New with a diabetic shelter kitty!

[SantaCruzSPCA]

Hello! I'm Mandi, and also happen to be the shelter manager of an SPCA who somewhat recently received an owner-surrendered cat with diabetes. In my ten years experience at the shelter, this is our first diabetic! This forum and one other have been extremely helpful with critical info, MUCH more helpful than our own vet, and I wished I'd found you sooner.

The kitty is a 10-year-old male named Rusty. He's sweet as pie but a bit sassy for injections and testing (although he tolerates it well enough). When he was surrendered, the owner's current treatment was 12u's of Humulin N BID and his diet was dry Purina Cat Chow.

After a visit with our vet, he was skeptical about the amount and type of Insulin being used and was concerned about the diet. He suggested we gradually switch Rusty to Science Diet DM, lower his Insulin to 10u's, BID and test before each dose. In place of Science Diet DM (because that's garbage), we want to start him on wet food (Nulo is the brand we have) and a small amount of Acana dry cat (because he's one of those dry cat food lovers). Eventually want to get him completely off the dry. I know that if we do this, we must lower his insulin dose significantly. We would also like to switch his Insulin to PZI. I know that all these changes will need to be done very carefully, one at a time, with lots of testing.

I'm hoping to get some advice from you all as we go! We want to get Rusty to better managed place in his diabetic life and hopefully find him a home! Looking forward to meeting you all.

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Welcome!
Kind of makes me sad they he was relinquished because he had diabetes but I don't know the owner's back story so I'm not judging . I am still one of the newer members here but definitely change one thing at a time and give the change some time to show how they are effecting his BG (made that sound kind of repetitive lol). It's amazing how you are jumping in to help this kitty (hope we get a picture ).

There is not as much traffic on the weekends but I'm sure others will chime in! Might also want to post on the Main Health Forum so more people will see the information about Rusty

 

[Dyana]

Hi Mandi, and Welcome. I am glad you found us. I agree that the insulin dose will most likely need to be lowered as you change his food, and that the prescription foods are not all that great. Switching to PZI would be better for him, since it's duration is longer in cats, than with Humulin N.
I'm glad you are testing his blood sugars as that is how to keep him safe, especially the pre-shot tests and the mid-cycle tests. I hope you will continue posting here. And I hope Rusty does well and gets to find his loving forever home.

 

[JanetNJ]

That is a humongous dose. Most cats don't need to go above 3 units. It could actually be too much insulin. A complete restart with different food and different insulin (starting at 1-2 u twice a day) could help. We can help you learn to test the bg yourself which will make dosing changes safer. Most of us feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate. If you are going to feed dry there are only a few diabetic appropriate foods... Evo cat and kitten in the purple bag and my favorite Young Again Zero carb food which is available online at Youngagainpetfood.com. I believe orijen makes one too as well as natures instinct.