Newly diagnosed Diabetes & IBD

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Jo & Buffy

Jo & Buffy

Member Since 2016
Hi All,

First time posting but I've been devouring all the information and your posts for the last 48 hours after finding the site. I am in awe of the dedication and love you all have for your furry family members and hope I have the fortitude to get through this for mine.

Poor Buffy... after being diagnosed with irritable bowel disease last year and having to go on steroids to control it, he's now been diagnosed with diabetes.

I can't take him off the steroid else he'll be pooping and peeing all over the house again. I was already working on reducing the current dose VERY slowly to get him on as low a dose as possible (a few months ago we tried reducing to once per day but he relapsed) so I'm still giving it to him twice a day but have reduced each dose from 0.5 ml to 0.45 ml, to 0.4 ml, etc. and and we're currently at 0.3 ml). He's already on a high protein/low carb/no-grain/limited ingredient/wet food diet due to the IBD.

Buffy is 12 years old, still fairly active, doesn't seem to be in pain, is eating well and comes for purry snuggles.

I have a great vet who had already suggested home testing to me before I found this site or read anything about it. But I'm so scared that I'm not going to be able to logistically manage to do this... my other half travels for work 2 weeks out of every month, I also work full time and my 84 year old mother (who is in England) will be having a hip replacement operation this summer and I had planned to take an unpaid leave of absence from work to take care of her and my disabled step-father therefore finances are tight.

How do you all deal with life issues at the same time as needing to be home regularly for shots and monitoring?

Oh my, so much stress! I will no doubt have more questions, but at the moment I think I'm hovering in panic-mode.

Joanne
 
Hi Joanne, it is stressful at first, but you will figure out a schedule that will work for you and Buffy. Have you started insulin yet? If so, what kind and what dose? Also do you know the carb content of the food you're feeding? Peas are usually considered a little high in carbs. Many cats here have IBD along with diabetes and I'm sure they will have some pointers for you. In the meantime take a deep breath, you can do this!
 
Hi Sharon, no we haven't started insulin yet, just got his diagnosis confirmed yesterday when the Fructosamine and urine tests came back positive (this was after he'd had a BG value of 440 during the vet visit (which was at home so less stressful!). I'm still waiting for the vet to call with the rest of his test results, but I'm guessing they are mostly normal as they would have at least dropped me an email to let me know if there was something else going on.

His current food is 38% Protein, 50% Fat, 12% Carbs, which I realize is higher than ideal for Diabetes. A while back I tried to switch him to Weruva as most of theirs seem to be very low carb but it gave him an IBD flare up even with the Prednisolone, so we went back to a limited ingredient diet which seems to keep him stable. (all food info from the food chart found here: http://www.catinfo.org/ which is now a little out of date but still a good resource)

ok, I'm breathing, will try keep repeating. Thanks! :)
 
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