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Nancy C

Member Since 2013
Hi all! Just wanted to introduce myself and my best guy! I'm Nancy from CT and my cat Angus (Gus for short) was just diagnosed on Saturday (5/4) with diabetes. I'll admit I was surprised as I thought he had classic signs of hyperthyroidism. NOT the case. A little background....I met Gus in January 1999 and it was love at first sight. He is a purebred orange tabby Maine Coon. We've been through tons together as you can imagine. The last year or so has been rough for both of us but especially Gus. We sold our house in May and moved, then we moved again, then we bought a condo and moved yet AGAIN! So we were setting up in our new home in October and Gus always seemed bloated. His belly was big and round. So off to the vet we go. Turns out Gus had a rare disease called bilalteral perinephric psuedocysts.Basically, if you're unfamiliar, the sacs around his kidneys were filling up with fluid. We found a great surgeon willing to take our case on and he removed the sacs. Gus would still have the fluid but it would go into his abdomen now and not around his kidneys. They removed about 500cc of fluid from one cyst and 200cc from the other! On the road to recovery! Things were back to normal. The doctors put him on 12.5mg of Lasix every other day to help with the fluid removal. We had a great Christmas and New Year and Gus was back to his old self except maybe drinking a bit more water than usual and peeing a lot which the doctors old me was the Lasix. On Feb 24th Gus and I were getting ready for the Oscars when he had a seizure! Out of the blue.Then another about an hour later. We called his surgeon and his wife/nurse got us through the crisis. Next day off to the vet, blood tests, everything normal. Back to routine. Come March/April Gus seemed to be losing weight, drinking a lot, meowing at night really loud, and sleeping in the bathroom (he likes the sink) instead of on his pillow in my bed. Plus, he wasnt paying too much attention to his grooming. I tried everything to help but he kept getting knots. Last Thursday while picking up his Lasix refill I asked the groomer if she could give him a bit of a shave down in his problem areas, she told me to bring him on Saturday early before her appointments. Friday night I was looking online at symptoms and thought Gus may have hyperthryroidism. I asked to see the doctor for a minute and our Vet Dr. P is always available. He took the t4 blood test for the thyroid and asked some questions and then he tested Gus' blood sugar. I work in a pharmacy so Im familiar with them. Gus had blood sugar so high it didnt register on on the one touch meter!! Anyway, Gus is at the Vets office right now and has been there since I dropped him off at 8am getting his insulin regulated. He is to be on Prozinc, and I don't know any specifics except that he is doing great and I should be able to fetch him on Wednesday (THANK GOD!!) Its so quiet in the house with out him. Im used to a greeting at the door when I get home. So I guess I want to just say thank you for having this board, Im sure it will be an immense help and resource AND sanity saver! Im not worried about injecting him, I had to do my own shots a couple of years ago and Gus is really mellow when it comes to medicine. I've gotten my Karo syrup and have it where I can get my hands on it immediately. Ive read the "dear Mom" letter from the cat and that helped! There it is so far, not really a nutshell but...... ;-)
 
Omg! In all my years here i have never seen another kitty with perinephric cysts. One of my 20 year olds has one. Just on his right side so not completely the same but still...wow. my kitty was not a candidate for surgery though so we just get his drained when it fills up which can be as often as every two weeks and as rarely as every two or three months. It was a new thing for my vet and she has since had a second client develop one too. It has been an interesting journey for both of us for sure.

Welcome to fdmb by the way :-)
 
Welcome from a fellow newbie! Won't be too long before one of the 'old hands' around here will ply you with questions and advice, in the meantime have a look around, there is a lot of great information in the stickies (especially the starred ones)
 
LynnLee...the surgeon that took care of Gus actually performed the surgery for the first time ever on him! They were shocked at the size of the cysts. The vets office thought he had two huge tumors. I'd never heard of it either . We decided to go for the surgery because Gus was so healthy and I didnt want to traumatize him with repeated vet visits. I thought we may need to drain his abdomen but the Lasix has been keeping the fluid under control (thats been susended until his insulin is right). Thanks for the welcome
 
Barb, thanks for the welcome. Im open to any and all advice suggestions etc. Whatever it takes to keep Gus feeling good. Do either you or LynnLee has any experience with B12 for the neuropathy. Pretty sure thats why Gus doesnt like his leg fur brushed....
 
I've just started all of my babies on b12 this past week and have seen marked improvements in all, but especially the two that had weakness issues (one diabetic, one not) - I had started those two several days prior to the rest tho, and measuring improvements in the others might be difficult since none of them has any specific issues, but I'm definitely seeing more energy.

I only wish I'd known about it sooner.
 
Hello. Welcome to the board.
For Diabetic neuropathy, you specifically want methylcolbalamin. The other b12 that you find in stores is colbalamin which is used to treat pernicious anemia.

For cats, its Zobaline


Zolbaline has less additives and is the better choice for cats. I hear it crushes pretty well but I haven't bought any yet.
I use Vitacost vitacost
The vitacost one has a trace amount of rice flour.
My cat was just starting to show signs of her rear legs getting weaker and she reversed completely after I put her on the Vitacost version. I like it because it's a capsule and easy to mix in her food.

A commonly given dose here is 3 mg -5 mg.
B vitamins are water soluble and any excess is excreted in the urine so you can't give too much. The body only uses what it needs.


the bottle above for the vitacost is 5000mcg which is the same as 5 mg. You can empty the whole capsule and mix in with the canned food or use part of it if you prefer the 3 mg dose.

It can take 3 months in many cats to see the results so don't get discouraged if it doesn't happen right away.
 
rhiannon and shadow said:
I hear it crushes pretty well but I haven't bought any yet..
Click to expand...

Yea, Zobaline is the one I am giving my cats atm, but buying the vitacost next time since I am now giving it to all the cats instead of just two. Just wanted to say, I haven't crushed them per se, however they dissolve very rapidly (just a couple swirls) in just a tiny bit of water (didn't dissolve as readily directly in the food, even though the food had water mixed in, so definitely dissolve with water first before mixing into food)

ETA: It is my belief that I am seeing such grand results because my cats have been sadly lacking this important thing in their diet/lives for a very long while due to my negligence and failure to question what I 'knew' about taking care of them. So, necessarily every case will be different... if your cat has a deficiency for this vitamin, then it seems to me it will help more and probably quicker than if your cat does not.
 
Welcome! It sounds like you have a wonderful vet. proZinc is a nice mild insulin so you are good there. Two other things you can look at. We feel a wet low carb diet is a must for diabetics. This vet expalins why on her website: www.catinfo.org.

We also test our cats at home, just like we would our two legged kids. We want to be sure it is safe to give the dose we are planning on so we test before each shot. And testing midcycle will show us how the insulin is working, how low he is going. Hopefully the vet will show you how. If not, we have videos and information. We do use human meters as they are much less expensive than the pet kinds and give us a good picture of how the cat is doing.

Let us know how we can help!
 
Thank you for the wonderful information. I'm going to speak to Dr P about Gus taking the zobaline. I just made my morning check up call to the vet. Day 2 of his dosage regulation. He's doing fine and he's eating but they said his sugar is still a little high, but sometimes it takes a couple of days to regulate. Ill phone to speak to the doctor in the afternoon. I do plan on testing him at home because I want to make sure everything is working the way it should. As I'm sure the rest of you are, I'm extremely committed to doing what need be to make sure Gus Is at his best! While its frustrating to sit in a quiet home waiting for the doctors to get him right, I know it's best for him. Hopefully he can come home tomorrow and we can start our journey to better health for him.
 
technically it takes weeks or months to get a kitty regulated so probably moreso what they're doing is seeing how he's going to react to a dose or to the insulin in general to be safe, especially given his history. they just call it regulating the kitty for some reason which i've never understood since it can't be done that quickly. :-) they can rack up the charges doing so but the peace of mind of letting the vet start them on insulin can be worth it to some, especially while the owner does some research :-) otherwise you can just bring him home and start him on a low dose of insulin, start hometesting, and go from there, which isn't bad either.
 
I'm fine with the charges that's not important. I don't want to just bring him home and start dosing. Knowing he's safe and under 24 hour care for the first few days is priceless to me. Given the history I think it's the best way. And I can get the education I need from his doctor. This way seems safer. :)
 
Can you ask the vet if he ran a "fructosamine" test on his blood? Reason I ask is that I have seen quite a few cats recently onhere who were diagnosed by a simple on the spot blood test that showed high blood sugar but werent diabetic. One reason their cat had high blood sugar was vet stress. A fructosamine test looks at the cats blood glucose over the prior month and so gives a much better picture.

Also what are you feeding Gus? We recommend a low carb canned wet food like Fancy feast classic pates, friskies pates or wellness grain free which helps control the blood sugar. But only if you are home testing since a low carb canned will cause a drop in blood sugar and thus less insulin required.

Are you planning to home test? We recommend that strongly.

Wendy
 
Wendy, ill speak to the vet today and ask about the fructosamine test. He was diagnosed in the office and they did a full blood on him including the glucose meter. I don't think it was vet stress as it was off the charts and Gus is pretty mellow as far as vet visits. I will definitely be home testing as well as following any vet instructions to the letter. My understanding is that the same dosage is given twice daily within 12 hours apart unless something drastic happens. Gus already eats wet food and he's ok with some of the raw brands which we had been trying to help him put on weight. But once again, I will wait until I speak with Dr P and fully understand all his instructions before I do or change anything.
 
The "blood glucose meter" at the vet is what worries me since its an on the spot test. Anyway lets see what the vet says. I would definately do a couple of baseline tests before you start shooting. Better safe than sorry.

what type/brand of food are you feeding?
 
Don't let the vet talk you into the expensive pet meter. All it does is read 30 points higher than a human meter as it is specifically calibrated for pets. Here is a break down on the costs of a pet and human meter I did:

I look at it this way-
Upfront expenses:
Alpha track meter- $100+ to buy
strips- I think they are $2 EACH
vs
Relion Micro- $15 (Prime is only not that much more and the strips are even cheaper)
strips- store- 100/$36 ($.36 EACH) and auto shipped from ADW 250/$72 ($.29 EACH)

I test, on average, 5 times a day.
Alpha- 5*2.00=10.00/day, 70.00/wk, 280.00/4 wk month.
Relion- 5*.29= 1.45/day, 10.15/wk, 40.60/4 wk month.

I save $239.40 a month by using a human meter, on average. Sure, every 45 days my auto-ship order comes from ADW ($73 because of the auto ship discount covers most of the shipping cost) but I've built that into my budget.

But lets say you only test 3 times a day because of time constraints (both PS shots and one mid-cycle)-
Alpha- 3*2.00=6.00/day, 42.00/wk, 168.00/4 wk month.
Relion- 3*.29= .87/day, 6.09/wk, 24.36/4 wk month.

Comes to a $143.64 savings. That's a lot of cat food (or people food, utility bill, car payment...)

So... If you have money to burn- get ahead and get the pet meter. Otherwise there is no difference in the readings but 30 points. is the $145/month difference worth it for 30 points?

Food- we have several food lists on here- a low carb (under 10% best) canned food diet is best- great that Gus already eats the canned- but stay away from the grilled, gravy lovers and stick with the pate`s. No medallions (unless the raw kind), no medleys, go for the grain free ones for the lower carb %.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all your help everyone! I know about glucose meters as I work in a pharmacy I have access to a lot of freebie meter offers so I don't think I'll get the pet one. Seems silly. I guess they are stabilizing Gus and I'm fine having that fine at the hospital. Then I will take over his care. Today begins day 3 of him not being home and I'm praying to God that the doc calls to say cone get your boy!! I never realized how much noise he actually makes!! Anyway...ill keep you all posted. As far as food Gus liked the wellness and another couple of raw foods but I can't think of the names off the top of my head.
 
Nancy,

You must miss your guy so much! Here is wishing you get that call today to "come pick Gus up". Hope he is eating well at the vet and behaving himself. ;-)

Sending "ready to come home" vines for you and Gus.
 
Thanks Deb!! The doctor informed me he eats like a horse...true and that he's a piggy. He likes to tip his water dish so he's been keeping them busy with cleanup!! I guess it's his way of protesting! I'm keeping fingers crossed that I get that call! Thanks for the good vibes....
 
Really hoping to hear that Gus gets to come home for the weekend. How is he doing? Still at the vets? Have they given you any idea on when he can come back home?
 
Hello all! Gus is home!!! So far so good. Gave him his first shot tonight. Dr P said we need to get some weight back on him so he can wait for a low carb diet. He doesn't seem as thirsty but is a bit overwhelmed at being home. I'm trying to just let him do his thing. He's on prozinc .3 twice a day. He probably needs to gain 2 pounds or so. He eats proplan and some of the wellness raw food. Plus a couple others from the healthy food store. I'm a but overwhelmed right now but I've got good resources. Almost 5 days away I'm sure Gus thought he was abandoned! I'm trying not to hover as he seems to be doing all his normal routines. Thanks for thinking of us! Going to look for the vitamin b tomorrow for him.
 
Low carb doesn't mean low calorie. Your cat can still gain weight on a low carb high protein diet. the advantage of the low-carb diet is for the blood glucose levels to be lower. You can add up to 10% raw or lightly cooked meat to the diet. It's the extra protein that will help him gain weight.
 
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