Meet Oliver

[oliversmoms]

Oliver enjoys napping, snacking, pawing at videos of birds on YouTube — and scaring the crap out of his moms.

Last year he surprised us with an asthma attack, but he upped his game this year with a bout of pancreatitis that landed him in at the ER for five days. His ultrasound revealed what the vet called an "angry" pancreas. But the little guy has prevailed, and since he's only 6 1/2 years old, we figure he'll keep us on our toes with how he uses the rest of his nine lives.

He's currently our only kid, and sometimes I think we must be suffocating him with affection. He's such a big, sweet guy that you can't help but love him. And by big, I mean 19 pounds (down from his record of 21). He was doing great on his diet before the pancreatitis incident. We finally had him eating primarily wet food after trying every brand of fancy food only to find his palette called out for Sheba pates.

The combination of being overweight and taking pred to control his seasonal asthma (caused coughing) really didn't do much for his chances of avoiding diabetes. We've transferred over to an internal medicine specialist to manage his care from now on.

His pancreatitis earned him a feeding tube (out now after two weeks) and an insulin regimen of 2 units, twice a day. He's home and stable, and I'm joining the forum to learn more about managing his diabetes. Oliver, and his shaved belly, are glad for the camaraderie!

 

[Sharon14]

Welcome to Oliver and his moms! He is so cute! So sorry he's been Ill, but you came to the right place. Many people here have kitties with pancreatitis, asthma and of course diabetes, and they'll be glad to help you find answers to all your questions. Which insulin is Oliver on?

 

[Bobbie And Bubba]

Hey there Oliver moms and Welcome! You are in the right place for help. Since he is all ready on insulin, (when you get a chance, let us know which one) you should be home-testing his Blood Glucose ( BG) Here, we all home test. It is mandatory to understand how your kitty is reacting to the insulin and the dose. You will want to test before each shot and some additional test in between the 12 hour cycle. Another reason to home test is to keep your kitty safe. Find a place in your home where you will always perform the test and give lots of hugs before and after testing. There are many videos showing you how to test. Here is a picture of where you test on your kitty. http://s106.photobucket.com/user/chupie_2006/media/testingear/sweetspot.jpg.html

Here is another good link on Home Testing:http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-home-test.htm

There are a lot of meters out there. There is a pet meter called the Alpha Trak2 and human meters. Some use the pet meter because it is what the vets use so the numbers will match up. The meter and strips are expensive though. Most use human meters that can be purchased at any pharmacy. It typically reads a little lower than the pet meter but we have ways of compensating it. Many use Walmart's brand, Relion Micro or Relion Prime, because it only needs a tiny drop of blood. The Prime testing strips are ½ the price of the Micro.


About the lancets: These are used to poke the ear to get blood. There are many different sizes (gauges). It is recommended when you are first starting out to use a 26-28 gauge. Also, it would be a good idea to pick up Neosporin WITH pain reliever to apply on the edge of the ears and don't forget to alternate ears.

Getting Oliver ready for testing. Pick a spot in your house where you will perform the test. Just rub his ears to get him used to you handling his ears. Give him a treat and release. do this a few times before you actually start testing and he will associate it with something pleasurable. Use a low carb treat such as Pure Bite, a freeze dried chicken or another one is Stella and Chewy's. Also Bonito Flakes is a good treat too. ( you can them cheaper at an Asian stores rather than a pet store) and lots of hugs and praise.

With a new diabetic cat you will not want to shoot anything under 200 to keep him safe. Also, he recommend at a starting dose of 1 unit and raising it slowly as needed.
Did your vet talk to you about a low carb wet food diet? We recommend keeping the carbs 10% and under. I am not sure where Sheba pates weighs in on the chart . Here is the chart we use and the carb column is in the 3 column from the left. If you change the food to one that is under 10% carbs, please make sure you are monitoring as a low carb food change can have a drop of 100 points in BG overnight.

foodchart

This should get you started . Let us know if you have any questions.

 

[oliversmoms]

Thanks for the welcome!

He's on Lantus. I managed to get a single pen from a local pharmacy.

His appetite isn't great right now, but we're trying to get him to eat FF classics. He'll eat the gravy version, and by eat, I mean he'll lick up all the gravy. Not ideal, but we're trying to keep calories in him after two weeks of supplementing via the feeding tube.

He had an all-day glucose curve at the vet this week and I'd love to avoid putting him through it again, so I'm reading up on all the home testing information here. The vet recommended urine testing, but I'm assuming she'd prefer the glucose meter as long as we're willing (which we are).

 

[Bobbie And Bubba]

Y'all are on your way. Oliver is lucky to have moms that want to help him. Once you start testing you will be able to do your own curves and save money from going to the vet and also save your cat's stress level of being there. When they are at the vets , there stress level can cause the numbers to be as much as 100-150 points higher resulting in the vet recommending a dose that is too high. That is why we recommend to start at one unit and go up slowly.

I understand you just wanting to get food in him after supplementing via a feeding tube. Keeping fingers and paws crossed for y'all.

 

[Sharon14]

Yes right now it's important to get him eating, then you can worry about getting him on the low carb food full time. Many here use the probiotic Fortiflora, cats seem to love the taste and readily eat when it's sprinkled over their food. Testing is very important, especially as you transition to the lower carb because Oliver's glucose could drop quite a bit and he would need less insulin. Lantus is a great insulin and I'm sure you'll have success with it.

 

[BJM]

Welcome to FDMB.
Cats who were on kibble or high carb canned have had the glucose level drop 100-200 mg/dL (one even dropped 300 mg/dL) and the insulin dose drop by 1-2 units, some even getting off of insulin after a brief period on it (a cat's pancreas may recover some function.)
In my signature are some Secondary Monitoring Tools and some notes about glucometers and reference ranges which you may find helpful.

 

[Olive & Paula]

Doesn't he look comfy!