New to forum; Lily and I are trying to settle in to new life with diabetes

[Lily the Cat]

Hello!

It's wonderful to meet everyone, though obviously not under these circumstances.

Lily was diagnosed diabetic after getting a blood panel for her "senior cat checkup". Oddly, she'd been displaying behaviors that made me wonder if she was diabetic -- eating more, drinking more water, urinating a ton -- but the vet and the techs all laughed off my concerns and said those were side effects of the steroid she was taking for inflammation.

But, tests came back positive and here we are. Lily's been a champ about handling her two-a-day injections. The vet advised me against testing at home, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that idea. She's due for her second full BG curve in a week or so.

She has been eating well, half a can of Friskies wet food and half a can (begrudgingly, if there's no other food left) of the DM diabetic wet cat food.

But today she wolfed down her friskies and vomited it all up seconds later, undigested. I decided not to give her a shot. Then worried all day if I should have. She's coming up second feeding of the day and I'm hoping we can get back on a schedule.

For all of you dealing with newly diabetic cats, I hear ya. I've been getting better at not being a complete emotional wreck whenever I bring her to the vet (she's been back for a spot check and stayed half the day). But I still worry a lot and have a lot of questions.

I really appreciate this site and this board and all the help and advice you've given. I started reading this board when Lily was diagnosed and finally decided to join.

Thanks!

 

[Sharon14]

Hi welcome to you and Lily! Your instincts about home testing are good. It is the best way to keep Lily safe and see how well the insulin is working. You mention steroids, is Lily still taking them? They can be the cause of her diabetes and if you are able to stop them, she may go into remission. Sometimes when cats wolf down their food they puke it right back up- that's scarf and barf. One way to prevent that is to feed smaller amounts more frequently, and/or to use a flat plate and spread the food out to slow them down. If you have any questions on home testing or any other feline topic, ask in the Health Forum where there are more eyes.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Welcome.
Home testing is the way to go since BG measure at the vet can be 100 or more points (USA) higher due to stress.
You do not need your vet's approval to home test.

Some of my cats regurgitate and I feed they two serving separated by maybe 5 minutes.
Other server several small meals through out the day but not within 2 hours of the next shot. The key is to be consistent day to day.
Did you slowly transition to the canned? If not that could be cause the regurgitation.
What insulin and what is dose?

 

[Lily the Cat]

Thank you! Lily isn't taking the steroids anymore. She had been biting her nipple until it bled and the vet said she had fleas and gave her this steroid, Depo Medrol (sp?) along with flea meds. This was August. She ended up getting another shot of that a month later, in September. By then, she was eating an insane amount of food -- she used to eat friskies wet food a couple times a day and I left dry cat food out all of the time, and she ate it all. She went in for her annual appointment in October, and the vet recommended a "senior blood panel" because she's 11. If not for that, she never would have been diagnosed!

I'll check out the Health forum and post questions there. Thank you so much! This is such a wonderful place!

 

[Lily the Cat]

Larry and Kitties,

We've managed to get on a strict feeding schedule. 12 hours apart, 4:30 and 4:30 (yeah, 4:30 a.m. is not fun!). She had always eaten Friskies but complemented that with dry food. The vet had me remove dry food a month ago -- no problems there.

I tried giving her some Fancy Feast this morning to see if she'd like that instead of the DM diet food she doesn't like. I think you're right, changing foods probably led to the vomiting.

She takes 1 unit of Novalin N twice a day. I'll check out the Health forum to try to figure out which glucose tester to get her.

Thank you!