newbie questions

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carhag

Member Since 2016
I have an 9 yr old female cat that has lost a lot of wight down to 6 lbs. She gets a shot every morning, her blood sugar is around 135. I now give her Hills M/D can food thru out the day shes always hungry. She is eating 3 cans a day now and has gained weight up to 8.5 lbs. I cannot keep this up the food is expensive and I cannot be here all day to keep feeding her.
My question is how much should I be feeding her now?
Is their any other brands of food that is cheaper?

Also does anyone know of a site to find pet sitters that can give shots?

Thank you for your help
 
Welcome.
What insulin? What does? No insulins are once a day, all are at least twice daily. Giving insulin with a before shot BG of 135 might result in the cat going too low.
Good insulins are the human Lantus and Levemir and the pet insulins ProZinc and BCP PZI. For those two human insulin it is best to get the 5 pack of 3 ml disposable pens via a 10 ml vial. Although per ml the vial is less expensive most cats will not use up a 10 ml vial before the insulin goes bad/becomes ineffective. The human insulin N/NPH is sometimes prescribed but only lasts 8-10 hours. Same for the pet insulin Vetsulin/Caninisulin.
Most of us here test our cat's blood glucose at home using a human meter. We test before each shot and periodically between shots. We record our reading and other info in a spreadsheet. See:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
A low-carb canned is best. No reason for a prescription food. Here is a list of commercial low-carb canned
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/shortcut-shopping-list-all-8-or-less-updated.117688/
Here is a link to home testing blood sugar
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thread

The rule of thumb is about 6 ounces of canned a day. You vary that based on weight, increase if you want the cat to gain weight and decrease if you want to lose weight.
For a petsitter I would start by asking your vet.
 
I give her Vetsulin 10ml every morning . When first at vet her bs was 668 average. Then giving shot and food her bs was 135 in late evening average.
I will look up other foods thank you, the hills is expensive and shes always begging for food, even waking me up in the middle of the night hungry and her bowel movement is unbearable.
Thank you for your help
 
Are you sure your vet said to give her 10 ml? That much insulin would kill a cat. Do you mean 10 units? Even that is a huge dose for a newly diagnosed cat. Usually we talk about health in the main Health forum, where there are more people to help you. Larry is right about insulin being given twice a day for cats. Dogs usually get it once a day. I hope to see you in the Health forum.
 
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carhag said:
I give her Vetsulin 10ml every morning
Click to expand...
That is a huge dose! You probably mean 10 units, which is still enormous (1 mL of Vetsulin has 40 units in it). I would drop that dose down to 1 unit and do a curve - testing every 2 hours from pre-shot test to the next pre-shot test 12 hours later.

She is begging for food, possibly because the insulin dose is way too high and if she doesn't keep eating she'll die!

The food may be moving through quickly and not completely digested, causing the feces to smell, or she may have an additional issue on top of the diabetes.

Vetsulin hits its peak effect around +3 to +4 hours after the shot. Please get some tests in that time period. She needs to stay above 90 mg/dL on a human meter to be safe when using Vetsulin. Lower than that risks fatal hypoglycemia.

No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so you should be giving 2 shots, roughly 12 hours apart.

Please come over to Feline Health to get more information and support.

 
I agree with bjm... Your cat is eating to try to stay alive.... 1 unit twice a day is what she should be getting.
 
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