newly diagnosed cat & new member on 9/19

Status
Not open for further replies.
MinneapolisJeff

MinneapolisJeff

Member Since 2023
hello all,

my 16 yr old Norwegian Forest Cat named Marvin was just diagnosed today with diabetes; i'm a little sad and a bit nervous all at the same time...

found my way over here from thecatsite forum where I'm a member

mainly going to be looking through all the resources in here that I can and I'll ask questions as they come

thanks,

Jeff
 
Hi Jeff and welcome to you and Marvin to the forum.
This is a great community and very supportive and knowledgeable.
Can you tell us what insulin and dose Marvin has been prescribed please?

The things you need to successfully treat Marvin are
  • A good insulin such as Lantus (glargine) or Prozinc
  • A low carb wet diet
  • Monitoring the blood glucose. We recommend hometesting of the blood glucose.
Let us know how we can help you.
 
Welcome to FDMB!

I'm also owned by two Norwegian Forest Cats. They are great cats!!

Please let us know how we can help. The beginning of this journey is completely overwhelming. The members here are very generous with their time an knowledge so please ask questions.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Jeff and welcome to you and Marvin to the forum.
This is a great community and very supportive and knowledgeable.
Can you tell us what insulin and dose Marvin has been prescribed please?

The things you need to successfully treat Marvin are
  • A good insulin such as Lantus (glargine) or Prozinc
  • A low carb wet diet
  • Monitoring the blood glucose. We recommend hometesting of the blood glucose.
Let us know how we can help you.
Click to expand...

I don't have prescription information just yet, we have our vet consult set for 9/25 3pm and we'll be discussing Marvin's treatment plan at that time. And as I discover what materials we'll need, I'll probably be asking/searching FDMB for recommendations.

As far as regular feeding, he's already mostly converted to wet food- he mainly gets TikiCat and Sheba pate' wet foods, with some Blue Buffalo Tastefuls as well

Thanks everyone for the well wishes :)
 
hi Jeff and welcome. What a beautiful cat!!

This is the best place you never wanted to be. The experts here are very numbers-driven which I love! When my boy Hendrick was diagnosed I felt completely and totally overwhelmed, like I was drowning. The people here threw me a life-preserver and helped me keep my head above water. They saved me and saved my boy Hendrick, who is now a diet-controlled diabetic feline in diabetic remission thanks to this group, and the Tight Regulation dosing method.

Are you doing home testing of the Blood Glucose? It sounded impossible to me at first but if I can learn how, anyone can!
 
Hendrick Cuddleclaw said:
hi Jeff and welcome. What a beautiful cat!!

This is the best place you never wanted to be. The experts here are very numbers-driven which I love! When my boy Hendrick was diagnosed I felt completely and totally overwhelmed, like I was drowning. The people here threw me a life-preserver and helped me keep my head above water. They saved me and saved my boy Hendrick, who is now a diet-controlled diabetic feline in diabetic remission thanks to this group, and the Tight Regulation dosing method.

Are you doing home testing of the Blood Glucose? It sounded impossible to me at first but if I can learn how, anyone can!
Click to expand...
Our vet told us to hold off purchasing anything just yet, but we're planning on home testing BG for Marvin
 
A couple of points in advance of your meeting with your vet.

The American Animal Hospital Assn recommends either glargine or Prozinc for the treatment of feline diabetes. Other insulin, such as Vetsulin or Novolin are too short acting to be useful given a cat's fast metabolism. Not all vets go with what the AAHA recommends despite the very solid ability of glargine and Prozinc to get cats into remission.

Many vets will recommend a pet-specific glucometer. It's fine to use one but be aware of the costs. The strips for the pet meters run about $1.00 per strip. The cost for a Walmart Relion brand meter is about $0.17 per strip. It you end up testing a fair amount, the difference in the cost will be considerable. Most of the members here use a human meter. Vets will talk about how much better the pet meters are. When I first joined FDMB, pet specific meters were almost nonexistent and vets were using human meters. In addition, most of the published dosing protocols are based on the results from a human meter.
 
What a gorgeous kitty Marvin is
Hi and welcome to the best group you could ever find
Most of us use the Relion human meter
Here is the link for the meter and test strips so you don't have to search for them
Relion Premier Classic Meter at Walmart for 9 dollars
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-CLASSIC-Blood-Glucose-Monitoring-System/552134103

The tests strips are 17.88 for 100
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-Blood-Glucose-Test-Strips-100-Count/575088197

Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
c2b8079a-b471-4fa6-ac36-9ac1c8d6dcca-jpeg.57072
fec17d29-5ab4-44a8-912b-3a91944c3954-jpeg.57073

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 10 or 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand not the lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Look at the lancet under a light and you will see one side is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with
Here is a video one of our members made testing her kitty
She's using a pet meter that has to be coded ,with a human meter you don't have to code it.
I have always used a human meter
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
 
If your vet prescribes Lantus its expensive in the US. I hope your vet will prescribe it
Most members get the generic you can get generic/biosimilar glargine at very reasonable prices using GoodRx coupon. Most members use the generic because Lantus is to expensive.
https://www.goodrx.com/lantus?label...d-pens-of-100-units-ml&quantity=1&slug=lantus
Make sure that the Match your prescription pull down menue says generic glargine 1carton of 5 3ml pens.
There is no wait time test, feed, give insulin
Lantus usually doesn't kick in until 2 hours after the shot

We buy the pens but use the syringes to draw out the insulin because if you use the pen you can only adjust by full units ,we adjust the doses by 0.25 units


Also
The 5 pens will last about a year, we use the pens just like a vial, you would just insert the syringe it the gray rubber stopper on the pen and draw out your insulin
Its generic lantus



Or this one also

I see some members will call CVS, Rite Aid, Costco, Walgreen's, to get the price for 5 pens
Posted by another member
One members posted this
. I paid $175 for a box of 5 pens at Walmart pharmacy, but GoodRX coupon says you can get it for around $90 if you have a Rite Aid pharmacy near you.

Just call around for the best price

A member just posted this
Allie was using the Lantus and I just switched to the generic and using the GoodRX I got 5 pens for $81.30 at Walgreens.

GoodRX has a 1-800 number to assist you in using their services to get your pets prescriptions filled if the pharmacy gives you any issues.

I think I found it for you
GoodRx / Customer service

1 (855) 268-2822
 
A little update on Marvin...
-he's been on Vetsulin about 2.5 weeks, twice a day, dosage was just increased to 2U today
-was at the vet today for his glucose curve, levels were still high (4 readings, a 600 and the rest were in the low 500s) so the remaining exercise was aborted and his dosage increased
-his energy level is better since being prescribed insulin
-still exploring when/how we attempt home monitoring
 
things are going better for Marvin, still trying to figure out optimal dosage for him

I noticed folks' postings contain BG levels soooo low, how long did it take to achieve those numbers? Marvin is 6+ weeks into receiving Vetsulin 3 units twice a day and although his curve numbers I did the other day were encouraging, its still not low enough. And today he's really not doing so well (I think he had some minor IBD) so there was some vomiting and much less food consumption.
 
Hello Jeff. For my cat, once I started posting regularly here and following advices on diet and doses, she started improving. It took a few weeks for sure. She did not improve as long as I was doing what my vet said: insulin, test sometimes, do a curve once a week, and feed her prescription food twice a day.
Here I learned to feed her small quantities more often, test a lot, and follow what the tests tell you she needs.
Did you start a spreadsheet?
 
cecile & bella said:
Hello Jeff. For my cat, once I started posting regularly here and following advices on diet and doses, she started improving. It took a few weeks for sure. She did not improve as long as I was doing what my vet said: insulin, test sometimes, do a curve once a week, and feed her prescription food twice a day.
Here I learned to feed her small quantities more often, test a lot, and follow what the tests tell you she needs.
Did you start a spreadsheet?
Click to expand...

I've not started a spreadsheet yet. Marvin does eat smaller quanties of wet food more frequently, so that part I've been doing by default.
 
You could try and start a spreadsheet, that really helps see patterns, and it's also easier for people here to help you.
 
cecile & bella said:
You could try and start a spreadsheet, that really helps see patterns, and it's also easier for people here to help you.
Click to expand...
I need to obtain more test strips in order to begin that, I'm using the AlphaTrak3 since this is the approved device by my vet to conduct curves at home. Working up to more daily monitoring!
 
MinneapolisJeff said:
I need to obtain more test strips in order to begin that, I'm using the AlphaTrak3 since this is the approved device by my vet to conduct curves at home. Working up to more daily monitoring!
Click to expand...
Go buy a human meter and use the Alpha Trak when your vet might want to see a curve that you did.
Most of us use the Relion human meter from Walmart
Here is the link for the meter and test strips so you don't have to search for them
Relion Premier Classic Meter at Walmart for 9 dollars
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-CLASSIC-Blood-Glucose-Monitoring-System/552134103

The tests strips are 17.88 for 100
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-Blood-Glucose-Test-Strips-100-Count/575088197
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top