Newly diagnosed diabetic 14 year old red tabby

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Kelly

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Hello, I have a newly diagnosed diabetic 14 year old red tabby. I also have 2 other cats and 2 germain shorthair pointers so we have a very full and busy home. I am reading through the website and find ll od the information extremely helpful. We are about 2 weeks into the diagnosis and treatment of feline diabetes. Right now Bailey is on insulin, PZI 2 units twice daily and we are adjusting his diet. I had been using wet friskies, wellness and fancy feast low carb varieties. Our vet recommended switching to Purina DM dry for all cats. After reading through posts I opted for the wet food and just for Bailey at this time. The other cats are still on Iams multicat dry, I did not want to switch them at this point since they are not diabetic. I will most likely change their diet but I am taking things one step at a time. The Purina DM is causing extreme bouts of diarrhea, any suggestions? Should I give it a few days or switch back to the Fancy Feast, Friskies and Wellness food? Also I am interested in doing home glucose testing and will read up some more on this. Bailey is still struggling with walking, his back legs are not working the way they used to was wondering how long this takes to adjust.

Kelly and Bailey
 
Greetings and salutations Kelly and Bailey! Welcome! As I understand it, the prescription cat foods are still way too high in carbs for diabetic kitties. It took me awhile to wrap my head around that, as you would think a food designed specifically for diabetics would be low carb, but they're not. Does Bailey have any other health issues to consider? If not, I think you should stick with the other low carb foods you had been using before.

Home testing is the best thing you can do for Bailey! Without it, you are shooting blind and run the risk of giving insulin at a low number which can cause hypoglycemia. I know. I've been there. You do NOT want to experience that. It takes a bit to figure it all out, but it's not as hard as you might think.

There is something you can use to help with the neuropathy (the trouble with his back legs) but I can't remember what it is. Some more experienced people will post soon and they will provide more details. I just wanted to welcome you and let you know we're here and we can help!!
 
Welcome Kelly and Bailey!

Wonderful to see that you are reading and asking questions! Bailey is on a good, mild insulin. I would continue to feed the wet low carb food. If you check our food charts:
Janet and Binky’s chart,
Purina DM dry is 13% carbs.
We try to feed under 8% carbs. Not only is it the carbs, it's that dry food is not a good diet for a carnivore. A vet explains why here: www.catinfo.org So, if you can switch all your cats over to wet food, it might save another one from developing diabetes!

Hometesting is the best way to keep Bailey safe. We urge you to test before each shot to make sure it is safe to give the amount of insulin you are planning on and midcycle to see how the insulin is working - how low it is taking him. Here is how we do it: Video for hometesting Here is a shopping list:

What you need to start hometesting

A human glucometer. Any one that sips and takes a tiny sample is fine. We do stay away from any meter with True in the name and the Freestyle meters. They have proven to be very unreliable and read lower than other meters. The meters are often free at drug stores; it’s the strips that are expensive. You can, however, buy them on ebay at less than half the price of stores. Lots of people here also like the ReliOn from Walmart. It is an inexpensive meter and its strips are the cheapest around. Try the meter out on yourself or someone else before you try it on your cat. You want to be familiar with it before you poke the cat.

Lancets and a lancet device. Usually, until the ears “learn” to bleed, a 26-28 gauge is good. Any brand will work as long as the lancets match your device.

Ketone strips. (Ketostix) Just like human diabetics use. You will sometimes need to test urine if the numbers are high.

Rice sack. Make this out of thinnish sock, filled with raw rice or oatmeal and then knotted. You heat this in the microwave until very warm but not hot. Then heat the ears before poking. You can also use a prescription bottle filled with very warm water. It provides a good surface to poke against.

Also nice to have. Flashlight: so you can look at the ears and find the little capillaries that come off the vein running down the ear. Vaseline: Put a tiny smear where you want to poke. It will help the blood bead up.

And some lo carb treats to give your kitty, successful test or not Lo carb treats


And in case that isn't enough reading :mrgreen: , here is a document with lots of information on ProZinc: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32799

His legs are probably neuropathy: Neuropathy As the article suggests, the B12 helps. It also helps when his numbers become more regulated.

Keep reading and ask lots of questions. Everyone who replies to you is paying it forward for help they received when they were new and scared!
 
Hello and welcome!

I know it can all be a bit overwhelming at first, but everyone here has been where you are now. You will find a lot of information here, but not only that, you will find support as well. :smile:

Yes, Methyl B12 really helps with neuropathy in kitty's back legs. My cat had neuropathy very badly at diagnosis but it resolved amazingly quickly. The main brand is 'Xobaline', and there is a version especially for cats!
 
If he did fine on the low carb, canned Friskies, Wellness, and Fancy Feast, then by all means keep feeding him that. The Purina DM canned is the only prescription food that is ok for a diabetic, but it's nearly identical to Fancy Feast Liver & Chicken so all you're paying for is the label. Definitely don't feed the dry--there is no dry food suitable for a diabetic. If he still has access to the other cats dry food, make sure he can't get at it--so if you're still free feeding dry, you'll need to stop and change to scheduled feedings for the others. I understand how overwhelming everything is, but as long as you don't have any dry addict holdouts that won't eat canned food, it'd be the best for the cats and easier for you just to feed all of the cats the same food. Wellness and Friskies both come in large 12-13 oz cans that make it more affordable for feeding multiple cats. Use the store locator on the Wellness site to find the best deals on the food near you; locally owned feed stores are always way less expensive than the chain stores like Petco or Petsmart.
 
Thank you all for the wonderful advice, I appreciate the links and replies. This is all new to me and I am feeling more comfortable. I did purchase the home glucose monitor, I got the ReliON and tested last night and this afternoon. Tried it on myself first, the rest of the family was not up for a test. Very easy to use, but it took 5 tries on the cat and then when I did get a poke I must have gotten to close to the vein. I will watch the videos once again so I make sure to get a good stick. Has anyone heard of doing the stick in the foot pad? I was going to put together a spreadsheet but was wondering if anyone could direct me to the instructions for starting and uploading? Are the color shaded numbers all blood sugar test results? I was not sure if other's were testing that often? I am including my blood sugar numbers yesterday at 11:00 5 hours post insulin the reading was 60, tried again and it was 61 this seemed low so I gave Bailey some food. Today I tested 11 hours post the am insulin and I got 147. I will keep tracking, he has a vet appointment Friday they were wanting to do a blood glucose curve test? Any comments or suggestions.
 
Welcome to the Vampire Club! Great job getting some numbers!

Here are the directions for the spreadsheet: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207 It's a little tricky; if you need help, just ask.

Some people do test a lot. At a minimum, we suggest always testing before each shot and midcycle. We do suggest that newbies not shoot if the preshot number is 200 or under, but wait 20 minutes without feeding and retest to see if the number is sure rising and above 200. The 147 at +11 is fairly low. Please post with your number at +12 and get advice. It looks like your dose may be a little too high.

You do not need to have the vet do the glucose curve. Now that you are testing at home, just pick a day and test every 2 hours and then send the results to the vet. It will be much more accurate since the kitty will be relaxed at home, eating his regular diet and not stressed.
 
Checked Bailey again at 12 hours he is at 166 now. I have not given him his PM insulin does sounds like I should maybe hold?
 
I would not give insulin at that number. Once you have lots of data and know how he reacts to the insulin, you could shoot at lower numbers. So now, it gets more complicated. You can wait until he reaches 200 (taking in consideration that any food given will raise the number artificially) and give a reduced dose. This will mess up your schedule as your next shot will have to be 12 hours from this one.

Or you can skip. If you do, realize that his number will be high in the am. Not because the insulin isn't working well, but because he will have been 24 hours since the last shot. So you will want to reduce the dose in the am, even if the number is high. The reason for the reduction is that 2 units gave him low mid cycle numbers and a longer cycle than 12 hours. Ideally, you want to be able to shoot every 12 hours, so you adjust the dose downward to make that possible.

The bad news is that you are getting a crash course in adjusting insulin doses before you have time to adjust to his having diabetes. The good news is that the insulin is working well.

One alternative you might consider is to restart at one unit twice daily. (Our usual suggested starting dose) Collect the numbers and in a couple days, if he is higher than you want, adjust the dose upward by .25 or .5 units. The reason we like to start low is because it is much easier (and safer) to increase the dose as the numbers indicate than try to figure out how much it will be safe to reduce by.
 
Bailey has been running low blood sugar readings. He had been extremely lethargic and was not eating. I knew something was not right. On Friday I did go into the vet to confirm the numbers I was getting at home, he was at 84.

He has been eating only the wet cat food currently wellness, friskies and fancy feast all from the list. The vet sent us home with some Purina AD Friday but Bailey threw that up, and was extremely sick and sleepy on Saturday. I think I am going to stick with what has been going well since it seems this has had a huge impact on the blood sugar readings.

He was more active yesterday and is walking better he also is looking well today. The vet recommended holding off insulin unless he was showing symptoms of high blood sugar again. He also recommended then starting at 1 unit instead of 2 which is the advice I got from Sue and Oliver on Wednesday. Thank you so much for your reply, I would never have even thought of the testing had I not read through the website. By being educated on the disease, symptoms and treatment and nutrition information I feel much more in control and I am glad I was able to initially notice the low blood sugar readings before things got critical.

I tested Bailey on Saturday and he was at 64. Yesterday I was not able to get a reading but will try again today. As long as he remains lower than 200 should I withhold the insulin? Could the switching of food have made such a big impact that quickly? Prior to the diabetes diagnosis Bailey had been eating Iams senior formula free feeding and he had also been sneaking into our dogs food - Eukanuba premium performance, not sure what type of impact the dog food had on his system but I am closely regulating that and have elevated dishes for the dogs so it will not become a problem again.

Thanks again,

Kelly and Bailey - taking things one day at a time.
 
Yes, as a starter do not give insulin when BG before a scheduled shot is less that about 200. With more experience and BGs then you can shot lower that 200. I shoot my Smokey with 2.5 units of Lantus with his normal before shot BG of about 140.
 
Don't shoot under 200. Keep monitoring. If he stays in this range (40 - 120 with the majority of the time in double digits) without insulin for 2 weeks, you can consider him in remission.

If you get a number close to 200 at preshot, don't feed for 20 minutes, retest and come on asking for help. You want to make sure he is going up, not down and over 200. You would still probably want to shoot a smaller dose.

Obviously Larry has a lot of data on his cat to shoot at lower numbers and he is using a different insulin. proZinc users are not advised to shoot 140 preshots. I am not sure how his comment is useful to a new diabetic using a different insulin......
 
My 12 year old cat had lost a lot of weight and was becoming extremely lethargic so we finally took him to the vet in early July. We came home with a prescription for insulin and no instructions about changing diet. He had been eating Iams for years. After a few days of injections, he slipped into a diabetic coma one day and only revived when the inside of his mouth was smeared with honey. At this point I did a bunch of reading. We switched to the highest protein canned food we could find (Friskies) and quit the injections (the other two cats had to be switched off of the dry food as well to be sure Mr. Diabetic wasn't getting into it). He was very slow to adjust to the other food and would eat very little at a time. Gradually however his appetite picked up and he began to gain weight. After three months on the new diet he has regained most of his weight and is obnoxiously active. Have have found an expensive dry food called EVO: The Ancestral Diet made by Natura Pet Products which is only 7% carbs. We plan to stick to the canned food but will use the dry food when we are away for a few days just for the convenience. Good luck for a full recovery for your red tabby. The change in diet was all our guy needed.
 
Felix said:
...We plan to stick to the canned food but will use the dry food when we are away for a few days just for the convenience. Good luck for a full recovery for your red tabby. The change in diet was all our guy needed.
Click to expand...

Hi Felix and welcome to FDMB!

Wow, it sounds like you and your kitty have been through quite a lot; but now he is diet-controlled after removal of dry food? That's excellent news and very inspiring! :-D

However, I must caution against using dry food when you are away for a few days... Your cat is still diabetic, albeit diet-controlled (once diabetic, always diabetic). And there are owners of diet-controlled kitties on this forum who feel sure that their cats are only ever one bowl of dry food away from returning to insulin....

Yours is a great story. Do stick around on the FDMB forum. :smile:
 
Kelly - changing over to canned low carb food can make a huge difference and yes it could put Bailey into "Off the Juice" status. So keep monitoring his blood sugars and don't shoot unless he is over 200. I don't really understand why more people don't test their diabetic cats - you wouldn't give insulin to a person without checking the blood sugar first. My cat occasionally throws me low readings out of the blue and I could have killed her on more then one occasion if I didn't do home testing. So keep testing and see what happens. Jan
 
Elizabeth and Bertie said:
Felix said:
...We plan to stick to the canned food but will use the dry food when we are away for a few days just for the convenience. Good luck for a full recovery for your red tabby. The change in diet was all our guy needed.
Click to expand...

Hi Felix and welcome to FDMB!

Wow, it sounds like you and your kitty have been through quite a lot; but now he is diet-controlled after removal of dry food? That's excellent news and very inspiring! :-D

However, I must caution against using dry food when you are away for a few days... Your cat is still diabetic, albeit diet-controlled (once diabetic, always diabetic). And there are owners of diet-controlled kitties on this forum who feel sure that their cats are only ever one bowl of dry food away from returning to insulin....

Yours is a great story. Do stick around on the FDMB forum. :smile:
Click to expand...

Agreed--there are other reasons than strictly carb percentages why dry food is bad for cats, and especially diabetics. Even lower carb dry food can still keep a diabetics blood glucose levels high, and if you have a diet controlled cat I would not risk ruining that situation just for the convenience factor of dry food (think about how much more inconvenient it is for you if your cat needs to go back on insulin!). How about using automatic feeders with frozen canned food when you're away rather than dry food? If you're gone for more than one day, you can get a friend, neighbor, or pet sitter to come over once a day to reset the feeders.
 
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