Newly diagnosed / How to handle food right now?

[Jess + Io]

Hello! New here (I will get my signature and spreadsheet set up soon!), but right now, I'm hoping someone can advise me on food. We just found out that our 13-year-old Io has diabetes.

She has lost weight in the last couple of months and recently started being aggressive/fearful toward Evie, a cat she has lived with for years. (Like, hissing and "screaming" when Evie walks by or approaches her. Evie does nothing to provoke her.) So that behavior concerned us. Then, we noticed Io was having problems urinating and leaving small, penny-sized puddles of sticky red urine on the floor and in her cat bed. Last Monday, we took her to the ER Vet. She was thoroughly examined, given meds for a UTI, and scheduled for followup bloodwork and urinalysis with our local vet.

That follow-up was today. UTI has cleared up but her BG was over 400. The vet recommended Hills prescription diabetes food and insulin. My husband came home without either so that we could talk about it first. (I was unfortunately unable to go with him.)

We'll call tomorrow to see about getting her on insulin. I'm curious: How fast does that typically happen? Will she get her first dose there? Does it start immediately? What should I expect? (Of course, I'll ask the vet these questions, but I'm curious if anyone can provide a little insight... my brain is going a mile a minute with worries.)

Also - one of my big concerns is: How should I feed her in the meantime?

After doing a bit of reading here, I don't want to move forward with the Hills food. She loves wet food (currently gets half a can of Friskies each day in addition to dry food), so I think we'd do better with switching her entirely to wet food. My husband bought some Fancy Feast pate at the store tonight, so she got a can of that for supper and loooved it. But then I read on another post that I shouldn't switch her to low carb until we can do at-home testing...?

Did I mess up by giving her that can of FF instead of Friskies tonight? She currently still has some dry food in the room with her, but she barely touches it so we've been giving her extra Friskies to make sure she was eating with her meds. She's only had the one can of Fancy Feast pate tonight.

Should I switch back to Friskies tomorrow and hold off on the low-carb Fancy Feast?

Also, will the vet pressure me towards the Hills prescription diet? I don't want to insult them or their recommendation, but I want what's best for Io.

Any advice would be much appreciated! (So sorry for the super long first post!)

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I’m sure it seems a bit overwhelming at the moment. But it will get much easier as you learn things.
First of all, it is fine you are feeding her fancy feast pates. They are low carb. The only time you need to be concerned about swapping to a low carb food is when you have already started the insulin and are feeding a high carb dry diet. Swapping to a lower carb food will drop the blood glucose so if you are already giving insulin, you might find the BG drops too low.
As well as feeding the 2 main meals when you give the insulin, we recommend giving 2 or 3 snacks during each cycle. A snack is 1 or 2 teaspoons of Normal Low carb food.
I would suggest continuing to feed a low carb canned diet. Here is a food chart for you to have a look at. Look for foods that are 10% or under carbs. The prescription food the vet suggested is high carb so just say no you won’t get that at the moment thanks. You can say you can’t afford it or a friend gave you some to try and Io wouldn’t eat it.

I would suggest you hometest so that you know exactly what is happening. It is the best way to keep Io safe. Walmart has a Relion premier meter which is good. You will also need some test strips to go with the meter. And some lancets to prick the ear. Ask for size 26 or 28 gauge lancets. And get some cotton balls to hold behind the ear when testing.
Info on Hometesting.

Here is a link to HELP US HELP YOU which has information for new members. Make sure you get a hypo kit set up in case of low numbers. You don’t want to be looking for something to give if the BGs drop low…but with hometesting you will be in control and will be able to steer with food.

In regards to insulin the best insulins are either lantus (glargine) or a biosimilar, or prozinc. Don’t let them give you vetsulin or novolin. They are not at all suitable for cats.
And when you hometest, you test first, then feed, then give the dose. But we can help you with that when you are ready.
Don’t leave it too long to start the insulin. they might possibly give the first dose at the vet, some do and some don’t. Try and get the testing equipment first but don’t delay starting the insulin.
the starting dose is usually 1/2 to 1 unit of insulin twice a day so if it is different to that , please tell us immediately. Some vets do not know a lot about cat diabetes. Hopefully yours does.
And please ask the vet if they tested for ketones in the urine at diagnosis.
Keep asking questions and let us know how you got on at the vet with insulin
Bron

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

How are things going. Any update for us?

 

[Jess + Io]

How are things going. Any update for us?

Thanks for checking in! I'm sorry I missed your reply. Still figuring out the forum and making sure I don't miss notifications.

She seems to be doing okay -- eating well, drinking less, gaining weight back, good litter box habits. However, I'm concerned about a drop from BG 390 to 91 in just a few days.

I actually just posted an update here: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...cted-390-bg-to-91-in-less-than-a-week.291706/

(Maybe I should have continued on this post? Please feel free to call me out if I'm not following best practices for posting. I haven't used a forum like this before.)