Meet Siggy and her overwhelmed owner

[Rosejul1]

HI! I am so glad to have found this forum. I’m a bit overwhelmed and look forward to the knowledge and support of others in similar situations.

Siggy is a spayed female Ocicat who will be 3 in July and who is very well loved especially by my 6-year-old daughter. In March we started noticing her becoming finicky with her food (at the time Taste of the Wild dry feline formula) and gradual weight loss. We thought maybe she had an oral obstruction, took her to our vet on 3/14 and began to try a variety of wet foods to prompt her eating. The vet on 3/14 did not see any oral lesions and ordered blood work. Her blood glucose was 307 and the vet stated that stressed cats could throw their glucose levels and that we would bring her back in a few weeks for a recheck. On the afternoon of 3/23 she stopped eating and by 3/24 she was very lethargic and had a very sick appearance to her. I took her into Michigan State University’s Veterinary Hospital in the am of 3/25 where she had BG levels of 587, large ketones and was in DKA. She was in critical care for 5 days and released on 3/30. They started her on 1 unit of glargine 2x’s per day and both hard and soft Purina DM. I will also add that she was once a healthy 9 lb cat and since she’s been ill she has not gotten above 6 lbs.

We have since found a new veterinarian that we feel can devote more time in helping us with our cat. She had been seemingly doing okay after being released on 3/30. They recommended 225 + calories per day and she was eating at least that amount but still not gaining any weight. On 4/19 she threw up a few times and started again showing a lack of interest in food and so we took her to our vet on 4/20. She had a BG level of 285 and ketones in her urine again and had lost another ½ of a pound. As we are unable to afford another $5K visit to MSU, our vet sent us home with fluids to administer sub q once per day and several cans of Critical Nutrition. We also switched her insulin to Pro Zinc 1 unit, 2 x’s daily on 4/23, so it has been just a week on the new insulin. She seemed to rebound and become her normal self and then yesterday started acting lethargic again and less interested in food. My husband took her in yesterday and her BG was a little high (he didn’t get a number) and the ketones in her urine had decreased a bit. I am in regular communication with our vet and will be updating her today on Siggy. We also have a follow up for our 30-day post MSU hospitalization for more extensive blood work on May 6th with our vet.

Sorry of the lengthy post, but that should provide a good history. The hardest thing right now for me is this emotional roller coaster of relief that the cat is improving and doing better to anxiety and worrying myself sick that the cat is declining again. Naively I thought at the start of all this that we’d just be sent home with some insulin to administer 2 x’s per day and boom -she’d be fine.

We have not started home monitoring yet so any advice on that or any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I think we are right now in that state of trying to get her insulin regulated.

Thank you just for the support of knowing other people are going through the same thing. I’ve appreciated all of the information I have been able to find on this site but at the same time just feel overwhelmed!

 

[Olive & Paula]

So sorry for all you have gone through so far.I

Don't beat yourselves up. We all thought the same thing. Take them home and give insulin and they will be fine.

Diabetes is not one dose fix it type of disease. The best way to manage it and get it under control is to home test regardless what vet says. Most of us learned the hard way, when kitty was in a crisis episode. So pick up a meter pronto and get started.

Human meter is fine, most use Wal-Mart brand Prime or Contour. You want a meter that takes small drop of blood, and strips are cheapest. The strips are the most expensive thing over time in this whole process. You want to know what Siggy glucose is BEFORE giving the insulin. You want to make sure it's safe to give.

Also with DKA, I can't stress enough how important it is to not miss giving a shot. You need to test for ketones daily until the glucoses start staying lower. You can get dip sticks for urine in any pharmacy. Some people can put strip right under kitty when the go, some use a large ladle to catch it. There are also 2 glucose meters that also test the blood ketones. Those strips are super expensive though, it's an option to consider.

The glargine was not a bad choice by your vet, it's one of the best to use, however your vet might not be up to date with how to use it properly. Prozinc is also good. Others who use it will chime in with the best approach.

Here are the instructions for our spreadsheet, people rely heavily on it to see how Siggy is responding and to offer advice. Please get one going and put it in your signature line. If you need help, just ask someone can do it for you.

Another good tip is to make visiting this site part of your daily routine. At least in the beginning until you have an understanding of how it all works and comes together to make Siggy better.

 

[Idjit's mom]

Welcome Julie, Dan and Siggy. I am also glad you have found FDMB and can take advantage of the wealth of information and the support of this community. You've had a very rough start on this journey, and this is a place to find experienced and helpful members who have traveled the same road. It can feel overwhelming just learning about diabetes care, much less having had to deal with the DKA.
Paula has given you the spreadsheet instructions and I just would like to share a link to information about understanding the spreadsheet: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/
When you have time take a look around at the different forums on this board. The FAQs forum contains very important information about hypos, what to have in a Hypo Tool Box and what to do if such an event occurs.
The Main Health forum is the place to ask general health questions, for information and support about blood glucose testing, feeding etc. Since Siggy is on Prozinc, the Prozinc forum will be your best resource for learning how the insulin works, help on dosing, injections and related questions.
I won't fib to you, it's a steep learning curve at first, lots of reading and many times, re-reading, sifting through the information and asking lots of questions. But it's all going to help you help dear sweet Siggy to better health and you to be able to manage her diabetes and keep your sanity.
Besides beginning the home testing, another thing you can do is get some Ketostix at any pharmacy and check for ketones in Siggy's urine. They are not expensive and then you can check at home to see if ketones are increasing and act accordingly and quickly. Post in the Main Health forum and ask further questions about testing, feeding, and methods for getting the urine samples for ketone testing.
Very best wishes going forward, we will help you in every way we can.

 

[Julie and Honey]

Welcome! Lots of support here and info to help you get your kitty feeling better. It is a lot in the beginning, good you have a helper it does get easier.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Julie Dan and Siggy @Rosejul1
How is Siggy going? She is a beautiful girl.
DKA is a serious illness but hopefully you are now in the recovery stage which can take a while.
It is really important that Siggy gets enough food and enough insulin to stop the Ketones reforming. As suggested above getting a bottle of Ketostix and testing daily yourself for the ketones is very important, as is testing the blood sugars to see the dose of insulin is correct.
Did she also have an infection when she was diagnosed?
We get quite a few kitties arrive here with DKA and have some very experienced people who can help you get Siggy through this. If you post over on the main forum, I think you were given the link above, you will find people there to help. Put in your subject line something like ‘ sick kitty with DKA’ to alert people.
Hope to see you over there.