Hello all,
My 11 year old kitty Neko was diagnosed as diabetic on December 13th of last year when she went in for her annual wellness exam. Things didn't seem quite right so I asked the vet to run a blood test. The only signs she was showing were an obsession with food, including the behaviour of cruising the kitchen counter and attacking any food we left on there. There were incidents with banana bread, a baguette, and some muffins. We are now much better about keeping the kitchen counter clear of any food. The water bowl seemed occasionally a bit lower, but kitty #2 recently adopted was now out of his room (semi feral needed some time for confidence) and starting to drink her water too. She was and continues to pee only twice a day. Before diagnosis she had been peeing in the bathtub before breakfast. I have since put a litter box there and in my sewing room where she was also peeing occasionally on the floor. She mostly uses the litter boxes now. If she "misses", it's a great opportunity for ketone testing.
The vet put her on Caninsulin right away and she had made it up to 5 units in the morning and 4 at night, and the vet thought that was the right dosage. I mentioned that I would like to try home testing. As I am the first of their clients to do that, and neither of the vets at the shop knew how to do the ear test, we waited a couple of weeks until a locum was coming in who could show me the ear test. He also immediately changed me to Lantus. We started at 1.0 units on Feb 20 and are now up at 2.0 twice a day. After much reading I figure the Caninsulin was not lasting long enough and Neko gets very testy before dinner when her numbers are up. This makes pre-injection tests so much fun! Now with Lantus lasting longer, she isn't as nasty as long before dinner. I'm not sure we are at the right units yet and will post a question on the Lantus forum once I have the spreadsheet available.
We were originally on half wet food and half dry before diagnosis, moved over gradually to all wet Wellness, and just this week have started the switch to raw. Kitty #2 decided he wanted some vet attention too and had a FLUTD incident a week after the diabetes diagnosis. His vet (different clinic since he isn't so fond of males) suggested raw is a good compromise they both can eat as the C/D he was on is rather fatty. Her food caused him a second incident with high crystal count. With Neko's obsession with food, she will clean up any food left in his bowl.
And now the questions:
1) How do you handle the change to daylight saving and shots? I did 15 minutes earlier this morning with the idea to do 15 minutes earlier each day until we catch up to time. The kittens are already bugging me an hour before breakfast so their tummies are already set for the time change.
2) Is there anyone else here whose cat is only showing polyphagia signs. I call her my little Miss Polyphagia. Since she has always been food focused (13.4 lbs at diagnosis, now at 12.8) so it's just a matter of degree of how crazy she is before dinner. I have no other signs other than blood tests to tell when her numbers are up.
3) Should I throw out my Freestyle monitor? I keep reading bad things about it here. The vet had said to get the one that needed the smallest amount of blood. When I went in for testing lessons at the vet we also used their One Touch Ultra and the Ultra tested just 20 points (or < 1 point for us on the other system like me) higher than the Freestyle. It wasn't the same blood sample and the Ultra test was 5-10 minutes later than the test on the Freestyle. When she had been in for a blood curve day when she was on Caninsulin, she was testing in the low 20's (380-430) so I know she is very stressed at the vet. At her last visit to the vet while on Caninsulin for a spot check, she had tested 10.5 (around 190). If you recommend a meter change, can you suggest a good one that is available in Canada. I might just get the One Touch Ultra. A lot of the stores have a deal where you buy the test strips and the meter is thrown in for free.
My 11 year old kitty Neko was diagnosed as diabetic on December 13th of last year when she went in for her annual wellness exam. Things didn't seem quite right so I asked the vet to run a blood test. The only signs she was showing were an obsession with food, including the behaviour of cruising the kitchen counter and attacking any food we left on there. There were incidents with banana bread, a baguette, and some muffins. We are now much better about keeping the kitchen counter clear of any food. The water bowl seemed occasionally a bit lower, but kitty #2 recently adopted was now out of his room (semi feral needed some time for confidence) and starting to drink her water too. She was and continues to pee only twice a day. Before diagnosis she had been peeing in the bathtub before breakfast. I have since put a litter box there and in my sewing room where she was also peeing occasionally on the floor. She mostly uses the litter boxes now. If she "misses", it's a great opportunity for ketone testing.
The vet put her on Caninsulin right away and she had made it up to 5 units in the morning and 4 at night, and the vet thought that was the right dosage. I mentioned that I would like to try home testing. As I am the first of their clients to do that, and neither of the vets at the shop knew how to do the ear test, we waited a couple of weeks until a locum was coming in who could show me the ear test. He also immediately changed me to Lantus. We started at 1.0 units on Feb 20 and are now up at 2.0 twice a day. After much reading I figure the Caninsulin was not lasting long enough and Neko gets very testy before dinner when her numbers are up. This makes pre-injection tests so much fun! Now with Lantus lasting longer, she isn't as nasty as long before dinner. I'm not sure we are at the right units yet and will post a question on the Lantus forum once I have the spreadsheet available.
We were originally on half wet food and half dry before diagnosis, moved over gradually to all wet Wellness, and just this week have started the switch to raw. Kitty #2 decided he wanted some vet attention too and had a FLUTD incident a week after the diabetes diagnosis. His vet (different clinic since he isn't so fond of males) suggested raw is a good compromise they both can eat as the C/D he was on is rather fatty. Her food caused him a second incident with high crystal count. With Neko's obsession with food, she will clean up any food left in his bowl.
And now the questions:
1) How do you handle the change to daylight saving and shots? I did 15 minutes earlier this morning with the idea to do 15 minutes earlier each day until we catch up to time. The kittens are already bugging me an hour before breakfast so their tummies are already set for the time change.
2) Is there anyone else here whose cat is only showing polyphagia signs. I call her my little Miss Polyphagia. Since she has always been food focused (13.4 lbs at diagnosis, now at 12.8) so it's just a matter of degree of how crazy she is before dinner. I have no other signs other than blood tests to tell when her numbers are up.
3) Should I throw out my Freestyle monitor? I keep reading bad things about it here. The vet had said to get the one that needed the smallest amount of blood. When I went in for testing lessons at the vet we also used their One Touch Ultra and the Ultra tested just 20 points (or < 1 point for us on the other system like me) higher than the Freestyle. It wasn't the same blood sample and the Ultra test was 5-10 minutes later than the test on the Freestyle. When she had been in for a blood curve day when she was on Caninsulin, she was testing in the low 20's (380-430) so I know she is very stressed at the vet. At her last visit to the vet while on Caninsulin for a spot check, she had tested 10.5 (around 190). If you recommend a meter change, can you suggest a good one that is available in Canada. I might just get the One Touch Ultra. A lot of the stores have a deal where you buy the test strips and the meter is thrown in for free.
