Hi everyone, my cat Jayden was diagnosed last week with diabetes. He is currently prescribed 4 units of Lantus 2 times a day. He is a big cat 19 pounds and vet said because of his weight this would be the best dose for him. The current relationship I have with Jayden’s vet is in dismay I have been hung up on and told that his prescription would be shredded when I try to call and ask questions because on the appt of his initial diagnosis I was pretty much told to administer him the insulin and be on my way. I have not been informed about at home testing or anything like that. I am also worried that Jayden is receiving too much insulin because his symptoms of over drinking and urinating have quickly stopped he has been normal with his eating drinking and urinating. Also I am unable to feed him periodically due to my schedule and have to feed him once in the morning and once at night. I feel way too overwhelmed with all of this info and don’t know how I will ever get to the level of care that I see some of these members have gotten too. I am extremely overwhelmed and looking for emotional support and help in a non aggressive way. Thank you for welcoming me to this wonderful source of information and support.
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squeem3
Member Since 2009
Welcome! This is a great community where you'll find support 
First thing, take a read of this: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
This one is good too: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/feline-diabetes-faq-newcomers-start-here.2502/
Many members have experienced vets such as yours unfortunately. Are there any other vets in your area you can take your cat to? You don't need to tell the current vet. Just request copies of your cat's records and bring them to a new vet. Here's info on how to choose a new vet: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/vet-interview-screening-topics-check-list.156663/ Are you in the US or another country? If you post your general location, there may be another member who lives in the area and can recommend a vet.
A programmable timed feeder works great to provide small meals throughout the day (and night too) when you aren't able to. Catmate is a popular brand. PetSafe is another one. Are you feeding dry or canned food?
I'm an ancient old timer back with a new diabetic so I'm sort of out of the loop on all the new feline diabetes stuff that has occurred in the past 10+ years. @Wendy&Neko and @Sienne and Gabby (GA) are two of many members who are more up to date. 4 units BID of Lantus just a week after diagnosis is an awfully huge amount. Home testing is important and we can help you get started on that. You don't need the vet's permission to do this.
First thing, take a read of this: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
This one is good too: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/feline-diabetes-faq-newcomers-start-here.2502/
Many members have experienced vets such as yours unfortunately. Are there any other vets in your area you can take your cat to? You don't need to tell the current vet. Just request copies of your cat's records and bring them to a new vet. Here's info on how to choose a new vet: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/vet-interview-screening-topics-check-list.156663/ Are you in the US or another country? If you post your general location, there may be another member who lives in the area and can recommend a vet.
A programmable timed feeder works great to provide small meals throughout the day (and night too) when you aren't able to. Catmate is a popular brand. PetSafe is another one. Are you feeding dry or canned food?
I'm an ancient old timer back with a new diabetic so I'm sort of out of the loop on all the new feline diabetes stuff that has occurred in the past 10+ years. @Wendy&Neko and @Sienne and Gabby (GA) are two of many members who are more up to date. 4 units BID of Lantus just a week after diagnosis is an awfully huge amount. Home testing is important and we can help you get started on that. You don't need the vet's permission to do this.
I am located in Staten Island New York. He is currently going to banfield pet hospital on forest avenue. I am so nervous to switch him in the middle of them determining his proper insulin level. Also any other vet I called said they would need to do their own evaluation and practically restart the process I don’t want to do that to him.
I am aware that Jayden should be fed entirely wet food however I don’t want to shock his system. I haven’t settled on what he will wind up being fed regularly because I need to chose a food that I can afford. The vet prescribed royal cannon food and said he would need to eat 300-350 calories a day to maintain his weight. If I were to feed him only the prescribed food he would need 5 cans a day and I would spend hundreds of dollars on food every month which I physically cannot do. Since his diagnoses he is being fed per day
1 can of royal cannon glycobalance wet food
1/2 cup of purino pro plan weight managent dry food (what he was eating before diagnosis as well)
I would like to find a mix of fancy feast and Friskies classic pate that I can combine for his regular diet because like I said I will not be able to maintain him being fed the royal cannon. I also have another cat who I need to feed as well.
I am aware that Jayden should be fed entirely wet food however I don’t want to shock his system. I haven’t settled on what he will wind up being fed regularly because I need to chose a food that I can afford. The vet prescribed royal cannon food and said he would need to eat 300-350 calories a day to maintain his weight. If I were to feed him only the prescribed food he would need 5 cans a day and I would spend hundreds of dollars on food every month which I physically cannot do. Since his diagnoses he is being fed per day
1 can of royal cannon glycobalance wet food
1/2 cup of purino pro plan weight managent dry food (what he was eating before diagnosis as well)
I would like to find a mix of fancy feast and Friskies classic pate that I can combine for his regular diet because like I said I will not be able to maintain him being fed the royal cannon. I also have another cat who I need to feed as well.
CORKY
Member Since 2023
Hi, Your worries, in this Forum will be over, I am not one to suggest about any of the topics you speak about, but referring to the food my Corky weighs now 16lbs he is also a big cat, Coco, my other 1/2 Main Coon weighs 12lbs also a big cat I feed the all the Fancy Feast pates and give the each a can, 1 can at each feeding, OI buy many different flavors to keep them interested and choose a different flavor for each feeding I do feed 2 large meals 6:00AM & 6:00OM with 2 small meals, 2 tablespoons in between, a absolutely no no dry food, is what I was taught in this Forum, I only bought the prescribed food, 1 month, too expensive cans very small as you say this Forum has a page with all the different Fancy Feast foods that are good for a diabetic cat, no foods with gravy, they are high on carbs, I have my special food kit such as
Medium Low carbs, and High Carbs along with Karo Syrup for an emergency sudden drop on BG's, I think there's a lot of food being fed even though is twice a day, I am already worried that my Corky, is almost by 1/2 lb. to the weight he had before diagnosed, weight is a big factor in our cases of diabetes, so I am placing him in "a little diet" just to avoid further damage I wish you the best and yes, turn to the members mentioned to you here they are expert on these matters
tiffmaxee
Member Since 2013
That’s a huge starting dose. Max was a large cat, 14-15 pounds when diagnosed and we started on 1 unit. That was not enough but I was following my vet’s dosing then and also not home testing at first. I checked into Banfield when they first opened at Pet Smart here and it’s a cookie cutter operation. I’d be looking for a vet that is my associated with a big corp if possible. More and more are being bought up by VCA where I live including the practice I use but nothing has changed as I am with the same vet.
While feeding dry you would follow our SLGS method. You could switch to TR when off the dry food. Do you live near a Walmart? I don’t so ordered a meter and test strips on line. You are right to be worried he might be getting too much insulin especially until you start testing. I’m going to discuss this with others and come back to suggest what dose to give bit I’m thinking 1 unit.
While feeding dry you would follow our SLGS method. You could switch to TR when off the dry food. Do you live near a Walmart? I don’t so ordered a meter and test strips on line. You are right to be worried he might be getting too much insulin especially until you start testing. I’m going to discuss this with others and come back to suggest what dose to give bit I’m thinking 1 unit.
Hello and welcome. Do you have any feline specialty vet clinics near you? That night be a better option for a vet. We've had large cats on small doses and small cats on large doses. We use weight to determine starting dose with one of our Lantus dosing methods and the most we'd start him on is 2 units a shot. Since he's eating dry food, we'd start him on 1 unit.
We are strong believers in home testing here, is is the best way to keep your kitty safe. If you are willing to learn to home test his blood sugar, we can help you learn how. It's a small prick on the edge of his ears where they don't have nerves. We have videos and lots more information to show you what to do.
Do not change your cats diet until you are home testing. A change in diet could mean he suddenly needs less insulin. And we don't know if the 4 units is a good dose now.
We are strong believers in home testing here, is is the best way to keep your kitty safe. If you are willing to learn to home test his blood sugar, we can help you learn how. It's a small prick on the edge of his ears where they don't have nerves. We have videos and lots more information to show you what to do.
Do not change your cats diet until you are home testing. A change in diet could mean he suddenly needs less insulin. And we don't know if the 4 units is a good dose now.
First, take a breath. Managing your cat's diabetes is incredibly overwhelming -- at least at the very beginning. I promise; it will become routine. Well, it will become routine in a couple of weeks. It takes a bit of perseverance. All of us have been in your shoes. I was a wreck when Gabby was diagnosed and I am very comfortable with medical information. It didn't help in the least. In fact, the vet apparently figured that I knew how to give an injection and never showed me what to do and I was so in shock I didn't ask. YouTube was a huge resource. We're here to help.
There is a website that can help you locate cat only vets/clinics. This is the link to the search for a cat friendly practice (American Association of Feline Practitioners). While a new vet may want to re-run some labs, if Jayden's lab work is recent and was sent out to a commercial lab (e.g., Idexx), if you tell the vet that you are on a budget, they may be OK with using at least some of the existing labs. However, there's no way to know that. Like any medical professional, the vet doesn't want to do anything that could harm your cat since lab values can change, although given how recent the diagnosis was, it's not terribly likely that there will be a big change.
You have lots of options for what t feed Jayden. Most of the so-called prescription foods have nothing in them that is truly medically necessary for diabetes. In fact, the Royal Canin dry food is quite high in carbohydrates. Diabetics require a low carbohydrate diet. We consider low carb as under 10% although most of the members here feed their cats foods that are in the neighborhood of 5% carb. However, as Wendy noted, you really need to be home testing before you change Jayden's diet. This is a great website dealing with feline nutrition. The website also has a chart listing most of the canned food available in the US along with the carb counts for those foods. There's a lot to choose from. A good portion of the members here feed their cats either Fancy Feast of Friskies pate style food and it looks like you already decided that those are good options for Jayden. You can feed both of your cats the same food. It will make life much simpler if you do.
There is a weight-based formula for the initial dose of Lantus. The formula is: initial dose = 0.25 x ideal weight in kg. For Jayden, the maximum dose would be 2.0u. If tends to be easier on the caregiver's nerves if you start your cat out on a lower dose and work your way up based on what home testing tells you about how the insulin in working. If you want to do more reading, there are several sticky notes at the top of the Lantus forum that describe how Lantus works, dosing methods, etc.
Please let us know how we can help make this easier.
There is a website that can help you locate cat only vets/clinics. This is the link to the search for a cat friendly practice (American Association of Feline Practitioners). While a new vet may want to re-run some labs, if Jayden's lab work is recent and was sent out to a commercial lab (e.g., Idexx), if you tell the vet that you are on a budget, they may be OK with using at least some of the existing labs. However, there's no way to know that. Like any medical professional, the vet doesn't want to do anything that could harm your cat since lab values can change, although given how recent the diagnosis was, it's not terribly likely that there will be a big change.
You have lots of options for what t feed Jayden. Most of the so-called prescription foods have nothing in them that is truly medically necessary for diabetes. In fact, the Royal Canin dry food is quite high in carbohydrates. Diabetics require a low carbohydrate diet. We consider low carb as under 10% although most of the members here feed their cats foods that are in the neighborhood of 5% carb. However, as Wendy noted, you really need to be home testing before you change Jayden's diet. This is a great website dealing with feline nutrition. The website also has a chart listing most of the canned food available in the US along with the carb counts for those foods. There's a lot to choose from. A good portion of the members here feed their cats either Fancy Feast of Friskies pate style food and it looks like you already decided that those are good options for Jayden. You can feed both of your cats the same food. It will make life much simpler if you do.
There is a weight-based formula for the initial dose of Lantus. The formula is: initial dose = 0.25 x ideal weight in kg. For Jayden, the maximum dose would be 2.0u. If tends to be easier on the caregiver's nerves if you start your cat out on a lower dose and work your way up based on what home testing tells you about how the insulin in working. If you want to do more reading, there are several sticky notes at the top of the Lantus forum that describe how Lantus works, dosing methods, etc.
Please let us know how we can help make this easier.
Thanks everyone for the responses… although they have made my anxiety much worse. I don’t notice any negative change in Jayden’s behavior or apetite since starting him on the 4units of insulin. He’s been on it for a week now. I am going to the vet for a glucose curve tomorrow. Why would the vet give me a dose that is dangerous for him? This has me very concerned and I don’t feel comfortable going against what I was told to do. I’m sure there are other people who can relate to this. Now I feel like I’m doing what the vet told me to do and also harming my pet. I feel distraught. Also to be clear the vet solidly mentioned to me that in most cases the dose of insulin would increase after the glucose curve. I am so so so so so worried and confused now more than ever. Please wish me luck at the vet tomorrow.
tiffmaxee
Member Since 2013
I’m sorry we have upset you. We do not know what is going on with the bg without testing. That’s a huge starting dose. Cats test higher at the vet often due to stress much of the time. Lantus takes 5-7 days for the depot to build. If he’s getting into BG under 90 during the cycle he might bounce and his BG will then be high. It’s perfectly normal and expected but too much insulin can look like too little. I hope the vet visit goes well and you are able to get testing supplies soon.
Sorry to cause anxiety. There is a lot to worry about with a newly diagnosed cat, we have all probably been similarly concerned about our own kitties. It could be the high carb food is keeping him safe.
Unfortunately, a lot of vets get very minimal training in diabetes, much less feline diabetes. They are trained is so many conditions, plus surgeries, and a wide variety of animals. I've heard of one well known vet school only teaching diabetes for 5 hours, dog and cat together. The people here live feline diabetes 24x7, many for years. We much prefer to start with a lower dose and work our way up. We've seen too many cases of cats going hypo because the vet suggested too high a dose. Every cat hypo is one too many.
Cats often exhibit higher blood sugar numbers at the vet due to stress. I had a non diabetic kitty that tested around 230 at the vet one day. It was a male vet he didn't know who did the blood work. The vet was concerned enough to call me and say he might be diabetic. Fortunately I had the tools at home because of Neko my diabetic, and I tested him at 53 the next day. Plus the vet visit costs money, you can buy a lot of test strips for the cost of a vet visit and kitty won't be stressed because of it.
While you are at the vet tomorrow, see if they will show you how to test his blood sugar so you can do it at home. That's presuming they are doing ear tests. Before I learned to home test, my vet did a curve. But she didn't do ear tests so Neko was very mad at her (probably raising her blood sugars) and the vet got hardly any tests done. That is what convinced me I need to test at home. Neko grew to love tests - because it meant getting a treat afterwards. She'd coming running when I got the test kit out. And often purred through it.
There is a lot to worry about with a newly diagnosed cat, we have all probably been similarly concerned about our own kitties. It could be the high carb food is keeping him safe.Unfortunately, a lot of vets get very minimal training in diabetes, much less feline diabetes. They are trained is so many conditions, plus surgeries, and a wide variety of animals. I've heard of one well known vet school only teaching diabetes for 5 hours, dog and cat together. The people here live feline diabetes 24x7, many for years. We much prefer to start with a lower dose and work our way up. We've seen too many cases of cats going hypo because the vet suggested too high a dose. Every cat hypo is one too many.
Cats often exhibit higher blood sugar numbers at the vet due to stress. I had a non diabetic kitty that tested around 230 at the vet one day. It was a male vet he didn't know who did the blood work. The vet was concerned enough to call me and say he might be diabetic. Fortunately I had the tools at home because of Neko my diabetic, and I tested him at 53 the next day. Plus the vet visit costs money, you can buy a lot of test strips for the cost of a vet visit and kitty won't be stressed because of it.
While you are at the vet tomorrow, see if they will show you how to test his blood sugar so you can do it at home. That's presuming they are doing ear tests. Before I learned to home test, my vet did a curve. But she didn't do ear tests so Neko was very mad at her (probably raising her blood sugars) and the vet got hardly any tests done. That is what convinced me I need to test at home. Neko grew to love tests - because it meant getting a treat afterwards. She'd coming running when I got the test kit out. And often purred through it.
For maybe over a year I have been feeding both my cats purina pro plan weight management food in hopes that they would lose weight. I just saw on chewy that the carb % is 28%. Could this food have caused his glucose levels to come so high? According to his blood results glucose level was 474 when he went to the vet which is extremely high.
When I worked (part time) at our local shelter, we had a room full of fatty cats. We put them all on the weight management and reducing weight diet foods from the vet. After a couple months, not a one lost weight. 
I adopted one of them (17lbs), and after switching him to low carb food, he trimmed down nicely. He's the cat I mentioned with a BG of 53.
The food probably wasn't the single cause your cat became diabetic, but it definitely didn't help. We've seen many a cat go from high carb food to low carb and greatly reduce the insulin dose they needed, and quite a few go into diabetic remission.
I adopted one of them (17lbs), and after switching him to low carb food, he trimmed down nicely. He's the cat I mentioned with a BG of 53.The food probably wasn't the single cause your cat became diabetic, but it definitely didn't help. We've seen many a cat go from high carb food to low carb and greatly reduce the insulin dose they needed, and quite a few go into diabetic remission.
squeem3
Member Since 2009
Hope your vet visit goes well today Know that you CAN ask the vet questions and discuss any concerns that you have. You just want more information about your cat's diabetes and how to best manage it, not question the vet's qualifications or education or anything. If something isn't clear to you, ask. Sometimes vets use jargon and concepts that pet owners don't understand. If the vet dismisses your questions and concerns or has a "I'm the vet not you" attitude, take your cat elsewhere for veterinary care. Having a good relationship with the vet is really important.
As someone mentioned above, most vets have little experience with diabetes. You may want to seek out an internal medicine specialist who would have more training and experience beyond basic check ups and vaccinations and routine care.
Know that you CAN ask the vet questions and discuss any concerns that you have. You just want more information about your cat's diabetes and how to best manage it, not question the vet's qualifications or education or anything. If something isn't clear to you, ask. Sometimes vets use jargon and concepts that pet owners don't understand. If the vet dismisses your questions and concerns or has a "I'm the vet not you" attitude, take your cat elsewhere for veterinary care. Having a good relationship with the vet is really important.As someone mentioned above, most vets have little experience with diabetes. You may want to seek out an internal medicine specialist who would have more training and experience beyond basic check ups and vaccinations and routine care.
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