Newly diagnosed Cat

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Shantismom

Member Since 2014
Hi, My 13 year old cat was just diagnosed. He has been on prednisolone for years because of asthma and more recently inflamatory bowel disease. I have given him injections of B12 before and gave him his insulin this morning. I am really
afraid for him since he has to take the pred for his other problems and I know it is bad for a diabetic cat. Guess I am just scared about what will happen to him, I don't want his quality of life to go down. He is on 2 units every 12 hours, 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. He has food available all the time, Natures Balance limited ingredient Diet, canned.
Do you think he can stabilize and live and be happy?
I should add he is on 5mg of pred, it will will given now in two 2.5 mg doses but was in one 5mg dose up until today.
 
Hello,

Welcome to the board. Yes your cat should be able to live a happy healthy life. I think there are other people here who give their cats prednisolone for various reasons. You have him on canned food which is good. Most people here don`t feed their diabetic cats dry cat food. So if you have any questions please ask.

Terri
 
Welcome to the FDMB!! (we'd love to know your name...I'm assuming that your sugardude is Shanti?)

To answer your question, yes, your sugardude can live a long and happy life, even being diabetic and on prednisolone. While you're correct that being on a steroid makes it more difficult, we always treat the worst disease first, and then give enough insulin to get the numbers down. If he needs the prednisolone for his asthma, that's the more important problem.

The first thing I'm going to suggest is that you switch him to a lower carb food. It's good that you're feeding canned, but the Nature's Balance are too high in carbs. Here's our Food Chart that lists pretty much any food you can buy, and the carb percentage. We want to keep it under 10% (column C)

What insulin are you using? The only ones that work well in cats are Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc.

We're here to help you, and there's a lot of information we have to share, so if you have any questions, please ask!
 
With the IBD, my guess is that food changes could be difficult. If that is the case, you'll adjust the insulin as needed to compensate for both that and for the steroid he needs.

You may want to edit your signature (up top and left in the User Control Panel) to note
your name & your cat's name
the insulin
the steroid use
the IBD diet restriction (so you don't keep getting bugged for diet change)

Have you looked into raw diets at all? I ask because some IBD kitties have done phenomenally well on them.
 
Thank you for your feedback, because Shanti has other issues I just feel afraid. Shanti, on the other hand seems to be taking this all in stride. Doesn't even flinch when he gets his shot. I will come back as things progress, this is only day one of our adventure.
I have already gotten some good information to ask my vet about.
 
It can be tough with comorbid conditions.

Spitzer seemed to develop IBD and I was never able to get his glucose under control. He threw a saddle thrombus - a blood clot to the arteries leading to his hind legs - and was in excruciating pain with poor prognosis for recovery, so he was helped across the Rainbow Bridge.

There is an IBD group for cats on Yahoo. you might find it a good source of ideas.

And Dr Pierson has some info over on Cat Info here.
 
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