New kitty. Newly diagnosed.

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ErinElizabeth

Member Since 2013
Does everyone wonder how they end up here?? I'm still wondering how I got a cat in my house!

A stray skinny smelly kitty with no teeth found us the first week in may. i had just moved and got a new job and My husband and I got married on Memorial Day weekend, so may was a blur.... We kept feeding this cat, taking him to the vet, controlling the ear infections, etc. named the kitty Chinookie. Chinookie liked our two dogs well enough, and the dogs barely noticed him, so all was well. One more mouth to feed.

Then Chinookie started peeing everywhere. Chinookie was eating like 5 cans of food a day and gaining no weight. (About 8 lbs give or take). He was stiff in his backend and sitting on his hocks. Our vet just kept telling us there could be a whole host of things wrong with him....

My neighbor, the cat lady, recommended another vet and we went there and immediately that vet did a test and chinookie's blood sugar was 492. We switched food immediately, and now feed fancy feast classics pâté. Tried that for two weeks to see if the blood sugar came down.... Nope. And I started reading everything I could find.

We are now on 2 units twice a day, Humulin, which I read may not be the best. Going to ask the vet about that. Have an appointment in two weeks to check. I'm going to be getting a home test unit and tons of strips from a parishioner that passed away. ( husband and I are both pastors, different churches)

The peeing everywhere seems to have calmed down, we have two litterboxs which I empty three times a day each. But the cat still wants to eat 4-5 cans a day, and tries to eat the dogs food.

Thankfully our neighbor is awesome, and is willing to come give the kitty his shot if we can't be home. Our schedules are both crazy, and this has been a crazy adjustment period for us, our dogs, and now the cat. We'll go back to the vet in a couple weeks and see if things have gotten better. Has anyone tried the boots and Barkley Target brand wet food? Ingredient list and numbers look good and comparable to fancy feast classics, minus artificial ingredients.

I have a feeling I'm going to be posting on here and needing help with this... Argh.
 
How nice that you've given Chinookie a home.

The eating a lot is normal for a non-regulated diabetic cat. His body is starving because it can't get the nutrients that it needs from the food.
That will improve as soon as he gets on insulin.

If you can get an earlier appointment to get Lantus instead, that would help him get on a better path.
You will also want to look at walmart or some drugstore for some Ketostix and get urine samples to test for ketones. Higher numbers are a greater risk for ketones.
And ketones are dangerous.

It sounds like he may also have neuropathy developing so you will want to get him some methylcolbamine. Zolbaline is what most people here give their cats.
It will take up to 3 months to reverse the symptoms. Some see results sooner.
Neuropathy is painful.
The nice thing is you can't give too much. The body takes what it needs and pees out the rest.
 
Welcome to FDMB.

Humulin lasts roughly 6-8 hours in a cat, leaving 4-6 hours without insulin if you only give insulin every 12 hours.

Ways to cope with this are to pick up the food around +6 hours after giving the insulin or
to shoot every 8 hours (TID) which doesn't sound like it'll fit your schedule at all.

It sounds like you've found a better vet to see. You might check the answers to the Vet Interview Topics in my signature link and make sure you and the vet are on the same page for manging feline diabetes.

There are some Secondary Monitoring Tools in my signature link which also may be helpful in assessing your cat. Ketone testing, in particular is important while working to regulate the insulin. Ketones form as a by-product of fat breakdown and too many may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal, expensive to treat complication of diabetes.
 
Hi Erin and Chinookie and welcome to the FDMB, the best little feline diabetes message board in the universe!

We can help you with a lot of information and questions. How are you doing? Feeling a bit overwhelmed? You sure have had a lot of stressful life changes in the last couple of months.

My best advice? Deep breathing exercises. Helps to calm you down when the going gets rough.

Not sure on that Target brand cat food carb percent. I can't even find an ingredient list for it online. What are the ingredients?

We use this food list to find foods with <10% carbs. It has most but not all the canned foods available in the US.

Where do you live? Some clues in your post led me to believe somewhere in the US.

What meter are you using for testing right now?
How often do you test and when?

We would like to see you on a better insulin. The Lantus Solostar pen has a savings program from the manufacturer. $25 for the first 6 pens and someone said their local Target sold the pens individually.
 
Hello and welcome to the board

Sounds like you are doign the right things and I agree with Elizabeth and Bertie - sooner you can get a different insulin like lantus, Levemir or Prozinc the better - and more chance of remission.

home testing is key - heres a shopping list in case the person you are getting the stuff from doesnt have everything you need.

1. Meter ie Walmart Relion Confirm or Micro.
2. Matching strips
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool.
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment with pain relief to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast

Also when you are back at the vet, have him check the ear again for infection - if its back it could also be spiking the blood glucose

Wendy
 
Thanks for the support and info, all...

So forgive me for being a noob, but I really feel like I don't know enough about diabetes to test at home. I know i should, and I feel like I could use the kit, and get a reading. I can give my cat a shot no problem. But you get the reading, and then what? Change the amount of insulin? Its just such a tiny little amount of insulin to begin with!
Change the amount of food?
And the ketone strips too - so I get them and then what? So much information!!

So if my vet only prescribes humulin, then what? Can I just ask him for a different kind? The cat eats one can in the morning and I give her her am shot. A second can given in portions throughout the day. A third can given before I give the pm shot. And then maybe another can before bed. I can't free feed, because of the dogs, so kitty's food is very controlled.

The target brand food seems fine - but the fact that I can't find info online about it is weird. But if its good i can get it for 45 cents per 3 oz can or cheaper. Here's what's on the entree gourmet chicken can:
Protein: 11%
fat 5%
Fiber 1.5%
Moisture 78%
Ash 2.5%
Taurine .05%
Chicken, chicken broth, animal liver, meat by products, fish, poultry by products, animal digest, salt, guar gum, potassium chloride, tricalcium phosphate, vitamins (E, A, D3, B12 supplements, thiamine mononitrate, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, folic acid, biotin), minerals ( ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper protein ate, manganous sulfate, potassium iodide, sodium selenate), choline chloride, iron oxide

Does that sound good? It looks comparable to fancy feast to me...

The ear infections are definitely back. The vet said he didn't want to treat that with anything that could mess up regulating the diabetes.... So now what?
 
So forgive me for being a noob, but I really feel like I don't know enough about diabetes to test at home. I know i should, and I feel like I could use the kit, and get a reading. I can give my cat a shot no problem. But you get the reading, and then what? Change the amount of insulin? Its just such a tiny little amount of insulin to begin with!
Click to expand...

You don't have to know a lot about diabetes in order to test your cat. When you test, you record the numbers and then the dose adjustments are made based on the numbers. We can guide you here with dose adjustments based on different protocols or your vet can adjust the insulin dose based on the BG numbers you get from testing.

Home testing saves a lot of money over having curves done at the vet. My vet charges $100 for a single curve. It will cost you less than that to test your cat at home, 4 times a day for an entire month.

So if my vet only prescribes humulin, then what? Can I just ask him for a different kind?
Click to expand...

If your vet tries to prescribe Humulin, Novolin or Vetsulin, you tell him no thanks. You tell him those might work well for dogs, but with cats faster metabolism, they do not work well for cats. You tell your vet that there are better insulins for cats, and the Merck Veterinary Manual lists Lantus as the first choice. Levimir and Prozinc are also possibilities.

The target brand food seems fine - but the fact that I can't find info online about it is weird. But if its good i can get it for 45 cents per 3 oz can or cheaper. Here's what's on the entree gourmet chicken can:
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The ingredients list you gave us looks like it would be ok for a diabetic cat. I don't see any grains of fruits or vegetables in it which is good. The liver will have some carbs in it.

Good price on the Target cat food ( $0.15/oz), about twice as much as the Friskies, a little cheaper than the Fancy Feast ($0.19/oz). The Friskies pate 13 oz cans are $0.98 ($.075/oz) at my local Walmart. 5.5 oz cans are $0.46 ( $0.0836/oz). Those are under 10% carbs.
 
The AAHA Diabetes Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats is from a vet published journal in June 2010. It has some of the latest guidelines on treating Diabetes. Including home testing guidelines.

You might want to print a copy for you to read. Maybe, even print a second copy to share with your vet.

We are strangers to you. You don't know if what we are telling you is to be trusted or not. We probably see more newly diagnosed diabetic cats in a week here, than your vet sees in a year. We have a broad range of experience with the day to day management of feline diabetes. We've all been where you are now. Overwhelmed and scared.

Just keep asking questions and we will help you the best we can.

Would you answer a couple of questions for me?

What meter are you using for testing right now?
How often do you test and when?
Where do you live? US, Canada, International? State/province? There may be a member that lives close to you that would be willing to show you how to home test.
 
I don't have a meter yet. A parishioner was going to give me one this week with a bunch of left over strips from someone she cared for. Will keep you posted, but if I don't get it soon I may just go buy one for myself.

If friskies is cheaper, and you guys say its ok, I may go with that... I've always tried to feed my dogs grain free (read: expensive) food - but with the addition of one more animal, plus all the costs that go along with that, we may have to start taking a closer look at our pet budget! Did I mention I just got married and got a new job and my husband will be transitioning to a new church in two weeks as well?! We've barely had time to, like, work out a household budget and make these decisions. Lol.
 
When you start home testing, we recommend you track the readings on a spreadsheet. This means you can watch trends and use that to decide dose changes.. Whether you ask us to advise on dose changes (which our experienced members do a lot) or even show your vet and have him recommend. Or both ;) your vet (if he is any good at all) will value the data as its much more worthwhile than any test done at the surgery while the cat is stressed.

Ear infections spike blood glucose and it will be very difficult to regulate him while he has that so make sure your vet gives you meds for it. A note however, many ear meds have steroids in them which also spike blood glucose, but this is just a short term thing till the infection goes away. Ear infections are very common with diabetes.

Wendy
 
Did I mention I just got married and got a new job and my husband will be transitioning to a new church in two weeks as well?! We've barely had time to, like, work out a household budget and make these decisions. Lol
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Oh yes, you did mention all these life stressors. You certainly did not need a cat with diabetes to add to the stresses in your life, but it is what it is. :YMSIGH:

Meditate, deep breathing exercises, prayer, something you enjoy are all good to help relieve some of those stresses. You need to take care of yourself as well as your new husband and your new flocks.

We have some members around the Pittsburgh PA area. Would you be interested in me seeing if one of them would be interested in teaching you and your husband to home test?

Have you read this yet? newbies, A message from your cat
 
ErinElizabeth said:
The target brand food seems fine - but the fact that I can't find info online about it is weird. But if its good i can get it for 45 cents per 3 oz can or cheaper. Here's what's on the entree gourmet chicken can:
Protein: 11%
fat 5%
Fiber 1.5%
Moisture 78%
Ash 2.5%
Taurine .05%
Chicken, chicken broth, animal liver, meat by products, fish, poultry by products, animal digest, salt, guar gum, potassium chloride, tricalcium phosphate, vitamins (E, A, D3, B12 supplements, thiamine mononitrate, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, folic acid, biotin), minerals ( ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper protein ate, manganous sulfate, potassium iodide, sodium selenate), choline chloride, iron oxide

Does that sound good? It looks comparable to fancy feast to me...
Click to expand...

Hi & welcome! I think everyone has already given you lots of good info, but I just wanted to chip in about the food. Walmart also has a brand that is similar to Fancy Feast - theirs is Special Kitty. When you read the ingredients it sounds the same as Fancy Feast, and it's cheaper, BUT I think the proportion of liver is higher because my cat ate it for a while and then totally refused to touch it again. I've heard people on this board say that cats get tired of the taste of liver after a while - so the Target brand may have the same problem? But Friskies (pates) seem to have more flavour variety and my cat loves them.

You definitely sound like you have a lot going on at once, so you're really to be commended for deciding to care for Chinookie. As to the home testing, once you learn to do it you will really find that it lessens the stress because you can know at any moment how your cat is doing and won't have to worry about that part of it!

Don't hesitate to ask anything you need to know - there are so many people here with different situation and different cats that someone will know the answers!
 
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