New kitty, please help with feeding and insulin.

[loara71]

This is a great group. I know since I used it five years back when I had my kitty Prince who was diabetic. I was able to control his diabetes only because of the great support I received form all of you here.​

Sadly, we now have another kitty, Toby, that not only has diabetes but also Pancreatitis. It is very challenging. He was just diagnosed with Pancreatitis 2 months ago. Then 1 week ago we found he was diabetic as well.
I am posting this message in desperation to find some answers to a few questions I have right now. I would greatly appreciated any response I get from fellow members in the forum.
Here are my concerns and questions:
1. We have a LOT of trouble pricking his ear if he is hungry. He is very strong and wiggles around wanting to be feed. However, he is a great kitty if we prick his ear when he is not hungry. My question then is.... Can his blood be tested right after he eats his meal instead of before the meal? This would make it a lot easier for us and him. He is a good kitty but goes nuts near dinner time.
2. What kind of diet should or could he be on with having pancreatitis and being diabetic as well? Our vet is keeping him on this food for pancreatitis which is I/d Hills canned food. I know that is not good for cats with diabetes. However, our vet doesn't want his pancreatitis to flare up since he is not vomiting or have stomach issues as long as he eats the Hills I/d food.
3. Our vet INSISTS on us using the Alpha Trak 2 pet meter and strips. I didn't use this special meter with my kitty before that had diabetes. I am finding this meter is very expense but also the test strips as well, like $1 each ($53 for a bottle of 50 strips). What type of blood glucose meter do you all use? Is it now more important to use the special pet meter or is it just a gimmick to get more money?
4. Our kitty is running a blood sugar of about 450 and just now starting his first panel to see where we need to start him on insulin. He is on only one unit of Lantus to start with. I have the impression our vet will go up very slowly on his dosage and wait a week between each panel. Is this what all vets do now? Our vet we use to have with our other kitty (we moved out of state now) didn't seem to take it so slow. I am concerned our new kitty will not like all the poking of his ears for these panels each week.
BTW. I did join the pancreatitis group as well. I hope to get information from them. However, it seems right now his pancreatitis is very stable. I just don't want that to flare up along with being diabetic.
Thank you for helping us with our questions. Any suggestions are answers we get will be greatly appreciated.
Candy Kvidahl

 

[Sharon14]

Hi and welcome back! Toby is adorable! I don't know anything about pancreatitis, so can't offer advice on that, but plenty kitty's here have both and I'm sure someone will be along to help with that. I was told if you test right after eating it's ok. At least you can start that way and maybe work towards being able to do it before food. Most of us use the human meters, the Relion Prime or Confirm are popular. They read lower than the pet meters, which is probably why your vet wants you to use them, but the people here know that and adjust treatments accordingly. Good luck.

ETA the Relion meters are from Walmart

 

[Carol & Murphy (GA)]

Hi Candy sometimes also have trouble testing right before mealtime - especially first thing in the morning - what I have done is give a small piece or two of freeze dried chicken or salmon and then he seems to settle down a little. So maybe you could try feeding him just a little and then poke However I too would be interested to know how soon after eating blood glucose starts to rise (how long you would have after eating to get a good reading)

 

[Sharon14]

When I was having that problem(my fault, not Colin's) I was told 15 min, but get the reading as quick as possible. I'm interested to know if that info is correct too.

 

[MrWorfMen's Mom]

I can understand your concern about the cost of the strips for the AlphaTrak meter and using a human meter is a good alternative and less expensive so whatever you decide is fine. While vets will often recommend use of the pet meter because it is more in line with actual lab values, human meters work just fine with the appropriate reference ranges .I would however caution you to discuss changing to a human meter with your vet because human meters read lower than the AlphaTrak so you need to make sure that any discussions about readings with your vet aren't muddled because of this difference. If you plan to do curves at home and then consult with your vet about dosing, the difference in readings will need to be clearly understood by your vet.

Please also note that the glucose reference numbers provided in the protocol documents here are for use with human meters NOT pet meters. These protocols can be used with the AT meter but the reference numbers will be different. There are a lot of AT meter users here who can help guide you should you decide to use the protocols here.

 

[Anitafrnhamer]

First, read this link: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/a-primer-on-pancreatitis.83108/

Now, deal with the diabetes first. Including the food change to address the diabetes. Getting the diabetes under control will help with the inflammation of the pancreas. As for the pancreatitis, monitor for dehydration, give pain meds if needed, give nausea meds if needed, add a little pumpkin to food to help control loose stools (if diarrhea develops get metronidazole from your vet), and also antacid----1/4 tablet of a 10 mg famotidine once or twice daily. I would also ask about a B12 injection, it seems to help Squeaker when he has pancreatitis.

Just using insulin to control the diabetes and not adjusting the diet as well seems to be somewhat counter productive. Given that there is, to my knowledge, no identifiable cause of pancreatitis in cats nor a method to prevent it, it doesn't make sense to me to focus on that.

Squeaker has pancreatitis every six months, regular as clockwork and we follow a routine to control it when it happens.

 

[Djamila]

My vet wanted me to use the AT as well, but it's so expensive! I just used a human meter from Target, and the information on here, to roughly translate the numbers before I would show them to the vet. That way we were speaking the same language, but I didn't need to depend on him to do the math, nor did I need to spend a ton of money. I also didn't do the curves at the vet because Sam's numbers would go up so high in the office that it didn't give any real information. We confirmed that it was the stress and not my human meter by testing him at home before he knew he was going to the vet, and then using my meter again in the office. He went from 215 at home to 473 in the office and it was only about 30 minutes later! I never once saw a number even close to that at home.

I also quickly discovered that the people on here know way more about feline diabetes than my vet did! He was pretty open to listening though and has even been on this site reading the protocols.

As for feeding and testing, I also had good luck with giving a couple of freeze-dried chicken treats and then testing, and then feeding. The treats helped distract him while I poked his ear, too! If Toby lets you touch him while he's eating, maybe you could just test him while he's getting his breakfast? Sam will let me pet him when he's eating, but my other cat won't even eat if someone is in the same room with him.

 

[loara71]

Thank you to all that have responded above.
I was able to finally get the vet to agree that I can test right after he eats. He said no more than 10 minutes after he eats. That problem was solved. However, he is still so hungry during the day since he told me I can only feed him 2 times a day. Why? I don't know. He is use to three and even four smaller feedings a day. This going without food for 12 hours isn't working.
Anyways, I still am looking, and hope to find, others I can network with that have kitties who are diabetic and have pancreatitis too . I was glad to see the post above from Anitafrnhamer who has a cat with pancreatitis flare ups.
I for sure will try to switch to a cheaper meter once we get these curves settled. For right now I want to be on the exact same page as my vet since I phone in his curve results. However, I can't afford to keep paying for the high price of the test strips for this meter.
I am a little discouraged since I don't think my vet knows as much as our other vet did in California. I question having Toby on Lantus insulin and would rather have tried PZI like our other kitty was on as well. Time will tell how he really responses. The absolute worse thing about seeing him diabetic is that he has lost weight and is so hungry all the time.
Thanks again for the help... and for any continued help I might get to my thread.

 

[Suzi_S]

Most of us do feed our kitties more smaller feedings a day. It is much easier on their pancreas. I feed Snick at AMPS, around +3, again at +7 then dinner at PMPS. When she was on Vetsulin I did the 12 hours apart but when I switched her to lantus and found this board I learned smaller meals were better.
I use the Reli-on Confirm from Walmart.