New here and very overwhelmed!

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kcapps

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Our cat is 12 years old and recently diagnosed with diabetes. A week ago we got his blood work done and his BG was over 500. We took him home for the weekend and took him back to the vet on Monday. He ended up staying until Friday because they had trouble getting his numbers down.

Last weekend I found this message board and started him on wet food. Of course the vet fed him Hill's w/d all week and sent us home with a bag. Last night he did not want the dry, so I gave him the last 3oz can of fancy feast I had.

I'm very familiar with diabetes in humans because I've researched it since my dad was diagnosed and felt I was heading that way. There's a lot of misinformation out there about fat and carbs....so it makes sense to me the same would be true with pets. I was always led to believe that dry food was better for cats.

Anyways, since the vet prescribed the dry, but I'm giving him wet....I'm nervous that the 5 units of insulin will be too much. But then I think his numbers were so high, maybe it won't be. Btw....he's on Novulin.

I have no way to test his sugars on my own right now....and it causes so much anxiety even thinking about doing that...but obviously you guys have so much success with it.

Since the vet never really got his BG down...he said because he was older to not be so concerned with the number, but concentrate on how he feels. He does look and act much better than before.

Also....the 3oz cans of fancy feast are 54 cents at walmart....since we have 2 cats and they say to feed them 2 cans each twice per day (that's going by the weight)....that will total over $4/day to feed the cats. Is there a cheaper alternative without comprimising quality?


Sorry this post is so long...I really have read quite a bit so far on here and will contact someone about the "newbie kits".

Thanks,

Kelly (springfield, MO)
 
I'm still a newbie myself but don't feel overwhelmed. There's so many people on here who can help you through all of this. I can tell you that hills w/d is horrible. My vet put my cats on that too but I don't feed it to them anymore. So clearly most vets don't give the right information and the best ways to handle your cats diabetes. I don't know about anyone else but I wouldn't consider 12 to be 'older' to the point where he would say not to worry about his high numbers and just concentrate on how he feels. That sounds like he's saying your cat is coming to the end of his life so his quality of life is what matters. I don't think 12 is an age to have that attitude with. If you're just giving wet you definitely have to lower insulin. Someone else will come along can tell you how to handle that, I'm not in the position to give out information like that when I'm posting questions everyday myself lol. Bottom line is you need to start testing..by the way did you mean the anxiety was for you or the cat? I just started testing my cat whos had diabetes for 2 years and she doesn't like it but I know I need to do it. My cat who passed away last week was pretty good about it unless it took me too long to get it over with. I just kind of sit on my cat and hold her down when she fusses so I can get it over with quickly and give her a treat and some love afterwards. Also, your vet probably won't give you the best advice or any useful advice for that matter so try to find a vet who will help to successfully manage the diabetes or if you can't, then you can come here for help. Best of luck
 
Hi and a big welcome to the FDMB!
About food... click the link in my sig. You will see links to 2 canned food lists. Many folks here feed walmart Special Kitty brand to their sugarcats. You will find those on one of the lists. What you want to find are foods with a carb % of 7% or lower. Carbs are bad for diabetics, which is why dry dood is not recommended.
Also, don't use the info on the cans regarding, how much to feed per day. Too generic. How much do your kitties weigh?
Carl in SC
 
Welcome KittyKitty and Kelly!

KT and I started paddling this boat in early July so still sort of walking in your shoes. I think most of us stumbled over this site and quickly realized it's EXACTLY where we need to be to help our fur-persons.

Yes the ffeast will get expensive but there are others that are cheaper such as Friskies pates, 9-lives, Special Kitty (Walmart). I'm still trying to get all mine off the dry food but one just refuses to eat anything else. Luckily he's not my sugarcat, he's got asthma.

Glad you and your kitty landed here!
 
Welcome to the FDMB Family Kelly,

Oh yes, there is a much cheaper way to feed a diabetic cat. I personally have 12 cats 2 of which are diabetic, everyone here eats exactly what my 2 diabetic do...Special Kitty pate style canned food from Walmart. The other cheaper options would be either 9-lives or Friskies. Since my one diabetic Musette is highly carb sensitive, I only feed her the Special Kitty chicken and tuna dinner, which is about 3% carbs. But even on just regular Friskies pate style catfood my other diabetic Maxwell went into remission and has been off insulin for the last 9 months.

If at all possible however, you may want to speak with your vet and see if you can get him to change your cat's (a name would be helpful) from Novolin to either Lantus, Levermir or PZI as Novolin is a very harsh insulin in cats, it works well for dogs but is not so great in cats, who metabolize insulin twice as fast as either humans or dogs. The other insulins are more expensive than Novolin but well worth the added expense as there is a much high remission rate on them.

Home testing is absolutely the best way to go as far as managing this disease at home and keeping more money in your wallet. And 12 years old is not old by any means, we have many cats here that are 17, 18, 19 and even some in their 20s, all leading happy and healthy lives as diabetics. In fact my Maxwell is 12 going on 13 and Musette is 11 going on 12, they still scamper through the house, chases their toys, and beat up the younger cats. So you and your best friend have lots of years of loving left. But back to the home testing, not only does it allow you to know if he is in a safe range to give insulin to, and thus being able to avoid a possible hypo, it lets you know at a moment's notice how the insulin is working for him. Think of it this way, would your dad take insulin without testing first? No, then why should it be any different because it is a cat? Also by testing at home, you don't have to keep dragging him back to the vet's every few weeks to have them run expensive and basically inaccurate curves, because you can do that yourself at home with out all the vet stress inflating his numbers. Then every so often just fax over your spreadsheet with your numbers to your vet and work with those numbers with them to determine the best plan of action for treating your furry friend.

Home testing is really very easy once you get the hang of it, yes, there is a learning curve to it and you might not get blood the first few times you try, but if you keep at it, it becomes as normal and routine as brushing your teeth. I can literally now roll out of bed, test Musette, feed the fur gang here, fix my husband
s breakfast, get Musette's insulin ready and given in the span of 20 minutes...mostly while I'm waiting for breakfast to cook...lol. Don't worry either that your cat is going to hate you for poking him to get blood, I actually adopted both Maxwell and Musette from this very board as diabetics, they didn't know me from Adam when I started testing them and had no reason to trust me, but the both now curl up in my lap purring like crazy and sleep with me at night. Musette even comes and gets me if I'm late on a test to remind me that it is time to test her, because see for her testing means extra snuggle time with mom and yummy treats. She only gets her little boiled salad shrimps at testing time, and she LOVES her shrimpies, so it is a small price to pay to get her shrimpies to have mom poke her little ears. To her ear poke = shrimpies, and she is fine with that.

I'm sure others will be along shortly with a ton of welcomes and links for you to read and videos to watch...but I need to keep this short as well it is time for me to go poke a kitty and hand over the shrimpies...lol

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Thank you for the info and assurances so far!

To give a little more info...Pnut is the name of our diabetic cat. He used to weigh about 16 pounds, but now he's down to 10 pounds. I will definitely check out the other low carb (and inexpensive) brands.

The vet said to feed him twice a day so that we can give him the insulin afterwards. We used to just keep dry out all day, so now we have to get him used to eating all at once. So how many of those little cans would you feed a 10 pound cat?

We actually had a cat live over 20 years, but that was on our farm....she lived on mice and goat's milk.

Thanks again!

Kelly
 
Well depends on the type of food you are feeding and the ideal weight of Pnut, if he is at a nice healthy weight at 10lbs then he will need about 1-1 1/2 cans of a 5.5oz can of say Friskies or special kitty. Now my Maxwell at 10lbs was a walking skeleton, he is now 15lbs which is ideal weight for him, and he eats between 1 1/2 -2 5.5oz cans a day. And really it is ideal to give a diabetic cat several small meals a day. Mine are fed four times a day since I'm home with them all day. They get fed at 6am when Musette gets her morning shot, noon, 6pm when she gets her evening shot and then just before we turn in for the night at around 10:30 - 11:00pm. Mostly the last meal of the night is so my 3 siamese will let me sleep until 5:30am...lol

But a lot of folks here either free feed wet by just mixing a little water with the canned food so it stays moister longer, or use a timed feeder, or even freeze a portion and serve it with a fresh portion, so kitty can eat right away and then nibble at the frozen as it thaws out.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Kelly,
The formula I use to keep Bob at 14 lbs. is one that says in order to maintain current weight, he should be eating 20 calories per pound of weight, per day. On the food charts to the right hand side it tells you how many calories are in each can. Bob eats FF classics, and they are usually just under 100 calories per can. What I do is give him a can in the AM and PM, and then I give him 1/2 a can of Friskees pates in between meals AM and PM. Works out to about 250-300 calories depending on which flavors.
If you want Pnut to stay at 10, then he'd need 200 a day. I'm guessing you'd be more comfortable if he put a couple of the pounds he lost back on? If so, just use the formula to help him gain weight.

A newly diagnosed sugarcat is going to be very hungry, however. They don't get the full amount of nutrition out of their food as a non-diabetic would. So at first, he's going to be real hungry, and you should let him eat (within reason) more than "normal" until he gets to feeling better (which you'll see as his BG starts to get regulated. At that time, you might try to control his diet somewhat, so he doesn't end up at 20 pounds! Bob weighed over 20 at one time, and in November he was 18 lbs. From November until diagnosed in May, he lost 5 pounds to drop to 13.

Your vet saying feed twice a day, I think, was to insure that Pnut ate two meals 12 hours apart so that you can safely give him his insulin right after eating. The BG "boost" from eating will buffer the BG drop from the insulin. Together, they'll keep Pnut from dropping too quickly. But, Pnut can also eat in between shots. The only thing you should watch is that he isn't eating an hour or two before you test him for his am and pm shots. That might make his BG reading higher when you test him, which might make you think that he needs more insulin than he would normally get. But that's a "later on" issue, not a "right now" issue.

Carl in SC
 
The amount of food/calories to maintain body weight is dependent upon the cat. The general rule is 20 to 30 kcal/lb. The best way is to frequently weigh the kitty and change the amount of food based on weight.
 
I just wanted to caution that if you're changing the diet, please do NOT shoot 5u of insulin, because it could cause a deadly hypoglycemic incident. W/D is extremely high in carbs, and just about the worst thing a diabetic cat could eat, so it's likely that the food is keeping Pnut's numbers very high. Please reduce down to 1u twice a day, with hometesting if you are able. Hometesting will save you a ton of money because you will not have to pay for any expensive vet tests. Also, with the high numbers and weight loss, please test for ketones as well. You can pick up ketostix at any pharmacy, and they're not very expensive.

I second getting him on a better insulin. There is a larger cost up front, but it will save you money and stress in the long run because there's a much higher remission rate (80+%) with the two L insulins, and even if Pnut is in one of the 20% that does not make it to remission, he'll be much safer and healthier on the gentler insulins, and you'll save money on potential complications with the N.
 
I have not home tested...yet...but I certainly am not giving Pnut the 5units twice per day because1. we have switched him to wet food over the w/d food and 2. he's only eating about half a can at meal time.

He's feeling much better today...much more active. He really is not hungry like I keep hearing diabetic cats are...in fact it's hard to get him to finish 2 3oz cans per day.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions...there's so much info to soak up.

Kelly
 
Hey when you are at Wal-Mart picking up some canned food, go towards the pharmacy and get a Relion-Micro blood glocose meter - around $9. They sell the test strips at the counter, $20 for 50 (they do come in other sizes, but this is the size I get). There should be some lancets by the meter. Look for 28 gague or something lower #. The meter comes with 30 or 31, but you'll have better success getting blood with a lower #. I buy my lancets at Target, cause they come with caps. You might want to get a sharps container too, it properly dispose of the syringes and lancets.

I am at home and don't have that petsmart page bookmarked with the thing I use to heat Cedric's ear with (the heating pad of a toy my step mom bought him) as I burnt the rice sock Lori sent me (cripes I can't even microwave a sock filled with rice correctly!). Heating the ear helps. Keep trying and don't get down. Testing is the best thing you can do to make sure he doesn't hypo. But I';ll bet your dad can tell you that. :-D

Welcome to the FDMB!!!

I second the switch to lantus BTW. Cedric took it for a month.
OH, he gets 4 small meals a day, 2 of which are given to him via a Cat Mate C20 autofeeder from petmountain.com.
 
Hey Kelly,

I strongly second the testing suggestion. It takes a couple weeks to get good at it (a couple loooong weeks), but before you realize it, it's easy for you and the cat.

Take a look at the "Quick Start Guide" in my signature. It may help you organize the great suggestions that will come at you from all sides here.

Welcome!
 
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