Hi, I'm new to this board after having had my kitty DeNiro diagnosed with diabetes just over a week ago. I rescued him from a pound a few months ago, and since getting him home he had been losing weight....he also battled a dreadful flu for almost 2 months and is likely FIV+. He is a gorgeous boy who obviously had a home at some stage in his life, but had clearly been living on the street for some time, came in covered in battle scars and fleas. Last week after bloods/urines etc, he was diagnosed as diabetic. He started on 1 1/2 units of Lantus twice daily last Wednesday. I'm trying to read up as much as I can to do his first curve test at home on Friday. The vet was worried that because of the scarring to his ears it would be hard to get him to bleed, but I've got my fingers crossed as I want to avoid the stress of him going into hospital for the day, as well as the cost. My biggest concern at the moment is he is very skinny. I tried him on the vet's prescription diet food, but he didn't like it, so i'm sticking with supermarket tinned foods for the moment....I've been giving him lots of stuff with jelly and chunks of fish....is that ok? I see pates are preferred but at the moment he doesn't always prefer them, though he is eating them about 1/3rd of his meals. I live in Australia so the names of some foods etc may be different here. He seems to be going ok so far...a little improvement, but it's only been 5 days. My biggest concern is when I will be away from home for more than 12 hours. My vet is only open til about 5 on weekends, which means if I'm out later than that on say a Saturday, he'd have to spend the night there, and I don't like that idea, but don't think it's something I'll be able to avoid?? They don't have one now,but soon will have a vet nurse that spends the night with the animals, though I don't think they'd let me come get him til the next morning when they officially re-open. His age had to be guessed, and vet thinks he's only about 2, which seems very young to be diabetic. I'm so glad I found this board....I love DeNiro and want to see him live a long and healthy life. Any tips/advice/suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Newly Diagnosed Kitty DeNiro
- Thread starter DeNiro
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Katie & Mego (GA)
Member Since 2013
Good morning (in the USA) to you & DeNiro! It sounds like you're on the right track with home testing to make sure DeNiro is safe and to do your own curves. As for the food and his weight, those questions are a bit out of my scope and I hope one of the experts comes along soon to help you on that.
In the meantime, welcome to the board and I'm sending DeNiro some weight gaining vines. How much does he weigh?
In the meantime, welcome to the board and I'm sending DeNiro some weight gaining vines. How much does he weigh?
Hope + (((Baby)))GA
Member Since 2009
List for canned foods
This post might help you find food to feed.....
Re: Canned cat food for EUROPEANS and International buyers
by GraceAndAngie » Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:11 am
Wet cat food for Australians
The list below was posted to me by Vyktor's Mum, another Australian who has helped me a lot. That little list is the best guide I've found for Australians. I've also found cat food fresh mince, available near the meat section in the supermarket. That doesn't have any vegetable products in it. A lot of people talk about food spread sheets and lists here (Binky's Page is one of them) but they're not relevant to us because the food is different. Americans use Fancy Feast a lot but this isn't any good in Australia as it has grains in it.
suitable food is whiskas LOAF VARIETIES ONLY, natures gift, ultimates (except for the one with rice), the premium woolworths select and ziwi peak (this ones expensive but probably the most appropriate canned food for cats in existence). you want to avoid giving fish varieties more than a couple of times a week.
The mince and casserole Whiskers tins are high carb because the gravy has flour in it. The loaf varieties ("jellymeat", "loaf with chicken and beef", "loaf with lamb and kidney" and "loaf with chicken and turkey" and the fish ones) are the only low carb Whiskers.
The two cheapest options are the whiskers loaf tins and the cat food mince.
People talk about Ziwi Peak as being very good quality - I've never bought it. I can't tell you about Nature's Gifts, Ultimates or Premium Woolworths Select as I've never bought them either. The cat mince that I was buying seemed better quality than Whiskers as it didn't have as much jelly in it and it was all recognisably meat.
This post might help you find food to feed.....
Re: Canned cat food for EUROPEANS and International buyers
by GraceAndAngie » Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:11 am
Wet cat food for Australians
The list below was posted to me by Vyktor's Mum, another Australian who has helped me a lot. That little list is the best guide I've found for Australians. I've also found cat food fresh mince, available near the meat section in the supermarket. That doesn't have any vegetable products in it. A lot of people talk about food spread sheets and lists here (Binky's Page is one of them) but they're not relevant to us because the food is different. Americans use Fancy Feast a lot but this isn't any good in Australia as it has grains in it.
suitable food is whiskas LOAF VARIETIES ONLY, natures gift, ultimates (except for the one with rice), the premium woolworths select and ziwi peak (this ones expensive but probably the most appropriate canned food for cats in existence). you want to avoid giving fish varieties more than a couple of times a week.
The mince and casserole Whiskers tins are high carb because the gravy has flour in it. The loaf varieties ("jellymeat", "loaf with chicken and beef", "loaf with lamb and kidney" and "loaf with chicken and turkey" and the fish ones) are the only low carb Whiskers.
The two cheapest options are the whiskers loaf tins and the cat food mince.
People talk about Ziwi Peak as being very good quality - I've never bought it. I can't tell you about Nature's Gifts, Ultimates or Premium Woolworths Select as I've never bought them either. The cat mince that I was buying seemed better quality than Whiskers as it didn't have as much jelly in it and it was all recognisably meat.
Deb & Wink
Member Since 2013
There were posts in the last couple (4-8) of days from two other members from Australia. You can use the search function, upper right corner of screen, to search for a character string. I would suggest searching for "Australia" and looking at the most recent posts found.
Probably other information in those posts to help you also.
Probably other information in those posts to help you also.
Hope + (((Baby)))GA
Member Since 2009
I sent PM's to Grace and Angie and also to Vyktor's Mom.......both are in Australia. Keep an eye out for them to respond to you.
Wendy&Tiggy(GA)
Member Since 2011
As well as changing his food, home testing is key to keeping him safe. Here are some tips: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c_CPZVKz27fD_6aVbsguadJKvjSrSAkD7flgPPhEag/pub
Vyktors Mum
Member Since 2011
Good Morning
I see Grace has passed on the Aussie food tips for you - those foods are better than the prescription stuff as they are lower in carbs. One further comment on food is that you don't want to be feeding fish varieties all the time. Fish meals should be limited to once or twice a week due to the levels of heavy metals in them (there is something else in them it's not good to have too much of but I can't remember what it is off the top of my head).
I wouldn't think the scarring will prevent you from ear testing just be a bit patient. i recommend you get DeNiro used to the idea by 1) rubbing his ears everytime you think about it to get him used to you playing around with them and 2) when he's comfortable with that clicking a pen near his ear so he gets used to the noise. Not sure what State you're in but if it's getting cold where you are already you may need to heat his ear to be able to get your sample.
Meters - do not get the Freestyle Lite there are issues with it reading too low. I recommend the Exceed (or is it Excel - I'm not at home right now to check!). I have found that one to be very reliable and you can use it to test for ketones too if needs be.
Apart from when Vyktor went in as an emergency and got started on insulin he has never had to be tested at the vet. In fact he never had to see the vet about his diabetes again, I used the Tight Regulation protocol and got all my advice from the Lantus Tight Regulation forum. When you get started you will want to set up a spreadsheet for his test results. The link is here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50130 The spreadsheet is stored on Google docs so your vet will be able to access it too - most convenient! You want the world spreadsheet. You enter your numbers in the world sheet and it will auto fill in the US sheet so that the board members can understand the figures (most of them being in the US).
1 1/2 units is quite a high starting dose unless you have a super big cat - which it doesn't sound like - do you know what his BG numbers were like?
I will tag this post to see if I can be of any further assistance but when you start a new one I will lose you. I'm not on the board very much anymore as my computer died. Please feel free to PM the link to your future posts if you think I can help with anything. Good on you for being so proactive and finding your way here, DeNiro has found himself a great home!
I see Grace has passed on the Aussie food tips for you - those foods are better than the prescription stuff as they are lower in carbs. One further comment on food is that you don't want to be feeding fish varieties all the time. Fish meals should be limited to once or twice a week due to the levels of heavy metals in them (there is something else in them it's not good to have too much of but I can't remember what it is off the top of my head).
I wouldn't think the scarring will prevent you from ear testing just be a bit patient. i recommend you get DeNiro used to the idea by 1) rubbing his ears everytime you think about it to get him used to you playing around with them and 2) when he's comfortable with that clicking a pen near his ear so he gets used to the noise. Not sure what State you're in but if it's getting cold where you are already you may need to heat his ear to be able to get your sample.
Meters - do not get the Freestyle Lite there are issues with it reading too low. I recommend the Exceed (or is it Excel - I'm not at home right now to check!). I have found that one to be very reliable and you can use it to test for ketones too if needs be.
Apart from when Vyktor went in as an emergency and got started on insulin he has never had to be tested at the vet. In fact he never had to see the vet about his diabetes again, I used the Tight Regulation protocol and got all my advice from the Lantus Tight Regulation forum. When you get started you will want to set up a spreadsheet for his test results. The link is here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50130 The spreadsheet is stored on Google docs so your vet will be able to access it too - most convenient! You want the world spreadsheet. You enter your numbers in the world sheet and it will auto fill in the US sheet so that the board members can understand the figures (most of them being in the US).
1 1/2 units is quite a high starting dose unless you have a super big cat - which it doesn't sound like - do you know what his BG numbers were like?
I will tag this post to see if I can be of any further assistance but when you start a new one I will lose you. I'm not on the board very much anymore as my computer died. Please feel free to PM the link to your future posts if you think I can help with anything. Good on you for being so proactive and finding your way here, DeNiro has found himself a great home!
Thank you so much to everyone for all your helpful advice. DeNiro and I really appreciate it. I've been frantically busy with work, and between that and having to get up at 6;30AM each day to give DeNiro his insulin, haven't had time to reply.
DeNiro is doing fairly well, but far from 100%. He's putting on a bit of weight, and his coat is looking much healthier. He seems brighter and happier. He isn't drinking as much, but is still peeing all over the place...hopefully that will stop as he improves.
We are avoiding fish, gravies etc and have him pretty much just eating loaf foods, which he seems to enjoy.
I've had a couple problems with the injections but will hopefully get better. 2 or 3 times I've injected him and when I rubbed the area after discovered it was wet...that was scary as not sure if I should re-dose and how much. His numbers were very high, but I forget what they were...I'll get them from vet when I next speak to her and post here. I'll be doing his first testing this Wednesday at home, fingers crossed I'm able to pull it off!
DeNiro is doing fairly well, but far from 100%. He's putting on a bit of weight, and his coat is looking much healthier. He seems brighter and happier. He isn't drinking as much, but is still peeing all over the place...hopefully that will stop as he improves.
We are avoiding fish, gravies etc and have him pretty much just eating loaf foods, which he seems to enjoy.
I've had a couple problems with the injections but will hopefully get better. 2 or 3 times I've injected him and when I rubbed the area after discovered it was wet...that was scary as not sure if I should re-dose and how much. His numbers were very high, but I forget what they were...I'll get them from vet when I next speak to her and post here. I'll be doing his first testing this Wednesday at home, fingers crossed I'm able to pull it off!
Vyktors Mum
Member Since 2011
good luck with the testing remember to stay calm and have treats ready for both of you for after - low carb for deniro of course :smile: don't stress if u don't get it the first time u can try again a bit later.
you don't want to shoot again after a fur shot, u have no way of knowing how much went in and one cycle of staying high is better than a hypo. first priority is always to stay safe. there's also the possibility that the wetness u have felt has been some of the excess u have shot out of the syringe in making the dose. I kept thinking I was doing fur shots but after I started wiping down the top of the syringe (the plastic bit not the needle) with a tissue before I shot - no more wet fur.
you don't want to shoot again after a fur shot, u have no way of knowing how much went in and one cycle of staying high is better than a hypo. first priority is always to stay safe. there's also the possibility that the wetness u have felt has been some of the excess u have shot out of the syringe in making the dose. I kept thinking I was doing fur shots but after I started wiping down the top of the syringe (the plastic bit not the needle) with a tissue before I shot - no more wet fur.
Wendy&Tiggy(GA)
Member Since 2011
How did the testing go?
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