New Member Intro

[Rebecca and Rocky]

Hi there!

I'm Rebecca, although most people call me by my nickname which is Fluff. I am the human servant of Rocky a white and tabby fluffball of around 9yrs old. I got Rocky from the Blue Cross in Feb 2020 just before lockdown started so it was defo meant to be.
He's just been diagnosed with diabetes but has probably been showing symptoms for about a month which was loosing weight and drinking and weeing loads more than usual. He's still in pretty good health considering.
I'm just starting the struggle of diet with him. He's a bit of a snacker so I've always had some dry food down for him to have a nibble on as he wants throughout the day and based on the brilliant info here and advice from @Natalie Jones I've removed that and I'm trying to get him into eating in the morning and evening only. I've only been doing this for 2 days and he's defo not keen and has started begging for food which he never does. It's me not giving into him that will be the main issue with this!!
I'm waiting to hear back from the insurance so I can get my first lot of insulin ordered and learn how to do the injections.

I'm curious about people's experiences with doing glucose curves prior to going onto insulin v the other way round. Nats Romeo has been on insulin for a while and is only just getting a curve done but my vets what to do the curve first. Any thoughts here would be really appreciated.

This is such an amazing resource and I'm slowly working my way through posts but any links to any posts that would help would be amazing too.

Thanks!!!

 

[Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA)]

Welcome and I just want to say you do not need to feed Rocky twice a day only. That’s old fashioned advice and something that works better for dogs who have a slower metabolism than cats. Cats are natural grazers and diabetic cats actually do better with 2 main meals at shot times and 3-4 smaller meals or treats throughout the day. It’s easier on their pancreas and helps avoid big sugar spikes. You just have to make sure they’re all low carb, so removing the high carb dry food was a smart move. There are low carb treats like all of the freeze dried ones and also at least 2 low carb dry foods I know of Dr, Elsey's and Young Again Zero Carb.

I’ll let others answer the curve question, although getting a few tests prior to starting insulin would certainly be helpful in determining the starting dose. Would you be able to set up a signature and spreadsheet? Here is a helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

 

[Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA)]

Just to add, if you’re willing to learn how to home test, you can do all the curves at home and save money as well as all the stress for Rocky. Bgs at the vet tend to be elevated because of the stress on the cats. You don’t need a pet meter, most of us here use human meters.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB.

Like Ale said, most of the members here do not stick to feeding their cats twice a day only. If your cat is used to grazing, there's no need to change that other than to be sure that what you're feeding is low in carbohydrates.

The reason to do a curve once a cat is on insulin is to understand when insulin onset and nadir (lowest point in the cycle) fall and how much duration you're getting from the insulin. Most of us had our cats diagnosed and immediately started insulin so there was no time to to look at blood glucose numbers unless the cat was hospitalized and they were getting reading then.

There's nothing wrong with getting a curve prior to starting insulin. It would likely be best if you could do this at home since most cats experience stress due to a vet appointment and the stress causes the numbers to be higher than at home. It will also let you see just how much variability there is in your cat's numbers throughout the day. It will not look like a curve when a cat is on insulin, though.