kphmitten
Member
Manny (avatar) is an 8-9 year old "fake" maine coon. He was bought at a pet store, labeled as a maine coon and while he has some traits he doesn't have some of the most obvious ones (ear tufts for one) so I call him my "fake." I rescued him in fall '06 from a couple who also had another cat that they wanted to get rid of because they were afraid Manny (named Fluffy) would suffocate their child. The mom was a nutritionist and Manny weighed a whopping 36lbs when I brought him home - now see why I say we rescued him? I'm almost positive the real reason is because the cat he came with is slightly crazy in that stereotypical calico way.
Through a very slow process of diet, exercise, ups and downs he is now down to 16lbs as of December '10. In November we had a cat suddenly become ill - he ate in the morning, wasn't keen on night, and refused to eat entirely the next day. Taking him to the vet they said it could be multiple things - one was diabetes but he was also fighting possible organ failure; he had rotting teeth when I found him, we had them pulled, but it's also very likely the tartar finally caught up in the bloodstream. Unfortunately, Boo didn't make it but having seen the signs the vet looked at for him we realized Manny displayed quite a few of the signs. We took him in and surely enough Manny is diabetic! Really, considering he was past ridiculously obese four years prior it wasn't a surprise.
We initially started 1u Humulin 2x daily. After the second testing we've bumped him to 1.5u 2x daily. We still have a few weeks until the next blood test. I've recently learned about this site and home testing. I'm wondering if I should start now or wait until after the next appointment to talk to the vet. I know some vets are hesitant on home testing and I'm not sure if my vet does or doesn't fall in that category but I doubt she'll be entirely surprised. I think since we get the insulin at WalMart that the ReliOn meters seem like a good fit for us since we can get everything in one stop then. A lot of people here seem to like them, so we'll give it a whirl. Opinions are certainly welcome though!
I've glanced at peoples spreadsheets but they look like a bunch of colors and numbers. Where do I start? What values am I looking at/for? Will those values pop right up on the glucose meter or is there a formula?
Manny has been on Hill's W/D for about 2 years now for a few reasons. It helped get his weight down and he has always had problems with runny, stinky poo and this is one of the only foods we've found to work at somewhat solidifying. He does not have coccidia or any other bacterias; I vet assisted for a few years so I took multiple random samples to test and had colleagues test them and nothing out of the ordinary came of it. Trust me, I've been wanting to switch his food to something at least "decent" since all my other cats are on good quality (cats eat Taste of the Wild mostly, dog eats Taste of the Wild/Wellness mix). My cats do eat dry food primarily. At this time it's simply not economical for six cats to eat wet food and I personally don't trust fancy feast/friskies as regular diets. One cat is feasible (he'd be on Wellness most likely) but the huge concern with Manny is keeping his weight low (a cat his stature should be ~18lbs) and his stool relatively solid. Has anyone had these types of problems in their diabetic cat and what worked? I know we tried FitaFlora or whatever the "bacteria powder" food supplement is when we first had him but I can't remember if it worked or not.
I know this is long and I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to read and definitely everyone who replies!
No worries, I won't do the food switching until I've figured out the meter and spreadsheet.
Through a very slow process of diet, exercise, ups and downs he is now down to 16lbs as of December '10. In November we had a cat suddenly become ill - he ate in the morning, wasn't keen on night, and refused to eat entirely the next day. Taking him to the vet they said it could be multiple things - one was diabetes but he was also fighting possible organ failure; he had rotting teeth when I found him, we had them pulled, but it's also very likely the tartar finally caught up in the bloodstream. Unfortunately, Boo didn't make it but having seen the signs the vet looked at for him we realized Manny displayed quite a few of the signs. We took him in and surely enough Manny is diabetic! Really, considering he was past ridiculously obese four years prior it wasn't a surprise.
We initially started 1u Humulin 2x daily. After the second testing we've bumped him to 1.5u 2x daily. We still have a few weeks until the next blood test. I've recently learned about this site and home testing. I'm wondering if I should start now or wait until after the next appointment to talk to the vet. I know some vets are hesitant on home testing and I'm not sure if my vet does or doesn't fall in that category but I doubt she'll be entirely surprised. I think since we get the insulin at WalMart that the ReliOn meters seem like a good fit for us since we can get everything in one stop then. A lot of people here seem to like them, so we'll give it a whirl. Opinions are certainly welcome though!
I've glanced at peoples spreadsheets but they look like a bunch of colors and numbers. Where do I start? What values am I looking at/for? Will those values pop right up on the glucose meter or is there a formula?
Manny has been on Hill's W/D for about 2 years now for a few reasons. It helped get his weight down and he has always had problems with runny, stinky poo and this is one of the only foods we've found to work at somewhat solidifying. He does not have coccidia or any other bacterias; I vet assisted for a few years so I took multiple random samples to test and had colleagues test them and nothing out of the ordinary came of it. Trust me, I've been wanting to switch his food to something at least "decent" since all my other cats are on good quality (cats eat Taste of the Wild mostly, dog eats Taste of the Wild/Wellness mix). My cats do eat dry food primarily. At this time it's simply not economical for six cats to eat wet food and I personally don't trust fancy feast/friskies as regular diets. One cat is feasible (he'd be on Wellness most likely) but the huge concern with Manny is keeping his weight low (a cat his stature should be ~18lbs) and his stool relatively solid. Has anyone had these types of problems in their diabetic cat and what worked? I know we tried FitaFlora or whatever the "bacteria powder" food supplement is when we first had him but I can't remember if it worked or not.
I know this is long and I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to read and definitely everyone who replies!
No worries, I won't do the food switching until I've figured out the meter and spreadsheet.
I use the Relion and love it - cheap and easy.
