New Here - Cat and Child both with Diabetes

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Laura

Member Since 2013
Hi all,

I'm new here. My cat was diagnosed about 3 weeks ago. I consider myself a little bit fortunate because my 6 year old has Type 1 Diabetes (diagnosed 1.5 years ago) so I'm familiar with all the concepts of diabetes. Now I'm just trying to figure out all the things that are different and the same between human and cat diabetes.

One question - my cat lost a lot of weight before he was diagnosed. Any good ideas on how to put some weight back on while still maintaining good blood sugar numbers?

Thanks! I'm glad I found a place for support.
 
Well, you should be an expert at this! Welcome.. New diabetics are literally starving because their bodies aren't processing the food efficiently. So you can feed more. If you'd looked at our site, you know we advocate wet low carb food. You might look at some of the food resouces and pick low carb, higher calorie foods.

Do lots of reading - especially on the main page - and ask questions. We'd love to help.
 
to help you figure out the food options, a vet who supports this board put together a food chart listing carbs, calories, fat, phosphorus content, etc for most commercial foods.

take a look at the chart and find ones that are under 10% carb and as Sue suggested higher fat content.

dr. lisa's site is http://www.catinfo.org - scroll down the right side of page and you will see the link for food comparison chart.

how else may we help you.
 
Welcome!

Just like you test your child before their shot, you also need to test your cat before their shot. A regular human meter will do- and is WAY cheaper- than the pet meters so keep that in mind. Good meters- Relion, Bayer, Accu-viva. Bad meter- anything with the word TRU in in (trueresult, truevalue, ect...) and the freestyle lite meters that have the BUTTERFLY on the strips. Both of these do not have correct BG values over a certain amount- usually 299- leaving the cat unregulated and the owners thinking they are okay.

You didn't mention insulin- great ones are levemir and lantus- both human insulins and don't purchase the canisilin or humulin 'just to test it out' from the vet. Those don't have a great success rate- some (around 20%) but not a good one, where as the L's and PZI have 70%+ success rate for becoming diet controlled. And most people here get dosing advice here rather than their vets because we do FD 24/7 while they might have taken a 2 hr class in vet school and nothing else. Most start out with .5 units twice a day (BID) or at the most 1u BID.

Low carb foods under 8%- follow the links given for catinfo.org and it will have a food list there. Unlike humans cats don't need the carbs from potatoes, wheat, rice- all the cheap fillers that dry cat food (and some wet) tend to shove in there products to bulk it up. Is it all expensive food- not really. Friskies, 9-lives, special kitty from wal-mart, fancy feast- all these are acceptable foods for your kitty. If you think those foods are too low-end you feed what you can afford. Also- diabetic cats are literally starving while eating everything- so feed often and anything they will eat. Once their bodies get the insulin going and regulated they will slow down on the food- promise :lol: . Mine was eating 15-20oz per day and is now down to 6-8 oz. So feeding low end now while it passes right through might be good and then kick it up to higher quality foods later once they aren't just pooping it out the other end :oops: ;-)

To gain weight look for those higher in calories while low in carbs but until the insulin kicks in and your cat gets the nutrients out of the food there won't be much weight gain.
 
A cat has a much faster metabolism and processes insulin twice as fast as a dog. That is why you do not want Caninsulin or Vetsulin. The NPH insulins like Humulin,Novolin have very short duration in a cat, usually less than 8 hours, somewhere around 5-6 hours duration is not uncommon.

You want an insulin with a long duration.

Lantus Solostar pen has a savings card program from the manufacturer. Here to sign up: http://www.lantus.com/considering/save-on-lantus/default.aspx Good for up to 6 prescriptions.
 
Welcome to the best place you never want to be! :-D

We often compare taking care of a diabetic cat as being much like taking care of a diabetic child, so you might even be able to teach us a thing or two! :thumbup Just like your six-year-old, we also test our kitties to know it's safe to give a shot and you want to spot-check them throughout the insulin cycle to make sure they're not dropping too low. In case of a hypo, you bring their numbers up with high carb gravy and/or simple syrups like karo or honey.

We use this handy spreadsheet to help us keep track of their numbers and spot patterns and/or dosing changes that might be needed. For knowing what numbers to look for, I simply use Wikipedia's Blood Guidelines for feline diabetes.

As Deb mentioned, cats metabolize insulin twice as fast as humans or canines, so the three recommended insulins for cats have around 12-hour cycles (vs. 24 hour coverage in humans). As hmjohnston posted above, these three insulins are Lantus/glargine, Levemir/determir, and PZI/ProZinc.

As for feeding and weight loss, like Hillary & Maui suggested, I also recommend you check out catinfo.org (it's a fantastic website written by a vet!). You can also check out this discussion on how much and how often to feed diabetic felines, especially when first diagnosed, to see if it gives you some ideas.

Let us know if there's anything specifically you're interested in learning about or have any other questions or need any help.
 
Hi Laura,

Just wanted to wave 'Hi' from the UK, and say 'welcome to FDMB'!

It sounds like you already have considerable experience with diabetes, but please do ask any questions you want to about the feline form of it....

Best wishes to you,

Eliz
 
Thank you all so much for the warm welcome. My cat (Patton) was prescribed pzi insulin. You all answered another question I had, which is how often to test. I think my vet prefers for people to come to the office for a test, but it's $35 and I know I can do it at home plus I already have the supplies.

Also, can you tell the difference between high blood sugar and low blood sugar in the way the cat acts? Will the cat act one way if he's got a low blood sugar and react differently if it's high? (I hope that makes sense.)

Thanks!
 
Do you bring your child to the doctor's every time you need to test? There's no real need to bring your cat to the vet's for a test, either. ;-) In fact, most of us here manage the diabetes at home and only take the cat to the vet for usually non-diabetes related problems and/or check-ups.

Laura said:
Also, can you tell the difference between high blood sugar and low blood sugar in the way the cat acts? Will the cat act one way if he's got a low blood sugar and react differently if it's high? (I hope that makes sense.)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

We have a saying around here, ECID (Every Cat Is Different). Some cats react the same way to both high and low BGs, some cats react differently. You'll soon learn how Patton reacts because he's already in high numbers. When he starts coming down, his body isn't going to be used to it at first and he might seem like he's going hypo (i.e. below 40) even when his numbers are fine, or even slightly elevated.

In Michelangelo's case, when he's running high, he's lethargic and lazy and grumpy and wants to spend all day in a dark spot hidden away somewhere. When his numbers are running fine, he's a normal, playful, happy kitten. When they start to drop a little low, he gets more aggressive and more hyper and might yowl or howl a little more (he does this too when his numbers start dropping after a shot, before he hits nadir).
 
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