Newly diagnosed and Frustrated

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Barloki

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Hello All,

My cat Barlobi was recently diagnosed with diabetes (about 5 weeks ago) we are still going through the process to regulate him. Barlobi goes tomorrow to the vet for a glucosamine test (the 7 day reading) as we were not getting an accurate reading on the glucose curve; after 4 weeks of the curve. Now this is week two on the glucosamine test. Barlobi weighs 12 pounds and his levels are reading in the low 200 on 8 units a day of PZI insulin (I don't have the exact number available right now), and so the vet raised the insulin to a total of 10 units a day (5 units twice a day). This just sounds like a high number of units...

Currently Barlobi eats Science Diet (free fed) and one can of Fancy Feast a day. I tried putting his dry food on a timer, twice a day, with 30% dry food and gave him 70% wet food. Of course Barlobi stopped eating the wet food and stared at the food dispenser until it shot out food twice a day. After talking with the vet, we went back to the free feeding dry food, and wet food before the shot.

Let me start by saying I like the vet, but totally not fond of the office/tech staff. It feels like the office staff and the techs are trying to pacify me… I ask questions, and they just give me a flippant answer. Then after I am frustrated with the conversation with the office/tech staff, then the vet is available to talk with me and he says, don’t listen to them… only listen to me. OMG I don’t work like this!

Since I feel comfortable with the vet (ONLY) should I stay with him... or if I should be looking for a more specialized or a cat doctor who treats diabetes and not a general veterinarian.

I live in Roswell, Georgia (Fulton County) and will travel to where I need to; to make sure my baby is taken care of.

Thanks!
Frustrated Momma
 
Hi and welcome to the board.
I am not familar with PZI but I put a cross post on the PZI board to get some eyes
over to you.
Are you able to wean him off the dry food? That will have a huge impact on his numbers.

Here is a list of food that many people use. You want to feed him high protein, low carb.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html
Does he have any other medical issues or take any medications?
 
Hello,
So sorry you have to go through this; but know that there are many great people and resources here to help you figure out what is best for your kitty.

4-5u bid (twice daily) is a very high amount of insulin, especially considering you are only at week 5 of dosing. Most people here start out at 0.5 or 1 unit bid of pzi and increase only after about a week of holding at a certain dose.
The fact that you are feeding dry kibble is probably keeping Barlobi from having a hypoglycemic attack (that's when their blood sugar is too low and can be deadly). Yes, as said by Randi & Max, low carb wet food is the best for feline diabetes---but please don't change the diet just yet.
You have probably noticed that most, if not all here hometest their kitty's blood sugar at home. Doing a fructosamine test as a measure of how much insulin to use is not at all effective. Fructosamine tests only show an average of the blood sugar over a few days, and give no indication of how the insulin reacts in their body. Also, if your vet has done a bg curve at their office (when they keep kitty for most of the day and check their blood sugars); that can also be unreliable because the cat's bg's can be elevated due to stress.
Hometesting is the best way for you to monitor the dosing, and keep Barlobi healthy. Please take a little time to read the stickies about the subject, and also read about hypos. Try to have a 'toolkit' especially with this high dose.
This disease is maneagable, and with a little time and patience; you will be amazed at how much better Barlobi will feel.
Please feel free to post over in the PZI section, there are many there who can help.
 
Hey there... thanks for the response!

His only medical issues/medications are associated with the diabetes (insulin and neuropathy in his hind quarters).

When we tried moving him over to more wet food than dry food – he stopped eating the wet food. Currently we are still trying to regulate him, so we went back to free feeding the Dry food, and will entertain the idea of changing the food at a later date.

I may have moved off course with my rant… sorry about that.

My question is: Are General Veterinarians just as good as a Cat Doctor? Does anyone know of a good Vet in the Roswell, GA area… or how about looking for a vet that is recommended… for diabetes

Again ... Thanks
 
Welcome Frustrated Momma!

You've come to the right place.

What kind of PZI are you using?

I normally don't do triage - normally there are others that are way better at it than I. But I'll give it a shot here. Conversely, I do have experience with PZI.

So first off, are you home testing? If not then you need to start. Please read the stickies in the top of this heath forum for info on how to test etc. Also there is tons of info in the stickyes about other topics like NUTRITION. You also may want to read this site:
http://www.catinfo.org .

Unfortunately the dry food is not compatible with diabetes. Your kitty needs to be on a low carb wet food diet ONLY. Low carb = below 9-10% carb as %Kcal. You can print out Janet & Binky's list and take it with you to the pet food store. You will need to work on finding varieties that you kitty likes. The prescription diets are not needed and in fact generally have very average ingredients. My kitty likes the Wellness grain free Turkey but YMMV with that and there are plenty of other brands and flavors out there that meet the requirements. Optimally you would like to find flavors that are grain free too but that is not critical.

So once you get the home testing going you need to get you data put into a spread sheet. Instructions for that can be found in the stickies at the top of the tech support forum here:
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=6
It's also good to create a profile while you are at it [again instructions in Tech Support].

PZI should be given every 12 hours.

The general recommendation here is to drop back to 1 unit twice per day when you change the diet to low carb. It will make a HUGE difference and cats that are on the low carb require less insulin. If they are put on a low carb diet and the insulin is not adjusted down from their day on diabetes inappropriate diet, then your stand a chance of sending your kitty into hypo. The numbers may go up initially, for the first few days, once you drop back to dose as it takes at least 3 days and up to two weeks for the effects of the diabetes inappropriate diet to wear off. But it is critically important that you are home testing at LEAST before every shot [called "PS" or pre-shot in these parts] and keeping track and lower that dose once you change the diet.

Also there is a PZI specific forum here and you are more than welcome to join us there:
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=24

I'm hoping the normal triage crew will be along to give you more input. I know I probably missed something.

In the mean time just keep reading, reading, reading all the info in here especially in the stickies. There is probably other info you will want to read n the PZI forum in the sticky there too.

As to your vet, the information in here will help you have to confidence to handle the DM without the interference of your vet's staff. :smile:

EDIT: Many here have had good luck with methyl-B12 shots for the neuropathy. Just make sure it is methy-B12 and not just plain old B12.
 
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