Welcome Michelle & Extra Sweet Simba to the FDMB Family!
Okay first off take a deep breath, diabetes is a very easily managable disease. I'm sure you have friends, family members and co-workers that have the human form. And really diabetes in cats isn't much different. It requires the some 3 key ingredients as it does for a human.
1) Diet...First off you don't need the expensive prescription stuff, there is plenty out there sitting on your grocery store's shelf that will work just fine. You will find a really good chart here that we use to pick our food for our kitties
http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. If you haven't already we suggest eliminating the dry food altogether and getting Simba on an all wet canned diet that is under 10% carbs. On those charts I gave you the link for the carbs are in the third column from the left.
2) Insulin, when your vet calls tomorrow ask what insulin she is starting him on...hopefully it will be one of the big three here...Lantus, Levermir or Prozinc/PZI if it is anything else you might want to ask if there is anyway you can start with one of the 3 I just mentioned...A lot of vet's start out with Humilin N/NPH which is not a great insulin for cats as it is too harsh and wears off too quickly in cats who metabolize insulin twice as fast as humans or dogs. Also you want a starting dose of no more than .5u to 1u twice a day. Insulin in cats needs to be dosed at least twice a day, most don't do well because of their high metabolism rate with only a single dose per day.
Now if your vet does start you on either Lantus or Levermir, as that the script be written for the Solostar pens rather than a vial. While the pens are a little more up front as far as cost goes, they last much longer than a vial so actually work out cheaper in the long run, since you get 5 pens with 3ml of insulin as opposed to a vial with 10ml of insulin, but the pens you open one at a time so you can use the pens up before they go bad, whereas, you end up throwing out quite a bit of the vial.
3) Testing Simba's blood sugar at home. This can be frustrating to start with, but once you find your groove it becomes as simple as brushing your teeth. We simply prick the edge of our kitty's ear just like a human diabetic pricks their fingertip. You don't need a fancy pet only meter either, just a regular human meter that takes a small sample will do just fine. In fact if you have a Wal-mart near you, they have an excellent meter called the Relion Micro for somewhere around $9 and 100 test strips (the strips are the most expensive part) for around $30. I think when I started out with my first diabetic cat I got the whole set up, Meter, strips, lancets and a lancing device for under $50. There is also a newbie kit program through this board that we can set you all up with everything you need for the price of shipping which is about $7.
Home testing has lots of advantages, first and foremost it is your best tool to make sure Simba is safe while he is on insulin by letting you know at a moment's notice where his blood sugar is at, and that he is high enough to safely give a shot to. It also keeps extra dollars in your wallet because you won't have to drag him to the vet all the time for testing, and it will also give you much truer numbers, since stress raises bloodsugar and just about every kitty is stressed out at the vets. (strange noises, strange smells, people who are not the momma etc).
Now just to give you a little peace of mind about how easy this disease is to manage...I have 11 happy and healthy non-diabetic cats, but I also adopted two more cats because they were diabetics...In October 2010 I adopted Maxwell and by November 2010 he was in remission and off Insulin...He just turned 13. I also this past June adopted Musette who is still insulin dependent but very happy and health and she just turned 12. Neither of my two diabetics could you tell apart from my other cats if you didn't know they were diabetics. Everyone here eats exactly what the diabetics eats just good old fashioned Friskies Pate style canned food, and even my non-diabetics are doing fabulous on the new diet.
Lastly remember not only to breathe, but to ask all the questions that you may think of, because here they only stupid question is the one that goes unasked. We have all been right in your shoes, overwhelmed, scared to death and in tears about what diabetes means for our babies...Then we found each other here, and those that have walked this path before took our hands and helped us learn, and now we reach back to help those like you that are just starting out.
Welcome to the Sugarcat Dance!
Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
