New to diabetes
- Thread starter Nic costa
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Diane Tyler's Mom GA
Member Since 2018
@Nic costa
You needed to put this here not on your profile page where it says information so I copied it for you
From Nic costa
Just a person who's 15 year old cat, Smokey, got diagnosed with diabetes 3 months ago. On novolin N. Went from 1 unit twice a day to 3 units twice a day. Has been to vet every month to check glucose. Vet says "you usually don't check the blood sugar on a cat at home" when I asked. He has lost 3 lbs in a year ( 2 of those lbs were when I didn't know he had diabetes.) he urinates a lot and eats like a starving desert animal nonstop but continues to lose weight- lost 1 lb in 1 month. And he's continuing weight loss. His poop as been soft and or diarrhea for months now- vet at first said it was from diabetes. Now with his recent weight loss while eating a ton as well as diarrhea, the vet said he possibly has GI cancer- when I asked what about IBS he looked at me like I was stupid. Meanwhile everything I've read says IBS can be misdiagnosed as cancer and vice versa. I'm ticked because I just moved to Cleveland and I don't know good vets or trust any out here. Back in Pittsburgh I had 2 amazing vets. So because of the cancer scare he is on prednisolone until we go to oncologist. He was diagnosed with FLUTD at 6 months. Has been on hills science diet rx c/d his whole life. Has had his urine and a cbc and X-rays done at last appt. Right now the vet says since he's losing weight "give him anything and everything to gain weight" has never said a word about low carb and when I brought it up he said right now it's just important to get weight on him.
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Diane Tyler's Mom GA
Member Since 2018
For now
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help
Diane Tyler's Mom GA
Member Since 2018
Bron and Sheba (GA)
Member Since 2015
Hi and welcome Nic and Smokey to the forum
***First of all, please go back to your vet and ask for another insulin. Novolin N is not recommended for cats at all.
Please ask for lantus or a biosimilar insulin or pro zinc. Don’t accept anything else.
I just don’t understand vets who say that cats don’t need to have their blood glucose checked at home. They do!
Can you go out and buy a ReliOn premier glucose meter from Walmart ? You will also need some test strips to go with it and some lancets size 26 or 28. And get some cotton balls to hold behind the ear when testing.
We can help you get started with testing.
Then when you have done that I would swap him over to a canned low carb diet which is what is needed for diabetic cats.
But don’t do any swap over of food until you are hometesting as a low carb diet will drop the blood glucose up to 100 points.
He won’t put on any weight until his blood glucose is more under control as at the moment he can’t absorb all the nutrients in the food. Are you feeding him snacks during the day and evening s well as the 2 main meals? If not please do so. He needs more food than he is getting. A snack is a couple of teaspoons of food.
Are you feeding him 1 hour before you give the dose of Novolin N.? Novolin N hits hard and fast and Smokey need to have food aboard. And I would feed him 1, 2 and 3 hours after the doses of insulin.
What dose of prednisolone is he on?
Please keep asking questions
***First of all, please go back to your vet and ask for another insulin. Novolin N is not recommended for cats at all.
Please ask for lantus or a biosimilar insulin or pro zinc. Don’t accept anything else.
I just don’t understand vets who say that cats don’t need to have their blood glucose checked at home. They do!
Can you go out and buy a ReliOn premier glucose meter from Walmart ? You will also need some test strips to go with it and some lancets size 26 or 28. And get some cotton balls to hold behind the ear when testing.
We can help you get started with testing.
Then when you have done that I would swap him over to a canned low carb diet which is what is needed for diabetic cats.
But don’t do any swap over of food until you are hometesting as a low carb diet will drop the blood glucose up to 100 points.
He won’t put on any weight until his blood glucose is more under control as at the moment he can’t absorb all the nutrients in the food. Are you feeding him snacks during the day and evening s well as the 2 main meals? If not please do so. He needs more food than he is getting. A snack is a couple of teaspoons of food.
Are you feeding him 1 hour before you give the dose of Novolin N.? Novolin N hits hard and fast and Smokey need to have food aboard. And I would feed him 1, 2 and 3 hours after the doses of insulin.
What dose of prednisolone is he on?
Please keep asking questions
What testing has the vet done to think your kitty might have IBD (inflammatory bowel disease, not IBS) or small cell lymphoma (SCL or cancer of the bowels)? You need to start with an ultrasound, but then a biopsy is needed to differentiate between the two. It's not true that IBD can be misdiagnosed as SCL or vice versa. What is true is that the vet isn't doing the right testing to figure out if either one is there and if so, which one. Maybe it's time to ask the vet if they can refer you to an internal medicine vet. They are the best ones at handling more complicated cases, if he does have IBD or SCL. Your vet clearly isn't doing the right testing. Or maybe you just need a different vet willing to put your kitty on a good insulin and do some proper diagnostics on the GI system. To start, a GI blood panel might be informative.
Going on prednisolone without having a diagnosis is not the correct thing to do, and pred will also make it harder to regulate him. If you do go ahead with the proper diagnostics, the prednisolone can mask the disease and you'd have to go off of the pred before the biopsy anyway. To top it off, budesonide is a better choice for a steroid for a diabetic as it is more locally acting on the GI system and usually doesn't impact blood sugars.
Going on prednisolone without having a diagnosis is not the correct thing to do, and pred will also make it harder to regulate him. If you do go ahead with the proper diagnostics, the prednisolone can mask the disease and you'd have to go off of the pred before the biopsy anyway. To top it off, budesonide is a better choice for a steroid for a diabetic as it is more locally acting on the GI system and usually doesn't impact blood sugars.
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Nic costa
Member Since 2024
thank you for helping
Nic costa
Member Since 2024
he has done no testing just X-rays and based his gi lymphoma possibility off weight loss gas and diarrhea. Please don't take this to be rude- the only reason I said this cancer can be misdiagnosed as IBS a lot is that via Cornell university vet medicine. We are going to the oncologist today to see what they say. He did say the prednisolone would affect his blood sugar and make it harder to manage, even though he insists we don't check blood sugar at home. Someone else mentioned his insulin the novolin N to be a terrible choice for cats- do you have a suggestion on insulin?
Diane Tyler's Mom GA
Member Since 2018
You're welcome
Diane Tyler's Mom GA
Member Since 2018
Nic costa said post #8
he has done no testing just X-rays and based his gi lymphoma possibility off weight loss gas and diarrhea. Please don't take this to be rude- the only reason I said this cancer can be misdiagnosed as IBS a lot is that via Cornell university vet medicine. We are going to the oncologist today to see what they say. He did say the prednisolone would affect his blood sugar and make it harder to manage, even though he insists we don't check blood sugar at home. Someone else mentioned his insulin the novolin N to be a terrible choice for cats- do you have a suggestion on insulin?
@Bron and Sheba (GA)
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Diane Tyler's Mom GA
Member Since 2018
Either Lantus or generic lantus ,or prozinc , I like Lantus, most cats are on lantus here
You can read about lantus here , read all the yellow stickys
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/
Found this posted by a member
Found this also
I seesome members will call CVS, Rite Aid, Costco, Walgreen's, to get the price for 5 pens
Posted by another member
One members posted this
. I paid $175 for a box of 5 pens at Walmart pharmacy, but GoodRX coupon says you can get it for around $90 if you have a Rite Aid pharmacy near you.
Just call around for the best price
A member just posted this
Allie was using the Lantus and I just switched to the generic and using the GoodRX I got 5 pens for $81.30 at Walgreens.
GoodRX has a 1-800 number to assist you in using their services to get your pets prescriptions filled if the pharmacy gives you any issues.
I think I found it for you
GoodRx / Customer service
1 (855) 268-2822
Prices are probably much cheaper now since this post is old
Also check out post #22 about lantus , post numbers are to the right of each post
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...asing-help-advice-needed.289859/#post-3178558
Check out this too
https://www.goodrx.com/lantus?label...d-pens-of-100-units-ml&quantity=1&slug=lantus
Make sure that the Match your prescription pull down menu says generic glargine 1carton of 5 3ml pens.
I have read lantus prices has come down also
@Nic costa
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Nic costa
Member Since 2024
Yes I was baffled when he looked at me and said we don't check at home just come back every month until we have it regulated. I will definitely go buy a meter etc. - I just feel bad because he's 15 and he already runs from us during shot time because the poor skinny guy has to get 2 shots a day in his scruff. Yes we are feeding churu etc since the vet said "let him eat as much as he wants, he needs to gain weight." So feed him an hour before his first shot and then an hour etc after in place of snacks? How many times to I check his sugar? Is it always in the ear? Please don't take offense but do you have experience etc with this insulin? I'm new here and I know this site is different but so many other sites, for example, home diy people are adamant about doing something when they just "think" it best because they read about it. I appreciate all your help and will take this steps. Oh and all the med says is "prednisolone"
If you look at people's signatures, you see that we have spreadsheets (SS) for our cats showing how often and when we test. I have experience with Caninsulin (called Vetsulin in the US), Lantus, Levemir, and Humulin R. Humulin/Novolin are the same except different manufactures. R is an even shorter acting version than the N insulins. Though I don't have experience with Novolin N, I have seen several spreadsheets of cats who have been on N. It's an insulin that dosen't last long in the cat - who have higher metabolisms than people. When you test for the various insulins can vary, because their action profiles differ. Lantus, Levemir and Prozinc all last much longer in the cat.
When we talk about best insulins for cats, we are referring to published research such as:
In that document under the treatment for dogs section, you'll see that N, also called NPH is an insulin used for dogs. In the section on treatment for cats before that, starting page 3, you see both Lantus and Prozinc mentioned as suitable for cats. Unfortunately a lot of vets have more experience with diabetic dogs than cats.
While you are giving N, you might want to review this document:
BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HUMULIN N/NOVOLIN N/NPH
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