Newly diagnosed Mira Mae

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AmandaDavid

AmandaDavid

Member Since 2014
Hello, my name is Amanda, I have two cats, both rescues. 9 yr old Mira Mae lives with her 13 yr old; crotchety, senile sister, Johndy Lynn. Mira was diagnosed as diabetic on January 27, 2014. Mira lost a considerable amount of weight over a month period, he was sleepy and just wasn't herself. We took her into the vet on the 27 and got the news that her sugar level was 420. So we were sold a $35 6.6 lb bag of Purina Veterinary Diet: Diabetic Management DM.... Sticker shock. A $20 a week visit for sugar checks, and insulin.

As a family who is being supported by an aunt/sister because of various health reasons, Mira's diagnoses has been not only an emotional, but also a financial blow. The food her vet sold us is not only horrendous food as far as ingredients go, but the price is astronomical. As this is very new as far as pets go, this will be a journey to say the least. I hope to learn lots! Below is a picture of my Smirna!
 

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We can save you money right away. Take the food back and tell the vet Mira won't eat it. Purina guarantees refunds. This vet explains why wet low carb food is best: http://www.catinfo.org On her site, you can find food charts and pick regular brands that are less expensive and will help more. We generally pick foods 8% carbs and under. DON'T CHANGE THE FOOD UNTIL YOU ARE TESTING.

You can test at home and not have to pay for tests at the vet. At home testing is more accurate since, at the vet, most cats are very stressed. Stress raises blood glucose levels. Doses determined by those levels may be too high once she is home.

A food change can bring levels down over 100 points; it did for our cat. If we hadn't been testing and had given our usual amount, he would have hypoed. Here is how we do it:
Video for hometesting
We've taught hundreds of people how over the internet; we'd be glad to teach you. Then you can send your spreadsheet full of data to your vet and eliminate that expense.

What kind of insulin are you using?

Do some reading on this site - the Main Forum has great links on Nutrition and Hometesting. Ask lots of questions. We'd love to help.
 
Hello and welcome,

You can pick up a cheap glucometer at Walmart, most people here use the Relion meters. It is a very good meter and the test strips are very cheap.

Terri
 
Sue and Oliver (GA) said:
We can save you money right away. Take the food back and tell the vet Mira won't eat it. Purina guarantees refunds. This vet explains why wet low carb food is best: http://www.catinfo.org On her site, you can find food charts and pick regular brands that are less expensive and will help more. We generally pick foods 8% carbs and under. DON'T CHANGE THE FOOD UNTIL YOU ARE TESTING.

You can test at home and not have to pay for tests at the vet. At home testing is more accurate since, at the vet, most cats are very stressed. Stress raises blood glucose levels. Doses determined by those levels may be too high once she is home.

A food change can bring levels down over 100 points; it did for our cat. If we hadn't been testing and had given our usual amount, he would have hypoed. Here is how we do it:
Video for hometesting
We've taught hundreds of people how over the internet; we'd be glad to teach you. Then you can send your spreadsheet full of data to your vet and eliminate that expense.

What kind of insulin are you using?

Do some reading on this site - the Main Forum has great links on Nutrition and Hometesting. Ask lots of questions. We'd love to help.
Click to expand...

We normally only give wet food as a treat, they get it maybe 2-3 times a week. But I'll definitely look at the site. As soon as we got home from the vet, I jumped on computer, and ravaged YouTube lol I watched a bunch of videos and comfortably say I can do home tests, but I did some reading and though you have to use a pet specific glucometer? I was looking at the ipet and the AlphaTrek 2... But the stripes on the AT2 are over $50.00 a tube :sad:

We fed it to her yesterday and today. But the ingredients... or lack thereof angry (2)_cat there is only 1 single natural ingredient and it's Chicken Byproduct. The price sent me over the edge. $35 for a 6.6 lb bag. I posted on facebook and one of my moms friends said she had her diabetic dog on a weight management formula, so I searched and hunted... I could probably check some more, but I'm happy with what I found. I'm going to get her Evo Weight Management, it's nutrition is as good and in some areas is better than the Purina crap. It has 5% less carbs than puriena and it's still high protein. Everything in it is either meat, fruit, veg, grain, vitamin and mineral and second best part, it's only $25 for a 6.6 bag party_cat

Called the vet to make sure it was okay, he, as I expected was pushing for the Purina, but the crappy ingredients and astronomical price tag turned me off of it. I'm sorry, but if the ingredients were good, then maybe we would stay with it, but I can't justify paying that much for garbage. We're gonna finish that bag and then she'll be on Evo WM

As I was online I was looking for ways to make this diagnosis easier on our pocketbooks. I found a message board post on a dog site and someone there mentioned ReliOn. I got hers at walmart for $24.88 :-) Our one break in the day.
 
You are in the right place! I also had a recently diagnosed kitty, but thanks to all the kind people here, her care has been affordable. None of the highly priced prescription food from the vet that she would not eat. Got her favorite Fancy Feast Pate and Friskies Pate foods for much less. Learned how to home test, our bi-weekly testing was $130 per visit! My Lily would be gone by now if I followed the vets advice. She has been off insulin since last Saturday and has rarely spiked a BG over 200. Seems the change in diet is working. She is back to normal drinking/peeing and does eat more low carb food because I no longer give her dry, high carb food.

Thank goodness you found this site.

p.s. my vet is not happy!
 
AmandaDavid said:
...We normally only give wet food as a treat, they get it maybe 2-3 times a week. But I'll definitely look at the site. ...I'm going to get her Evo Weight Management...
...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend you do that.

What you want to get is a low carb, high protein, canned or raw food, not one with alleged 'weight management'. Cats are obligate carnivores who should have a species appropriate, moisture-providing diet. The thirst drive isn't strong enough to compensate for dry food's lack of moisture. Often, you wind up with cats who develop renal disease or stones, diabetes, or gain weight due to the incorrect feeding because the eat more to get the nutrients they do need.

Please - go to Cat Info and read it asap. Effective management of your at's diabetes depends on it.
 
Welcome Amanda. You have found the best place on earth for help with your diabetic kitty. Low carb wet food is your best friend. There is tons to read and you will probably have more questions after reading. It is amazing what results you can a achieve by following just the food suggestions.... ie... No dry food. I look forward to reading how things go for you :)
 
Hello Amanda and sugarkitty Mira Mae.

Good information for you from BJM on a low carb food. The weight management foods just keep the Bg (blood glucose) levels high.

Hope to see more of you 2 around the board.
 
Deb & Wink said:
Hello Amanda and sugarkitty Mira Mae.

Good information for you from BJM on a low carb food. The weight management foods just keep the Bg (blood glucose) levels high.

Hope to see more of you 2 around the board.
Click to expand...
Learning so much in such a short amount of time is making my head ache. We are not going to buy the Evo WM, after learning that Fancy Feast is best, but what I just found out that Mira right now, at her underweight she would need 2.5 cans of Fancy Feast. She barely eats 1/2 a can now in a meal let alone 1 1/4 cans :-( They, Mira and sister Johndy, only got wet food as a treat because for the most part they would leave the food and only eat the gravy, so we barely ever bought it because it was a waste. We will now be exclusively feeding FF, but I'm worried Mira won't eat enough. She is 9 lbs now, but to get her away from her boneiness, I'm thinking she need's to gain a couple pounds.... So then she would have to eat 3.5 cans a day. We free feed before, Mira would take a bit e here and a bite there, I'm hoping only getting fed in the morning and wet, I'm hoping her appetite will grow. How many cans do you all feed?
 
I'm feeding 15 adult cats of varying sizes and activity levels 4 x 13 oz cans of Friskies am and pm.

Go for a kitten food that is low carb. They are designed for growth and may help put the weight back on. Ex Fancy Feast Kitten Turkey and Giblet, Evo Cat and Kitten canned.

Are you checking for ketones? These form as a byproduct of fat breakdown for calories. Too many may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal, expensive to treat, complication of diabetes. See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for tips on that and other assessments you may wish to make when monitoring your cat's health.
 
Welcome Amanda and Mira Mae! You will find so much support and awesome information here at FDMB to help get Mira Mae better. :smile:

Here's a link to some tips for transitioning picky cats from dry food to wet food: http://www.felinediabetes.com/TipsforTransitioningPDF12-18-09.pdf

Many, many cats who have been fed dry food for most of their lives initially turn up their noses at wet food, and there are lot of folks here who struggled with transitioning who I'm sure can offer even more tips and advice if you have difficulty.

Jen and Eddie
 
Hey Amanda!

My 10.5 pouond Wink eats 2 of those cans of Fancy Feast so that's 6 ounces a day, sometimes a bit more. My other two civies( non-diabetic cats) eat 4-5 ounces for my 7 pound little Delta and 6-7 ounces for my 12 pound Monet.

When I first got Wink, he was a dry food addict. So much so, that even after I transitioned him off dry food to wet exclusively, he chewed through the bag of dry food I was taking to the shelter. ohmygod_smile Just a couple of weeks ago, he got ahold of a package of tortillas as I was putting away the groceries and chewed through the bag to get a couple of bites. :shock: :o :shock: So I have to say he is still a dry food addict, but happily eating wet food.

I'm sharing Wink's story with you, so you know that is possible for kitties to be transitioned to wet food from dry. You need to be persistent and try lots of those tips from the Transitioning Tips link someone else gave you. They really work! I probably used most of them over a period of 6 weeks to get Wink to switch. The unexpected bonus was that Wink went into remission. Hoping that can happen for your Mira Mae.

It's most important right now that Mira Mae eat something. If she stubbornly refuses the wet food, then getting her to eat the dry will keep her safe. We don't want to see hepatic lipidosis or ketones or have her lose too much more weight right now or for her to get sick.

Is there some food she really loves? Maybe fresh cooked chicken or a bit of plain tuna in water? You could try putting a bit of those on top of the wet food to tempt her to eat the wet.

Just ask me if you need more tips to get Mira Mae to eat the wet food. I have lots of them to share.
 
Hi Amanda

I too have transitioned stubborn dry food addicts to an all wet diet (and then to a raw diet). One thing that I found successful was to appeal to a diabetic cat's thirst drive. If you saturate the wet food -mixing it in really well, you might get her to eat more of it. In my experience, if I put the two side by side, my cats would choose the very wet canned food over the dry so I removed the dry completely and they never looked back and stopped using the water bowl as well. Now I don't worry about the UTIs and other horrible health problems caused by dry food. There are a lot of other tricks and suggestions we can offer. We want you to be successful in knowing about how to care for your sugarcat. It's a dance we are all doing.

Robin
 
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