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Babalou

Babalou

Member Since 2015
Hello everyone! I am really glad I found you!!!I surely need guidance and courage!

My name is Christina and my kitty is Balou. She is diabetic and today I gave her her first injection. The vet said that she became diabetic because of the prednisolone that she was taking for auto-immune disease treatment. Until now her food was available during the whole day. Last night I took it away from her to feed her again this morning, one hour before her injection. But since she’s not used to eating twice a day, she didn’t eat it all. In order to give her the proper amount, I added some wet food. She ate that. Now I took it away again. I am going to feed her the other half (of the 24 hour amount) one hour before her next injection. But what can I do to make sure that she will eat it all before I take it away? Should I change her diet into wet food? Currently I am giving her dry and wet clinic diet.
 
Welcome Christina and Balou! You will find lots of support here from people who have felt just as overwhelmed as you are right now.

What insulin are you using? Some do require making sure food is in their system before giving the shot, but you can continue to let her eat during the day and night.

We highly recommend you test her blood levels at home, if you are not already. We have lots of information on how it is done. We like to know what their levels are before each shot to be sure the dose we are planning to give is safe, and in the middle of the cycle to see how low the insulin took them. Once you are confident testing, then we'd definitely suggest you switch her to an all wet diet. A vet explains why here: www.catinfo.org. She has a food chart on her site so you can see what carbs are in your present food and whether another food would be less. We suggest a carb level below the 8-10% range.

The reason not to switch without the home testing is that it can make a big difference downward in their levels (100 points in our cat overnight when we switched. If we had given our usual dose on the lower number, he would have gone too low in the cycle.)

I'd suggest you read around the site and ask lots of questions. We love to help new sugar cat parents!
 
Hello Sue and Oliver! Thanks very much for the warm welcome!

It’s been days before my registration on the site since I started reading your articles and forum posts. It’s very helpful and I feel grateful. It’s very important to interact with people that share the same love and can understand the devotion to our companions and how important they are for us.

I’ve been trying to measure her glucose many times in four days before I give her the injection (I was supposed to give her the first shot on last Friday), but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get enough blood…So I decided to start before it’s too late. I keep trying of course. I saw videos and read about the marginal vein but I keep failing…

I give her canininsulin. The vet said we should try a low dose for seven days and see how she responds (a period of adjustment for both of us). He told me to feed her twice a day.

Thanks for the links I’m gonna check them right away!
 
I am not a pro at this, but this is what I have found.

First, when you start poking their ears for the very first few days, it is definitely harder to get blood. My understanding is that, as you poke it more, that new little capillaries form, making it easier to get blood in the future. So hopefully it will get easier.

Second, even though my Whisper has been getting his ears pricked for a while, the most important thing to be sure of is that his ear is warm enough. If it isn't, I don't get enough blood. Have you seen the tip about a rice filled sock? Just fill it with some rice, tie off the top, and then put it in the microwave for a little while. In ours it is 20 seconds, but yours will certainly vary. When I take it out of the microwave, I just lay it on my own forearm to make sure that it isn't too hot. Then I hold it on his head/ears, and rub it around while I tell him what good boy he is :-) He really seems to love how warm it is, and once his ear is warm enough, I lay it on his back while I actually do the test because it seems to calm him. The other thing that helped for us was developing a routine, which includes low carb treats. We use freeze-dried turkey bites. So he gets one piece while his ear is getting warmed, and he gets one at the end.

I hope that helps a little, and I am sure that others may have testing suggestions as well. Welcome, and best of luck to you and Balou!
 
Hi Christina and welcome! You have found a great group of people who have shared your present frustration and will all tell you that it does get better with time. Here are a couple of good links on testing I hope will help. I watched several different ones in the beginning, it seemed like I picked up a little something from each one. Keep asking questions, that is how we all learned.

http://s106.photobucket.com/user/chupie_2006/media/testingear/sweetspot.jpg.html

http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-home-test.htm
 
Welcome to FDMB.
While you work on blood testing, see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional assessments you may use to monitor Balou's health. Thirst, appetite, elimination function, urine ketone and glucose testing, and dehydration checks all improve as you get the glucose under control.
 
Babalou said:
give her canininsulin. The vet said we should try a low dose for seven days and see how she responds (a period of adjustment for both of us). He told me to feed her twice a day.
Click to expand...

If it works, feeding twice daily is fine. When first diagnosed, most cats are unusually hungry. Their bodies can't use the food efficiently. Many of us give smaller more frequent meals at first until their bodies can use the insulin and food together. If you find that she acts like she is continually hungry, you might give her a snack 6 hours into the cycle.

One tip I found helpful about getting blood is to use a larger lancet at first. Sometimes the 30/31 gauge that humans use is too small for a cat's ear; often 25/27 gauge works better.

We have put together a guide for using Canninsulin here:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/vetsulin-caninsulin-user-guide.302/
 
Thank you all so much for your help and your support. It means a lot to me as today is a hard day.

These articles are really helpful. I read them all and I’m gonna read them all over again. I am trying to understand how diabetes works and how I can control it and it seems a bit difficult, I must admit. I know that’s a mountain we must climb and I am glad I am not alone in this.

This twice a day feeding doesn’t seem to work. She’s hungry and she keeps asking me to give her food and when she understands that I am not going to she gets that puzzled expression and goes into her bed. She’s pretty inactive today, probably because she’s hungry (though I gave her a snack). I can’t wait for her next feeding. It’s difficult to know that she feels hungry and that she can’t understand why I am not feeding her as usual. I guess following twice a day feeding is not possible at least at this point.
 
Hello Christina I understand the 2x a day feeding and like yours Magellan did not adjust and it was not fair to my civi cat Artemis. So what I do is 1 I feed only wet/canned low carb 2 I place their am servings out and leave it out until. It is 2 hrs from the next shot or they have cleaned the plates if there is food left I gather it up and they wait the 2 hrs and at that point I place fresh food out. That way they have the controlled amount and the feeling of free feedings at the same time.
 
Hey Christina, I just wanted to check in and see how Babalou was doing? Last thread I read on you guys, she was too low to shoot. Post when you can and let us know how things are going and if you need any help.
 
Hey Bobbie and Bubba,
Thank you for your interest. I keep testing her, our last result was 87. I don't give her insulin anymore, I just test and feed her clinic diet. Everytime I test her I feel so nervous and wait for the result on the meter I feel so nervous...Just some information that might help someone else in the forum: Her numbers went up last spring after a relatively long treatment (1,5-2 years) with prednisolone (steroid) for autoimmune disease-anemia. In April:362, June:276. The vet suggested to start by changing the food so we changed into clinic diet (dry) and gourmet gold (wet). In September her sugar was 337 . I changed the wet food into clinic diet wet food too (the vet said he wanted to see the results of a strictly diabetic diet). 3 weeks later she got 327 as I've already mentioned. Then the vet said we should start shooting insulin and you know the rest of the story. I keep feeding her the diabetic diet three times daily. I'll post the new result when I test her again today.
 
That is great that her numbers are staying low. So glad that she is off the steroids so that the diabetes can be diet controlled. I am not familiar with the gourmet gold food you are feeding her. Most of us here feed non prescription diets because they are usually to high in carbs and too expensive. I am going to link a food chart that we use. The carbs should be under 10%. A lot of us feed Fancy Feast CLASSICS, 9-Lives PATES and Wellness NO GRAIN. It could save you some money . Again, I am so glad Babalou is doing so well. :cat:

foodchart
 
Thank you so much B n' B!:cat: You are so kind! Unfortunately I can't find these brands that you mentioned, are they sold in Europe? I used to feed Balou Gourmet Gold Purina which I think is the european name for Fancy Feast, but the vet insisted on giving her a strictly veterinary diet for diabetics, therefore now I'm giving her R.C. for diabetics(dry and wet), which is expensive and I'm not sure if it's good enough. Personally, I'd prefer giving her gourmet, because she likes it more and it is wet food. In our case I believe it was the insulin that 'woke' up Balou's system (I didn't see any siginificant difference with the food, whether I changed into gourmet or prescription). I'm thinking of changing her food into gourmet again after we make sure that her levels are stabilized without insulin. At the moment I pray for her sugar levels to remain low and her hematocrit high.
Gourmet_Gold_cat_food_in_tins.jpg
 
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