Newly diagnosed- very overwhelmed

Very long post incoming!

I am so happy to have found such a wonderful community, but I am so overwhelmed with my kitty boy’s brand new diabetes diagnosis. We are in Australia.


Anchor is a 13 year old domestic long hair male. Up until October 2023, he returned completely healthy panels though he has had a grade 1 heart murmur for some years. In November 2023, he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, a gallop rhythm/grade 4 heart murmur and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. With ongoing thyroid treatment, his heart murmur returned to grade 1 and heart issues significantly decreased. At this time, we got him a Solensia shot as vet suspected some arthritis.


Anchor had a negative reaction to the Solensia, though we did not realise and thought it was the thyroid meds so he ended up having two shots. He has had months of self mutilation from severe face and neck itching. When he would scratch, we’d need to use the cone and give him steroids.


Luckily we have been monitoring him really closely as we try to get the right level of thyroid meds, because we have just gotten a surprise diabetes diagnosis! The vet believes it is steroid induced. We literally watched him become diabetic over the past two weeks in his blood draw results.


Yesterday he began insulin (1 unit of Glargin/Lantus x2 daily). We also began a low carb diet of Tiki Cat and Ziwi Peak. He was eating high carb food over the past week (Hills ID, Royal Canin Digestive, Pro Plan Sensitive) as vet wasn’t sure if it was GI troubles at first.


Our vet specialises in cats and has/works with diabetic cats often so we took her advice to administer insulin and then have a monitor placed next week to see how Anchor is responding. After this group, we went out and bought a home test kit (though 2 hours after eating and insulin) and his result was 16.6/298.8 on the human sensor.


The issues we have faced already are:
-Anchor does not eat a full meal at set meal times. He has always been given food at certain times but grazes on it for hours. He’s also accustomed to free feeding on dry food though he never has more than a few bites. We understand this can affect insulin administration and are stressed. Tonight we offered 4 different wet foods to try and get him to eat something prior to insulin and it was really stressful when he still didn’t eat much.

-He never eats the same amount in a day. We always have offered 3-4 meals plus snacks/treats and dry food. Sometimes he eats a whole tin, sometimes half, sometimes a quarter or none. Sometimes he eats all his treats, sometimes none at all.

-He is a big boy and very very strong both physically and willed. If he does not like something e.g insulin administration or ear pricks he will make it absolutely impossible for his humans.

-I am home alone in the mornings for the stressful feedings/ear pricks/insulin with Anchor and a newborn human child and worry that I’m going to have a mental breakdown over the stress of keeping my fur baby alive and well.


I would appreciate any and all insight and tips that have made a positive difference for your babies. I am desperate to keep Anchor well and in good health. I have read probably hundreds of the threads and am SOOOOOOO overwhelmed with everything.

 

Hi and welcome!

We have a few members from Australia and I’m sure they’ll say hi soon

As long as he eats some before the shot, you don’t need go worry about him not finishing it all. Lantus and its generic glargine are great insulins for cats and they’re long lasting and gentle. This means that it takes about 2 hours for it to start to work after you give the shot. Within that time if he eats well, you’re fine. Diabetic cats do better on multiple smaller meals throughout the day anyway. It’s easier on their pancreas and also helps avoid big sugar spikes. I’m glad you got a meter because with steroid induced diabetes, there’s always the possibility of remission once the steroids are removed from the equation and you’ll want to monitor him to make sure he’s not getting more insulin than he needs.

what always worked for me and for most of us is positive association so giving a low carb treat immediately after each test or if your cat is not food motivated, anything they love and that can be scratching their chin or brushing them. Warming up the ear before testing was also always key for me. I used an old sock filled with rice that I nuked for about 20-30 seconds and held is against his ear until it was warm to the touch. I also always used a light source aimed at the ear so I could see the spot I was pricking and I hummed to help calm both of us down. We got into a routine rather quickly so when they heard me humming they knew it was time to sit still for testing and that a yummy treat would follow.

If you really can’t get him to eat wet food only, there are a few low card dry foods. I’m not sure if they’re available in Australia, but here they are Dr. Elsey's and Young Again Zero carb.

it can be overwhelming at first like anything you’re not used to doing, but as you start to feel knowledgeable about feline diabetes and comfortable with the routine, it will be like second nature. Like doing flea meds or trimming the nails.

you said you’ve been reading tons, but if you haven’t already, I strongly recommend reading all the yellow sticky notes on the Lantus forum, especially the one about the 2 dosing methods we follow here: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/

You’ve come to the right place!!!

 

and are you using 1/2 unit marked syringes?

I should add, always aim for the sweet spot:

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. I live in Sydney. Maybe I can help with some questions.
You can’t get low carb dry food in Australia. The lowest is probably the Hills md which is 17% so is high carb.