New Onset/ Welcome

[SmooshyCat]

Hello, this is my first visit to the message board and this site. I have a 10 year old Himalayan named smoosh and a 7 year old Persian named Bora. The current kitty in question is Smoosh, for many many nights he and my house have remained sleepless due to his incessant screaming. He has always been a loud cat, but something seemed amiss this time, so off to the vet we went. He had lost about 2.5 pounds and she was concerned about thyroid issue so a full blood workup was ordered. It came back with normal TSH and T4 but elevated blood sugar. We are returning tonight for a conformation urine test, but we have already had the insulin discussion. I'm sure over the next few days, weeks and months I will have many questions and concerns and I hope you will be patient as we work on getting Smoosh back to health. If anyone has any initial suggestions or words of wisdom they would be greatly appreciated as we a pretty terrified.

 

[dirtybirdsoaps]

Welcome to FDMB,

It can be a scary diagnosis but can be easily managed, and there is a possibility of remission. I don't know what kind of food you are feeding, but we recommend NO dry food....even prescription kinds and stick with canned food that is 10% or less in carbs. Most here feed fancy feast or friskies. Secondly the most here will recommend Lantus, ProZinc, Levemir, and BCP PZI are all good insulins to use and last about 12 hours per shot. Then there's home testing, this is a big PLEASE home test! It is intimidating at first but it gets easier. You do not need a pet specific meter like some vets (mine included) will tell you you have to have. A lot of people here use the relion brand from walmart (human meters) they are cheap as well as the test strips. The best way to look at things like home testing is.....what would you do for your child? Would you give them insulin without knowing if their blood glucose is low???? I know I wouldn't, so its smart to test prior. Also with insulin go slow and start low, and keep an eye out for hypo

Here is a food chart of what is recommended:
http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

How to care for hypo:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

Also, it would be a good idea to start a spread sheet and attach it to your signature line. It helps us see where the jumps are. Here is info on that.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207&start=0

Also in your signature line it is best to include what insulin you are using, and meter type

Also this cheers you up
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=33671

Hope some of this helps.

 

[SmooshyCat]

Welcome to FDMB,

It can be a scary diagnosis but can be easily managed, and there is a possibility of remission. I don't know what kind of food you are feeding, but we recommend NO dry food....even prescription kinds and stick with canned food that is 10% or less in carbs. Most here feed fancy feast or friskies. Secondly the most here will recommend Lantus, ProZinc, Levemir, and BCP PZI are all good insulins to use and last about 12 hours per shot. Then there's home testing, this is a big PLEASE home test! It is intimidating at first but it gets easier. You do not need a pet specific meter like some vets (mine included) will tell you you have to have. A lot of people here use the relion brand from walmart (human meters) they are cheap as well as the test strips. The best way to look at things like home testing is.....what would you do for your child? Would you give them insulin without knowing if their blood glucose is low???? I know I wouldn't, so its smart to test prior. Also with insulin go slow and start low, and keep an eye out for hypo

Here is a food chart of what is recommended:
http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

How to care for hypo:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

Also, it would be a good idea to start a spread sheet and attach it to your signature line. It helps us see where the jumps are. Here is info on that.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207&start=0

Also in your signature line it is best to include what insulin you are using, and meter type

Also this cheers you up
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=33671

Hope some of this helps.

Thank you for the info, we confirmed tonight with a urine test that was positive for Protein and 1000+ glucose. His BW from yesterday showed a blood glucose of 370. We are going Tuesday for the consultation and information session. They did mention that Lantus was what we would be starting with, for hopes of a remission. On a positive note kidney and liver function does not seem to be affected at this time, so we believe we caught it early. We are currently feeding Halo dry formula. We are a two cat household so it is hard to stick to one thing. The other cat does not like wet food. We have been giving Smoosh tiki cat canned formula for sometime now (from what their web sites says is 0% carbs 78% protein and 15% fay, previously under the assumption to prevent kidney stones, or crystals in the urethra (being an older male cat). I did mention diet to the vet tonight and she said at this time she wants everything to remain the same.

I did call around to check prices at my local pharmacy and it's looking like the cheapest I could find the lantus was $250.99 from the Acme Sav On, its so strange to see the huge differences in price between two pharmacies. Do you find it is cheaper to buy supplies (meters, needles, test strips) online, through the vet or some other source I may not be aware of yet.

 

[dirtybirdsoaps]

Lantus is a good insulin from what I hear. As to changing the diet, if you must feed dry we recommend either EVO cat & kitten formula, Young again zero carb, or stellas freeze dried. Tiki is a good food, I have included their as fed values I received from the company a couple months ago. The only problem with keeping your other cat on the dry, is that if smoosh gets ANY of the dry it can drastically up the blood glucose.

Here is a great article on dry to wet transitioning for the addicts lol
http://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

Also, from what I here with the Lantus is it's a pen, and some pharmacy's will sell a single pen instead of a pack,......I think I've seen people say Target, dont know for sure and I don't know if you have one local. Meters definitely cheaper when you buy a human one. Here is a rating guide for meters with price ranges and accuracy ratings as well
http://www.felinediabetes.com/glucometersNov12.pdf

when you buy one they will usually come with a lancet pen with a few lancets and test strips. I use the relion micro, and for 100 test strips I pay about $35. A lot of vets wont mention diet, or tell you its a good idea but diet changenlone can drop bg by 100+ points, thats why we push the home testing because if you change the diet it can drop the bg to the point you would need to give a lower dose of insulin or none at all. Also a lot of vets dont suggest home testing, or will tell you its not necessary. It is. It is very important because if you give insulin with a normal bg it can send your cat into hypo and it can kill your cat, not to mention it saves the hassle, stress and money of having to take your cat in to have them do a curve (test every 2 hrs) stress and infection will raise a cats bg, so when you take your cat to the vet the number wouldn't be as accurate as it would be at home.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Lantus is a very good insulin. With any insulin you want to start at a low dose, 1 unit twice a day. Hometesting is something we strongly encourage. It can be a little intimidating to learn at first but you will quickly get the hang of it. There are videos we can recommend and also hints that worked for us.

If you live in the US, the Lantus website has discount coupons for the pens. You want to ask your vet to write the prescription for pens instead of a vial. For humans, the expiration date is 28 days. However, with both the pens and vials you can use it until it becomes ineffective. That is another reason to hometest, so you can tell when the insulin is starting to become ineffective. The problem with vials is that you will not be able to use most of it before it stops working. So you will end up throwing away a lot of money. Because the pens are package in smaller containers, you should be able to use almost every drop. A vial will generally last about 3-4 months, though on some occasions up to 6 months. A package of pens will be enough insulin to last almost a year.

You can transition both cats over to canned food. It will make it easier for you to feed them and also lessen the chance that Bora will eventually develop FD. Evo Kitten food is a lower carb dry food that will help. A couple of my cats were dry food fiends and I was able to eventually convert them. First, if you are leaving dry food out all of the time, you want to stop doing that. Most cats are fine with being fed twice a day. Though initially you may have to feed Smoosh more often until his glucose levels become regulated. Uncontrolled diabetics are usually very hungry since their bodies are not processing the food properly. One trick that worked with mine is to start putting the canned food in a bowl and place some of the dry on top of it. You may have to start with more dry than can, but gradually start reducing the dry and increasing the canned food. I eventually got it to where I only needed 4-5 pieces of dry on top to keep them happy. Finally, I was able to remove all dry food.

 

[SmooshyCat]

Thank you both so much for the information, I will definitely address is with the vet on Tuesday, and that article about how to switch from dry to wet may be my bible in the weeks to come. Right now my biggest concern is getting him healthy. I have on my list of questions for the vet if she feels Karo is best incase of a hypoglycemia attack. I have also seen suggestions of honey and molasses, but I think the key may be whatever is closest to get the glucose back to a safe level. I talked to the pharmacist at acme tonight and she was giving me pricing on the different meters so if that's something he will tolerate we will definitely look into it. I was confused with the rice/sock combo, I will read further and I understand that warm is better, but hold it there for the prick or warm then remove and prick? I dunno, semantics it seems at this point. Thank you both again for addressing all my "noob" questions, well get through it together!!!

 

[Deb & Wink]

I talked to the pharmacist at acme tonight and she was giving me pricing on the different meters so if that's something he will tolerate we will definitely look into it

It's not the price of the meter, it's the price of the test strips. With our recommended 4 tests a day, you can go through a lot of test strips in a month.