New to all of this, feeling depressed

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Rachel & Link

Rachel & Link

Member Since 2024
Hi Everyone,

I'm so glad I found this site, I've already learned so much.

My little fur buddy Link is 13 and male and was always such a perfectly healthy guy. I noticed he was drinking water like crazy and much hungrier than normal so I took him to the vet and it was diabetes.

He is now on 1.5 IU of Lantus twice a day and has been for 19 days now. Ive switched his food to the prescription one they recommended, half a can wet in the morning, half a cup dry to graze on during the day and then half a can at night. I've ordered the glucose monitor but it hasn't arrived.

Since starting insulin he is still drinking and peeing like crazy but he's been much happier and playful again and has definitely started to put back on the 4 pounds he lost. My concern is he seems less hungry, he still eats but he doesn't pester me for it like he used to and I have to follow him around the house with his food bowl so he'll eat enough for the insulin. Should I be concerned? He always ends up eating it all just very slowly lol. Sorry for the long post my vet has been extremely unhelpful.

Additionally, how does everyone cope with this? I am 32, I live alone, no partner, no close family to help. I imagine I will never be able to go on vacation again, it's all been so depressing.

Thanks. <3
 
Welcome :)

Breathe and take a read through these two threads:

https://felinediabetes.com/newdiag.htm
https://www.felinediabetes.com/dear-mom.htm

There are people here who live alone and don't have any help at all with their diabetic cat. Like me :) Although I do have family near by, none will do anything more than feed and scoop the litter box. I do have a friend and my vet's tech who can do injections if needed but I haven't had a need to ask them yet. @Sienne and Gabby (GA) also managed a diabetic cat alone. Some people hire a pet sitter to take care of the diabetic cat or board the cat at a boarding place or with the vet when they go on vacation or business trip or wherever.

Lantus is a great insulin to use. There's a board here on FDMB for all Lantus users if you want to browse around and read the info stickies. It's generally recommended to start Lantus at no more than 1 unit twice a day, 0.5 units to be extra cautious, but some cats may need a different dose.

You don't need the vet's recommended prescription food at all, especially not the dry food. There's nothing in prescription food that is better for a diabetic cat than commercial food. The ingredients are generally pretty poor quality and it's so expensive. What were you feeding your cat before? Low carb canned food is best for diabetics (raw and home cooked too but not everyone wants to feed those) but don't change the diet cold turkey right now. A diet change has a big impact on blood glucose levels and insulin need. You need to be hometesting before you can slowly change the diet. It's ok to disagree with the vet about food :)
 
Thank you for the welcome, that dear mom post really got me. :')

So is 1.5 IU a lot then? He is still symptomatic so they suggested possibly upping it soon.

Yes, he hates the dry food they told me to switch to and it was 75 dollars for the bag. :/

It's called Hill's Prescription Diet, Glucose Support. Before all of this I was feeding him BFF wet food pumpkin flavour and Performatrin Ultra for Senior cats.
 
Insulin can pack a punch. It's probably better to drop the dose down to 1 unit or even 0.5 units but let's see what other members think. Do your insulin syringes have half unit markings? @Wendy&Neko @Sienne and Gabby (GA)

Some of the BFF cans are low carb but they're mostly fish based. If you're in the US or Canada, use this food chart: https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf Take a look and note which foods have under 10% carbs. You can work on the diet change later.

The prescription food can be returned to the vet for a refund. Just say your cat won't eat it.

Hometesting tips: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/ Which meter did you order? Most people use a Human blood glucose meter on their cat.

The Lantus board is here: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/ The stickies at the top have tons of info, too much for a newbie to absorb right away but good info to refer to over and over again.
 
Hi and welcome. Feeling super-depressed and overwhelmed at at the diabetes diagnosis is totally normal!!

Link is beautiful, bit of a longish-haired tuxedo cat I guess? You asked if 1.5U is a lot of insulin --- that depends on the cat and the diabetes. It might not be enough, it might be too much -- without more data it is pretty tough to say. This site is great, the experts here are very data-driven, very numbers-driven. Hometesting of Link's blood sugar is key, it sounded impossible to me when I first joined up here but if I can learn how, anyone can. Took a few weeks to get the hang of it though, and get my cat used to it. My vet said not to bother with home testing but it is very important to know whether or not it is safe to give you kitty insulin. A human parent with a diabetic child would never give insulin without checking blood sugar first to be sure it is safe to give.

As far as vacations and having a life outside of the feline diabetes management, that is 100% possible. Yes, at first after diagnosis managing the disease can be fairly consuming but after some time you develop a routine and get the kitty used to everything, and for many people returning to a somewhat "normal" pre-diagnosis life.

And if you adopt a dosing method like Tight Regulation and follow it to the letter, you might even get Link into what is called diabetic remission -- like my boy Hendrick, who is now a diet-controlled diabetic feline in diabetic remission.
 
Welcome to FDMB!

The first weeks/month or two of managing your cat's diabetes are completely overwhelming. I was in shock -- especially since my cat was hospitalized for several days due to diabetic ketoacidosis and a few other life threatening conditions -- when she was diagnosed. To make it even more complicated, I can speak fluent "medicalese" and the vet at the ICU assumed that I knew how to give injections. Thank goodness for YouTube.

I also managed Gabby's diabetes for 6.5 years as a solo caregiver and no family anywhere nearby. My friends were too paranoid that I'd kill them if anything happened to my cat on their watch. I also worked full time and full time was usually a 10 hour day. It does take some adjustment. I was fortunate in that I have had experienced cat sitters who know how to give injections and were as paranoid about my cat as I was/am. They also were good at dealing with my diva of a diabetic cat and would follow my rather detailed instructions. My friends - most of whom were cat parents -- were willing to put up with my needing to stop at home to check on Gabby if I had a concern about her blood glucose level and we were going out for the evening. I may not have had the most exciting social life but I still went out for the evening and travelled.

Just to add to the comments about food. Please ditch the dry food. Cats are obligate carnivores. They do not need carbohydrates in their diet. They need high quality protein. The first several of the Hill's dry food ingredients include Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken, Chicken Fat, Wheat Gluten, Potato Protein, Powdered Cellulose, Pork Protein Isolate, Corn Starch, Sweet Potatoes, Chicken Liver Flavor, etc. animal by-products are a low quality form of protein. Things like gluten are major allergens for cats. The corn, potato, corn starch, and sweet potato are all carbs. My all time favorite ingredient though is powdered cellulose -- another name for sawdust. The ingredients are terrible. You may want to do a bit of reading on feline nutrition. This is a great website on feline nutrition that's written by a vet. The food chart that's linked above comes from this website. You have lots and lots of choices for canned foods that are less than 10% carbohydrate. The other reason to use canned food is that cats have a limited thirst drive. There's almost no moisture in dry food. They need the liquid from the canned food.

In addition, the pet food manufacturers lost a class action suit for calling their food "prescription." There's nothing in the prescription food that requires a prescription. In fact, the dry food is 15% carbohydrate which is a high carb food. It also looks like the canned food is 13% carb or at least that's the info on the Hill's website. The canned food is medium carb by our standards. It's like feeding your diabetic cookies. There are no FDA-like regulations that govern pet food.
 
Thank you so much for all the responses. I'm confused because as I learn more about the food I see that Link's diet previously was much lower carb than the Hill's they've switched him to. Counterintuitive I feel?

I'll have the AlphaTrak3 sometime tomorrow to start home testing so I guess that will tell me more. I work late at restaurant so his schedule has to be 11 AM and 11 PM so they gave me the dry food because he goes insane to eat at his old usual time of 5 pm before I leave for work. Is there anything I can give him in between the 2 feeding times?
 
Rachel & Link said:
Thank you so much for all the responses. I'm confused because as I learn more about the food I see that Link's diet previously was much lower carb than the Hill's they've switched him to. Counterintuitive I feel?

I'll have the AlphaTrak3 sometime tomorrow to start home testing so I guess that will tell me more. I work late at restaurant so his schedule has to be 11 AM and 11 PM so they gave me the dry food because he goes insane to eat at his old usual time of 5 pm before I leave for work. Is there anything I can give him in between the 2 feeding times?
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It seems most vets do not even ask about a newly diagnosed cat's current diet, they just automatically prescribe the Hills, which as you have found, is not low carb. I agree, that doesn't make a lot of sense.


Yes you can feed him in between the two feeding times but it would be best if it is canned food that is low-carb. There are timed feeders that you can insert a cold pack into, for leaving out wet food. Would maybe be something that works for you.
 
Also want to add, there are members all over the world and there might be someone who lives in your area who might be able to help you out occasionally :) When I had my first diabetic, there was another FDMB member who lived the next town over and who provided support. The person even recommended their vet and, long story short, it's been nearly 15 years since then and I'm still using the same vet for my current diabetic :D

You can leave some low carb canned food out for snacking on. Many people use a timed feeder for this purpose. Canned food is ok if left out all day :)
 
Much like MDs, vets are given almost no education regarding nutrition. Vets get their "education" from the sales reps from the pet food companies. Vets have a huge job. They are supposed to know everything about every species of animal that comes through the clinic door. In the grand scheme of things, I suspect what to feed your pet is lower down on the list than many other issues.
 
Rachel & Link said:
Performatrin Ultra for Senior cats
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Hello, fellow Canadian? Waving at you from sunny (today) BC.

As other have suggested, home testing is the key to keeping Link safe. It will tell us if 1.5 units is too much, too little, or just the right amount of insulin. Plus a cat's insulin needs can change over time. You ask if 1.5 units is a large dose - well, another saying we have here is ECID, every cat is different. My long haired tuxie girl needed to go up to 8.75 units of Lantus. But that's because she had a couple secondary conditions causing her to need more insulin than the average cat. The fact that your kitty is happier and playful are great signs!

Although the vet may like that you are using the Alphatrak 3, your wallet will not. Most of us use human blood glucose meters. They weren't heavily marketing to the vets until after I started, at which point the vets were using human meters too. The numbers are a bit different between pet and human meters, but closer at the lower numbers where it counts. The test strips are just so much cheaper for human meters. In Canada, the Freestyle Lite is one commonly used meter, but there are others. It's also handy to be able to go to the nearest drug store and get test strips should you be running low, instead of waiting for delivery or the vet's office to be open.

Petsafe 5 or the Catmate 5 compartment feeders are popular ones here.
 
Hi again,

I have found that my vet is being NO help whatsoever. I canceled my order of the alpha trak monitor and ordered the Accu Chek human one and they've said they will have no way to get an accurate reading so can't help me make sense of the readings. I know there are many files on here I can look into but I'm so nervous to start home monitoring! I've been putting it off and the guilt is setting in, Link is still drinking a lot, begging for food and peeing a lot so I know he isn't regulated yet. Otherwise he does seem much happier than before diagnosis.

Can anyone suggest a wet food I can switch him to? He's currently eating Hill's Gluco support half a can in the morning and half at night and he seems starving, I'm worried about giving him dry food now so I've thrown it all away, but periodically give him a few spoon fuls of wet food throughout the day when I can. Is Tiki Cat food a good brand? I've look at the food charts but it all starts to get very confusing.
 
Tiki and Weruva are both good but a lot of fish-based flavors so some people try to feed them in moderation. Fancy Feast classic pates are almost all very low carb and a lot of people feed those.
 
Any low carb canned food is fine, really :) Lots of people suggest Fancy Feast pates since most cats like it and it's found nearly everywhere. Are you using the Catinfo.org chart? Whatever food has 10% or less carbs on the food chart is fine. Note: the Catinfo.org chart was last updated in 2017. Some foods may have been discontinued since them or had ingredient changes. Double check ingredients and food availability with current information on the pet food manufacturer web site or on Chewy. I thought I found a good high carb IBD-friendly food on the Catinfo chart for hypo purposes but then found that it is no longer made :(

Tiki Cat is fine if that's what your cat likes to eat :) I think the one rule of thumb is to avoid feeding too much seafood because of urinary tract concerns and some cats getting addicted to eating it and won't eat anything else.
 
The other issue with seafood is a possible connection to hyperthyroidism, since our poor sea creatures send to take in a lot of our chemical waste.

Again, a bit out of date, but some of the Performatrin wet foods are listed on this document, look for under 10% carbs: CANADIAN Food Chart
 
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