New member and found the perfect litter pan for a diabetic c

[lisal]

I live on the Mississippi gulf coast. My baby Squeeky who is 8 years old and weighs 22lbs. Two years ago she went down hill quick. She start drinking enormous amount of water, stopped eating and urinated almost 3 times more then normal. She started loosing weight and did't feel good. This all happened in a weeks time. I took her to the vet the next Monday and after the lab work came back she was diagnosed.

My vet has her on Lantus, 4u in the AM and 3u in the PM. It took almost a year to get her insulin leveled out. I feed her Purina DM dry (free feed) and a scoop of canned DM as a treat. I do not use the test strips instead my vet checks her levels every 6 months and that comes out to about $90. for that. For the past year, her levels have been good.

For the past 2 years it has been a headache with litter and litter boxes. I am sure you all lnow what I am talking about. Before she became a Diabetic I have always used a littermaid and it worked out okay, but as you all know they urinate like a cow and the Littermaid didn't have enough power to clean it using the clump litter, it would bog down. So I went to the sawdust type, that was a mess. So I ended up turning off the littermaid and had to scoop it out like a regular pan. Then I was reading about the Catgenie, let me tell you it is worth every penney. I have had mine for 2 months, no cleaning, no smell, no changing litter anymore, it is fantastic. I paid $150 + for the Littermaid and the Cat Genie was $230. But I have saved $45 a month in litter and cleaning the box and house everyday. There is no smell, no dust you can you stand right over it and there is no litterbox order.

I have offered my unit for viewing through the local vets for others to see how it works. They have a video on their website, but live demo is the best. I have mine setup next to the kitchen and it is quiet to compare to a dishwasher. It has 4 program settings on how you want it to clean. It is like the littermaid and waits 10 min. after the cat leaves it to start. It scoops, washes the litter and then drys it. If anyone who lives near me (MS gulf coast) and is interested in it, email me.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Re: New member and found the perfect litter pan for a diabet

Hi Lisal and welcome to FDMB.

I don't know if you have read through any of the posts on this site, but there are several things we recommend that would help you get Squeeky's diabetes under control. Once you get her diabetes under control you probably also notice a significant reduction of the amount of pee in the litter box.

I realize that in your post that you just making a suggestion about the Cat Genie. It is a good litterbox. However, there are several things in your post that tell me that you may not have received the best advice from your vet for caring for Squeeky's diabetes. This is something we see often and that is why I have made the suggestions listed below.

First you are feeding dry food. All dry cat food is high in carbs. High carbs means high glucose readings, which also mean a high dose of insulin. We recommend a low carb, high protien canned or raw food diet. You also do not need to feed your cat prescription food. Many of us feed our cats either Friskies or Fancy Feast canned foods, pate flavors.

4 units is a very high dose unless there are other health issues going on. Most cats only need between 1-2 units twice a day. Your dose is so high because you feed dry food. However, before you remove the dry food from Squeeky's diet, you also need to reduce the insulin dose. Otherwise Squeeky could become hypoglycemic.

You do not say if you are hometesting. This is something that we highly recommend. You will use a human glucose meter and test before every shot. This is the only way you can tell if it safe to give insulin and to really know if you need to adjust the dose. This also eliminates unnecessary trips to the vet for testing. Those tests are rarely accurrate since vet stress can significantly raise a cat's glucose levels.

If you have not already started to do so, please start reading through the posts on this site. Many of our members have years of experience caring for diabetic cats. We will be glad to answer any questions you may have.

 

[BJM]

Re: New member and found the perfect litter pan for a diabet

For safety, do not change the food until you are home-testing the glucose levels. A drop of 100 mg/dL is possible. My Spitzer's dose dropped from 3 units to about 1 unit after changing his food.

Additionally, glucose levels at the vet's office may be 100 - 180 mg/dL higher than at home. If you test at home, you will have a better idea of how your cat is doing and may save money by doing curves - serial glucose tests at 2 hour intervals - at home, rather than at the vet.

As noted in the prior post, food makes a big difference in glucose levels, just like for humans. An excellant primer on feline nutrition, written by veterinarian Dr Lisa Pierson, may be found at Cat Info.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Re: New member and found the perfect litter pan for a diabet

Hi sugargirl Squeeky and mommabean Lisa (hope that's your name) and welcome to the message board.

My sugardude Wink peed oceans in the litter box, until we got his BG's (blood glucose) levels under control. If Squeeky is still peeing tons, it doesn't sound to me like she is regulated yet.

Does Squeeky still weigh 22 pounds? Being overweight can contribute to insulin resistance and make it more difficult to regulate a cat.

You say the levels have been good. We consider good to be under 200, preferably even lower, close to 100 if possible. What have Squeeky's BG (blood glucose) readings been lately? How long ago was that?