just diagnosed!

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Louieorangetabby

Louieorangetabby

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My dear orange tabby Louie, 10 years old, just got diagnosed with diabetes....I'm new to all of this, and trying to jump into this steep learning curve and new commitment! can anyone give me any advice about food regulation? I have a 5 cat household! We are transitioning away from dry food to wet food.....its a shock for all the kitties, and we are on a budget. any suggestions?? I hope I learn how to understand this new language of regulating glucose levels! right now it seems daunting! help!
 
If you pop over to this section on http://binkyspage.tripod.com/frugal.html, you see a number of notes on "Frugal Feline Diabetes". The other pages also give you nutrition info on protein, fat, and carbohydrate.

Good for you to switch to canned, low carb food. You may find that a slightly more expensive food works better, as less of it may be eaten while providing enough nutrients. I'm feeding Sophisticat from PetSmart, as I have 11 indoor cats and am feeding 1 or 2 stray cats too. This seems to be working OK for the now.

A pen of Lantus (3 mL), may seem steep, until you calculate that it contains 300 units of insulin, and you might use 2 units per dose, twice a day, which works out to 75 days (2 1/2 months) from 1 pen ... and many folks use much less.

Blood testing at home, especially doing curves (12 hours of blood tests every 2 hours), can save you a lot of money over having the vet do it. Plus, there is less stress for the cat doing it at home - a different kind of cost!
 
Welcome! There are many affordable foods all your cats can eat. With 5 cats, it's likely to be more economical to get big 13 oz cans for all your cats. If there's a Petsmart near you, they make a food called Sophistacat that comes in big cans that are only about 79 cents a can. Friskies also makes low carb food in the big cans, and they run about a dollar a can. Walmart makes a food called Special Kitty which is very affordable, and I'm not sure if they make big cans but the 5.5 oz cans are pretty cheap.

Here's a link to the cat food nutrition charts: http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. You just want to feed something under 10% carbs. There's a ton of options.

Often time grocery stores also have their own brands of cat foods that are ok to feed that are inexpensive. For example, Wegmans has their own food called "Buju & Ziggie" and Target has a brand called "Boots & Barkley". These aren't on the nutrition charts but you can figure out if they're diabetic safe by reading the labels. If there are no grains or high carb ingredients (avoid things with corn, rice, soy, wheat germ, wheat gluten, or any foods with gravy), then it's ok to feed.

Were you prescribed an insulin yet? A gentle insulin like Lantus and Levemir has been shown to have a very high remission rate in cats when combined with a low carb canned diet and home testing. Has your vet spoken to you about home testing yet? You can use any human glucometer. Walmart makes a very inexpensive meter (Relion) that is great if you're on a budget. Home testing is the only way to safely administer insulin, allows you to achieve regulation more quickly, and will save you ton a money because you won't have to bring your cat in for vet testing at all.
 
Welcome to the family!

I, personally have a household of 13 cats...yes you read that right...13... :lol: As well as a 95lb dog, and I'm a stay at home wife, fur-mom, and full time college student as well as a mother and grandmother. So I understand budget concerns, some of the best tips I can give you to keep everyone fed, and still keep the budget under control as well as providing the best possible care for your extra sweet Louie would be:

1) Learn to test at home, not only does this make sure that Louie is getting the right amount of insulin it also keeps dollars in your wallet since you won't have to drag him into the vet all the time to have curves done. Plus curves at the vet's are pretty much useless since stress raises BGs and all cats are under some kind of stress in going to the vets. Just think how much you hate going to the doctor, regardless of how nice your doctor is, kind of the same thing for out kitties.

2) Don't get the prescription cat food, there is plenty out there with the same or better ingredients on the commercial market, we feed all 13 of ours just plain old Friskies Pate style canned food.

3) request a nice long lasting gentle insulin, the 3 best are Lantus, Levermir, & PZI, and ask that your vet write the script for the solostar or flexpens. Now while the sticker shock is pretty steep upfront, you get 5 pens and that, if handled correctly will last you almost a year, and you should be able to use it to the very last drop.
Also you will want to start at a nice low safe dose...usually between .5u to 1u twice a day or b.i.d. It can always be raised if it isn't enough, but testing will tell you that.

4) Breathe...and ask a ton of questions...It will get easier I promise, in fact so easy that I adopted not 1 but 2 of my cats as diabetics from this very board. :-D Maxwell is already in remission and has been there a year as of this coming Nov. 1st, and his newly adopted sister Musette is trying her best to make it there as well. It is possible with a short course of insulin and a good low carb/high protein diet that Louie too will go off insulin, and even if he doesn't , testing and giving insulin will become as routine as brushing your teeth and brushing your teeth will probably take longer. :-D

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Yep Special Kitty comes in 13 oz cans as well and I think last time I checked they were about 72 cents each

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
BJM said:
A pen of Lantus (3 mL), may seem steep, until you calculate that it contains 300 units of insulin, and you might use 2 units per dose, twice a day, which works out to 75 days (2 1/2 months) from 1 pen ... and many folks use much less.
Click to expand...


There is also a coupon for the Lantus pens here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=36964

The pens are definitely more economical, even if they cost a little more initially than the vials, so make sure your vet writes a prescription for the pens instead. You get 5 3ml pens, which will last you a year or more if they're handled properly with almost no waste, as opposed to the 10 ml vial which will most certainly go bad before you can use it all.
 
Just wanted to say welcome to you both!
Home testing is the VERY BEST THING THAT YOU COULD DO!
This place is the VERY BEST PLACE TO BE! LOLOL
Furry hugs to ya!
 
Hello dear sugar kitty mama....I don't know why my friends here have not offered you a free newbie kit.
This will contain everything you could possibly need to test your kitty.
And more.
Please get one.
It is a gift from us all.
Check out the Newbie Kit link at the bottom of my page here
And go to the web store.
The kit cost 1 penny
and shipping is 6.99
Priority Mail
Worth it's weight in gold for a sugar mama.
Lori
 
Thanks from a Newbie! some questions?

I am amazed at all the great support out there~ Thank you all!
Here are a few questions if anyone might have some suggestions:
~What are helpful tips for creating more peaceful blood testing/injection rituals with your kitties? any recommendations for special low carb treats? Do you restrain your cats somehow by gently wrapping kitty in a towel or blanket?

~What are proper wet food amounts for a household of 5 kitties? We've been feeding dry food from an on-demand 24/7 feeder, and I realize I really don't know what amount of food they are taking in! How to wean kibble addicted kitties to wet food? I'm concerned about one of my small female kitties who is not eating the wet food.(she is not diabetic) I got the idea from my reading that dry food is bad for kitties and eliminated it.

~Is it absolutely important to keep a tight schedule for injections? give or take an hour?
so many more questions, but a beginning!
with much appreciation,
Tracy
 
Tracy,
Find a nice comfortable place for you and Louis. You can start now before your kit arrives. Go there with him and offer him treats, luvins, whatever you think he might like. A brushing?
Now you have to familiarize yourself with his ears.
He is to believe you have never in your life seen such lovely perfect ears.
Praise them, massage them, kiss them.
Get him and yourself used to touching his ears.

The shot should be the easier of the two.
Get his shot ready to go.
Put his face in his bowl to eat.
Tent his skin...maybe in his back near the side...and poke it.
If he is a good eater he won't even notice you shot him.

Now I'll look for the testing video
Lori
 
When it comes to weaning a stubborn dry food addict off dry and on to a wet diet, much like everything else...start slow...at first do 75% dry to 25% wet and over the next few days keep adding more wet and less dry until they have switched over. (Now this may mean feeding Louie seperately for awhile if he is already eating the wet and loving it). I got really lucky all of mine thought they hit the jackpot when mom got rid of that crunchy cereal stuff and finally decided to break out the yummy canned. You can also do a few things to make it more appealing to them. Try adding parmasan cheese, tuna, tuna water, or even Fortiflora (which you can get either from your vet or online) It comes in little packages that you just sprinkle on their food like yo would put salt on your own food. You can also heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds to make it nice and stinky for them.

As far as how much to feed that kind of depends on what you are feeding for wet and how much each cat is suppose to weigh. Now in my household of 13 they range from 8lbs (Musette) to 17lbs (Maxwell) and everywhere inbetween, but we go through 16 (5.5oz) cans of Friskies per day. But the general rule of thumb is about 25 calories per pound of cat. You can look at Binky's list and see what the calorie count is per can and figure it out from there. Also the general guideline is that 1 (5.5oz) can a day will feed a 10lb cat, and if they need to lose weight feed less if they need to gain feed more. However, right now with Louie since he is still an unregulated diabetic let him eat as much as he wants, insulin is what allows the body to process food correctly so right now he really is starving even while eating tons.

Maxwell when he first arrived here was trying to eat me out of houseand home, he could easily down 4 cans by himself, once he was regulated and then in remission he naturally slowed down to 1 1/2 cans to 2 cans per day.

Shot schedule also varies with the type of insulin, PZI is the most flexible, as it is a one shot insulin, it does its thing and the is gone before the next shot, whereas Lantus and Levermir build up a deposit under the skin that the cat then uses to lower their BGs. This deposit is what you will hear referred to as a shed here, so with those you want to stick to as close as possible to a 12/12 schedule and try not to vary that more than 30 mins one way or the other. Now that is in a perfect world which few of us live in, so sometimes life happens and it just isn't possible to shoot on a strict 12/12 schedule, but something to keep in mind is that a late shot works as a dose decrease, and an early shot works as a dose increase, but right now that isn't terribly important as you are just starting out.

Oh and lastly I highly suggest that you print out the signs of hypo and how to treat them and post them somewhere in the house where everyone can see them and make sure the whole household is familiar with them and where the hypo kit is kept...Hopefully you will never ever need it, but better safe than sorry.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Tracy,

Please watch the small female that is not eating the wet.... I am a 3 furry family and my civvie Slappy REFUSES to eat what the other 2 do.... She FINALLY eats wet food, however, it took her getting sick (dont know why?) to eat wet only after I dropper fed her for many weeeks. She was strickly dry and I guess after 15 yrs of eating dry at her leisure, I should not expect any different. The other 2 - Sugar Bean and Gumpy (GA), went right for the wet food. Now we have Ittle Sista and she adopted me when she was 6-8 wks old.... She is now about 5 months and we transitioned from dry to wet very quickly.

So, Slappy is now eating wet, but it is about 34 carbs! Also is script food - eeeeks, but she will NOT eat anything else! yet..... we are going to try to transition to ff and friskies (what the other girls eat) this week end....mommabean cannot afford the script food!
I have to feed her while the others are eating but, I have to watch her and her food gets covered up if I leave the area and put up when I leave the house or go to sleep... The other girls get some left in their bowls while I am gone and while I sleep.... It is just the way it has to be because of Bean.
But with that said, Slappy would starve herself before she will try to eat the other food. She only weights 5-6 lbs as it is, so, I dont assume she will eventually eat the other food because she wont....Now, I will be putting the ff and friskies in the magic bullet this week end and dropper feeding her a very small amount to TRY to transition her....
Good luck w/ all of your furry family and sugar baby!

Love the way Lori describes the testing routine.....SOOOO RIGHT ON! :lol:
 
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