*New Member* Diabetic Food, Home Testing, Pancreatitis

[SnowflakesMomma]

I don't know where to start I am overwhelmed and my heart is heavy. My beautiful cat Snowflake is 8 years old. She was diagnosed with Diabetes about 2 years ago. We have been on 2 units twice a day of ProZinc for about a year and a half. I don't want to overwhelm you all with questions but I honestly just Need Help. Since I have so many questions Ill number them so if you have a reply it may be easier for me to follow what subject your advice or helpful criticism is on. 1.) Snowflake through all of this has lost more and more weight; quite frankly she looks sick. She was never a large cat or even chubby but now you can literally feel her bones. We feed her Purinia DM (per vet specific recommendation) She seems to just hate the wet food version of this and just cannot seem to put on any weight even with the dry. Any and All recommendations Would Be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I would like to do some wet foods as well as some homemade or raw foods. In the past I was so worried I would somehow use the wrong online recipe and end up doing more harm than good but at this point I'm willing to at least try! (She is diabetic and just had a serious case of Pancreatitis) 2.) She is still currently on night 3 of being at the vet. We rushed her to the ER Vet on Monday night, She was vomiting blood and had bloody stool. She was dehydrated, her glucose was over 400! The next morning I transferred her to our vet. (Our ER Vet is only open from 6pm-7am and does not keep any animals past that time.) That morning her glucose did come down but still was in the 200's. On the hour drive from the ER Vet to our vet she had horrible bloody diarrhea. That day our vet ran some tests and she was officially diagnosed with Pancreatitis. We almost lost her; it was not until today that I actually had a glimmer of hope that my baby will make it home. It has taken around the clock care, IV fluids and medications to get her to where she is now. She is still sick but improving and we hope to take her home tomorrow. That being said I AM TERRIFIED that she will have it again. Any advice on early signs to watch for, what to avoid, ANYTHING that would help? We have 4 cats and one pug and its hard to monitor who is doing what in the litter box or who threw up the hairball when we were asleep etc. but if I knew what specifically to look for I hope to prevent it ever getting this bad. 3.) ProZinc I have heard I should not keep it in the refrigerator (Vet told us to keep it refrigerated) I'm honestly just lost here and would like to know what to do. Along with this we are going to start home testing asap with that being said when and how often do you test your cat in a day? I know per my vet that Snowflake is a beast to get blood from her ears, she bites and hates it apparently so any tips with this please? 4.) Literally ANY other advice on how to manage her Diabetes and prevent Pancreatitis! I know this is a lot; a whole lot. I am just terrified of losing her and we really came close this week. Thank you for any advice you have I truly appreciate it!

 

[Patty & Teal'c]

I'm so glad to see you here from FB. I can't give you any advice but i wanted to say welcome to FDMB someone will be along soon to give you the help you need.
I'm wondering if you have held the dose too long. A year and 1/2 is a long time on a dose and I know with Teal'c his insulin needs change.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

So good to see you over here from the FB group Ashley!

On foods, you may hear that a cat with pancreatitis needs a low fat diet. That's "old school"....cat's process fat very effectively.

I know it sounds like the "prescription" foods should be good for them, but there's actually nothing in them that requires a prescription. The prescription pet food industry is nothing more than a clever marketing tool. By restricting the sales of these foods to vet's only, they enjoy a boost in perception of quality brought about by the veterinary endorsement of their products. However, this perception of quality is undeserved and this incestuous relationship jeopardizes the integrity of the veterinary profession.

The Fancy Feast Classics that so many of us thought were akin to feeding our cats McDonalds every day proved to be totally wrong. Compare the ingredients of D/M to a can of Fancy Feast Classics and you'll see the FF ingredients are actually better. Yeah, a lot of us were totally shocked. Friskies pate's are also totally fine for a diabetic cat!

I posted the link to the Primer on Pancreatitis in the group but I'll post it here again.

It's a little late in the US but we have members all over the world so hopefully some of the people who've dealt with severe pancreatitis will be on to give you some good advice on what to watch for, what kinds of supplies to always have at home and how best you can take care of your dear Snowflake when she comes home.

Hang in there. You've joined a wonderful community of people here who only want the best for every single cat (and their human too!)

One I can think of that's usually on later in the evening is @Olive & Paula

 

[JanetNJ]

I agree with Chris above. Skip that dry food. It is dehydrating, over priced for the poor quality ingredients, and has too many carbs for a diabetic cat. You want wet or raw food under 10 carb. Many here feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods. I feed weruva to my diabetic because her kidneys need lower phosphorus. This is a good food list https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

A lot of the newer weruva foods aren't on the list yet but they are transparent about their nutrition facts on their website.

I don't make my own food but dr Lisa has info about it. https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/


I never had a cat with pancreatitis this severe, only one pancratitis attack. The treatment was daily sub q's at home for a couple of weeks, cerenia for nausea and bupe for pain. Perhaps your girl also needs antibiotics?

ProZinc should be kept in the refrigerator for it to last longer than a month. In the refrigerator it can last a good 4-6 months.

So glad you are going to start home testing. This is KEY TO keeping him safe and healthy. I test before each preshot and try to get at least one mid cycle reading a day. So I usually test at least 4 times a day. Once you get the hang of it a test takes less than a minute from start to finish. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home.
Since your cat doesn't like her ears messed with, start by desensitizing her to having her ears touched. Whenever you pet her, stroke her ears. Then maybe give her a low carb treat ( purebites freeze dried meat, fresh meats, cold cuts with no fillers, tuna, catnip). Hopefully it will help her get the association of ears being touched and a treat.

 

[Panic]

Welcome! You've gotten a lot of good advice already.

You mentioned she doesn't like the DM wet - it's apparently common, it's mostly liver and cats tire of it quickly so I've heard.

If you want to look at our spreadsheets in our signatures you can see how often and when we test. Always before shooting, and usually at least a couple times in between.

As far as I understand, there is nothing we can do to prevent pancreatitis - there's no known trigger and some cats get it on the regular.

 

[jt and trouble (GA)]

WELCOME! We are so glad you found us. I cannot speak to Snowflakes issues except for one thing, the dry food. It is the root cause for so many diabetics. Feline AND human. sigh. Since you are going to home test I believe ditching that food will help Snowflake more than you know. Be careful though remove the dry slowly and with home testing it will become apparent just how dry food impacts bg numbers. Testing is your greatest asset.
Again I hope you find the answers you need We all hope that.

 

[Dusty & Roe]

I don't know where to start I am overwhelmed and my heart is heavy. My beautiful cat Snowflake is 8 years old. She was diagnosed with Diabetes about 2 years ago. We have been on 2 units twice a day of ProZinc for about a year and a half. I don't want to overwhelm you all with questions but I honestly just Need Help. Since I have so many questions Ill number them so if you have a reply it may be easier for me to follow what subject your advice or helpful criticism is on. 1.) Snowflake through all of this has lost more and more weight; quite frankly she looks sick. She was never a large cat or even chubby but now you can literally feel her bones. We feed her Purinia DM (per vet specific recommendation) She seems to just hate the wet food version of this and just cannot seem to put on any weight even with the dry. Any and All recommendations Would Be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I would like to do some wet foods as well as some homemade or raw foods. In the past I was so worried I would somehow use the wrong online recipe and end up doing more harm than good but at this point I'm willing to at least try! (She is diabetic and just had a serious case of Pancreatitis) 2.) She is still currently on night 3 of being at the vet. We rushed her to the ER Vet on Monday night, She was vomiting blood and had bloody stool. She was dehydrated, her glucose was over 400! The next morning I transferred her to our vet. (Our ER Vet is only open from 6pm-7am and does not keep any animals past that time.) That morning her glucose did come down but still was in the 200's. On the hour drive from the ER Vet to our vet she had horrible bloody diarrhea. That day our vet ran some tests and she was officially diagnosed with Pancreatitis. We almost lost her; it was not until today that I actually had a glimmer of hope that my baby will make it home. It has taken around the clock care, IV fluids and medications to get her to where she is now. She is still sick but improving and we hope to take her home tomorrow. That being said I AM TERRIFIED that she will have it again. Any advice on early signs to watch for, what to avoid, ANYTHING that would help? We have 4 cats and one pug and its hard to monitor who is doing what in the litter box or who threw up the hairball when we were asleep etc. but if I knew what specifically to look for I hope to prevent it ever getting this bad. 3.) ProZinc I have heard I should not keep it in the refrigerator (Vet told us to keep it refrigerated) I'm honestly just lost here and would like to know what to do. Along with this we are going to start home testing asap with that being said when and how often do you test your cat in a day? I know per my vet that Snowflake is a beast to get blood from her ears, she bites and hates it apparently so any tips with this please? 4.) Literally ANY other advice on how to manage her Diabetes and prevent Pancreatitis! I know this is a lot; a whole lot. I am just terrified of losing her and we really came close this week. Thank you for any advice you have I truly appreciate it!

I agree about the prescription diets I researched wet cat foods and could not believe the recalls . I also agree with Janet Weruva cat food especially the paw licking chicken looks just like shredded chicken ..... there is nothing wrong with Fancy Feast but remember not the gravy ones they are higher in carbohydrates. The other members can walk you through pretty much Anything . Just keep asking questions

 

[JOJI and Kit]

Since your cat doesn't like her ears messed with, start by desensitizing her to having her ears touched. Whenever you pet her, stroke her ears. Then maybe give her a low carb treat ( purebites freeze dried meat, fresh meats, cold cuts with no fillers, tuna, catnip). Hopefully it will help her get the association of ears being touched and a treat.

seconding this advice. at the beginning we food treated kit for every bg. now she gets a snuggle. and, i kid you not, for the preshots she's usually waiting for us.

she bites and hates it apparently

kit gets into swat and bite mode from time-to-time. we swaddle her in the "blanket burito" so her paws aren't free to take us out. as for the biting, we approach from behind and that usually makes it hard/impossible for her to reach us.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to you and Snowflake.
I’m so glad you made it over from the F.B Page.
Sheba used to have pancreatic flares about twice a year. Some cats don’t ever get another flare and others do get them.
We had a cat here about 12 or 18 months ago @Tucker who had a really severe pancreatitis and wasn’t expected to live, but he did and now he’s absolutely fine and so far has not had any more flares....antijinx, antijinx, antijinx.

Usually the first sign I would notice with Sheba was she was not wanting to eat. She was usually very food motivated and that was a red flag for me. She would also be lethargic, occasionally vomit but not often and sometimes had a loose poop, but not often. She would be very quiet and just lie about not wanting to move. I would take her to the vet and she would get an antinausea injection, a pain injection and subQ fluids. That was mostly enough for her to be able to come back home and be looked after by me.

So to be prepared, I would make sure you had some cerenia and ondansetron tablets are home for the nausea becasue cats that are nauseated won’t want to eat and eating is important. You will need some pain meds as well to give as pancreatitis is very painful. Most cats are dehydrated with pancreatitis So you could ask the vet if you could give subQ fluids at home if needed. Initially I used to get them done at the vet but then I started to do them at home. with pancreatitis the treatment is all about treating the symptoms and supporting the cat until the flare goes. There is no magic bullet for it. Recognising the signs and getting onto the treatment early is important.

Sending Snowflake many healing vines.
Bron

 

[tiffmaxee]

Max had chronic pancreatitis before becoming diabetic. The symptoms are different From cat to cat and even from episode to episode with the same cat. For Max initially he started eating less and only wanted dry food. Then he just stopped eating. I was given an appy stimulant. He needed nausea medication. The combo of cyproheptadine and ondansetron got him eating but every time I tried to stop medication he became inappetent. I soon learned he needed a larger dose of ondansetron. Only once did he get diarrhea and he was very briefly on flagyl. Read some of the articles in the primer. I like the IDEXX Roundtable.

 

[Teresa & KitKat]

I don't know where to start I am overwhelmed and my heart is heavy. My beautiful cat Snowflake is 8 years old. She was diagnosed with Diabetes about 2 years ago. We have been on 2 units twice a day of ProZinc for about a year and a half. I don't want to overwhelm you all with questions but I honestly just Need Help. Since I have so many questions Ill number them so if you have a reply it may be easier for me to follow what subject your advice or helpful criticism is on. 1.) Snowflake through all of this has lost more and more weight; quite frankly she looks sick. She was never a large cat or even chubby but now you can literally feel her bones. We feed her Purinia DM (per vet specific recommendation) She seems to just hate the wet food version of this and just cannot seem to put on any weight even with the dry. Any and All recommendations Would Be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I would like to do some wet foods as well as some homemade or raw foods. In the past I was so worried I would somehow use the wrong online recipe and end up doing more harm than good but at this point I'm willing to at least try! (She is diabetic and just had a serious case of Pancreatitis) 2.) She is still currently on night 3 of being at the vet. We rushed her to the ER Vet on Monday night, She was vomiting blood and had bloody stool. She was dehydrated, her glucose was over 400! The next morning I transferred her to our vet. (Our ER Vet is only open from 6pm-7am and does not keep any animals past that time.) That morning her glucose did come down but still was in the 200's. On the hour drive from the ER Vet to our vet she had horrible bloody diarrhea. That day our vet ran some tests and she was officially diagnosed with Pancreatitis. We almost lost her; it was not until today that I actually had a glimmer of hope that my baby will make it home. It has taken around the clock care, IV fluids and medications to get her to where she is now. She is still sick but improving and we hope to take her home tomorrow. That being said I AM TERRIFIED that she will have it again. Any advice on early signs to watch for, what to avoid, ANYTHING that would help? We have 4 cats and one pug and its hard to monitor who is doing what in the litter box or who threw up the hairball when we were asleep etc. but if I knew what specifically to look for I hope to prevent it ever getting this bad. 3.) ProZinc I have heard I should not keep it in the refrigerator (Vet told us to keep it refrigerated) I'm honestly just lost here and would like to know what to do. Along with this we are going to start home testing asap with that being said when and how often do you test your cat in a day? I know per my vet that Snowflake is a beast to get blood from her ears, she bites and hates it apparently so any tips with this please? 4.) Literally ANY other advice on how to manage her Diabetes and prevent Pancreatitis! I know this is a lot; a whole lot. I am just terrified of losing her and we really came close this week. Thank you for any advice you have I truly appreciate it!

My cat Buddy's vet wanted him to eat DM because it would help lower his weight, Buddy did not like it, at this time i have a full case of DM un touched. Buddy, has chronic pancreatitis, but never any bleeding of any kind. I know every cat is different and with Buddy the fat content of a food does matter, his favorite food is Fancy Feast grilled Liver & Chicken, which is sure to set off throwing up and a good long flare of pancreatitis. I hope your kitty has a fast turn around and no more bleeding. I would ditch the DM.