New Member 19 Jul 24

[Kikkoman A]

Hello all. Just got that news that I have a diabetic kitty. Kikkoman is 14, otherwise healthy. He was a bit chunky like 19 pounds but over the last year we got his weight to 15 which is where he is supposed to be.

so the check up on the 15th of July revealed a potential arrhythmia and diabetes. The vet has us getting rx food to start and an echo done. Also he has high bp so he now is on amalodopine. On the 18 July bp recheck looks good! His probnp was high though.

other than he lost weight over the last year nothing else seems odd. The weight was deliberate of course with low impact exercise and food reduction. He use to steal his brothers food we stopped that.

I have deliberately been checking his heart rate and respiration the last few years no changes.

just sad. Knowing he is an older boy it just makes it all hard. But we will get the testing done and go from there!

I am hoping his heart issue is secondary to the diabetes and we can manage it.

Glad I found this page. Thank you all.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
What insulin and dose has the vet prescribed?
There is no need to feed prescription food to a diabetic cat. It is usually higher carb than we would recommend and has nothing special about it except the price! Here is a FOOD CHART. Look for foods that are 10% or under carbs. Most of us feed carbs around 3-7%.

The three things needed to manage a diabetic cat are a good insulin such as Lantus (or biosimilar) or Prozinc, a low carb wet diet and hometesting the blood glucose.
Here is a link to how to HOMETESTING THE BLOOD GLUCOSE AND LINKS. The vets often say it is not necessary to hometest but it is the best way to keep Kikkoman safe and to see what is happening with the blood glucose. We can help you with learning to hometest.

And a link to our spreadsheet and signature and hypo box. HELP US HELP YOU.
The spreadsheet is to use to add the data you will collect when testing the blood glucose. The signature appears below every one of your posts and tells us all about Kikkoman. And the hypo box I would recommend you get set up sap in case of low BG numbers.
You will find some higher carb foods for the hypo box in the food chart above. .

I hope the echo comes back with good news. Please let us know how that goes and ask any questions you might have.
Bron