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PamJV

PamJV

Member Since 2017
My Ricky is a 12 years old, Main Coone mix that was diagnosed with HCM back in July. He did not have high blood pressure but they put in him on a BP med Atenelol to slow down his heart to stop the progression of muscle thickening. Since starting that BP med he went from weighing 19 pounds to weighing 15 pounds.

They said he looked good and his heart sounded good in October at a check up, but I noticed he had a bloody tooth and the vet said it was a resorptive tooth and had to be removed. I thought that tooth must have been the reason why he lost weight because of the pain. Ricky always reacts badly to anethesia and he had a hard time getting over that extraction. The extraction became infected. But after about a week and half he seemed like himself again and I thought all would be good. I assumed he'd gain weight back.

However, he never gained back the weight and has appeared weaker. Today he was diagnosed with diabetes. I think Blood Sugar was around 600. I really wonder if the BP med brought this on by lessoning circulation to his pancreas? Afterall his Blood Pressure was not high to begin with . They had told me the BP med could eventually harm his kidneys and that we would have to monitor to only give him the smallest dose necessary.

Another question is food. Ricky has always had a strong aversion to canned food. He has been eating EVO grain free dry. The vet prescribed ProPlan DM. I just wonder if the ProPlan is better than the EVO for some reason, because EVO has fewer carbs and it has whole meat in it's ingredients, where as the ProPlan DM has chicken by product meal as it's first ingredient.

I am to give Ricky Lantus 1 unit twice a day. Years ago I had a diabetic cat and gave her Humulin L twice a day. With that cat I never had to test her again, she looked like a totally healthy cat and lived another 8 years and eventually died from something else.

Best wishes, Pam
 
Welcome to FDMB! The two dry foods that are low carb or trace carbs are Evo Cat & Kitten (The purple bag) and Young Again Zero. I have no idea if the BP med could have caused the diabetes. I'm not familiar with lantus but the Lantus pros on here will be able to give you a ton of information on it.
 
Thanks StephG Ricky has been eating the Evo Turkey&Chicken Purple Bag before diagnosis. I think I've seen dry food with more protein than this one. I will have to check if there are any out there with even less carbs.

Right now I'd just be happy to see Ricky dig in and eat and gain some weight back !
Pam
 
Welcome to FDMB. It sounds like you have a great cat and are giving Ricky good treatments. I didn't used to do glucose testing. Now I can't imagine why I never did. Testing is important because Ricky may eventually need less or zero insulin. And if you end up dosing him, you could cause a hypoglycemic event. So home testing is recommended.

For food, cats in the wild all eat wet food. So that is also recommended. Also note there are no prescription ingredients in ProPlan DM. There are some good, but old food links on the FDMB home page:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/diet.htm
 
You can get a sample from Young again. www.youngagainpetfood.com email them and request a sample to see if he will eat it. Also I know the feeling of them needing to gain. My boy is still trying to gain weight so he's on a higher dose of insulin because of the extra food he gets and I'm sure there are others that I can't explain. I'm lucky enough that my boy will eat anything that isn't guarded!
 
Hi @PamJV . At the doses cats receive Atenolol it is not for blood pressure. It is a beta blocker and is used to slow the heartbeat so there is less stress on it from the HCM and help with the muscle thickening, there is no effect on blood pressure. Frankie has been on it for 9 years now and his heart now looks normal on ultrasounds and my normal vet keeps forgetting he has HCM because his heart sounds so good.
 
Hello Jeff,
Ricky has always been quite adamant against canned food. I think he'd rather die than eat it. My vet wants me to keep Ricky on 2 units twice a day for two weeks and then bring him in for a glucose curve to be done a the office. He said that most just establish the dosage and stick to that and then visually observe if they are doing well or if it needs to be tweaked. With my cat 20 years ago that's how it was. Once the dosage was established there was never any need to change it.

With Ricky, I guess it will remain to be seen if he perks up and if we can establish the right dose for him. I don't think I'd be testing him every day. I could test once in a while. But he is free feeding. Ricky's case is much different than my case from 20 years ago, since he only eats dry food and also he has HCM. I notice his bloodwork shows high cholesterol now too. None of the vets have said anything about that.
Pam
 
Sue, Thanks for telling me that. That makes me feel better. Ricky was diagnosed with HCM a year ago and it's been since then and starting Atenelol that he's been losing weight and going down hill, so I naturally thought it was a factor. I looked through all his records and see they only tested his glucose once before and that wass in Oct 2016, and it was 206 then. So for some reason they didn't think they needed to retest, and no one said anything. It was at a time when he had lost a lot of weight too.

Now looking through the reports I see his Cholestrol is also high now.... in the 500's. They haven't said anything about that. In the last few months as Ricky was seeming to eat less, he really wanted a serving of Evaporated Milk every day. I wonder if this would have affected his cholesterol ? Ricky has liked unsweetened Evaporated Milk his whole life ever since he was a kitten.

Pam
 
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