ReireiChan
New Member
Hi everyone
My 7-year old cat, Imo, was just diagnosed on Monday. He's pretty overweight, and has always had some random and mild health issues because he was the runt of the litter (heart murmur, etc.). When I noticed that he was drinking LOTS more water and, therefore, urinating much more, I had a sinking suspicion that it would be diabetes, and we got word from the vet on Monday that such is the case. His glucose was 473, but I'm hoping that since he's shown no other signs of being sick at all, no long-term damage was done before I caught it.
This morning, I gave him his first insulin shot, Lantus (1 unit). It went easier than I thought, he's such a good boy!! I'll be taking a closer look at the Lantus board once I've gotten my glucometer and home testing supplies.
We've also just started his Purina DM diet.
Like most people, the costs are making me nervous, particularly the food and the Lantus. After reading some of the other posts, and looking at the cat food tables, I'm going to think about switching to those low-carb Friskies pate (which you can do auto-ship on Amazon for really inexpensive). However, I don't know if I should wait until I've got my home-testing supplies since I guess switching food can affect the insulin?? We've got our blood curve test next Wednesday and I'm still debating if I should just do this myself, or let the Vet do it the first time. As for the Lantus, I'm going to keep an eye out for if anyone mentions a place to get it inexpensively. When I first bought it, I thought, "yikes! My pharmacy's charging a ton for this", but after looking at sites like Walgreen's, I'm not sure if they're charging more than anyone else would. For now, at 1 unit, 2x per day, it's manageable. If he ends up at 3 units a shot, though, that's going to be really difficult.
I have a question about feeding if you have 2 cats, one non-diabetic. My concern is the cost of the canned food. Up til now, they were both on Blue Buffalo dry food. Luckily, they're both not picky at all, and have always considered canned food a treat. So switching will be no problem. But, to use the Vet's food for both kitties would cost me about 4x as much as I was paying for food. If I try to give just Imo the Vet's food, then the other cat will pretty much just push "little" Imo out of the way and steal it (Angus is the alpha). I've thought about feeding them in separate rooms, switching to the Friskies, etc. Does anyone else have a similar situation with two or more cats, and what did you find worked best to make sure that your diabetic kitty was ONLY eating his food but that you were keeping costs manageable? I really don't mind feeding both cats canned, I'm sure Angus would benefit too, it's just that 4x the cost seems pretty steep.
Have you also found that, emotionally, this gets a bit easier? I was afraid that the emotional stress would be really building up over time, but now I'm wondering if knowing that I'm making him feel better each day will actually help the stress? Within the last 10 months, my husband started his first year of residency, we moved to a new state where we are still working on making friends, and I had my first child, so the timing, financially and emotionally, has been really challenging.
I also just wanted to say Thank You. I was really stressed and emotionally burned after finding out, and after spending some time reading the other posts, and the website in general, you guys are such a supportive community that it really made me feel better. You have great feedback, and more than anything, being able to talk about this with other people who are in the same situation is a real relief. My husband is not a pet person. I know that he's really trying to be supportive because he knows how much the cats mean to me, and that I've always considered them family. But I can tell that as much as he's trying to understand, he still feels like why are planning on spending this time, and money and energy on "just a cat". You all have helped me feel much more hopeful and that this is something that I can handle.
My 7-year old cat, Imo, was just diagnosed on Monday. He's pretty overweight, and has always had some random and mild health issues because he was the runt of the litter (heart murmur, etc.). When I noticed that he was drinking LOTS more water and, therefore, urinating much more, I had a sinking suspicion that it would be diabetes, and we got word from the vet on Monday that such is the case. His glucose was 473, but I'm hoping that since he's shown no other signs of being sick at all, no long-term damage was done before I caught it.
This morning, I gave him his first insulin shot, Lantus (1 unit). It went easier than I thought, he's such a good boy!! I'll be taking a closer look at the Lantus board once I've gotten my glucometer and home testing supplies.
We've also just started his Purina DM diet.
Like most people, the costs are making me nervous, particularly the food and the Lantus. After reading some of the other posts, and looking at the cat food tables, I'm going to think about switching to those low-carb Friskies pate (which you can do auto-ship on Amazon for really inexpensive). However, I don't know if I should wait until I've got my home-testing supplies since I guess switching food can affect the insulin?? We've got our blood curve test next Wednesday and I'm still debating if I should just do this myself, or let the Vet do it the first time. As for the Lantus, I'm going to keep an eye out for if anyone mentions a place to get it inexpensively. When I first bought it, I thought, "yikes! My pharmacy's charging a ton for this", but after looking at sites like Walgreen's, I'm not sure if they're charging more than anyone else would. For now, at 1 unit, 2x per day, it's manageable. If he ends up at 3 units a shot, though, that's going to be really difficult.
I have a question about feeding if you have 2 cats, one non-diabetic. My concern is the cost of the canned food. Up til now, they were both on Blue Buffalo dry food. Luckily, they're both not picky at all, and have always considered canned food a treat. So switching will be no problem. But, to use the Vet's food for both kitties would cost me about 4x as much as I was paying for food. If I try to give just Imo the Vet's food, then the other cat will pretty much just push "little" Imo out of the way and steal it (Angus is the alpha). I've thought about feeding them in separate rooms, switching to the Friskies, etc. Does anyone else have a similar situation with two or more cats, and what did you find worked best to make sure that your diabetic kitty was ONLY eating his food but that you were keeping costs manageable? I really don't mind feeding both cats canned, I'm sure Angus would benefit too, it's just that 4x the cost seems pretty steep.
Have you also found that, emotionally, this gets a bit easier? I was afraid that the emotional stress would be really building up over time, but now I'm wondering if knowing that I'm making him feel better each day will actually help the stress? Within the last 10 months, my husband started his first year of residency, we moved to a new state where we are still working on making friends, and I had my first child, so the timing, financially and emotionally, has been really challenging.
I also just wanted to say Thank You. I was really stressed and emotionally burned after finding out, and after spending some time reading the other posts, and the website in general, you guys are such a supportive community that it really made me feel better. You have great feedback, and more than anything, being able to talk about this with other people who are in the same situation is a real relief. My husband is not a pet person. I know that he's really trying to be supportive because he knows how much the cats mean to me, and that I've always considered them family. But I can tell that as much as he's trying to understand, he still feels like why are planning on spending this time, and money and energy on "just a cat". You all have helped me feel much more hopeful and that this is something that I can handle.
