My cat just got diagnosed with diabetes

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mpac298

Member Since 2014
Hi all.

First of all, sorry if I am posting in the wrong place, I am completely new here.
My 14-year-old cat got diagnosed with diabetes today and I have spent my time trying to get my head around this.

She has never, ever drank water since she adopted us 4 years ago, so we stopped filling her bowl. She was fed wet food twice a day, and I was adding water to it, so I was comfortable with the amount of water she was drinking daily. She is an indoor cat and has no access to the outside, apart from our large terrace.
Well, I left for three weeks, and when I came back I just had a feeling she wanted water, so I gave it to her, and she has been drinking for the past 5 days. Yesterday the vets came to our place (she HATES going to the vet), did a blood and urine test, and today we got the verdict.
They want to see her for x-rays (a scan?) and more blood tests on Monday, which is fine obviously, but I was kind of shocked by this info that I forgot to ask the most important question.
So here I am, hoping that you can help me a bit please.

Is she in pain right now? Is her condition deteriorating fast and am I sitting here doing nothing? The vet told me that her levels were high. I imagine some was the stress, but I did not ask how high/what the levels were, so I have no idea of where we are. Basically she could have developed diabetes four weeks ago for what I know. Is she in danger?
She has always been a quiet cat, sleeping most of winter and chilling out in summer, so it is difficult for me to see whether she is her usual self or whether she is getting lethargic. She seems ok in that she jumps on the chair asking for food when we eat, she runs away from my toddler when he is getting too close for comfort, and so on, but she has been 'lightly snoring' more often when she sleeps, so I am worried she is not in her usual state. Sorry, I don't know how else to explain it.

So, am I risking by keeping her at home until Monday? Is she in pain?
(She seems to pee maybe once more than usual per day, but the urine I collected for the test was quite clear)

Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.
 
Probably not comfortable, but not necessarily in pain.

If not using insulin yet, go for the food change to low carb canned food such as Friskies pates. That may drop the glucose 100 mg/dL. See Cat Info for more details on feline nutrition. Make food changes gradually, switching 20-25% of the food per day to avoid GI upsets.

Pick up an inexpensive glucometer, matching test strips, and 26-28 gauge lancets so you can test her blood glucose yourself, asap. WalMart ReliOn confirm is a good starter meter.

Pick up inexpensive urine ketone and glucose test strips (KetoDiaStix) to test the urine for ketones. These are aBy-product of fat breakdown for calories and may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal complication of diabetes.

See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for more ways to monitor her health.
 
Welcome to the board! I switched my cat to a low carb (Fancy Feast - Classic) right away and within 48 hours her symptoms started to improve without any insulin. So, I would start your kitty on low carb wet food right away. Since she already eats wet food, this should be an easy transition for her (you just have to figure out which of the low carb brands/flavors she likes - for example, my cat will ONLY eat the FF Classic Beef Tender).

Here is a link for the food list. Anything under 10% carbs is what you are looking to feed her (the carbs are in the third column).
http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Only low carb treats should be given as well. My cat loves these treats (but there are many others out there).
http://www.amazon.com/Halo--Littles-Nat ... treats+cat

When my cat was first diagnosed, I spent hours on this site reading all the "sticky posts" and links within those posts to figure out the best way to test, feed, give shots, etc. It was extremely beneficial but time consuming since there is a big learning curve. I am almost at the month mark since my kitty was diagnosed, and I feel like I have been able to make great decisions for her because of what I learned (and continue to learn) from this forum.

As for insulin, there are a few that are highly recommended on this forum: Lantus, Levemir, PZI, and ProZinc (these are all longer lasting insulin which is needed for felines since they have very fast metabolisms). If your vet tries to prescribe anything else then he probably isn't up on the latest feline diabetes guidelines. Here is a link to the latest guidelines if you are interested in reading.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/AAHADiabe ... elines.pdf
 
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