? Newly Diabetic Kitty - Just Diagnosed

[Don Juan]

Hello! My kitty has been drinking and urinating excessively over the past few weeks. We took him for an appointment tonight and we were told he has diabetes. His BG was 510 (after just eating gravy wet food and a mouth full of dry food--he's a big boy--and being super stressed at the vet, mind you), but he is acting normal, other than his thirst. Our vet has recommended starting Lantus and having him in for a glucose curve ASAP and to go back for that every two weeks. She also wants to start us on the purina dm.

My husband and I love him with our whole hearts, but we also want to do this in the most affordable manner. I've been reading a lot on this forum about the options for food and the possibility of home testing. Don Juan LOVES wet food so that should not be a problem to find a low carb pate that he will love. He does well on ProPlan so i am thinking about switching him from his gravy foods, to the grain free pates. I would love to switch to fancy feast, but that has aggravated his Eosinophilic Granuloma in the past. Has anyone had a good experience with the grain free ProPlan? Also, does anyone have advice for presenting home testing to my vet? I am comfortable testing him, he is so good and not aggressive at all. The vet also stresses him out, so I feel like the curve at the vet will be inaccurate anyway.

Please flood me with your advice! I am doing my best to research to help him get well, he is still a baby and I didn't think we would face this so soon

 

[JanetNJ]

Hello! My kitty has been drinking and urinating excessively over the past few weeks. We took him for an appointment tonight and we were told he has diabetes. His BG was 510 (after just eating gravy wet food and a mouth full of dry food--he's a big boy--and being super stressed at the vet, mind you), but he is acting normal, other than his thirst. Our vet has recommended starting Lantus and having him in for a glucose curve ASAP and to go back for that every two weeks. She also wants to start us on the purina dm.

My husband and I love him with our whole hearts, but we also want to do this in the most affordable manner. I've been reading a lot on this forum about the options for food and the possibility of home testing. Don Juan LOVES wet food so that should not be a problem to find a low carb pate that he will love. He does well on ProPlan so i am thinking about switching him from his gravy foods, to the grain free pates. I would love to switch to fancy feast, but that has aggravated his Eosinophilic Granuloma in the past. Has anyone had a good experience with the grain free ProPlan? Also, does anyone have advice for presenting home testing to my vet? I am comfortable testing him, he is so good and not aggressive at all. The vet also stresses him out, so I feel like the curve at the vet will be inaccurate anyway.

Please flood me with your advice! I am doing my best to research to help him get well, he is still a baby and I didn't think we would face this so soon

Welcome! Canned pro plan is a good choice and all seem to be low in carb. Here's the food chart.

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Home testing is super important. You don't need your vets permission to test. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home. Once you start you can set up a template like the ones you see in our signatures.

 

[JanetNJ]

Good news is cats who developed diabetes from steroid shots have a good chance of going into remission one off steroids.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Also, does anyone have advice for presenting home testing to my vet?

As Janet said, you don't need your vets permission, but if you want to bring it up, you might start with "I read that I can home test and I've decided that seems to be a good idea..after all, if this was my child, I'd be home testing, right?....I have bought a meter and although I understand that since it's a human meter and not specifically for cats, the numbers will be off a little from what you'd get, but at least it would let me see how he's responding and know for sure he's safe" (or something like that)

 

[JeanW]

Your test numbers will be more accurate at home because your kitty won't be stressed from being at the vet. As the others have said, you don't your vet's permission to home test. Do what is best for your kitty and his health and for you and your family and finances.

Don't feed at all from 2 hours before the BG test until time of test - 2 hour window with no food. Then test for BG level, then feed the food and then give the shot.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Welcome !!
And congratulations on having decided to home test is the best thing you can do for him.

Since you are going to be using Lantus, this is the link to some very good information for you to start http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/
And this is the link to the Lantus forum where there's many lot of people that have a lot of experience with this insulin http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-basaglar-glargine-and-levemir-detemir.9/