New member Rachel with Miley

[misomiley430]

Hello everyone, my name is Rachel and my kitty name is Miley, she is a DSH and she is 12 years old, just got her results and she is diabetic, she was drinking a lot of water and of course urinating a lot....so, I am a little bit overwhelmed with all the information I am trying to read and understand...my vet which I am not very fond of I hate to say, wants to put her on Bexacat and prescription diet...I have removed all dry kibble and her favorite is Fancy Feast which is what I have been feeding, I also make Turkey for my dog so she is getting some of that lightly cooked ...she is doing much better, her drinking has gone to normal and her pee pad on her Breeze litter box is back to normal....I am assuming these are good signs...but I am going to have her retested and decide which treatment is the best for her...for some reason I am afraid pf any new drug, and I guess what I am asking is if any of you have used this...and if I were to decide on insulin, I am assuming the vet will give me information on what and how much to give...Im really worried!!! Any advice will be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you in advance!!!

 

[Christie & Maverick]

Hello everyone, my name is Rachel and my kitty name is Miley, she is a DSH and she is 12 years old, just got her results and she is diabetic, she was drinking a lot of water and of course urinating a lot....so, I am a little bit overwhelmed with all the information I am trying to read and understand...my vet which I am not very fond of I hate to say, wants to put her on Bexacat and prescription diet...I have removed all dry kibble and her favorite is Fancy Feast which is what I have been feeding, I also make Turkey for my dog so she is getting some of that lightly cooked ...she is doing much better, her drinking has gone to normal and her pee pad on her Breeze litter box is back to normal....I am assuming these are good signs...but I am going to have her retested and decide which treatment is the best for her...for some reason I am afraid pf any new drug, and I guess what I am asking is if any of you have used this...and if I were to decide on insulin, I am assuming the vet will give me information on what and how much to give...Im really worried!!! Any advice will be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you in advance!!!

Hi Rachel, and welcome! If you can start a separate post (go to the main forum, and click on top right orange button “post new thread”), we’ll be able to start helping you with your questions for Miley.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome Rachael and Miley.
Here is information about tbr new oral drugs for diabetic cats. We have seen mixed results with them. I would be very cautious about using them myself. New oral drugs for diabetic cats

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB.

The link to the new drugs that Bron posted will, hopefully, give you information regarding whether Bexacat is a good choice for Miley. A great deal depends on what her lab results look like. The post will also provide background information so you can have a conversation regarding the pros and cons of Bexacat. In addition, this is a thread regarding the oral treatments. You'll need to scroll down past the first post and all of the "bumps" to where people started commenting.

I'd also make a suggestion. The prescription food is not really "prescription." In fact, the pet food manufacturers lost a class action suit for calling their food "prescription." The so called diabetic food is now called dietetic or it goes by a different name entirely. Most of the dry food, even the supposedly diabetic dry food, is very high in carbohydrates. It would be like feeding your cat ice cream, cake and candy -- not recommended for diabetics. Fancy Feast pate style food is typically low in carbs. This is a link to a food chart that contains most of the canned foods available in the US along with the carb content. We consider low carb as under 10% although most of the members here feed their cat a variety that's in the neighborhood of 5% carbs. You have lots of choices.

This forum has been around for 25+ years. We've had lots of cats on insulin. If you do opt for insulin, the two that are recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn are either Lantus (glargine is the generic/biosimilar name) or Prozinc. If your vet suggest something else, indicate that you've done your homework and those are what one of the vet's professional association recommends. Without more information on Miley, we generally suggest that a cat be started on 0.5u of insulin unless dry food is still in the picture and the dose would be 1.0u or less. We tend to think that starting out at a lower dose and working the dose upward is easier on everyone's nerves. My comment may be not entirely correct in that with Lantus, the starting dose can also depend on your cat's weight but only if your cat is eating an entirely low carb, canned food diet. We also have posts on dosing methods. Most of the members here do not rely entirely on their vet for dose recommendations. I certainly didn't since if I needed help, my vet wasn't available 24/7. The members here are around almost 24/7 since our membership is international and some of the members are dedicated night owls.

Please let us know how we can help.