Hello everyone!
I have been lurking this board for the last several days and figured it was time to introduce myself. My name is Cindy and my beautiful, orange tabby Hitchcock (named after Alfred Hitchcock) was just diagnosed last Wed with diabetes. He is just turned 7 years old in July and who you would never suspect was sick. I also have a 7-year old black and white Maine Coon cat - Fellini (another director!) who is in perfect health.
How I came to find out Hitchcock had diabetes was that I noticed for the last 2 weeks or so that their water bowl levels were noticbly down (I have a two level house - one bowl up, one bowl down). Also, my hubby, who is out of work right now, has been the designated one to clean out their littler box and he noticed larger and more frequent pee clumps. As soon as I mentioned the water bowl level he mentioned the litter and then I knew something was wrong. I suspected it was diabetes but didn't know which one had it. I took them both to the vet and both had full blood work done and the results came back for Hitchcock. He also had a Fructosamine test and his number was 800!!! Extremely high. I was devasted and cried myself to sleep Wed night thinking that my poor Lovesponge (that's what we call him because he's the most affectionate, sweetest cat I've ever owned) was going through this.
My vet said that he needed to go on insulin immediately, but that he wanted us to start Hitchcock out slowly - 1 unit twice a day starting Thursday, 8/30 and continue for the long holiday weekend (all at home), no diet change yet. So my hubby and I have been giving him his shots of Lantus. He's been a real dream about it.
Now since then, I've been doing a lot of research because I'd really like to get him on a better diet and hopefully off of insulin and I've read so many positive stories here about how that may be possible. My challenge is that since my hubby is currently out of work I really need to watch our money. So I've read good things about Friskies canned food being a good choice. I went to Walmart to check out their 13 oz cans (because I also want to feed this to Fellini as well). While there, I read about Walmart's own brand, Special Kitty, which is cheaper, but I'm not sure if it's as good. I know I'm supposed to be looking at crude protein levels of 10% as being better and both of these had flavors that were 10%. I'm really confused as to how much I'm supposed to feed them. Hitchcock is 12 pounds and Fellini is 13 pounds.
Also, we want to start doing home monitoring and while at Walmart I checked out the Relion glucometers, but there were 3 different kinds and now I am more confused. There was Relion Confirm that was $15.00 and a package of 100 strips was $36.00. Then there was the Relion Ultima, same price for both and finally the Relion Prime that was $16.24, however a pack of 50 strips was only $9.00 - a huge savings. But which one is the best?
I know I'm asking questions that everyone else has asked, but I could really use some advice. We're taking Hitchcock back to the vet tomorrow to have his levels checked again. I want to discuss all of this with the doctor was well.
Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
Cindy
I have been lurking this board for the last several days and figured it was time to introduce myself. My name is Cindy and my beautiful, orange tabby Hitchcock (named after Alfred Hitchcock) was just diagnosed last Wed with diabetes. He is just turned 7 years old in July and who you would never suspect was sick. I also have a 7-year old black and white Maine Coon cat - Fellini (another director!) who is in perfect health.
How I came to find out Hitchcock had diabetes was that I noticed for the last 2 weeks or so that their water bowl levels were noticbly down (I have a two level house - one bowl up, one bowl down). Also, my hubby, who is out of work right now, has been the designated one to clean out their littler box and he noticed larger and more frequent pee clumps. As soon as I mentioned the water bowl level he mentioned the litter and then I knew something was wrong. I suspected it was diabetes but didn't know which one had it. I took them both to the vet and both had full blood work done and the results came back for Hitchcock. He also had a Fructosamine test and his number was 800!!! Extremely high. I was devasted and cried myself to sleep Wed night thinking that my poor Lovesponge (that's what we call him because he's the most affectionate, sweetest cat I've ever owned) was going through this.
My vet said that he needed to go on insulin immediately, but that he wanted us to start Hitchcock out slowly - 1 unit twice a day starting Thursday, 8/30 and continue for the long holiday weekend (all at home), no diet change yet. So my hubby and I have been giving him his shots of Lantus. He's been a real dream about it.
Now since then, I've been doing a lot of research because I'd really like to get him on a better diet and hopefully off of insulin and I've read so many positive stories here about how that may be possible. My challenge is that since my hubby is currently out of work I really need to watch our money. So I've read good things about Friskies canned food being a good choice. I went to Walmart to check out their 13 oz cans (because I also want to feed this to Fellini as well). While there, I read about Walmart's own brand, Special Kitty, which is cheaper, but I'm not sure if it's as good. I know I'm supposed to be looking at crude protein levels of 10% as being better and both of these had flavors that were 10%. I'm really confused as to how much I'm supposed to feed them. Hitchcock is 12 pounds and Fellini is 13 pounds.
Also, we want to start doing home monitoring and while at Walmart I checked out the Relion glucometers, but there were 3 different kinds and now I am more confused. There was Relion Confirm that was $15.00 and a package of 100 strips was $36.00. Then there was the Relion Ultima, same price for both and finally the Relion Prime that was $16.24, however a pack of 50 strips was only $9.00 - a huge savings. But which one is the best?
I know I'm asking questions that everyone else has asked, but I could really use some advice. We're taking Hitchcock back to the vet tomorrow to have his levels checked again. I want to discuss all of this with the doctor was well.
Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
Cindy
