My baby boy might have diabetes *updated and confirmed*

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Fievel

Fievel

Member Since 2013
I want to start off by thanking you so much for having this forum around, it has already helped to remove my stress levels some. Cuddles is 13 years old and starting sometime after august I noticed him drinking and peeing more. He was quite overweight at 18 pounds and very resistant to wanting to play so I put him on a very strict diet, starting around january, which was made much easier with him now being my only cat. Where I moved to I could only keep one so my nephew took my other two babies. I noticed after I had to move again, when I lost all my income, that he was drinking move and I would have to refill his water fountain more frequently. And he was also peeing a lot more but first attributed it to him trying to fill his stomach up with water because of me refusing to give him more food because he was losing weight on his diet. Through Our Companions, who I have been volunteering for since the beginning of this year, I was told about a free checkup I could get for cuddles by seeing if he qualified for a clinical trial at a wonderful vet office, Cats Limited, in Connecticut. While there I mentioned his symptoms and they said he might have diabetes but not having the money I couldn't afford any testing. I did a couple days later get ahold of a glucose meter for testing and he tested at 486. I waited 5 hours and tested him again and he was down to 397 but from what I read online that was still extremely high. Through the help of family and Our Companions Animal Rescue (http://www.ourcompanions.org) I was able to pay for him to get his bloodwork done today but couldn't come up with enough for the urine panel. I have been freaking out since Sunday when I ran the first test on him and right now waiting until tomorrow to hear the results of his blood test is driving me crazy. I have issues of my own, primarily Aspergers which is a form of autism and so change isn't one thing I deal with and the fear of this happening is not doing anything good for me. Once they confirm the diagnosis tomorrow I won't even have the money to get the insulin to help him unless it is very cheap and I don't know what to do. Between my Aspergers and other disabilities working isn't something I am able to do and yet I still have to fight the state for disability. I am willing to do anything I can do to save him, resources just happen to be my problem. Cuddles means everything to me. I have spent more time with him in the past 13 years than I have with any single person and I don't know what I would do if I were to lose him, especially to something that can be managed. I am not even sure what I am expecting to get from posting this, just that typing this out to people who know what I am going through is helping me to feel better.


*update*

the vet called up and confirm that he does have diabetes however the rest of his blood work came back normal except for a slightly elevated blood count and liver test is to start insulin today and I've got a friend to help me cover that
 
Re: My baby boy might have diabetes

First Breathe.

Second lets not get the cart before the horse there's lots of things that can elevate blood sugar including a simple infection.

One of the best things to do while waiting is switch his diet if you are feeding dry to canned pate style food even if he turns out not to be diabetic he'll be healthier for it.

Now if he turns out to be diabetic, get a hold of DCIN (Diabetic Cats In Need) they have a financial aid program that can help you with insulin and testing supplies. As well as a lot of times there is insulin and testing supplies listed in our supply closet from folks here that have either lost their kitty or had them go into remission.

And if you do find yourself the proud owner of a sugarcat then you've already found the best place you never wanted to be to help you help Cuddles...us.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: My baby boy might have diabetes

Agree that it might not be diabetes, but the tests should give you that information.

Congrats on getting tests in at home. This is often the hardest part of this whole process for people!
I'm with Mel. Start by changing his food to a wet low carb flavor. The least expensive alternative is Friskies - any of the flavors that say pate on the label. See if he likes those and retest after a few days to see if his levels have gone down. Even if it is not diabetes, it is a good choice and might keep him from getting diabetes in the future. (I think one of the most common reasons cats get diabetes is diet - a life of high carb dry food)

The Aspergers may be an asset for you. This whole diabetes puzzle has a lot of science aspects - figuring out doses and evaluating numbers - which might be very interesting for you and appeal to the "data" side of your personality.

Meanwhile breathe deeply and often. This diabetes thing is very doable and we would be glad to help.
 
Re: My baby boy might have diabetes

Here is a list of friskies varieties that are good for diabetics. The first number is the carb %.

8% - Friskies flaked with tuna and egg
9% - Friskies Poultry platter
5% - Friskies Special diet Beef and Liver entree
5% - Friskies Special diet Turkey and Giblets dinner pate
5% - Friskies Special diet Beef and Chicken Entree pate
4% - Friskies Special Diet Whitefish dinner
7% - Friskies Special Diet with Salmon
7% - Friskies Salmon dinner classic pate
8% - Friskies Turkey and Giblets dinner
8% - Friskies Supreme Supper
6% - Friskies Mariner's Catch
Click to expand...

Keep asking questions. we'll help you learn all the tricks. :-D
 
Re: My baby boy might have diabetes

Thank you very much for your replies. I am still nervously waiting for the call back from the vet, they told me it could be as late as this afternoon. I will reply here after I hear from them with the results.
 
Sorry your boy has diabetes, but it is one of the easier diseases to treat and it is possilbe for him to be regulated or even go into remission. Let us know how we can help.
 
Sorry to hear Cuddles has diabetes, but the good thing is you've already found us to help you with everything (including stress)! :-D

As Mel said, DCiN is a great resource for financial help and you can also check our Supply Closet to see if anyone has some insulin already available. As to the insulin, there are only three kinds on insulin that have proven to work well in cats: Lantus (glargine), Levemir (detemir), or PZI/ProZinc. All other insulins are more suited for dogs and do not work well with a cat's faster metabolism. The upfront cost might seem daunting at first, but the insulin lasts a long time as long as you keep it refrigerated.

It's great that you've already started home-testing, which is one of the best tools you can use to help keep costs down and to help keep Cuddles as safe as possible and hopefully get him into remission. Let us know if you're having any difficulties with ear-testing that we might be able to help you with.

It does get better and easier, but just as a warning, the first couple of weeks, you'll be going through a crash course in Feline Diabetes Management. We all have your back and are here to hold your hand through the whole thing. Feel free to ask us any and all questions, even multiple times. We never have a problem repeating ourselves or offering clarification if necessary. :lol: The only bad question is the one that goes unasked.
 
Got home and gave him his first shot. Took me two tries. The first time I didn't push it in hard enough and just sprayed it on his skin without breaking the skin. This was a little over an hour ago, and I fed him a can of food before I did it. His reading came back at 380. The lowest reading I have seen. I only did it 3 times before though but I think that since this is after eating that I did get it in him and it is helping. It could just be my imagination but he does seem to be a little bit more active, he is following me around asking for another can of food and being fairly insistent about it. which while he has meowed for food recently he wouldn't really follow me around with this much enthusiasm for a couple months. I am about to feed him another can now that he has had a chance to let it settle in his tummy.
 
you said this time it didn't break the skin.... but just in case you don't know....
if you give a shot in the future, and think only part of it went in, or smell insulin afterwards... we call that a furshot.
And we don't give a second shot simply because you just don't know for sure how much went in.
And furshots happen, even with the beans here who have been doing this for years.... sometimes furshots happen.

There is so much to learn so quickly that I wanted to point that out for you since it could happen.
 
I might have missed it, but what type of insulin did they prescribe, and what dose?
 
He is on Lantus 2 units twice a day. If I thought I had got any into him I wouldn't have done it again but I realized as I was doing it that I didn't even break the skin at all.
 
I was wondering how to best adjust the timing on his dosing. I wanted to get it in him as quickly as possible so when I got home at 6 I gave him his shot. However I would like to adjust his times to be at noon and midnight. I was reading another post and just want to be sure I am correct on this. I can go down to 5:30am this morning but then I have to stay at 5:30pm and have to wait until his am dose to drop it another 30 minutes? Or can I decrease it 30 minutes every dose.
 
The rule for adjusting your shot time is 15 minutes at am shot or pm shot.... or one 30 minute adjustment per day.

•Because of the cumulative nature of Lantus and Levemir, please be aware:
â—¦Shooting an hour or two early = that of a slight dose increase.
â—¦Shooting an hour or two late = that of a slight dose reduction.
The next shot is due 12 hours after the time of the early or late shot if you're shooting twice a day.
Oftentimes the effects of an early or late shot will not be seen until the next cycle. Please monitor carefully when shooting early.
•A "cycle" refers to the period of time between shots. There are 2 cycles in one day when shooting twice a day.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you very much for the links. Also is there any correlation between diabetes and really stinky poops. For the past week or so I have noticed that when he goes it smells really strong and seems to travel through the house which it didn't do before.
 
I don't know of diabetes being a cause for stinkiness.
It is usually due to a change in diet. Some cats are more sensitive to different proteins. The best thing to feed your cat is poultry.
If you haven't found this... it is a good read about feeding diabetic cats. http://catinfo.org/

It can also be other digestive issues.
 
by the way, you might want to take the 911 off of your condo now.
If it stays for a while, it might get missed when it truly is needed. We use the subject line if we need help ( as you already changed it once today - so you
know how)
use the 911 if you get a low number and need guidance/ more eyes to help.


On your very first post in this condo, click on edit and change the post icon to none. ( candles mean someone died / or rainbow)
 
Thanks for the suggestion. Didn't even occur to me that it could be removed. I am having trouble figuring out the spreadsheet. What exactly is AMPS and then the +1, +2 etc, Same with PMPS. I assume the U is for the units, but could be wrong on that.
 
You're right, U is units shot. Amps= am preshot number before food. Pmps= evening preshot number before shooting. +3 is the number 3 hours after the shot, +6 is 6 hours after, etc.
 
Ahh thank you very much. Well I just checked him again and he is down to 290. I am so happy. I know this is still much higher than it should be but it is much lower than it was.
 
Looks like he's already starting to see better numbers. :-D With Lantus, when you first start using it, it takes 5-7 days before you see the full impact, so I expect he'll be coming down even more for you. Great job with the testing! :thumbup
 
Hi, I see you started Cuddles at 2U of Lantus BID (twice a day).

Many of us here adhere to the "start low" approach with insulin and would start a cat on Lantus at 1U BID. Because too much insulin can result in high blood glucose (BG) numbers, we take the approach that starting low gives us the best chance of finding the right dose without overshooting from the beginning.
 
I started at 2 units because that is what my vet told me to start with. But with it coming down so quickly I am trying to keep an close eye on his levels.
 
I agree with Venita - how about restarting that dose at 1unit and working upwards. I have 2 diabetic cats....

KT has been diabetic for 2.5 years - his shot is 1 unit twice a day
Dakota has been diabetic for 3+ years - his shot is 4 units twice a day

They're both BIG cats but as you can see, their insulin needs differ GREATLY.

Another thing I wanted to share with you. Insulin is a hormone, not a chemical medicine that has a 'magic dose/take 2 and call me tomorrow' that will then be maintained. Many things can affect kitty's numbers - food/eating/not eating/stress - so don't let yourself get upset when you can't keep the numbers exactly where you want them. That's why we test...always... :-D

Congratulations on getting those first tests!!!!

BIG HUG!
 
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