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ladyxsuebee

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Hello!

My kitty Dopey just got diagnosed with Diabetes yesterday. He has lost 5 lbs within one year, and I noticed when he started chugging water and peeing a lot about a month ago that something was off. He started drinking off the nightstand glass....I gave him his own and he drank 1/2 a cocktail glass every night. He would not go to bed unless he got his glass of water filled to the top every night.

There is SO much info regarding this, it's hard to digest it all at once. However, I'm thinking of just switching his food right now and seeing how that helps.

Currently he eats Hills Science Diet C/D because he is susceptible to urinary tract infections. The vet wants to switch him to Purina D/M wet food.

I thought I would get the glucose curve done at the vet after him being on the new food for a little over a week. Dopey gets stressed in the carrier and in the car, but calms down when he's been at the vet for awhile.

My questions: Is switching the food over quickly a good idea or should I gradually add the wet to the dry and wean the dry down? I know sometimes if you switch food to quickly it can cause diaherria and I don't want to further dehydrate Dopey.

I was going to get the blood monitoring system next week as well. Should I get the curve test done, then the blood monitoring system or just the monitoring system and try to do the curve test myself?

Should I wait on getting the insulin until after he's had his new diet for awhile?? I get the full results of the blood test & urinalysis, yesterday they pricked his ear and that's how they knew he had diabetes, plus the glucose spill in his urine.

Thanks for any input!

nailbite_smile
 
Many cats are diet controlled, so yes, change the diet now, before starting insulin.
If your cat is eating wet food now, remove ALL the dry foods, including any dry snacks because they are high carb and may be the cause for high BG numbers.
look over the list of foods on the attached Binky's list and select foods that have carbs below 10%.
the vet food is not great and is high in carbs. many people feed fancy feast and friskies pates, so you can try them.
Binky’s Food Lists
Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basics of Feline Nutrition

you don't need to worry about dehydration; you can add water to the wet cat food which is what many people do. Keep in mind that you are feeding dry food which has no water at all, so the wet low carb food is already better.

there is no need at all to have curves done at the vet office. You can pick up a human blood glucose meter at any pharmacy, the test strips and lancets plus ketostix to test urine for ketones.
Save yourself a ton of money and avoid the stress to your cat by home testing. If you do need to start insulin, it's best to test before each insulin shot.
 
Hi there! I was where you are 9 days ago.

There is alot to learn, and it can seem overwhelming at first. You have no idea how much help you will get from this board. They will answer your questions, walk you through tests and shots, and are the most amazing support system. Vets don't always want us doing things to our cat that they can charge for, and one of the first things someone on here said to me was 'if your vet doesn't support you taking an active role in your pet's health, then find a new vet".

It is scary, talking of needles and blood curves, but to be 100% honest, its not half as bad as you think!

Most cats are more comfortable at home then at the vets, so home testing is alot more realistic.(if your kitty is stressed it could cause a spike in his numbers) And it really brings you and your cat together-it's like a dance, and the two of you learn your roles, and perform beautifully together. My cat Basil isn't thrilled with home testing, but he has gotten used to it, and will resign himself to the area we do it and wait for his snack afterwards.

I am so excited to say that he was able to actually come off insulin today-his numbers are very good and it looks like he may be able to control the diabetes with just a new diet. And I agree with Gayle-lose the dry food and check out Binky's list. My cats dine on fancy feast daily, and even though my vet told me he needed the special food they sold me, I listened to the wise members of this board and returned the $48 case of vet food, and my cat is doing great. There are alot of choices, but my advice would be not to rush out and buy tons of it-test out the different flavours so that you don't get stuck with 10 cans of something they aren't too fond of.

There are tons of videos on youtube as well as the ones on this board. I spent 4 hours Saturday night watching and rewatching, and at 9:45pm rushed to the closest drugstore to purchase a test kit before I lost my nerve. I tried it on myself, and couldn't believe how easy it seemed. (then my non-diabetic cat got nosey and came to check out what I was doing, so I grabbed his ear and tried it and he didn't even flinch!) That gave me the confidence to know that i could do this-and with the amazing support of all these extremely knowledgeable cat owners, I jumped in head first.

I'm still learning about this disease, and I don't believe we are out of the woods just yet, but I I feel 100% better than I did last week at this time.

Welcome to the group!
:-D
 
Thanks so much Scissorchik!

I am very nervous, I love my baby very much and all of this is overwhelming. I was mostly glad he didn't have renal failure, that's what I most was worried about when I took him into the vet.

I wanted to smack her when I went back to get him last night and she came in and said, "guess what it is?!!?!?" like Dopey's health is a freakin game show or something.

I'm really hoping the diet changes things for him. I'm going to get a home tester when I get paid next week and test him myself and do the curve test myself. Dopey gets very stressed in the carrier and the car.

What did you do for your non diabetic kitty? My girl Luna loves dry food, not very fond of wet, but I thought maybe I should switch her diet as a preventive measure as well.

Thanks again for all your advice and help!!!! :smile:
 
You're welcome!

The first day or two I tried to feed them in separate rooms. I was feeding Basil the Hill's Prescription M/D from the vet, and at $2 a can I couldn't afford to feed Monkey that too. I decided though, that it was probably best for Monkey's health to get him off dry food too. You will read alot on here about how cats are carnivores and are meant to eat protein, not carbohydrates, which is the dry stuff. Its like feeding froot loops and frosted flakes to your kids. Lots of sugar but no nutrition.

Basil didn't much care for his new food, and after a day of crying and fretting I decided that since they both liked Fancy Feast, and many on here will tell you that they feed that to their cats (diabetic and non) then they should both eat the same stuff, and in the same room. (it was stressing both cats out to be seperated). At first I watched like a hawk, to try and make sure Basil was eating enough. I was afraid Monkey would finish his and eat Basil's so I sat on the floor between them. (but that made me late for work!) Then I relaxed a bit, and realized I didn't have to shoot out of bed (like from a cannon) and get that food and insullin into him. I started to let them eat while I went about getting ready for work, and sometimes they switch bowls halfway through or one gets in on the other's bowl, but its ok.

Then I tried the testing, and that made me feel even more in power. I was able to post Basil's numbers to my spreadsheet, and the wonderful people on this board would give me advice or encouragement. I would never have made it without all of them rooting for Basil and I!

Some people here have weaned their cats off dry, but I just switched cold turkey. I've been lucky and not had any litterbox issues, and so far both cats are quite happy. They would occasionally get to split a can of fancy feast as a special treat, so I figured they'd go nuts to get it every day-but they eat till they are full, then walk away. I still get the odd dance around my legs hurry-lady-I'm-starving-gimme-food-NOW but its not anywhere near as bad as it used to be.

My latest trick to try (as was suggested to me by the board) is freezing a can of fancy feast in muffin trays, so that when I go to work I can put it out and as it unthaws through the day the cats can eat. Basil tends to drop really quick in the morning, so it makes me feel better knowing there's something there to munch on til dinner. otherwise they get fed at 7am and 7pm.

You'll be surprised how quickly you'll learn about this stuff. Its scary and new and sometimes incredibly confusing, but I've never felt more in touch with my cat.

Like i said-any questions or comments feel free to ask on here-people are on at all hours of the day or night and are extremely helpful til you get your sea legs!
 
I used a timer feeder to give my cat something to eat while i was gone during the day. It made me feel a lot better. I also think that giving him 4 smaller meals a day helped his pancreas heal and get him off the juice earlier.

I have a UTI kitty too - Andy. Because I had a cat before that had UTI problems too, I decided that maybe all of these were prone to getting UTI problems as well once Andy was diagnosed so I gave them all Hill's C/D dry (free fed) and a can of C/D at night. Then Bo was diagnosed with diabetes. In hindsight, i wonder if the c/d contributed to that. The vet gave me m/d for Bo. He said there was no difference in dry and canned m/d since both have protein. Wrong! I read here that the dry protein source was vegetable not animal. Cats need animal protein. So we changed to all canned. The canned food also gives cats a lot more water which is what Andy needed. But keeping Andy and Bo in the right bowl was very hard. The boys kept switching bowls so i changed everyone to m/d. Then I read more about protein. The m/d had by-products only. There are many other foods that have better quality protein like chicken instead of only chicken by-products and they are cheaper. So I switched to Fancy Feast classic which is high protein, low carbs. Then someone had some issue with Fancy Feast - possibly the beef flavor. I tried too many flavors. I should have introduced only one flavor at a time. Anyway, I had a lot of vomit and poop because something did not agree with one of the cats. During this time, I had changed to a new vet. She said to change food again - cold turkey - and add probiotics to the food. The vomit stopped after a couple of days and the poop begain to take shape. They are all eating Wellness chicken or Wellness turkey. I do not feed any fish because I think fish food and stress led to my Himalayan's urinary problems. Andy's is stress-related because I never feed any fish. I was also glad to move to Wellness since Fancy Feast has fish listed as an ingredient for their flavors like "chicken feast" where I would not expect fish to be. Andy (UTI Kitty) seems to be doing okay. He has not been to the vet since November and he was going at least once every 2-3 months. I add water to their food so that everyone gets plenty of water. So far, so good. Hope some of this helps.
 
Hi there, and welcome. You have come to the right place to learn all about feline diabetes. There are lots of caring, and smart, people here to help.
First, did you get a BG level? A number? As you probsbly have read here, it can be raised by the stress of going to the vet, called white coat syndrome. A fructosamine test will give an average BG level of the past couple of weeks and it is a better tool to use when diagnosing diabetes. Some vets do it, some don't and rely on the one time reading at the office which can be decieving. I know that test made a difference in the treatment I chose for Sweety. She turned out to be borderline although the (first) vet (I switched because she didn't approve of hometesting) wanted to administer insulin on the office BG reading alone. I chose the diet change, hometesting and it worked for us.
Second: While you're getting the meter, get urine test strips for Ketones. They are usually right in the same section. If your cat does need insulin and is not getting it, it could be dangerous. Any sign of ketones would be serious. Please read this: http://felinediabetes.com/hodgkinsarticle3.htm

And Good Luck! I hope you are one of the lucky ones too!
 
Thank you all for the advice and help!! It makes me a lot calmer to know I can talk to so many caring people who are going through the same thing.

So far I've switched Dopey cold turkey to the EVO (the turkey & chicken canned, the 95% chicken & turkey was higher in fat) due to the fact that the D/M foods # 1 ingredient was liver, and I don't think it's that healthy. Had a lot of by products too & more expensive then EVO. Dopey loves the EVO, his poo has been softer, but not totally a mess, so I think he's handling the switch okay so far.

My girl kitty doesn't really dig wet food, but I think I'm going to switch her to at least a mix of wet & dry once my c/d is gone. I have to put her food in the top level of the cat tower (where Dopey isn't agile enough to reach anymore) They have tolerated each other for 12 years, but have never gotten along, and Dopey is food territorial like crazy.

His BG # at the vet was 500!! (which, like you guys say I attibute some of that to stress due to his HATING the car ride & carrier) But since it was so high, I went and got the insulin. She put him on Lantus, at 1 UN a day, but I have been giving him about 1/2 since I haven't gotten his blood monitor yet. I have to wait until next friday (payday =( He has stopped chugging water and peeing a ton so I think the diet and insulin is helping. He's awesome at taking the shot. I'm a little nervous at home testing him, but think the treat idea might make him more okay with the whole thing.

I have a question, has anyone gotten the Walgreens brand home tester? They give you a rebate for it if you buy a box of their strips.

Thanks so much everyone!!! :smile:
 
Thanks, I think we will take you up on that! :smile:

I really want to get started on home testing him.

I'm going to read up on info this weekend!

Thanks for everyones suggestions, stories & help!!! :mrgreen:
 
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