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Amy&Max

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Hi everyone,

I am new here and thought I'd introduce myself and Max, although I have been lurking here for a while. Max was dx about 6 weeks ago and I have been on a steep learning curve ever since. Max is 11 and has yo-yoed with his weight over the years. He was getting a bit fat recently so I cut back on his food and then he started dropping weight really quickly (over 1kg in 2 weeks) and drinking lots of water so off to the vet we went and diabetes was diagnosed. They gave him a full set of blood tests and everything else was normal. He has now put back on the weight he lost and is looking and feeling much better. He's a big cat and is now back to 6.25kg which looks like a good weight for him.

Max started out on caninsulin on 1u twice a day and slowly built up to 3u twice a day. Caninsulin just wasn't lasting long enough and the steep drop didn't agree with him either. This week I have switched him to lantus. I wish my vet had discussed the different insulin options at the start as I would have gone straight to lantus without wasting all that time with a not-very-nice insulin.

Currently I am shopping for a new vet and if anyone in Melbourne (Aus) can recommend someone to me that would be great. We are in West Footscray so somewhere this side of the city would be fantastic. I have been trying to give my vet a chance but I am just about out of patience. So far I have been told I have to give him prescription dry food, been told off for home testing (I taught myself off the internet), had my testing results dismissed/ignored and now given bad dosing information for lantus. My vet told me to put him on 3u twice a day to begin with (I ignored that information and started him on half that - 1.5u). Today she rang me saying she had made a mistake and he should be on 1u - 5 days after telling me to start him on 3. She realised the mistake several days ago but wasn't at work so waited until today to call me. Grrr.

I am dropping his dose from the 1.5u I had started on to 1u as he bounced yesterday on that dose. I was getting the odd bounce with caninsulin as well - he seems to bounce once his nadir gets down to 10ish (180). So back to 1u and slowly slowly from here. He is on a mostly raw diet since not long after being diagnosed and I use the prescription dry food for treats only after testing.

Thank goodness for the interweb :smile: There is so much valuable information here and on other sites and that has been a godsend in getting me this far!

Amy & Max
 
Hi Amy! and welcome to you and Max! I was just signing off but thought I would say hi .... you are in the best place you never wanted to be. I would also post over on the Insulin support group for Lantus and they will help you go over everything and make informed decisions. But for now I am going to bed, it is tomorrow already here and I have to go into San Francisco in the morning and work, so good night Amy you are in good hands.

Nancy and Payne
 
Hi Amy and welcome! I'm a month-old Aussie newbie myself and still coming to terms with all of this.

I started home testing off my own bat as well, for my own peace of mind and to give the vet something to hang her dose adjustments on. I did get a lecture last week about obsessing about numbers ohmygod_smile which was actually warranted, I admit, but I've calmed down a bit now and treat my data as a tool to help her help us.

I live in Adelaide SA myself, but we've just welcomed Jeanie, callsign lilypuss, who lives in Melbourne. Here's her thread:

http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopi ... 91#p492025

I don't know Melbourne very well I'm afraid so whether or not it's close to you I don't know--but I still think she'd be a very good person to talk to; this is her vet:

http://animaldiabetesaustralia.com.au/i ... &Itemid=56

Let me know how you get on

Lesley xo
 
Welcome Amy! Like you, I am new to this as well. Cedric was diagnosed about 2 months ago, and I found this forum & website right away. While I love my vet (who has experience w/diabetics) and he put us on Lantus right away, I got some advice here that was better than his (mostly, the injection site). he has been after me to switch Cedric to canned (he was all dry for about the first 2 years I had him), but while I changed his diet to grain fee, high protein, low carbs, he never said "take awy the dry completely" like the gang here. Well, when I finally gave in to that, Cedric's numbers dropped 100 points or so, and 2 days later he was normal. No insulin since. I test him every other day now.

Keep up your research - and to put it gently, you need to find a new vet who is better at treating a cat with FD. Good luck to you both and keep us posted!
 
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