pistachioboy
Member
Greetings everyone,
Let me give you the rundown:
My kitty: Her name is Gorda (spanish for fatty), she's approximately 11 years old, and has never had any health issues before. She's operated on a free-feeding schedule with dry food, and has always maintained a "festively plump" physique.
Two weeks ago, I took her to the vet, because she was losing weight precipitously and drinking a ton of water. I was worried her kidneys were failing, but they weren't worried about it. I basically had to talk them into doing a blood test, at which point they found her blood glucose was close to 600 mg/dL. So, she's diabetic. They gave me some syringes and some Humilin - N, and told me to inject her with 2 units twice a day. I asked about diet, and they said that I could keep free-feeding her. No mention of low carbs.
So, I come home, do some online research, and see that everyone in the world suggests a low carb diet. My cat has never had a problem with canned food before, so I figured I'd give it a shot, along with continuing the insulin shots. The first day, she ate voraciously, and seemed to love the canned food. She stopped drinking so much water and her litterbox situation was rosier. But then, the next day, she just... stopped eating. I was very concerned about this, so I did my best to feed her using a water + wet food + wide-mouthed syringe to feed her. But I could never get her to eat enough, and her weight dropped noticeably in three days. I went back to dry food, but she wouldn't eat that either.
So, I stopped giving her insulin shots, and learned a new method of feeding her - smearing food all over her so that she has to clean it up. it's not pretty, but it worked. Again, the first night she seemed almost back to normal and even went back to eat on her own, but by yesterday she was in rough shape again. So I continued to smear-feed her and started giving her insulin again last night, at 2
units/time.
More importantly, I finally bought a home glucose monitor this afternoon. I'm doing the tail-end of a curve, and she was at 337 mg/dL before her shot tonight. But I really had to pester her into eating again before the shot. She won't touch anything on her own. So I've combined lunchmeat with some food-smearing.
So, I guess my question is this: What am I doing wrong? I know Humulin-N is not the best, but it was $61, I'm poor, and she's shown no signs of hypoglycemia after the shots. I feel like the drastic changes to her diet have thrown her for a loop, but now she won't eat dry food either. And I can't force her to eat that. I'm sick of making her eat when she doesn't want to, and I'm sick of watching her waste away.
I plan on running a glucose curve each day for the next three, and then seeing if I need to adjust the dosage after that. Is that a good plan? Any advice on what I can do about the food?
Thank you all so much in advance. This board is amazing.
Let me give you the rundown:
My kitty: Her name is Gorda (spanish for fatty), she's approximately 11 years old, and has never had any health issues before. She's operated on a free-feeding schedule with dry food, and has always maintained a "festively plump" physique.
Two weeks ago, I took her to the vet, because she was losing weight precipitously and drinking a ton of water. I was worried her kidneys were failing, but they weren't worried about it. I basically had to talk them into doing a blood test, at which point they found her blood glucose was close to 600 mg/dL. So, she's diabetic. They gave me some syringes and some Humilin - N, and told me to inject her with 2 units twice a day. I asked about diet, and they said that I could keep free-feeding her. No mention of low carbs.
So, I come home, do some online research, and see that everyone in the world suggests a low carb diet. My cat has never had a problem with canned food before, so I figured I'd give it a shot, along with continuing the insulin shots. The first day, she ate voraciously, and seemed to love the canned food. She stopped drinking so much water and her litterbox situation was rosier. But then, the next day, she just... stopped eating. I was very concerned about this, so I did my best to feed her using a water + wet food + wide-mouthed syringe to feed her. But I could never get her to eat enough, and her weight dropped noticeably in three days. I went back to dry food, but she wouldn't eat that either.
So, I stopped giving her insulin shots, and learned a new method of feeding her - smearing food all over her so that she has to clean it up. it's not pretty, but it worked. Again, the first night she seemed almost back to normal and even went back to eat on her own, but by yesterday she was in rough shape again. So I continued to smear-feed her and started giving her insulin again last night, at 2
units/time.
More importantly, I finally bought a home glucose monitor this afternoon. I'm doing the tail-end of a curve, and she was at 337 mg/dL before her shot tonight. But I really had to pester her into eating again before the shot. She won't touch anything on her own. So I've combined lunchmeat with some food-smearing.
So, I guess my question is this: What am I doing wrong? I know Humulin-N is not the best, but it was $61, I'm poor, and she's shown no signs of hypoglycemia after the shots. I feel like the drastic changes to her diet have thrown her for a loop, but now she won't eat dry food either. And I can't force her to eat that. I'm sick of making her eat when she doesn't want to, and I'm sick of watching her waste away.
I plan on running a glucose curve each day for the next three, and then seeing if I need to adjust the dosage after that. Is that a good plan? Any advice on what I can do about the food?
Thank you all so much in advance. This board is amazing.
