New here + Moving with a diabetic cat

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Caitlyn and Molly

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Hey guys!

I don't think I ever posted on the old board, but I found this site last year when I was tired of my vet telling me Molly only had a few more years to live at most after being diagnosed with FD. Thankfully, I started researching on my own, and found this wonderful board and am pleased to say Molly has been OTJ since August 18, 2011 and been maintaining a steady glucose level at 85 :) (And that was only with a month of following the proticol!)

Anyway, we're moving soon and I'm concerned how that will effect her glucose levels. When she has been very stressed in the past (a dog we were boarding jumped the gate seperating the upstairs and chased her under the bed before I could get him back down stairs) I checked her glucose level, and it had gone up to 105, but returned to her normal 85 within an hour or two. But, would the sustained stress of moving day cause it to go even higher? And if it goes above 150 (or even higher) would I need to give her a shot? Since she has not needed any insulin for nearly a year, we no longer have any in the house.

To lessen the stress on all our animals (we have two cats and two dogs) we plan to take everything over to the new house first (it's only a few miles away), then once larger peices of furniture are in place, take the animals over. We'll probably keep the cats in a spare bedroom with their toys, scratching posts, litterbox and water bowl for a few hours while we unpack, as they both hate the sound of bubble wrap and other crinkly noises, and unpacking around them would probably scare them more.

So, for people who have moved with diabetic cats who are OTJ, do you think her glucose levels will stay under 150, even with the stress? And, if they do go above 150, would her pancreases be able to return her levels to a safe range on their own?

I feel like I may be stressing too much over this, but I worked so hard to get her off insulin, and really don't want her to go back to needing shots daily again :(

Thanks!

(PS: Sorry for writing a novel! :P)
 
CaitlynRae,

I am not for sure about the bg's going up but I moved 2 times in my Sugar Beans life (not knowing she was Sugar-ee). I took about 8 weeks or more to pack as I lived in my home for 18 yrs. The only home my 3 girls knew..

While I was doing this packing, I did notice that Bean was drinking more, and hanging out in the bathroom sink wanting water...The auto litter box went out and I got another one all the while thinking that Tidy Cat must have change their litter making process....Never did I think about Bean being sick....We move 9 hours away, and within 5 months we moved back to the state we just came from...All the while, Bean loosing weight, not playing and hanging out in the bathroom (mommy thought she picked up a new habit with the water in the sink) and cussing Tidy Cat for making a change and now the litter was TERRIBLE!! She even had a uti while in the other state and during the bad bad snow storm..The vet never even took a urine test and never even mentioned diabetes!

I get back to Texas, and within a week I take her to the old vet, run blood work, new weight from 11.9 to 8.0 (from Nov. to April). That was when I was told she was diabetic... We got moved into the new new home, unpacked, her back on a 'I get to go outside for 10 min. EVERYDAY MOM' schedule, find this site, change her dry to wet and OMG! OTJ!

The vet did say that she was more than likely stressed induced diabetic! ~So, I fully understand your worries like no other.

WE recently lost her 14 yr. old sister Gumpy. She seemed sooo depressed, laying on all her toys, just staring off, wondering thru the house looking for her, not eating much.......SOOOOO, WE adopted her a sister.....2 months old and call her LIL SISTA....

I am testing her every other day as I am SOOO WORRIED THAT HER NUMBERS WILL START CLIMBING AGAIN. I even have Sista adopted for 3 weeks on trial as if Beans numbers increase, Sista will have to go back....We are hissing and not liking the new alien right now, but the numbers yesterday were 60, which is a bit higher than she usually is but not by much......I will continue to test every other day and see where this goes.

I would suggest trying to keep Molly as unstressed as you can, what you plan sounds good but it will probably still be stressful for her for a while...I would just test alot, love alot and find those favorite treats, and toys to give to her.

Good luck and keep us posted & sorry for the novel as well~lol
 
I've moved 2X with a diabetic and never had any issues. Mine seem to get more stressed out when I start packing up the old house, they know something is up. At the new house, I kept them locked in a small room with their "stuff" while all my stuff was being moved into the new house. They seemed fine as long as they had familiar scents around them. At night after everyone left and everything calmed down, they slowly started coming out to check out the new surroundings.
If the bg stays higher than normal for more than a few days, I'd get some insulin. Otherwise it's probably more like any other stress response and will go down on it's own
 
Thanks guys!

So, as long as I keep her away from the majority of the commotion, it seems like it shouldn't be a problem then. We've started packing up already, and as long as the weren't in the room we were packing in, they've seemed pretty unphased by it. Hopefully as long as I keep them away from the packing/unpacking on the actual moving day Molly's glucose levels will be okay. I'll be sure to keep an eye on her though, just to be safe, and let my vet know I may need an insulin perscription called in to the pharmacy so that all I'll need to do if I end up needing to give her some shots is give them a quick ring.

Thank you so much! I was starting to dread moving worrying about her glucose levels.
 
Just be careful to keep them safely locked up during the actual move! I had someone open the door of the room I had them locked in during my move. Luckily I caught them before they made a great escape!
 
I'm dealing with a stress-induced relapse with Bandit right now (not from moving, but from a dental with complications). My vet told me to wait two weeks to start insulin therapy with him, but I just didn't seem the logic behind that so I started after about 4 or 5 days. It's been a month back on insulin now but he seems to be going otj again--my guess is he'll probably be otj within a couple weeks. I would recommend you test a couple times a day after the move, and if you see sustained high numbers (not just occasionally high numbers) I wouldn't wait too long to start insulin, as the longer they stay in high numbers the longer it seems to take them to get otj again. Just make sure you test frequently, because the reduced need for insulin can happen overnight. Bandit was up to 1.25u of Lantus, and suddenly overnight it seemed he became well regulated and I had to reduce his dose by more than half within just a few days.
 
Thank you so much Julia&Bandit! So if she goes beyond 150 and stays there (or god forbid goes even higher) without coming down for a couple of days, I'll start her on insulin again. We had people come to look at our house yesterday, and the cats had to be in their carriers for about an hour in the car with us. She absolutely hates being in a carrier or the car, and was very stressed out. But when I tested her about an hour after she was out of her carrier, he BG was in her normal range! 84 :) Hopefully thats a sign she'll be able to handle moving day better than I think she will.

Thanks again everyone!
 
If she's only 150, I would wait before starting insulin. Bandit was in the high 200s/low 300s for about 5 days when I made the decision to start insulin. If she's below the Renal Threshold (180) then you might want to wait to see if it clears on its own. If her numbers are continuously above the renal threshold and I would start after about 5 days of high numbers on a very low dose, like .25 or .5u. (If you scroll to the bottom of Bandit's Spreadsheet, you can take a look at what his numbers were like when I started him).

But it sounds like she's doing great! Hopefully you don't even have to worry about it.
 
Julia & Bandit said:
If she's only 150, I would wait before starting insulin. Bandit was in the high 200s/low 300s for about 5 days when I made the decision to start insulin. If she's below the Renal Threshold (180) then you might want to wait to see if it clears on its own. If her numbers are continuously above the renal threshold and I would start after about 5 days of high numbers on a very low dose, like .25 or .5u. (If you scroll to the bottom of Bandit's Spreadsheet, you can take a look at what his numbers were like when I started him).

But it sounds like she's doing great! Hopefully you don't even have to worry about it.
Click to expand...

We haven't actually moved yet :) She was 84 when I checked yesterday after her having been in her carrier/car while someone was viewing our house.

Hmm, so wait to see if she goes up to 200ish before starting insulin then? Even when she was off insulin for a few days last year while she was "detoxing" from dry, her highest BG was 272, but it stayed closer to 225 (her lowest) mostly, so I don't think I'd want to wait till she gets to the high 200's or low 300's before starting since she was never that high to begin with. I will give her a lower dose though to just help her along a bit. I'm taking both the cats in for a check up and senior blood work next week, so I'll ask the vet about it then, too. Hopefully she's better with FD than my last vet (who told me I was going to kill Molly keeping her BG under 150 :roll: ) and can give me some advice as well.
 
Hi CaitlynRae!
I'm brand new myself, so sadly I don't have any advice to give. I will be moving with my diabetic cat soon (he's not OTJ, in fact we're still working on getting him regulated!), but I was still interested to hear the advice you received! So give us an update! How did the move go? How did Molly do?
 
Hi Suishi,

When I took the girls in last week, I sadly ended up seeing the new doctor at the clinic (who I didn't even know had started working there), not the vet I had been planning on, so I did not get any good advice from the vet. However, when Molly's senior panel came back, her blood glucose reading was only 125 :!: Considering how stressed out she was (car rides and vet offices are the worst for her), and that her non diabetic sisters reading during the panel was 105, I'm not too worried about the move anymore, as she seems to be able to regulate her BG very well on her own. We haven't moved yet (contigent on us selling our current house), but I am still planning on keeping them in my room with all their favorite items (cat scratchers, beds, toys, ect.) while we put the rest of our things into the moving van, and setting up my room at the new house before we bring them over so they have more familiar settings when they get there to help keep them as stress free as possible.

Sorry I don't have any good advice for you :( I hope your kitties move goes well!
 
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