Newbie

[Harlie's mom]

Hello! New here - Cat diagnosed last week with diabetes, picking her up tomorrow from vet. I don't even know where to start. I believe I will be giving insulin to her once a day.
Need to give her grain free wet food. Ultimately, the vet wants all four of my cats ( Harlie, Pablo, Tigger & Sully) on grain free food. Obviously, I am concerned about Harlie (age 10) most. I just hope to god I can do this. confused_cat

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

You can do this; we will help!

Information will help us help you. What kind of insulin? Why is she in the hospital? Did the vet mention DKA or ketones?

Cats need insulin twice daily. Dogs can get by with one shot a day, but cats can't. They metabolize the insulin differently. We all give insulin twice daily, 12 hours apart.

Giving the wet low carb is great; we feed foods below 8-10% carbs .

But the most important thing you can do to keep your kitty safe is to test Harlie at home. We use human glucometers and test our cat's blood glucose levels, the same way we would do for our 2 legged children. We'd be glad to get you started.

 

[Blue]

Hello! New here - Cat diagnosed last week with diabetes, picking her up tomorrow from vet. I don't even know where to start. I believe I will be giving insulin to her once a day.
Need to give her grain free wet food. Ultimately, the vet wants all four of my cats ( Harlie, Pablo, Tigger & Sully) on grain free food. Obviously, I am concerned about Harlie (age 10) most. I just hope to god I can do this. confused_cat

Welcome to the site, and don't you worry about knowing where to start because this site has more info than you will ever need.

Just quickly, when it comes to food, there is absolutely nothing wrong with foods like Fancy Feast pates, and Friskies pates; several people here are feeding their diabetic cats these brands, and all you need to do is to stick to under 10% carbs.
You can look over all the foods on Binky's list and a few others.... pick the brands you like and just stay under that 10% mark.
Binky’s Food Lists
Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basics of Feline Nutrition
Fancy Feast Gluten Free List

You will need to give insulin twice a day as cats have faster metabolism. Insulins such at Lantus and Levemir and Prozinc are good.

I am guessing your cat is at the vet office to be regulated? That's not going to happen. All that the vet time will do is stress your cat and give false BG readings. Better to bring Harlie home, switch to low carb wet food, start testing BG at home, and also tesing urine for ketones.

Hometesting is the safe way to know how your Harlie is doing on insulin, even if your vet says it is not necessary.... it is.
Pick up a BG meter at the pharmacy, Relion is the most economical if you are in the US, or any others except avoid the FreeStyle meters because they give false readings with the butterfly test strips, and don't waste money on the meters with TRU in the name as they are not great at all.
Also pick up a container of KETOSTIX so you can test Harlie's urine for ketones.

There's no need to worry if you can do this; you can. There are plenty of people here who can help you with anything at all related to your cats and diabetes.

To know the road ahead, ask the man coming back.