need for insulin. It's the only way to administer insulin safely--just like human parents test their diabetic children before giving them their insulin shots. It would change your risk of a hypo incident from unlikely to none--because you'd know what JayJay's blood sugar is as you're making the change.
 
Rea and JayJay said:
Did anyone else have an issue of getting things regulated in the beginning like this? The vet thinks it could be the pancreatitis but he didn't have any of these issues before putting him on the insulin.

Yes, I've noticed many cats, including mine, seemed to get 'worse' when insulin was started. If we set aside the cases where the cat was being overdosed (not your situation), my thinking goes like this: Cats don't become diabetic overnight - probably over several weeks or maybe months. Maybe the pancreas sputters along trying to keep up, maybe the cat doesn't eat much or vomits once in a while and so less sugar in the system. Whatever the reason, it takes a bit of time and the body gradually becomes used to operating on a higher blood glucose. Then suddenly we give insulin and drop the bg down a few points. The cat feels uncomfortable, even though this is nearer to the normal bg range - doesn't eat, maybe hides, makes his human very stressed. (Sort of like going to the chiropractor and getting something 'fixed' - it often feels worse for the first while until your body gets used to the new normal.) If we add antibiotics to this adjustment in the bg with insulin, it is likely that the cat feels not so good for a few days.

So why do we do this to our beloved cats? Because we know that high bg leads to organ damage, and we know that infections also lead to further problems. So we have to be the adult and do what we know is best, guided by our vet and the vast experience of members of this board, to help our cat return to the best he can be.
 
Thanks again for all the quick replies! It's good to know that my confusion made sense! I couldn't imagine why he would suddenly be exhibiting signs of yuckiness AFTER starting treatment and not BEFORE - so what you said makes absolute sense!

Unfortunately for my guy, he lost a little bit too much fluid when he was sick this morning and as a precaution I went ahead and took him to an emergency vet service. They're keeping him overnight to run tests, get fluids back in him and do an ultra sound of his pancreas. Leaving him there felt like one of the hardest things I've had to do in a long, long time and I have to keep myself from calling/driving over to see how he's doing. Urk, it felt like I was abandoning him. :/

However, after a REALLY good cry, I'm back to reading and reading - I took the day off work and have the whole afternoon to devote to it. Any topic suggestions that you guys think I should be zeroing in on? I'm afraid of giving myself TOO much information at this point.
 
I think that there are 3 things that would be helpful:

1. Get your home testing kit ready and watch a few videos. Be committed to testing when he comes home. This includes lo-carb treats. Many of us use dried chicken from Petsmart (in the doggie aisle - same thing, cheaper). Some use bonito tuna flakes. I have never seen these 'in person' but I'm sure someone can tell you where to find them if he likes tuna.

2. Get your hypo supplies ready. Its a good idea to add a can or to of medium carb food to the kit as well. Check Janet and Binky's list and get something in the 12 - 15% range.

3. If you do a google search for idexx and pancreatitis, there is a fairly good document.

And then, take at least an hour and treat yourself. A cool beverage at location of your choice, swim, jog, shop - whatever is just for you.

edited for spelling - why do they only show up after posting!?!?!
 
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