Hendrick Cuddleclaw
Very Active Member
Hi all, I am new here and new to this whole ordeal.
My wife and I have set this up as a joint profile where both of us will share the username/account.
We have a six-cat household and last week our nearly 10-year-old Neutered Male Siamese Hendrick was diagnosed with diabetes from a blood test. BG was in the 400s but otherwise the vet said he was not dehydrated and no other signs of distress. When we took him in to the vet on Monday 1/3/22, they did not take a urine sample. We had taken him in because we noticed he looked a little skinny-ish, and then weighed him week-over-week and he had lost over a pound in one week. He also seemed to be getting weird about food and was turning down some of his favorites like sliced turkey breast meat from the deli.
When the vet called with the diagnosis on 1/5 they had us order insulin, Alphatrax, and lots of Purina DM both wet and dry. Then they said we should come in on the following Tuesday, 1/11, to get shown how to administer the insulin, how much to give him, and how to check his BG.
"Tuesday?!!?," I said. "Can't you do better than that he is barely eating anything!"
Nope. That was the best they could do. At the time I knew nothing about KA, I just knew my boy was not himself. Lethargic, refusing food, drinking tons of water and urinating a lot. Was just sitting by his water bowl for long periods of time, lapping at it then just kind of zoning out for a while at the dish, then a few more laps. Clearly in distress but I had no idea what was going on except he was diabetic and wouldn't get any insulin for another 6 days. That seemed way, way too long to me. He seemed like he was going downhill fast.
By Saturday 1/8 he had pretty much stopped eating all together and wasn't moving much at all. I called my vet back and discussed with them, the best they could do was move me up to Monday at 3pm for the appt to learn how to give the shot and test BG. My wife and I hung up with them and called our local emergency vet hospital immediately. Within an hour he was admitted and they gave me an estimate of $7400 on the high end for an expected 3-5 day stay and treatment for KA, pancreatitis, dehydration as well as giving him some insulin of course (short acting).
Thankfully he responded very well to treatment and was discharged on Monday 1/11 (bill was $3400). Unlike my regular vet, the specialists at the hospital want me to bring him in on Tuesday next week for a curve. My regular vet said to do at home. Also unlike my regular vet, the specialist said we don't need to do BG checks at home. The hospital staff showed us how to give insulin when we picked him up and gave us instructions to feed him only every 12 hours then give 1u. Syringes we bought do not have halfs, which is annoying because that is what the vet said to buy so we did. Luckily atm we are giving a full unit 2x day.
So the timeline goes:
December 24th -- loss of weight noticed
December 31st -- loss of weight confirmed to be severe
Jan 3rd -- vet trip and blood draw
Jan 5th -- Diagnosed with diabetes via blood test
Jan 8th -- Admitted to vet hospital for KA, pancreatitis, dehydration
Jan 11 -- Discharged
And that brings us to today. We're feeding at 6am and 6pm, no more dry food for Hendrick, other cats are getting a few bites of dry but 80-90% wet now, low carb (Fussycat, Earthborn). Hendrick is eating Purina DM pretty well, both pate and savory shreds. He only eats about a quarter to a half can though, so total intake for the day is about half a can which doesn't seem like enough to me. He weighs 10lbs.
Now for questions:
Both our regular vet and the hospital said to only feed once every 12 hours and then give insulin. Our multi-cat household has always free-fed with timed feeders on dry food and then we give wet food now and again -- few times a week. We are in the midst of trying to move the entire household to the same schedule as Hendrick and boy are they pissed about that and you can tell it is stressing them out a lot. It sucks. I've read a lot of posts here already and it seems many people still free feed (wet food) or feed 4 times a day. How is this possible if my diabetic buddy can only be fed twice a day? Is that not the case for all diabetic felines? Are people giving insulin after every feeding? We would love to find a compromise that allows for a little free feeding of wet food outside of the every 12 hours meal.
Does anyone use a non-intrusive BG test? At the hospital they had a patch on him or something, no need for lancet prick. I'm going to guess that's not an option at home.
Does anyone understand why on God's green Earth the hospital said we don't need to check BG at home? As I learn more and more about this condition that seems flat out insane.
Still debating doing the curve at home next week -- the cost is not really an issue. On one hand, I trust the specialists to do it right and I am nervous about doing it at home. On the other, from everything I am reading doing it at home makes sense. Much more accurate.
Does the half-can of DM a day seem like adequate nutrition? His appetite does not seem great to me, I thought diabetic cats were always hungry.
Treats such as greenies and temptations. Can these still be given to Hendrick on a limited basis and if so -- is there a particular time of day like right in-between his two daily 1u of insulin? (noon-ish) or right after eating his DM, or after shot/BG test maybe?
Thanks in advance, so glad we found this community and I immediately donated via paypal. I will get Hendrick's speadsheet going and put it in sig. Or ask my wife to figure it out, ha.
My wife and I have set this up as a joint profile where both of us will share the username/account.
We have a six-cat household and last week our nearly 10-year-old Neutered Male Siamese Hendrick was diagnosed with diabetes from a blood test. BG was in the 400s but otherwise the vet said he was not dehydrated and no other signs of distress. When we took him in to the vet on Monday 1/3/22, they did not take a urine sample. We had taken him in because we noticed he looked a little skinny-ish, and then weighed him week-over-week and he had lost over a pound in one week. He also seemed to be getting weird about food and was turning down some of his favorites like sliced turkey breast meat from the deli.
When the vet called with the diagnosis on 1/5 they had us order insulin, Alphatrax, and lots of Purina DM both wet and dry. Then they said we should come in on the following Tuesday, 1/11, to get shown how to administer the insulin, how much to give him, and how to check his BG.
"Tuesday?!!?," I said. "Can't you do better than that he is barely eating anything!"
Nope. That was the best they could do. At the time I knew nothing about KA, I just knew my boy was not himself. Lethargic, refusing food, drinking tons of water and urinating a lot. Was just sitting by his water bowl for long periods of time, lapping at it then just kind of zoning out for a while at the dish, then a few more laps. Clearly in distress but I had no idea what was going on except he was diabetic and wouldn't get any insulin for another 6 days. That seemed way, way too long to me. He seemed like he was going downhill fast.
By Saturday 1/8 he had pretty much stopped eating all together and wasn't moving much at all. I called my vet back and discussed with them, the best they could do was move me up to Monday at 3pm for the appt to learn how to give the shot and test BG. My wife and I hung up with them and called our local emergency vet hospital immediately. Within an hour he was admitted and they gave me an estimate of $7400 on the high end for an expected 3-5 day stay and treatment for KA, pancreatitis, dehydration as well as giving him some insulin of course (short acting).
Thankfully he responded very well to treatment and was discharged on Monday 1/11 (bill was $3400). Unlike my regular vet, the specialists at the hospital want me to bring him in on Tuesday next week for a curve. My regular vet said to do at home. Also unlike my regular vet, the specialist said we don't need to do BG checks at home. The hospital staff showed us how to give insulin when we picked him up and gave us instructions to feed him only every 12 hours then give 1u. Syringes we bought do not have halfs, which is annoying because that is what the vet said to buy so we did. Luckily atm we are giving a full unit 2x day.
So the timeline goes:
December 24th -- loss of weight noticed
December 31st -- loss of weight confirmed to be severe
Jan 3rd -- vet trip and blood draw
Jan 5th -- Diagnosed with diabetes via blood test
Jan 8th -- Admitted to vet hospital for KA, pancreatitis, dehydration
Jan 11 -- Discharged
And that brings us to today. We're feeding at 6am and 6pm, no more dry food for Hendrick, other cats are getting a few bites of dry but 80-90% wet now, low carb (Fussycat, Earthborn). Hendrick is eating Purina DM pretty well, both pate and savory shreds. He only eats about a quarter to a half can though, so total intake for the day is about half a can which doesn't seem like enough to me. He weighs 10lbs.
Now for questions:
Both our regular vet and the hospital said to only feed once every 12 hours and then give insulin. Our multi-cat household has always free-fed with timed feeders on dry food and then we give wet food now and again -- few times a week. We are in the midst of trying to move the entire household to the same schedule as Hendrick and boy are they pissed about that and you can tell it is stressing them out a lot. It sucks. I've read a lot of posts here already and it seems many people still free feed (wet food) or feed 4 times a day. How is this possible if my diabetic buddy can only be fed twice a day? Is that not the case for all diabetic felines? Are people giving insulin after every feeding? We would love to find a compromise that allows for a little free feeding of wet food outside of the every 12 hours meal.
Does anyone use a non-intrusive BG test? At the hospital they had a patch on him or something, no need for lancet prick. I'm going to guess that's not an option at home.
Does anyone understand why on God's green Earth the hospital said we don't need to check BG at home? As I learn more and more about this condition that seems flat out insane.
Still debating doing the curve at home next week -- the cost is not really an issue. On one hand, I trust the specialists to do it right and I am nervous about doing it at home. On the other, from everything I am reading doing it at home makes sense. Much more accurate.
Does the half-can of DM a day seem like adequate nutrition? His appetite does not seem great to me, I thought diabetic cats were always hungry.
Treats such as greenies and temptations. Can these still be given to Hendrick on a limited basis and if so -- is there a particular time of day like right in-between his two daily 1u of insulin? (noon-ish) or right after eating his DM, or after shot/BG test maybe?
Thanks in advance, so glad we found this community and I immediately donated via paypal. I will get Hendrick's speadsheet going and put it in sig. Or ask my wife to figure it out, ha.
Last edited:
so a very small snack (tsp or two) is sometimes done 
