Newly Diagnosed cat - what are the right questions to ask?

[bigdogmom1]

Hello board. My name is Linda and I have a newly diagnosed 10+ year old Siamese, Simon, neutered male cat with diabetes. He is actually at the vet's office today getting his "curve" done.
I want to do what is correct for this old guy and I will be asking all kinds of questions from my vet tonight when I pick Simon up. My vet is a really, really great vet who acts like I am the only person in the world when I have questions. He never acts rushed or like he doesn't have time for my questions. You all would love him!
I guess my question for this group is what are the MOST important questions to ask of my vet. I know he will have lots of things to teach me tonight and that I can always call him with any questions but I would like to be fully prepared when we have our talk tonight.
This is a very new diagnosis and I will be starting from scratch. I don't know the tyoe of insulin we will use yet nor the dosage. I have already done a lot of reading on this website and have found it to be a wealth of information. I have watched the videos about doing the blood test and since I am diabetic (I do NOT use insulin, use pills only at this time) I will be sharing my test kit with Simon.
Background information on Simon - he is a "found" cat that we have had for about three years. He is at least 10 years old, probably older. He has a large frame and used to weigh 18 pounds, now weighs 16 pounds. He has a slight neurological problem in that his eyes sometimes "wobble" and it is all conjecture as to what caused this. We first noted "something wrong" about a month ago when he became obsessed with drinking water. He also looked like he lost weight and had problems with inappropriate urination. I pretty much suspected diabetes and that has been confirmed with blood and urine tests. He is my 84 year old mother's cat and she has spoiled him with food. I have talked to her about how important food control will be with his diagnosis and I hope I will be able to control her .
I will be Simon's primary care giver in that I will be feeding him measured portions of food, checking his blood sugar and giving his injections.
The most important thing for me today is to find out the most important questions to ask my vet. I'm sure he will go over everything with me but I would like to be prepared. in reading some of the previous posts last night I find that there are a lot of smart and experienced people on this board. I thank you in advance for any input you may have to help me properly care for this cat. Linda

 

[MaryB & Chester]

Re: Newly Diagnosed cat - what are the right questions to as

One of the users here has a link to some good vet questions...
Found it! Check HERE.

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Re: Newly Diagnosed cat - what are the right questions to as

Hello Linda - and Simon, and welcome to FDMB!

I asked very few pertinent questions at the time of my cat's inital diagnosis. But what I'd wished I had asked were questions like;

How many diabetic cats are you treating and how are they doing?

How many cats that you've diagnosed go into remission? ('remission' means becoming a diet controlled diabetic, no longer dependent on insulin)

What diet do you recommend (the consensus of this forum over many years is that diabetic cats do best on a low carb wet/canned food diet). You absolutely do not need to buy any fancy prescription food.

What insulin are you prescribing? Why? And if this insulin doesn't work for my cat are you willing to prescribe a different type?

Do you support hometesting? (testing cat's blood glucose at home)

I'll probably think of a few more later.... And others will have other suggestions, I'm sure!

 

[bigdogmom1]

Re: Newly Diagnosed cat - what are the right questions to as

Thank you for the suggestions. I am moving into a whole new world with Simon and I really want this to work out well for him. I will probably be back on this board asking questions as simon's treatment progresses. Thanks again for the input, Linda and Simon

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Re: Newly Diagnosed cat - what are the right questions to as

Thank you for the suggestions. I am moving into a whole new world with Simon and I really want this to work out well for him. I

It sounds like you are going to be a really good care-giver for Simon, Linda. Please stay in touch and post back here with any questions that you have. A diagnosis of feline diabetes can be pretty overwhelming at first but this forum is a great place to be! :smile:

Eliz in UK

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Re: Newly Diagnosed cat - what are the right questions to as

Let us know how he gets on. Once you get back, post here and we can discuss - changing his food to low carb, how often to test, testing for ketones, what to do in a hypo situation and so on.. although maybe you want to ask the vet those too!

Also you might want to buy methylcobalamin (many people here use zobaline) for his neuropathy "wobble". You can get it from health stores too just choose one with no sugar or sucrose and definately no xylitol since its toxic to cats.

Wendy