New Member. New dx of Diabetes AND Eosinophil IBS

[Maggie W]

Hey this is my first post and I'm scrolling through all these posts. I just gave my sugarcat (Bandit) his first shot of Lantus (3 units) and then had to leave for work so I'm already worried about that.

Just curious of some tips and tricks for how others treat both the diabetes AND IBS.
What food do you use?
Do you make your own?
What is the price difference?
What did you wish you knew when you first found out about the dx?

I will be talking to my vet about this at my next appointment but any information I can take with me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in Advance!

Maggie

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Hey Maggie! Happy to see you over here from the Facebook group!

What did you wish you knew when you first found out about the dx?

The main thing I wish I'd known was how little education vets get on diabetes in the first place. The sad truth is that they only get less than 1 day when they're in school and that covers all types of animals. Once they're in practice, they don't have the time to stay up to date on the latest treatments for every disease in every type of animal they see. They'd never have time to see any patients if they tried! They also see more diabetic dogs than cats so even if they do continuing education, it's usually about treating canines.

The people here do nothing but deal with feline diabetes and the complications that tend to come with it. We may not be vets, but we live and breathe this disease 24/7/365. We have people from all kinds of occupations too, including researchers and medical professionals. We have time to stay up to date on the latest as well as learning from the mistakes and successes from others who have come before us. Many of us continue to come here to help others, even after our cats have passed on.

The thing that worries me the most about your post is the dose your vet started you on. 3U is a huge starting dose. Lantus has a formula for the starting dose that's based on weight. To justify a 3U starting dose, your cat would have to weigh about 28lbs.

I don't have any experience with IBS, but a lot of people here do so I'm sure you'll hear from some. I do know that a lot of IBS cats do better with a raw diet that you control. It's usually a particular protein source that causes most of IBS problems and by avoiding that type of protein, it can really help.

Has Bandit had any steroids or other treatments for the IBS?

 

[Maggie W]

Bandit has lost a bunch of weight and is only 11.8lbs right now I hope I'm wrong about the dosing but I'm using a u100 syringe and they even showed me to put it at 3! Oh now I"m seriously concerned because I'm working overnight right now and won't get home until tomorrow morning around 8:30. ( I left him at 5pm). He was on prednisone originally for the IBS which triggered the diabetes now he's taking Atopica. I haven't started testing his sugars yet he said we would get into that later. Now that I'm on this page and reading over all the information I feeling like I'm drowning and don't know what the best thing for me to do is.

Hey Maggie! Happy to see you over here from the Facebook group!



The main thing I wish I'd known was how little education vets get on diabetes in the first place. The sad truth is that they only get less than 1 day when they're in school and that covers all types of animals. Once they're in practice, they don't have the time to stay up to date on the latest treatments for every disease in every type of animal they see. They'd never have time to see any patients if they tried! They also see more diabetic dogs than cats so even if they do continuing education, it's usually about treating canines.

The people here do nothing but deal with feline diabetes and the complications that tend to come with it. We may not be vets, but we live and breathe this disease 24/7/365. We have people from all kinds of occupations too, including researchers and medical professionals. We have time to stay up to date on the latest as well as learning from the mistakes and successes from others who have come before us. Many of us continue to come here to help others, even after our cats have passed on.

The thing that worries me the most about your post is the dose your vet started you on. 3U is a huge starting dose. Lantus has a formula for the starting dose that's based on weight. To justify a 3U starting dose, your cat would have to weigh about 28lbs.

I don't have any experience with IBS, but a lot of people here do so I'm sure you'll hear from some. I do know that a lot of IBS cats do better with a raw diet that you control. It's usually a particular protein source that causes most of IBS problems and by avoiding that type of protein, it can really help.

Has Bandit had any steroids or other treatments for the IBS?

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Oh now I"m seriously concerned because I'm working overnight right now and won't get home until tomorrow morning around 8:30. ( I left him at 5pm)

OK...more than likely, he'll be fine...is there food out for him? Most cats will go looking for food if their blood glucose drops too low (just like humans). Also, usually it takes 5-7 days of consistent dosing before you start to see the real results of the starting dose. Lantus is a depot insulin and it usually takes 5-7 days to "fill the depot". Here's some information to help with the question "What is the Insulin Depot"?

Unfortunately, your vet is like most of the vets we hear about here. An 11.8lb cat doing Tight Regulation Protocol should start at about 1U...it's much safer to start a little low and gradually go up as needed. Once you put it in, you can't take it out again.

On Start Low, Go Slow (another dosing method), the starting dose is .5 unit (if eating only low carb canned food) and 1U if there's any kibble in the diet.

Here's Info on the 2 dosing methods

If this were my cat and there wasn't any mention of ketones when diagnosed. I'd work on the diet change, learn to home test, and start the insulin again later. If he's still running too high, you'll be ready to start over safely.

 

[Sarah&Soph]

Welcome! My kitty has both IBD and diabetes. Getting her IBD under control with a food she could tolerate really helped treating her diabetes a lot, because her blood sugar was a lot higher when she was feeling crummy and puking all the time. Many IBD kitties do well on a novel protein diet, meaning a protein they haven’t had before, but it all really depends on what things trigger your specific cat. For my cat, it’s all types of fowl and also beef, which really limits our options a lot. Natures Instinct has some options that are both low carb and novel proteins (my cat eats the rabbit pate), as does ziwipeak. It is quite pricey, but she is doing very well for the most part. People whose cats can eat things work turkey and duck have a few more options. Many people raw feed as well, but I do not so I’m not familiar with it

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome. Here is a link to a website has a lot of information about IBD. https://www.ibdkitties.net/ Click on the blue link to get there. Getting a good probiotic and novel protein can help. By the way, cat's don't get IBS, they get IBD. In addition to the foods mentioned above, Koha has a few novel proteins, though sadly they've dropped a few of them. Raw food really does give you a lot of options when it comes to proteins. You can either buy premade, or make your own. The website FoodFurLife sells a premix called EZ Complete that was developed by people with IBD kitties. Just add premix and water to meat, easy to do and it's low carb. You can do raw or cooked. Depending which protein you use, I found the price of making a bit cheaper than buying novel protein canned.

As for steroids (prednisolone), you might want to talk to your vet about the option of using budesonide instead. it is a more locally acting steroid (on the gut) and can have less impact on blood sugar. My girl Neko couldn't take prednisolone due to her heart, and budesonide did not impact her blood sugar like pred would have.

We have a couple things we strongly believe in here. One is the proper diet (low carb wet or raw is best for cats in general and diabetics specifically). We also believe in home testing our cats blood sugars, both to make sure it's safe to give insulin, and to help us decide how to change the dose. Do not change the diet until you are home testing. Changing to a proper diet can make a big difference in the amount of insulin needed. When you get some time off, go buy a human blood sugar meter. Look for one with the cheapest test strips and a small drop of blood.

There is a lot to learn at first, but we all went through it and are more than happy to help you.

 

[Maggie W]

Thank you. We stopped the pred and switched to Atopica immediately upon his first blood draw that came back with high blood glucose. He has been on a novel protein diet for awhile. I had said ibs because he had only been symptomatic and not diagnosed I was copy and pasting things and never switched to ibd as it all happened at once and i was much more concerned with the diabetes. I have both wet and dry for his diet but he has been unwilling to eat the wet. (Heck I'm happy if he even eats a few nibbles of anything at this point).

I have a medical background so I am able and willing to go head on into all of this to do what's best for my baby. Luckily my cousin is also a vet (out of state) who i trust whole heartedly that has helped since he first started getting sick in July and is on hand when i have questions. I will have a meter early next week and have been playing with his ears constantly so he isnt surprised. I look forward to learning more and meeting more parents with the double whammy.

 

[Maggie W]

My bandit is currently on royal canin hydrolyzed protein for his dry and royal canin pr (rabbit) for his wet which he doesnt eat most of the time. We dont know the triggers for my cat unfortunately the diabetes struck while on pred to figure what his actual issue was. So we had to make adjustments to try to prevent full diabetes alas it didnt work but maybe since we were keeping an eye on things he will go into remission after to long. (One can only hope, not holding my breathe though)

Welcome! My kitty has both IBD and diabetes. Getting her IBD under control with a food she could tolerate really helped treating her diabetes a lot, because her blood sugar was a lot higher when she was feeling crummy and puking all the time. Many IBD kitties do well on a novel protein diet, meaning a protein they haven’t had before, but it all really depends on what things trigger your specific cat. For my cat, it’s all types of fowl and also beef, which really limits our options a lot. Natures Instinct has some options that are both low carb and novel proteins (my cat eats the rabbit pate), as does ziwipeak. It is quite pricey, but she is doing very well for the most part. People whose cats can eat things work turkey and duck have a few more options. Many people raw feed as well, but I do not so I’m not familiar with it

 

[Wendy&Neko]

It would be ideal if you can find some novel protein low carb foods, instead of the high carb “prescription” diets he is on. If your kitty absolutely must have some crunch, maybe try the Ziwipeak air dried food or some of the freeze dried raw options. Plenty of proteins including rabbit available.

Human blood glucose meters are perfectly fine. Most of us use them due to the cost of the tests strips. Plus our dosing methods were written with them in mind. Just pick up one that needs a small blood drop size. You want to be able to get test strips at any time, cause our cats will not wait for the mail to arrive to go low.