My Cat Just Diagnosed

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Vickie01

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Hi everyone. I am new to this site and could use all the help I can get.

My l6 year old cat was just diagnosed as having diabetes. He started with 1 unit for l0 days and now 1-1/2 units. He eats well, drinks and used his box (though I brought it downstairs since he had trouble walking in the beginning). He walks OK now. I tried to put him on a high protein diet and gave him Wellness Chicken and Herring for the first time tonight. After a little while, he started sneezing and slobbering. Could it be a food allergy? That is the only thing different. I am beside myself with worry about him and have been for 2 weeks. He was fine before all this happened. Should I just go back to his regular food (Fancy Feast)? Thanks.
 
You can certainly go back to Fancy Feast; it could be an allergy.

The best way to know what is really happening - whether the problem is a variable like food or whether it is too much or too little insulin- is to test your kitty's blood sugars at home, just like human diabetics do. We use human glucometers and poke their ears: Video for hometesting We have taught hundreds of people over the internet and would be glad to help you learn how. Interested?

What kind of insulin are you using?
 
WELCOME to the best site on the planet for you to help your sugar kitty. A lot of people here feed Fancy Feast. Stick to the classic kind as they are low carbed.

You may want to read the FAQ's but I echo what Sue says, your BEST defense from this disease is to hometest your kitty's blood sugar. It's the ONLY way to know if/when it's safe to shoot insulin.

There will be others along who are much better than I at explaining things until then keep reading.
jeanne
 
My Charlie was on low carb Fancy Feast varieties and did very very well on them. Just no gravy... Check Janet and Binky's list of low carb offerings.

Welcome to our family of FDMB cat lovers... I tripped over this site in March of 2004... crying my eyes out... and telling Charlie all would be well. He lived to be 18 + and died of a blood clot in his little brain. He lived a happy active life and was running and playing (not a lot of running of course) on the day he left for the bridge. But I know he's waiting there for me.

Keep posting back, with any questions. I didn't check, but please be sure you fill out the "Profile" in case something happens, we won't have to keep asking questions, like what insulin, etc...

Here's how I felt then:

Finding FDMB
© 2004 By Carol Notermann

Alone I heard the words I’d feared, alone and terrified.
Did no one know or understand, I cursed the tears I cried.
I’ll beat this thing, I’ll prove them wrong for he is my best friend
There has to be some help somewhere, this cannot be the end.

The vet had been so cavalier, explaining choices to be made.
I’d heard his words, but in my brain, too few of them had stayed.
I ran to my computer, typed in the word I’d heard
As I hit “search” I trembled, for I hated that darn word.

The list popped up, and there I saw, that I was not alone.
I clicked on one, and read the text, but those words too had flown.
Then next I clicked, a message board, with others just like me.
I typed the words, “I’m just so scared, I’m crying and can’t see.”

Within a minute, maybe two, I was welcomed with a (hug).
They said to simply take a breath, my heart, it felt a tug.
For here were others just like me, they seemed to understand.
No one said to PTS, they said they’d lend a hand.

Thus guided by the “experts” that had no vet degree
I learned about this thing I feared, they took each step with me.
They told me of the blood tests, how to poke his little ears.
I learned of its importance, to shoot and have no fears.

I learned to simply trust my “gut”, and that I knew my cat.
I learned to treat a “hypo”, my testing spotted that.
I’ve cried tears of joy with others, and also tears of pain.
We are a world-wide family, we cheer each others gain.

And now, just four months later, my guy is lying at my feet,
Our lives are back to “normal”, and the path was not too steep.
For with the help of all my friends here on FDMB
I know that I am not alone, and that’s enough for me.
 
please tell us which insulin you are using and if you need a testing kit. it is unusual to shoot one time a day...almost always every 12 hours. testing your cats bg's is the very very best way of helping him....and calming your nerves. the newbie kits are availabe below my signature, the blue link ok.
 
Welcome to the FDMB Family of crazy cat lovers. Many kitties here are on Fancy Feast and do just great on it. But there are also several other choices as well such as Friskies or 9-lives (just stick to the pate style).

But I'm going to echo everyone else here about home testing being your best defense with this disease. It will not only give you peace of mind, and help keep your fur baby safe from a hypo but it will save you money and stress to your cat, as much of what the vet will be doing you can do from home. Once you are home testing there will be no reason to take your baby to the vet for curves, you can do them at home and either email or take in your results to your vet.

One of the reason I push so hard for home testing is because it probably saved my Max's life. You see I adopted him as a diabetic from this very board. All I knew about him was that he was a big white & buff long haired boy, that was on his last 24 hours to live, because he had lost his home and diabetic. So I took him sight unseen, he was 485 when DXed, and the lady that sprung him started him on 1u of Lantus b.i.d. while we were waiting on getting him transported to me. Well after a week of insulin, a change in diet and a flight from Boston MA to Hastings NE he was almost ready to go into remission, but if I hadn't been home testing I would have never known that. I shudder at the thought of what would have happened to him if I had just blindly kept giving him the 1u twice a day. Since he was so new to me at the time I would never have caught those early signs of hypo, because I didn't know him well enough to know his personality well enough to know something was off. Thanks to the folks here, I have a wonderful healthy boy that has become diet controlled, and a much loved new member of the family. But without home testing I could have just as easily have killed him, or seriously hurt him in those first few days. If you look at his spreadsheet in my signature you can see just how fast his BGs dropped, impossible to have caught without home testing.

Now Max is my second diabetic, my first girl Muse passed away. (not from diabetes) So when I adopted Max I had an idea of what I was getting myself into, and if this wasn't such a very treatable disease I would have never willingly volunteered to adopt another one. But while it is a steep learning curve at first it becomes as easy as breathing, and we will be right here to help hold your hand and paw the whole time.

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang
 
Thanks to everyone for all the responses. I guess I'm just impatient. Tony is on 1.5 units of PZI twice a day. He still drinks a lot of water, but has a good appetite. He always did. He lays around most of the day but he is still having some sneezing issues and brings up some phlegm now and then. This has only been in the last 2 days. Now I'm wondering if he's allergic to the insulin itself. This is only his 2nd week of shots. Has anyone every experienced this? I have him back on his Fancy Feast food but tonight I gave him a Friskies patte food which he really liked because he hasn't had it in a while. I just want him to feel better again. He's better than he was 2 weeks ago, but not great. He was also on Amoxicilin for a slight urinary tract infection. It's been 2 weeks of that and now he isn't getting it anymore. Anybody think the sneezing, etc. could be a reaction to that? He doesn't have runny eyes or nose and the sneezing and phlegm is not consistent. Sometimes it occurs after he drinks water. But I'm happy to see him eat and drink and use his box. Am I jumping the gun and not being patient enough?
 
Have you limited the beef flavors? It could be a food allergy; I don't think I have ever heard of an insulin allergy.

Have you thought about the home testing?
 
if you kitty is coming off an infection, changing diets and getting 1.5 units (twice a day?) it is really imperitive that you are testing his bg's.
have you thought about testing? it's really easy, we all do it, and it will totally empower you to really know if tony's getting better or god forbid getting too much insulin.
you know how to get the newbie kit right?
 
While I agree with the advice to test, I think your concern is with what appears to me to be a URI or cold. I have read that many peopole treat this with Llysine but you will have to research this. It doesn't sound like a reaction to insulin to me but I am not a vet :)
 
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