New member totally overwhelmed

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Amybee and Pandora (GA)

Amybee and Pandora (GA)

Member Since 2021
Hi everyone
New member in the UK here.

I’ve just joined after reading A LOT of useful posts and info on here (and elsewhere).

I just feel totally overwhelmed at the moment!

Got my diagnosis today for my 16 year old girl. I’ve been told she must be admitted next week for a day for a glucose curve and first insulin.

Luckily I am not squeamish at all, I’m not worried about giving the shots or taking samples for monitoring, I’m looking at which monitor to get. Alphatrak looks very expensive and there are a lot of comments about the lancet device not working. Considering a human one instead.

My main concern is, Pandora my cat is a big cat (yes overweight but just big anyway) and very aggressive and fearful if you try to “do” anything to her. Even just trying to tent her skin results in trying to bite / crouching / hissing etc.

So I am absolutely dreading having to do this with her twice a day plus testing. I’m scared it won’t be possible even. Does anyone have any tips for getting an angry cat to cooperate and avoiding personal injury?! Will she hate me for this :(.

Diet wise I am considering Katkin which is high protein low carb weight food, and working on a calorie controlled diet to help bring her weight down in the hopes it might mean not insulin forever.

Just good to get all that off my mind really! Thanks for all the info on here :).
 
Hello and welcome. We all know that stress of the first time diagnosis. :bighug:There is lots to learn but we will help you. What is your girl's name?
Amybee said:
I’ve been told she must be admitted next week for a day for a glucose curve and first insulin.
Click to expand...
Not true, often cats are stressed out at the vet and their blood sugar numbers read higher. Meaning the vet suggests a higher dose than needed. If you can home test, you can do the curve yourself at home. I had a non diabetic cat in at the vet, and his sugars in his blood test were four times higher than what I tested him at home the next day! He was that stressed out seeing the vet.

I'm going to add a couple of links to information that might help you:
Many people give insulin while their cat's head is in the food bowl. A key component of testing is associating a low carb treat with a test. Soon enough she will associate the two and learn to come running when you get out the test kit.

Has the vet suggested which insulin they'll be recommending yet?
 
Welcome to FDMB! Feeling completely overwhelmed at this point in your journey is the normal state of affairs. It gets better.

My first reaction to Pandora's disposition and testing is one word -- treats! Many of the members here use freeze dried chicken (or other protein) treats to help desensitize their cats to the testing process. Since you have a few days, I would "play" with your cat's ears -- lots of scratches, holding her ear the way you would with home testing, and give a treat every time. You want to help Pandora associate treats with testing. This is a link to information on how to home test.

Is Pandora food motivated? My kitty was and she pretty much ignored my giving her a shot once her head was in her food bowl. You will want to get insulin syringes that have a very thin needle (e.g., 31 gauge -- the larger the number the thinner the needle).

Your cat will not hate you! Well, your cat may be distressed at the outset but cats are smart. At some point, it will click that what you're doing is helping her to feel better. My biggest concern is how Pandora will react to being handled by the people at the vet clinic.

Many people here use human meters. The cost for the Alpha Track strips can be prohibitive. They are easily four times the cost of strips for a human meter. Your vet may prefer a pet-specific meter but your vet isn't buying your strips!

Do you know what insulin the vet will be prescribing? Often, vets in the UK will turn first to Caninsulin. In the US, Caninsulin is no longer recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn. It's duration is too short given a cat's fast metabolism. As the name would suggest, it was developed to treat dogs. Either glargine (Lantus or one of the available biosimilars) or Prozinc are recommended. I don't know if Prozinc is available in the UK. It's a pet-specific insulin whereas glargine is a human insulin and available at any pharmacy.

Once you get situated and start testing -- which may be a good idea to do before you actually have to test because you're giving Pandora insulin -- you will want to get a spreadsheet set up. This is a link to a post on helping us to help you which includes instructions for the spreadsheet, how to set up your signature, and other helpful information on getting started.

Should you need it, this is a chart of canned cat food that's available in the UK. We consider low carb to be less than 10% carb although many people here feed their cat around 5%.

I just saw that Wendy and I posted pretty much the same information. I did forget about Bonnie's video. Junior was rather fractious -- Bonnie used to live nearby and I got to meet Junior!
 
Thank you for your support!

I think I’ll call the vet back about the admission. Pandora is terrible at the vet and the blood test she had to diagnose was an absolute nightmare, she was incredibly scared and distressed. Even I was shaking like a leaf when it was over, never mind her. The biggest fear is definitely too much insulin!

I’ll also ask which insulin he is considering so I can look into that.

Thanks so much for the links which I will look through and hopefully might make bed feel a bit more confused her about tackling her!
 
Thank you as well Sienne! This is great info.

Sounds like I need to get a monitor ASAP. I’ve actually already been playing with her ears today, and she’s not too bad with that, maybe it will be doable!

She is fairly food motivated but allergic to chicken, I have ordered her some freeze dried shrimp / tuna treats.

Definitely concerned about handling by others especially if I am not there. We only got the blood test with me holding her and constantly speaking to her and kissing her head. I hate the thought of her being physically overpowered.

I’m an accountant and do spreadsheets all the time so that’s one thing I will be kick ass at! :)

I’ve checked and they do ProZinc on Animed so that looks good!

I really appreciate all the help thank you so much.
 
I didn't look closely at Pandora's photo. She's a calico! Calicos and torties are very well known for their attitude. Gabby was a tortie. She would not permit anyone except me to test her blood glucose. If she was at the vet, like you, I was often holding on to her.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
I don't know if Prozinc is available in the UK. It's a pet-specific insulin whereas glargine is a human insulin and available at any pharmacy.
Click to expand...

Just FYI...while it used to be required in the UK to start with Caninsulin, ProZinc was approved as a "first time" insulin several years ago. Usually, you have to prove the starting insulin isn't working well in your cat before they can legally prescribe Glargine (Lantus, Basaglar)
 
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