Newly Diagnosed in Toronto - Scared!

Status
Not open for further replies.
RockStar033

RockStar033

Active Member
Hi Everyone
My baby Annie just got diagnosed with Diabetes this past Thursday, took her back to the vet for a demonstration of the insulin, as well practicing administering it myself. By the time i left i felt fully confident in my abilities but i was not that impressed with my vet. He is new to us, we go to the same animal clinic but our usual girl has moved to Australia, and now we have a new guy that i don't feel confident with.
They also showed me how a glucose test is done, and her number was 27 and i think he said a cat should be around 5. He prescribed her Caninsulin, 2u every 12 hours, as well as weaning her slowly onto wet food that he gave me samples of(she went from 16lbs to 9 lbs in a few months).
The first couple days i froze up when i had to give her the needle. Thank god my fiance was home to do it. finally last night i was able to do it(yay) but now this morning i am home alone, so i don't have a choice. i hope it goes well. I'm scared of poking myself, or her moving when the needle is in, or hitting something on her or injecting it into muscle. I was told to inject her between the shoulder blades
I have so many questions and concerns.. and i'm so confused about all the information. I have been reading through this board the last couple of days and it's all so confusing to me as everything being said here, is the opposite of what my vet has recommended. :(
Where can i buy the home testing for cheap in toronto? I want to get one today but i don't live near a Walmart. what about the shoppers drugmart pharmacy?
Is the insulin dosage too much for her? I have been watchinig her closely the past few days for Hypo but she has seemed fine. I read sometimes there can be no symptoms, but i've been SO worried since i don't have the home testing right now, and can't get it till tomorrow probably or the day after. Will Annie be ok?
I also have an appointment to take her back to the vet on the 14th to check her glucose levels.

I am SO scared for my little Annie and so confused because i don't want to mess anything up and risk her life.
 
Re: Newly Diagnosed - Scared!

Welcome!

Unfortunately, a lot of people who educate themselves about feline diabetes find that the recommended treatment is not what their vet is telling them to do. Vets must know a little about a lot of diseases for a lot of different animals. Often, they just haven't received up to date information about treatment, or just don't know that treatment is different for cats than dogs. All you can do is either educate your vet and hopefully they will work with you, or switch vets if they won't work with you. Vets that are truly knowledgeable about feline diabetes are very hard to come by, which is why educating your vet is a good option, if they will let you.

Caninsulin is not a good insulin for cats. It works well for dogs, but it does not last long enough to be effective in cats and has a higher rate of hypoglycemic incidents. Here's a copy of the AAHA guidelines for you to give to your vet:http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/AAHADiabetesGuidelines.pdf. I would ask to change the insulin to Lantus (glargine), Levemir, or Prozinc. Lantus and Levemir have very high remission rates when coupled with home testing and diet change.

What are you feeding Annie? Diabetics need a low carb, canned diet. If you're still feeding dry food, you'll want to get rid of it. Fortunately, there are a ton of inexpensive, low carb options at the grocery store. Here's a list that has cat food nutritional values: http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. You just need to find a canned food under 10% carbs.

As for a glucose meter, you can get one at any pharmacy. Test Strips are the big expense with glucose meters, so you'll want to look that the price of the strips when you're shopping for one. I know the Aviva Accuchek is available in Canada and that's a great meter--it's the one I use. I'm not sure how much the strips are in Canada, though. The one meter you want to avoid is the Freestyle Lite--it's not an accurate meter at all.
 
Re: Newly Diagnosed - Scared!

FIrst off Breathe! This is all going to get a whole lot easier. We have lots of folks here that also live in Canada and can help you out with everything from what is the best food for Annie (don't need the prescription stuff), where to get the best deal on a good meter and testing supplies and even probably someone close enough to you to pop in and help you learn to test if need be. Unfortunately I'm not one of them, but I will see who I can round up for you. :-D

I do, however, have 16 cats with only 2 of them being diabetics. Now this is how I know how easy this gets, you see I had 11 healthy and happy kitties when I adopted my diabetics. If this was something that was really tough to do I would not have signed up to adopt not one but two diabetics with all the cats I already had, after my first diabetic girl passed away. (Not from diabetes but from what we suspect was cancer).

I do know that the insulin your vet prescribed isn't the best for cats, but you are lucky enough to be in Canada where you don't need a script to buy what you want for insulin. The 3 best insulins for cats are Lantus, Levemir or Prozinc. Both Lantus and Levemir are human insulins and can be purchased at any pharmacy.

Now let me see if I can round you up a few Canadians to help get you started.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Re: Newly Diagnosed - Scared!

Thank you so much!

I have already started weening her on wet food... i am mixing it with her dry right now.
So should i call my vet to change the insulin? what if he says no?

I didn't give her the injection at 11 this morning, i haven't seen her eat yet and i can't get her to eat... plus, i think i am willing to skip one, and run to buy the home test.... i just don't know how to do it, even though the vet showed me. :(
 
Re: Newly Diagnosed - Scared!

RockStar033 said:
Hi Everyone
My baby Annie just got diagnosed with Diabetes this past Thursday, took her back to the vet for a demonstration of the insulin, as well practicing administering it myself. By the time i left i felt fully confident in my abilities but i was not that impressed with my vet. He is new to us, we go to the same animal clinic but our usual girl has moved to Australia, and now we have a new guy that i don't feel confident with.
They also showed me how a glucose test is done, and her number was 27 and i think he said a cat should be around 5. He prescribed her Caninsulin, 2u every 12 hours, as well as weaning her slowly onto wet food that he gave me samples of(she went from 16lbs to 9 lbs in a few months).
The first couple days i froze up when i had to give her the needle. Thank god my fiance was home to do it. finally last night i was able to do it(yay) but now this morning i am home alone, so i don't have a choice. i hope it goes well. I'm scared of poking myself, or her moving when the needle is in, or hitting something on her or injecting it into muscle. I was told to inject her between the shoulder blades
I have so many questions and concerns.. and i'm so confused about all the information. I have been reading through this board the last couple of days and it's all so confusing to me as everything being said here, is the opposite of what my vet has recommended. :(
Where can i buy the home testing for cheap in toronto? I want to get one today but i don't live near a Walmart. what about the shoppers drugmart pharmacy?
Is the insulin dosage too much for her? I have been watchinig her closely the past few days for Hypo but she has seemed fine. I read sometimes there can be no symptoms, but i've been SO worried since i don't have the home testing right now, and can't get it till tomorrow probably or the day after. Will Annie be ok?
I also have an appointment to take her back to the vet on the 14th to check her glucose levels.

I am SO scared for my little Annie and so confused because i don't want to mess anything up and risk her life.
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome!
if you are in Toronto, I would recommend the vets I saw before moving to Winnipeg.
Kingston Road Animal Hospital... they are amazing and will not have you give an insulin such as caninsulin.
I was going to Downtown Animal hospital, but while Dr Vihos was very good at many things, overall, the rest of the place was not good and she was not knowing about FD at all.
I switched over the Kingston Road Animal Hospital and can't say enough about Dr. Mitelman who treated all of my cats, and also Dr. Samson. They have all that's needed onsite if needed to do Xrays or ultrasounds and I was a bad one for just showing up for help, but they still fitted me in to calm me and answer my questions. I love that office. I lived right downtown and took the bus there; it was more than worth the trip as I trusted them completely.

They recommend Lantus and know about this site as I told them. They also liked the spreadsheets I kept for testing my 2 cats. If you can, make an appt for a visit and see how you like them.

For your testing stuff, we can't get any Relion in Canada, so you can go with Bayer contour (my favorite) or any other BG meters because the strip costs are about the same. Just stay away from any of the FreeStyle meters as they give misleading numbers for cats. Also, don't get any of the 'TRU' meters.

I always went to Shopper's Drug mart and used their Optimum card for points. Those points add up and for me, I had enough points a few times a year for a free pack of insulin cartridges.

Forget about the caninsulin; it's a lousy insulin for cats. Maybe it's OK for dogs, but not cats.
Just pick up a package of 5 cartridges of either Lantus or Levemir from any pharmacy; no prescriptions are needed in Canada. You will need to get U100 syringes; get the ones with 1/2 unit markings - there is a diagram of the markings on the side of the boxes, for the BD brand.

I have used Lantus and Levemir on my 2 cats, and would suggest to go with Levemir because one of my cats reacted poorly, was tense, on Lantus but she was just fine on Levemir. I think maybe more sensitive cats can sense a difference? My Ollie could not care less; to him, either was OK.

It's up to you which insulin you select; there may be a wee bit of a price difference, but it's likely you may need a tiny bit less Levemir than Lantus, and people who have switched their cats from Lantus to Levemir are usually advised to switch at 70% Levemir until it's known how much Levemir is needed for the cat.

I would suggest you revise your subject in your first post of this thread to add Toronto somewhere as there are some good people in the city who will help you a great deal for local stuff and sources.
 
Re: Newly Diagnosedin Toronto - Scared!

Thank you so much

Do i need to consult my vet before switching the insulin? I really don't feel comfortable with him, which is not cool, because i dont' want to have to switch. Also, she is using the U40 syringe. 28G, she doesn't seem to mind it, she doesn't even flinch.

I live in the Beaches and Queen and Woodbine, and there are a few vet places down here that i haven't been to. maybe i will go check them out, but i can't afford to keep taking her to different people, and i dont want to stress her out. Can i just pop in and ask a few questions without Annie with me? or will they not answer?

i'm so confused.
 
Re: Newly Diagnosedin Toronto - Scared!

RockStar033 said:
Thank you so much

Do i need to consult my vet before switching the insulin? I really don't feel comfortable with him, which is not cool, because i dont' want to have to switch. Also, she is using the U40 syringe. 28G, she doesn't seem to mind it, she doesn't even flinch.

I live in the Beaches and Queen and Woodbine, and there are a few vet places down here that i haven't been to. maybe i will go check them out, but i can't afford to keep taking her to different people, and i dont want to stress her out. Can i just pop in and ask a few questions without Annie with me? or will they not answer?

i'm so confused.
Click to expand...

My goodness, you do NOT need to 'consult' your vet if changing insulin. That's ridiculous because decent vets are not trying to sell caninsulin to cats. I am sure that vet would say do not home test and here, feed your cat this wonderful rx dry food!

What I would do is to phone around some vet offices and ask them what a consult would be for your cat. Most times, a reputable vet office is going to want to do bloodwork to see how the cat really is, at that visit, and then you can discuss what you like. I found that my consult visit with Dr.Mitelman was worth every penny, and I quickly brought in my other diabetic for an intro visit.
I forgot to give you the link to their site:
http://www.vetstoronto.com/
if you click on Blog at the top of their page, you can read some of the stories on the animals that were treated for all sorts of problems.
What I did was make a list of a whole bunch of questions. I was determined to get a vet that I liked, and one who had the 'right' answers. I wanted to feel comfortable with the vet, and wanted especially my cats to feel at ease!
I realize that you and everyone else can't keep going here and there to find a vet, but your preparation will make it easier. I will say that while this place is not the cheapest, you will save when it comes to the scary things. Here's an example:
When my Shadoe needed an ultrasound, I had to make an appt with my old vet, and they had to arrange for some guy to come in with portable equipment and set up and then I could bring her in.
I had an ultrasound done for my Oliver at the Kingston Road vet office and it was right away and it was almost $200 cheaper. Why? Because they are also an emergency place, open 24/7 and have all the equipment right on site.

Let me tell you.... I truly grilled this vet, and Dr. Mitelman was patient and spent an hour with me, examining my cat and answered every one of my questions.... I had over 24. If I ever move back to Toronto, I will definitely go back to these vets. They are up to date, and what was best was that they worked with me and accepted info that I brought to them! Dr Mitelman looked up a few things and the next visit, he said to me thx! you were right!

I doubt that anyone is going to see you and your cat for no charge; that's just not realistic.
What you can also do... change your subject again to add Need vet suggestions
I am sure there are others who will be able to let you know what vets they use and what they were like.
 
so i just went to the vet clinic up the road from me(i've heard great things about them, they are new), and i'm going to make an appointment for a second opinion. I also just went and bought the Bayer Contour. now i just have to figure out how to use it!

when the vet technician showed me how a reading is done, he poked the vein along the outside of the ear.... but from what i've read here, you don't poke the vein you poke inbetween the vein and the edge of the ear? ? did i read right? i figured poking the vein would get better blood??

and just wondering, has anyone ever poked themselves while giving their cat insulin? not injecting but just poked? when i did it yesterday the tip of the needle just skimmed the surface of my finger and i freaked out!
 
Just wanted to say that this all really does get easier. When I started giving Eleanor insulin just short of two months ago, I was convinced I was going to kill her one way or another!
I hope you will be more comfortable with your new vet. You can have test results sent over from the other vet you saw, that might help some with costs.
Also, I accidently injected my finger with a little bit of insulin one night, I was fine.

Julie
 
Testing on cat’s ear

What's the name of the vet office near you?
I hope you like the vet and staff there. I would ask definitely how they treat diabetic animals.
What insulin do they recommend
What are their thoughts on owner home testing.
What diet should a diabetic cat eat.

They are all questions that will tell you a great deal about the vet ....
1. I would most prefer Levemir(detemir) and Lantus(glargine) is also good. Some vets want to have cats use PZI or Prozinc, a vet insulin, and while it's good for some cats, it's really not as long lasting as Lantus or Levemir. If the vet says caninsulin, tell the vet you will be using Lantus or Levemir, and see the reaction you get. If the vet suggests using humulin N, run like the wind from that vet.

2. Home testing is vital to your knowing how your cat is doing. No human would ever think of giving themselves a shot or their child without home testing first, so what would make your cat less important. if the vet says you don't need to test because you will have to bring the cat in for curves every so often, tell the vet thanks but you cannot afford those curves and they stress your cat and you are already home testing. If the vet protests your home testing. Leave that vet office.

3. Diet. If the vet suggests any sort of dry food, advise the vet that you are feeding a low carb wet diet and have the vet look up Dr. Lisa's site at www.catinfo.org to learn how cats need to be fed.
If the vet tries to sell you their rx food, just say you have already tried it and your cat absolutely refused to eat it and tried to cover it up, just like when in the litter box, so no thx, but you will stick with your current diet. If the vet pushes for other food, vet food. Leave.

You want a vet who will work with you, and if you bring good info to share with the vet, the vet will listen to you and even look up the info to verify it.

The medical field is ever changing, ever improving. Humans and animals. You want a vet who is willing to learn and grow, with you and your cat.
 
Just wanted to stop by and say hi and welcome to FDMB! This is the absolute best place to find, even though you wish you never had to. Kitten was diagnosed over the Christmas break. Our vet prescribed Lantus, showed us how to do the injections, said that if we'd like to start hometesting then that's cool, or we can bring him in after a week for a curve, and sent us on our merry way. That was the last day that Kit was at the vet. I found this place and with the help of the fabulous people here, Kitten just celebrated his OTJ ("off the juice") party last Thursday!! It was a rough beginning, I'm not going to lie...there were a lot of tears, frustration, overall chaotic feeling. But with time, it all just fell into place and I started to feel more in control (well, relatively lol). Eventually it was all second nature, part of the routine, and it all just "made sense"....

I live in Mississauga and so if you need anything feel free to ask! My vet was great, but I don't think you'd want to drive all the way here -- especially with our traffic :) Please let me know if I can do anything to help though!

-Lillian (& Kitten too!)
 
Welcome!

Great job on starting the home testing! I know its' scary but you'll get the hang of things soon :smile:

I've never pricked myself with the insulin needle, but I did with the lancet! :lol: :lol:

I heard your kitty isn't really interested in food right now. When cats are diagnosed with diabetes, they usually don't feel well at ALL and have been losing weight, lethargic, etc....Even though their blood sugars are pretty high at first, they still need to eat to avoid liver problems (and others), and to ensure they can get the nutrition they need. We had to spoon fed and follow our cat Elie around the house at meal times to make sure he ate a satisfactory amount. He needed to eat so I could give the insulin, and the insulin makes sure his cells get the energy they need to function. We currently feed our guy Hills M/D which is a vet perscribed wet food for diabetic felines. We originally gave him Friskas Mariners Catch, Tuna and Ocean whitefish, and the Chicken pates. They worked well, but caused some weight gain in our other 2 cats. So we went to the perscribed diabetic food. I hear there are some good fancy feast foods too. Low Carb/High Protein is the name of the wet food game! It makes a HUGE difference in the BG's.

I am not sure if you are going to try switching to a different insulin, but we used Lantus (Elie is in remission!!!!) and it worked well for him :mrgreen:

I think someone gave you the link to set up a spreadsheet so you can start tracking your numbers on here (it helps so people can help if you need it). OH...and it is best to report your numbers in US values rather than Canadian mmol/L, as that is sort of the norm on here. The spreadsheets have 2 pages (link at the bottom for World Values and US values), so you can still enter your Cdn values in the sheet and it converts automatically.

Welcome Again!

Tanya
 
:lol: :lol: :lol:
I injected myself with 1.5u accidentally one day-
didn't seem to have much effect, though I did check my BG 3 hrs later...it was 58 :-D
 
RockStar033 said:
and just wondering, has anyone ever poked themselves while giving their cat insulin? not injecting but just poked? when i did it yesterday the tip of the needle just skimmed the surface of my finger and i freaked out!
Click to expand...

Yep...been there done that, except I gave myself the shot...lol I had not checked the batch of syringes that I had gotten and had accidently gotten long needles instead of the short needles I was use to, so when I went to give Musette her shot I went completely through the tent and into my thumb. Really it is such a small dose and we are so much bigger than a cat I just used it as a good excuse to break the diet and go have a chocolate malt. ohmygod_smile

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
lol at injecting yourselves with insuling! Time to break out the high carb for the BEANS!!!! oh darn... :lol:
 
hi there Annie's mom

I just wanted to add a tip for buying insulin - at Costco you can buy Lantus for about $95 for a 5 pack/3ml vials, or Levemir, the other awesome "L" insulin for $108 for a 5 pack,...that's about a $20-25 dollar savings from Shoppers Drug Mart for example.

And at Costco you don't need a membership or prescription to buy insulin.
Another Costco deal, althou not the greatest meter (rated low on a Consumers Report review a few years ago), I have and do use the True Track meter among my other meters, it's actually improved since the first time I used it a couple years ago, but anyway, I wanted to add, Costco sells True Track test strips for $43 for a box of 100.
Good deal when $$ is tight. It is also a good idea to have a backup meter for double checking wonky readings.

I do second the tip about getting and using a Shoppers Drug Mart Optimun points card - you can get points when you buy things like syringes, lancets, and strips, plus you can redeem points too.

I have poked myself with the lancets - hurts!! And of course I fear I will turn into a cat. :lol:
but unfortunately I still have to get up and go about my day unlike them

You can disinfect with some rubbing alcohol or those alcohol wipes if it makes you feel better, prob a good idea, but you should be ok. Of course if something seems off, then get yourself checked out.

Good luck to you and Annie, and don't forget to breath! it really does get easier!! You'll see

PS: contact Bayer and tell them you got a dead battery - that sucks!! they will prob send you stuff, maybe strips too! Just dont mention it's for your cat :lol:
 
Hello from a fellow resident of Toronto. We've only been dealing with this for a week, so know that there are others in the area who are also new to FD.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top