New user...........Tucson,AZ

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Vonix

Member Since 2013
Our 4 year old (almost 5) cat James got diagnosed today. They did a BG test and a urine test and both came up high. Took him in from excessive drinking and litter box used and started to feel his spine more. My name is Justin and gf's name is Brenda she had the cat before I moved in. Our other cat ripley is fine that we can tell but really overwhelmed with all of this. Spent the last 4 hours looking over websites and stumbled upon here. Not sure what insulin we are being prescribed, our vet is offering us her remaining insulin as her diabetic cat just recently passed from cancer. So we go back tomorrow to learn how to give the shots and pick that up.

I only worry as we are both in our mid 20's and only having one vehicle have to carpool which with her working 10 hours a day means we are out for long periods. Also worry about the costs (though reading things here puts me a bit more at ease) as we both have alot of debt we are working on and while its getting better there are some weeks where its really tight in the wallet. Guess I should give it some time to relax and stop stressing so much :)

But yeah any advice is helpful we live in Tucson, AZ as well (saw that many people asked about that as well). I just worry we won't be able to keep up with it or something will happen and cause a major freakout.
 
oh oh oh......first, welcome to fdmb :-) and yes, it can certainly seem overwhelming at first. great news for you is I know a member in your area. let me send her a message and point her here. that way you each are aware of each other and if you need help with hometesting or spreadsheet help or things of that nature, you can contact each other :-)
 
Welcome to the board!

He is a youngish cat to have diabetes so you might want to have him checked for infection if you haven't already.. How are his teeth? Any signs of a urinary tract or ear infection?

Assuming no, then next is look at his food. What type, brand of food do you feed? Dry food is often the culprit since its too high in carb, as are some wet canned. So we recommend a low carb canned like friskies pates or fancy feast pâtés which are also reasonably cheap. That can impact blood glucose levels a lot so, assuming there is no mention of ketones or diabetic ketoacidosis, then you might want to try a food change for a week before moving onto insulin.

Also we strongly recommend home testing to keep him safe... Especially if you change his diet.

Let us know how the vet visit goes tomorrow.

Wendy
 
Hi Justin

I'm the member who lives in Tucson. I will be more than happy to help you learn to hometest. My Gracie was also diagnosed at age 4. Has James been on a dry food diet, taken steroids? Any health info you can give us?

Who is your vet? I know many of them here in Tucson. I know it would be more cost effective to get the insulin from her but, if I were you, I would want James on either Lantus or levemir. They are the gold standard in insulins for cats and using them gives James the best chance of going into remission and not needing insulin.

We can help you and Brenda learn to manage James' diabetes. Many members work full time or go to school. This site is the best place you never wanted to be. We live and breathe FD 24/7 and have a much better understanding of its management than most vets.

Let us know your questions...and, again, I will be happy to help you learn to hometest and give insulin. We never give insulin without first checking the BG....for safety.

Welcome!
 
We didnt have medical bloodwork done yet. And yeah they are on purina dry cat food. Honestly will probably wait til friday to get him started on stuff. Even if she gave us insulin tomorrow we would have no means of giving it to him til we get paid.

We took him to the cat vet on broadway next to kolb. No other health problems but as I said no actual blood work done just the symptoms and they did a ear test that showed around 600 on their machine and took hik into the back for a pee test to be sure. He was super stressed out thought after the car ride.

Sorry just been a long day and my gf just woke me up super sick.
 
Was still pretty vague on if this will cost us or not tomorrow. Might just schedule him for next tuesday (day we both are off to take him) and just change up his diet til then and see how he does. Gives me time to get test strips and such and learn home testing before we start him on insulin and prevent the fee of him curving at the vet when we can monitor him ourselves.
 
Did you take him to the Cat Hospital at Broadway and Kolb? If you did, that vet told me when Grwcie was on 1u of insulin and getting into the 300s, that I was overdosing her. I would not use her or her clinic. She was rude and not supportive of doing it any way but hers.

There is another clinic on the SW corner of Broadway/Kolb. I don't know anything about them.

I am in that area frequently if you live near there. Again, I can help you learn how to hometest so you don't need a curve at the vet. You will get better results at home.

You can get a relion confirm meter at Walmart pretty inexpensively as well as the strips. There are also coupons available for Lantus but since I don't use Lantus now, I don't know much about them, check the Community forum in FDMB. There should be info about coupons there.

The resources on this sight are pretty phenomenal.
 
Hi this is james other owner. We did use the cat hospitil of tucson and now that has me worries on what u said. We get paid friday and im tempted to take him to another place for a secodn opinion.wr live on speedway and kolb actually so pretty close. I also fed him his new food this morning and boy he loves it lol
 
I don't doubt her diagnosis....I just don't like the way she approaches FD but she is pretty similar to most vets in that respect. My best friend used a vet on Tanque Verde just east of Sabino Canyon. Her cat was not diabetic but she thought they were reasonably priced and she liked them. I have no idea how they are with FD.

My vets, who I love but don't use to manage FD, are at Sunrise and Swan. That's a ways for you but it is Sunrise Pet Clinic. If you are interested, I would see Dr. Weintraub or Dr, Rademaker if you can't get in with Weintraub. Dr. w helped another FDMB member with her FD cat. I like Dr. W alot and you could tell her I was helping you.

But I will find the name of the clinic on TV...they are closer. You really just need a vet to dx it for you and prescribe lantus or levemir insulin. We can take it from there on management of the FD. Of course, occasionally FD cats have other issues that you need the vet for but James is pretty young.
 
Thats not to far out of the way so could see about taking him there. Luckily we live right next to walmart so getting strips and such shouldnt be to bad.
 
Little worried about him, she said he ate this morning but has thrown up twice and really have not seen him eat since I have been home. Still seems to be drinking water but is just laying around not doing much. Tried giving him another can of food and he just ignored it, didn't respond to a cord swished around him just looked at me. Not sure if we should be alarmed or not, still can't really get him insulin til at least friday.
 
I know money is tight, but if he were my cat, I'd take him to the ER.

Diabetic cats, especially if there is no or little insulin, can develop diabetic ketoacidosis and it can be fatal. It progresses quickly.

DKA can develop as a result of infection (that you may not know exists), not enough calories from anorexia, not enough insulin.

You could run down to the closest pharmacy and get clinistix to check urine ketones but then you have to wait until he pees. I don't know if he has DKA but he has symptoms Ketones/DKA. DKA can progress extremely fast.

There is a 24 hour emergency clinic, Southerrn Az Animal Emergency, with a critical care specialist on Broadway just east of the cat hospital where you went, on the south side of the road across from culvers restaurant. There's also one on the south side of Speedway, between Craycroft and Swan....Pima Pet Clinic. They are very good.
 
Yeah we don't even have the funds to admit him, used what little we had left after his vet bill for Brenda to go to the doctor today as she is also sick. Called Pima Pet Clinic and explained they gave me a number of an organization to call about funds and left a message wiating to hear back.
 
No its for a organization around here, she didn't go into details just gave me two numbers and the persons name, saying they can help out with medical costs to speak with them, said she usually responds quickly. Trying to see if Care Credit will finance now online for something feels better than doing nothing I guess.
 
I work for citibank and handle collections for credit cards, this is through another provider but similar so I am familiar with it.
 
His BG was high but not extreme and they found no keatons. Did basic bloodwork which showed high glucose and possibke issues with his liver. They want us to monitor him and see if he still throws up and will eat. Want us to come back on friday to run more tests on that area to rule things out. So we shall see.
 
Seems fine a mit more active. He was purring in his kennel while we got the bill figured out. Tried to give him wet food this morning and still wouldnt eat it so ill try again later.
 
Did they give you a prescription for insulin? Do you member which doctor you saw?

If you can go to Walmart today and get the clinistix to test ketones, I would really urge you to do so. He might have been negative last night but that can change in a heartbeat and a diabetic cats BG does not have to be high for ketones to show up. If there is some infection going on with his liver, it is really important to stay on top of ketone testing.

Be sure you only get the clinistix. There are also diastix but they also test sugar. They will be more expensive.

I can bring you a meter, test strips, and lancets today to get you started until you can buy a meter and strips. The strips for the meter I can loan you can be expensive but I am not using it or the strips so I'm glad for you to use it until you can get a meter and strips from Walmart. I have a bottle of unopened fifty strips. That will get you started. You will need to get another meter and strips within a week but you can start testing and then start with the insulin.

Also...did they tell you what any of his values are? Normally they print it on the check out sheet. I am pretty good an interpreting bloodwork and have been dealing with elevated liver enzymes in Gracie for some time.
 
Did give numbers on the sheet for bloodwork. His Bg was 307. Just says elevated blood glucose, elevated liver enzyme and elevated totql billrubin. We just fed him and he chowed down. Gave him half a can to see if he keeps it down give him the rest in a hour if he does. As for bringing stuff over I wouldnt today gf has pink eye and still contagious at the moment.
 
Taking james to briar crest this morning and hopefully get him on the rigjt track to getting better. He is acting wierd againa nd thay worries me.he ate fine yesterday and stopped again. I hope once we start treatments he willbetter and be normal again. I miss my little man and just want him back :(
 
Definitly love it there. They are so nice and i trust james with them. They took him for the day to get him to eat and to start insulin. They also are going to put him on atibiotics just in case he has any infections. We r just buying some things now and picking him up later
 
...geez vet just called us apperntly he is having an allergic reaction to something. Keep you updated.
 
Sadly we had to put James to sleep. Looked horrible in there fever was not getting reduced and would not have the funds to get the treatment he needed when it required, talked it over with Brenda and with the Vet and its what we decided to do as he was still completely out of it since this morning.
 
I'm SO sorry it was James' time to cross. BIG HUGE HUG, you gave everything you could, thank you for loving him so much.

Fly free sweet baby....land softly right back in your bean's broken hearts,
 
I'm so sorry it was time for James to cross.

Fly free little one, you will be missed.
 

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