My 12 year old kitty just diagnosed-help!

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lunasmomma1

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Hi,

My 12 year old kitty Duke was just diagnosed today! I am so upset, worried, confused, etc. I just got laid off from my job and am worried I can't afford the expense! I can't believe how expensive everything seems. I hate that I have to be concerned about this but I have to pay rent, bills, etc. and have 2 dogs that I need to take care of. Unemployment will not cover this! My vet says he will need to come in once a week for blood glucose test ($20 per week), plus every 3-4 weeks for another set of tests ($85). That's not including the insulin (she wants to prescribe Lantus) and whatever other costs come up. I'm not as worried about the food expense, he has already been on Hill's w/d dry food for the past couple years since he had a urinary tract blockage and had to have surgery, the w/d is supposed to help with the crystals. So, she wants to keep him on that food but I'm also concerned about that, he has had no signs of the crystals and has since then become diabetic...is this high carb food to blame? Should I be putting him on the canned diet as others are recommending here instead of the w/d? Does anyone have experience with their cat having both of these issues? I feel so lost and confused! I'm also wondering at his age and he is a very large cat (formerly 18 lbs, down to 15lbs now), will he have much longer to live this way? I don't want him to suffer! I feel awful because I just don't see how I can afford this treatment. Does anyone know of ways to keep costs to the bare minimum and still allow him some quality of life at his age? He hates going to the vet and I just don't see how weekly visits will do him any good. I've been reading other posts about home testing and could see doing that...would that allow him to not have to go into the vet once a week? My vet says she does not really have any clients who do home testing. I want him to be happy and comfortable, I just don't know what to do! Any advice or help would be much appreciated! This is all so much to handle right now and I don't know what to do.
 
I'm not really comfortable saying whether or not your cat should remain on the dry food diet given complicating condition of the urinary tract issues. Yes, carb laden foods can really hurt diabetic cats and many people (including myself) believe that the high carb diets of many cats are to blame for the DM. Taking my Shiro off dry kibble cut his numbers in half - they're still incredibly high, but think how much higher they'd be if he was eating up carbs?

Diabetes is not a death sentence and properly regulated the cat will not suffer, but unregulated your cat will not have a great quality of life. There are a number of negative side effects to untreated and unregulated diabetes.

The costs really come down to which insulin, how much and how frequently along with the cost of testing supplies. If there's any way you can get your Vet to OK a switch to a canned food only diet - i'd do it. You DO NOT (I repeat DO NOT) need the expensive, vet-only diet foods. There are plenty of commercial, canned food options that are low in carbs and are SUPER affordable. (I think we pay $34 USD a week for Shiro's food - 4 cans of fancy feast classic a day and a couple of Friskies classic Pates for variety.)

I'd talk to your vet about home testing because it's extremely common and the numbers are (arguably) a lot more reliable than the ones you'd get at the vet, where your cat is nervous and his numbers are boosted. My suggestion would be to look up and print literature on home testing and get yourself acquainted with it before showing it to your vet (there's a Convert a Vet thread stickied on this forum.)

Now that you know your kitty is diabetic why not run by a wal mart and pick up some testing supplies? I paid $52 USD for a WalMart Confirm meter, 100 lancelets and 100 testing strips. That will cover my boy for a little under a month. Yes - diabetes can get expensive. But there are also lots of organizations avialable to help. The most prominent one here is DCIN, you can view their blog here http://fdmb-cin.blogspot.com/.
 
From my experience, the most expensive stuff happened just after the initial diagnosis--buying the $120 bottle of Lantus, the $200 in bloodwork to diagnose Lily, the $50 for the ReliOn glucose meter, strips, and lancets.

Now it's not so bad. The Lantus will last at least six months, and since we home test, we won't need to buy more strips for probably three months. Still have the canned food expense.
It is VERY overwhelming in the beginning, but once you get started and into a routine, I've found that the cost becomes pretty managable. For us, basically $20 a month for insulin and syringes (and I'm investigating how using the Lantus pens might keep things even cheaper).

Things will get better! Hang in there!
 
Almost forgot--you can request a free home testing kit through this forum!! Home testing really isn't that hard. Trust me, if I can do it, anybody can do it!!
 
Welcome!

First, you don't need to spend the money getting your cat tested at the vet. Current veterinary diabetes guidelines (p. 4/218) prefer home testing to office testing. This is because numbers obtained with office curves are often inflated because stress will cause blood sugar levels to rise. Also, in order to safely administer and adjust insulin doses, tests need to be done on a daily basis, not once a week. The good news is that home testing is also less expensive than testing at the vet. Apart from Bandit's initial bloodwork that found the diabetes, he has never had any blood testing done at the vet. My vet told me that I HAD to home test because it was the only way to safely give insulin, so I was lucky that I started testing right away.

You can use any human glucose meter, but a popular one here because of it's low cost is the Relion Confirm from Walmart. The Arkray GlucoCard 01 Sensor is the same meter but without the Relion brand, so you can order strips online and save even more money: http://www.americandiabeteswholesal...lucose-test-strips_4050.htm?source=SiteSearch

As for the W/D, that food is just about the worst thing for a diabetic. Bandit was on it for a while for weight loss, and I believe that and Science Diet/Iams diet food is what caused his diabetes in the first place. The ingredients are just pure junk in those foods. You can feed any canned food under 10% carbs, but also look at the ingredients and avoid things with corn, wheat, rice, soy, and sugars. Here's the cat food nutrition charts: http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. Also check out www.catinfo.org for more information about feline nutrition.

Urinary Tract disease is most often caused by the chronic dehydration caused by eating a dry diet, so once you get rid of the dry completely and switch to a moisture rich canned food, future problems are prevented. So any canned food will do--you don't need any special food, as long as it's less than 10% carbs for his diabetes. Check out this page for more info on diet and UT disease: http://catinfo.org/#Cystitis_

You'll find that switching to a less expensive canned food will not only save you money, but improve your cat's health as an added bonus! You'll also save money on kitty litter. You'll be amazed on how much less a cat poos when their food is far more digestible for them.

The biggest initial expense is insulin, but you don't want to opt for the cheapest insulin, because it doesn't work well in cats. The three insulins that do work well are Lantus, Levemir, and Prozinc. Lantus and Levemir come in 10ml vials, and also a pack of 3 5ml pens. If you get the pens there's a greater initial expense, but it saves you loads in the long run. That's because most of the insulin in the 10ml vial will go bad before you can use it all, but the pens work like mini-vials, and you will likely use nearly each drop. You use syringes with them just like you do a vial. Again, Walmart's pharmacy will probably have the cheapest price for you, and there is a $25 off coupon for the pens here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=36964. With the coupon, a pack of pens will come to about $219.

Some people also order their insulin from Canada, where it's much cheaper. Here's a link for prices and where to buy online: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1FCnrPxpYD02Gp5hWtEIbhLXm0VOyaZlAT_qeCjlx-Js

Diabetes is not only treatable, but with the right combination of insulin (Lantus or Levemir), the food (low carb canned), and dose adjustments via home testing, cats have an 84% chance of remission. My Bandit is currently in remission and healthier than he's ever been in his life because of the diet change. This is very manageable, believe me.
 
Thank you all for the info! It's very helpful to know that there is a site like this and others in the same situation. I just spoke to my vet again and she wants to start treatment by having me bring Duke in to the office. They are going to give him insulin and do some tests throughout the day...does anyone know if this is normal procedure? It's going to cost me another $95 (that's on top of the $270 that I already paid for the initial diagnosis). I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing! Being unemployed is making all of this so much more stressful and I'm just hoping I can make it through this. I don't even know if I'll be good at doing the injections and doing the home tests does sound intimidating...
 
lunasmomma1 said:
Thank you all for the info! It's very helpful to know that there is a site like this and others in the same situation. I just spoke to my vet again and she wants to start treatment by having me bring Duke in to the office. They are going to give him insulin and do some tests throughout the day...does anyone know if this is normal procedure? It's going to cost me another $95 (that's on top of the $270 that I already paid for the initial diagnosis). I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing! Being unemployed is making all of this so much more stressful and I'm just hoping I can make it through this. I don't even know if I'll be good at doing the injections and doing the home tests does sound intimidating...
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Some vets do this if the person won't home test, but if you're home testing this is completely unnecessary. At this point all you need from your vet is for them to write you a script for insulin (Lantus, Levemir, or Prozinc), which should have been done already when you got your diagnosis. I would ask them for a script for the Lantus or Levemir pens, and tell them that you will be monitoring his blood sugar at home. You can also print out the AAHA guidelines that I link above and give it to the vet, with the part about home monitoring highlighted.

If they refuse to write you the script without bringing him in for more testing, you may need to find a different vet. It'll cost you about $50 bucks for the visit for the new vet to write you the script, but it may be worth it to find a vet that is more current in feline diabetes that is willing to work with you. They won't have to do more testing because you can just have his records transferred from this vet. Plus, $50 is less than $95.

Home testing seems scary at first, but after a week or two it suddenly becomes much easier once you stop being so scared of it. Cats have very few nerve endings in their ears, so the pricks don't hurt them at all. If they struggle, it's because you're doing something new and startling to them, but if you give them a diabetic safe low carb treat after each test, in a couple weeks they become very cooperative. Bandit fought me pretty bad the first week or so, but once he realized test =treat, he tolerated them just fine. In fact, today when he hears the glucose meter beep on, he runs to his "testing" basket, lies down, and starts purring. If you'd have told me that first day that was how he would eventually respond, I would have said you were nuts!

As for injections, the syringes you need(31g, .3cc, 5/16" needles with half unit markings), are very, very small. They're the same ones used for small children. I always gave Bandit his injection while he was scarfing his breakfast and dinner down, and I don't think he ever even noticed that he was getting them.
 
lunasmomma1:

I'm new to all of this, too, and don't have any advice for you except if I can do the home testing, so can you. :) I was also very stressed in the beginning, mentally, financially, etc. But as everyone around these boards says...just take a deep breath! I hope you find a new job very soon, and your stress diminishes. I've learned a LOT from these boards, and also gained some much-needed confidence dealing with FD. :YMHUG:
 
Thanks again for the info and for giving me hope! At first this seemed like a horribly overwhelming situation but I now feel like I have more knowledge and can take this on. I do have a question regarding feeding, I am going to switch to the canned food and am wondering how much to feed and how often? Duke is about 15lbs right now and I went out and bought the Fancy Feast Classic cans...does anyone have an idea of how much to feed him? I've been feeding him the w/d for so long now, I'm not sure what to do about the canned. Also, for diabetic cats what is the best feeding schedule? Is feeding once in the AM and once in the evening the best? Thank you!
 
lunasmomma1 said:
Thanks again for the info and for giving me hope! At first this seemed like a horribly overwhelming situation but I now feel like I have more knowledge and can take this on. I do have a question regarding feeding, I am going to switch to the canned food and am wondering how much to feed and how often? Duke is about 15lbs right now and I went out and bought the Fancy Feast Classic cans...does anyone have an idea of how much to feed him? I've been feeding him the w/d for so long now, I'm not sure what to do about the canned. Also, for diabetic cats what is the best feeding schedule? Is feeding once in the AM and once in the evening the best? Thank you!
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How much is Duke supposed to weigh? Is he overweight, underweight, or at an ideal weight? You always want to feed to a cat's ideal weight.

To give you an idea of how much to feed, Bandit's ideal weight is 13 lbs and he gets 2 cans of Fancy Feast a day. Since unregulated cats can act very hungry, it's ok to feed extra in the beginning before you get his blood sugar under control with insulin. When Bandit was unregulated, he got 3 cans a day, but I think that was a bit much because he carried around a little extra weight that caused his blood glucose to run about 20 points higher than it should have been.

Diabetics actually do better on smaller, more frequent meals, so Bandit eats 4 times a day--every 6 hours. This also helps with begging--if I feed Bandit any less frequently than that, he'll cry and beg hrs before meal time and make me think he's the most starving kitty on the planet. When I'm not home to feed him, or if I want to go to bed early, I freeze his food and put it in a timed auto feeder.
 
Welcome to the FDMB Family Duke and his mom (what do we call you?)

I know this is all very overwhelming and scary to begin with but once you get all the steps down it becomes as easy as brushing your teeth each morning.

There are lots of ways to keep the cost down. First off there is DCIN (Diabetic Cats in Need) that can often help with the cost of insulin and testing supplies. You can apply for their financial aid program at http://fdmb-cin.blogspot.com/. Just explain your situation with just losing your job and see if they can help you out. :-D

Second you can get a free testing kit through this site, with home testing you won't have to keep dragging Duke back to the vet's every week. Most of us manage our cat's diabetes at home just like a human diabetic would.

Third diet, there are lots of great foods out there that are reasonably priced, on the lower end of things there is Friskies, 9-lives and even Walmart's special kitty.

Lastly 12 is not old! I adopted my Maxwell as a diabetic at 12 years of age and later adopted my Musette at 11. If you didn't know they were both 'seniors' and diabetics you couldn't tell them from any of my other 14 cats...yep you read that right 14! :lol: Currently my furry family consists of one 97lb dog, 13 of my own kitties and 3 foster cats. My husband and I live on a single income right now as I'm also a full time college student and a stay at home fur-mom. So it can be done and not break the bank.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
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