Newly diagnosed...

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

ShanNClover

Member
Hi everyone. My name is Shannon. I have a 7 1/2 year old neutered male cat named Clover who was just recently diagnosed with diabetes. I am hoping you all can help me with some questions I have. I don't really trust my vet like I should. You'll understand why...

Ok...Clover had the regular symptoms...weight loss, drinking and peeing alot, and then eventually not eating. Took him to the vet, feline diabetes is the result. First reason I don't trust my vet...After the initial appt, I called to ask him a few questions, and he NEVER called me back. A week or so later, I called back to ask if they would accept payments as I did not have $300.00 just lying around for him to get regulated. Again, he NEVER called me back. I ended up putting him on a low carb diet, (thanks to this website), and waited about 3 months to take him in to get regulated. (I had to save the money)

When I went to pick him up, the vet showed my mother (cuz he was living with her) and I how to give the insulin shots. He explained what to do if he got hypo, and that was it. Therefore, we thought thats all there was to it, as we do not know anything about diabetes. The dose the told us to give was 3 units, twice a day, 12 hours apart. So, my mom gave him his shot that evening, and everything seemed fine. (This was a Saturday by the way) The next morning, my mom called me at about 7:30 am. Clover was laying on the floor, unable to move, with his one front leg underneath/behind him! I raced to her house as fast as I could. She had tried giving him a little honey mixed with water. And she called an emergency vet hospital to get some info. I tried to give him a little more honey. We ended up taking him to the emergency vet hospital. They fed him food that he "shouldn't have" to get his sugar back up. Then, they explained to us that if he doesn't eat at least a quarter of a can, only give him a half a dose of his insulin. WOW! We couldn't believe that our regular vet didn't tell us that!!! We then made the decision that Clover should come to my apartment and live with my boyfriend and I. My mom has another cat and a puppy at her house (the puppies mine as well) so we thought we could monitor how much he eats better, and he wouldn't have the stress of the puppy either.

That night, I ended up only giving him 1 1/2 units instead of 3 because he didn't eat much and I was nervous. Everything was fine. He adjusted to our apartment fine. The next morning (Monday), same thing, 1 1/2 units. Monday evening, he ate more that a quarter of a can so I decided to give him his full dose. Luckily I stayed home with him while my boyfriend went to a friends house because Clover ended up having a seizure!!! He seemed fine about 10 minutes after. I tried to check his blood, but i couldn't get enough blood by pricking his ear. I called the vet the next day and he told me to change his dose to 2 units instead of 3. Ok, that worked out fine. I was finally able to get enough blood and check his bg one time and it was at 98.

Last week I took Clover back for his "one month" check up. His sugar was high again, in the 400's. (it was over 550 originally) So, he told me to up the dose to 3 units again. I was nervous about that so I went to 2 1/2 for a few times and then to 3. He isn't drinking or peeing as much now. He's also become picky about what food i give him.

Ok...so here's my questions for you:
1. I am currently converting him to Innova Evo 95% canned food. I did some research and from what I can tell, grain-free is the best way to go. Does anyone have advice on that? And, how will this effect the insulin? I'm sure I'll need to adjust it, I'm just not totally sure how.

2. How much should I feed him? The vets office said as much as he wants, but that just didn't sound right to me. I'm currently feeding him 3/4 of a can in the morning, before his shot, the i leave him with 1/4 cup of the Innova Evo dry food while I'm at work. Then in the evening, I give him 1/2 of a can before his shot. And, before i go to bed, I give him another 1/4 of a can, plus 1/4 cup of the dry food. Is that ok?

3. How often should I test his blood? He hates it so I really hate to do it.

- The insulin he's on is PZI.

Thank you all in advance for your help and advice! :smile:
 
My Conner was just diagnosed this week and I haven't had near the horror story that you have. Conner's vet started him out low dose, 1cc and he has slowly been getting back to his normal self. We are not testing yet, I think that will be next. I am just working on getting him rehydrated. Others will be able to answer your questions better than I would since I am new here, but wanted to let you know that I understand the frustration and confusion.
 
Frist off WOW!! That is a scary story and one the I went through with my first diabetic. I have had 3 so far.

You are doing a good job watching Clover, Kudo for acting fast and saving his life!!

There are many here on the board that can help you, I have been a Vet tech for many years and heres what I would do.

FIRST - lower the dose of PZI 3 is way to much to start out on especially if you can't test often or have trouble. one unit sounds fine to me, if you want to be extra cautious u can even go with 1/2 twice a day. The thing is start at the lowest dose and increase if needed. Rather have numbers too high for a short while then too low and your pet can die. Since he had a seizure i would only go with one unit if he eats and you test.

Second - You are doing great reaserching food etc but u dont have to go crazy with brands etc in my opinion.
I use friskies canned, I feed my cats 3 times a day but I have 8 so it a bit different.
Its safe to feed your cat atleast 1/2 a can or whatever it will eat . Feeding multple times is best, I would go with atleast 1/2 a can 3 times day.

Third - Not necess in this order :) - test test, home testing is invaluble and you really need to do it atleast in the am before giving any insulin this way you know to give insulin or not.

Also - time for another vet, is there another one that you can see at that practice?

Dont be overwhelmed you have the jist of it and are doing great!! The people on this board are wonderful

My cat Elmo was just diagnosed so he is on a canned only diet and if his numbers do not lowe we are starting on a very very low dose of insulin.

Best of luck

Kay & Elmo
 
Also forgot to mention, in my opinion, it is better to feed canned 3 times a day than ANY dry!! I am not a fan of dry food but reluctently went back to it since I have many rescue cats and its cost cutting. I learned the hard way and Now NO more dry, canned is the way to go :mrgreen:
 
Welcome.

You are correct to think your kitty will need less insulin as you switch to low carb food. With the many hypos your cat has had I'd strongly suggest you start to hometest. At the vet's office your cat's blood sugar (BG-blood glucose) is usually high because of stress. This unnatural reading can lead to giving too much insulin.

By testing at a minimum of twice per day, before each shot, you'll know if it's safe to give insulin. Like that 98 you got the one time. If one day that 98 was right before you were going to give the PZI, you'd know to hold off.

Hometesting more often makes it really easy. Tucker has been doing this for years so he actually comes to me at test time and if I'm late he's ticked at me because he likes the treats he gets with test time. By adding special treats at test time you make the experience so much better and over time it gets to be like nothing. I have actually hometested Tucker without even waking him up. They really don't feel it on their ears, the flinch is often from the noise of the lancet. The stress they feel from you when you are learning is what makes things a little harder. Just be confident and know it's best for your kitty and things will get simpler.

Hometesting can actually be cheaper than going to the vet for blood tests too. I pay about $0.50 per strip, $1 to $1.50 per day. A vet visit for a BG curve can be much more costly and as you know already, a trip to the ER is even more costly.

Did your vet give you PZI Idexx? Not too many vets are prescribing PZI as it was discontinued by one manufacturer although available from others. Lantus and ProZinc are what's prescribed at my vet's clinic.
 
I'm sorry you've had such a rough time and your cat's been through the wringer.

I've had my share of vet issues, but something to keep in mind before totally discarding the vet, is that many vets are general practitioners and not experts in diabetes care. What they know, may be from the pet food companies and a little bit of training in vet school.

Unless they take the time to research, study and understand this disease and how to manage it, they will give incorrect and missing information that the client needs to know.

That being said, did anyone mention testing for ketones to you? Given that you've had some hypo episodes, I would suggest that you start testing ketones. It's a simple urine test (the hardest part will be catching the fresh urine). You can pick up the ketostix or keto-diastix at any human pharmacy diabetic section and any brand is fine.

Read this link about food and nutrition. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=115

Also, transitioning your cat from dry to wet: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=956

finally, take a look at the health links section as there is lots of information there to help you. viewforum.php?f=14] Health Links[/url]
 
My cat was just diagnosed at the beginning of this month. I am still struggling with this and leaning heavily on the knowledge of other board members. My vet essientially said we'll start at 1 unit 2x a day, don't give it to her if she doesn't eat here is some special food and we'll see you in a week. When I questioned what would happen if she didn't eat enough and did hypo she said the dose was so small that it was nearly impossible for that to happen. :? So I feel your pain on leaving the vet clinic without much knowledge on what your doing and why.

I have only been home testing for a few days, and for the moment I've given up on using her ears to do it. I've had much better luck pricking her paw pad for blood- but Kazi is very good about letting me do what I need to do as a general rule. I make sure to try and end things on a positive note- she always gets a treat after I am done giving her insulin or checking her blood glucose. Make sure that you really warm up where you're trying to get blood from- I alternate between my rice sack and briskly rubbing with my fingers a few times before pricking.
 
Shannon-
I'm so sorry you have had such a hard time with Clover. It's true that not a lot of vets know the latest protocols for fd. We were in a similar situation to yours. After a few months of twice daily injections, my kitty Charlie was up to 3.5u bid (twice a day) of prozinc. We were not hometesting at the time. I had ran out of the d/m kibble and we ended up in the er with a serious hypo (seizures, extremely low body temp and heart rate, etc). After that, we started hometesting his bg's, feeding only low carb wet food, and now he's in remission! Since then, our vet has learned that low carb wet food gives a diabetic kitty the best chance for remission, and she suggests hometesting.

Testing isn't always easy at first, but with a little time, treats, and patience; it becomes part of the routine and easy. Not only does it save money instead of expensive office curves, but it gives knowledge and peace of mind when using insulin.

As others have said 3u is a relatively large dose for a newly dx cat, most start around 1u bid and then go from there.
To answer a few of your questions-
Feed Clover whatever low carb wet food he likes (try to stick to a below 7% food) Most people here do not feed any dry food for a lot of reasons. Hillary gave you a link for info about nutrition that is very helpful. As far as how much to feed; until Clover is better regulated, its usually best to give him whatever he will eat (unless he's a piggy like my Charlie). It seems you are switching over to all canned food, which is great--but beware that this often drastically reduces the need for insulin; which is why hometesting is so important.

As far as how often to test--its very important to test before giving insulin like Tuckers mom said, so you know if its safe to give a shot. As you get more comfortable with testing (and Clover becomes more willing), testing at various times midcycle give you important data as to how low he goes with his doses. Usually people test at +5, +6, or +7; switching it up when possible to see where the numbers are. Of course, most of us work, so often these extra tests are performed at night, or on weekends.

Does Clover have any other health issues? Sometimes dental problems or steroid use can precipitate fd, other times its from a high carb diet and being overweight, or a combination of these problems.

If you like, stop by the pzi forum and post questions, there are many experienced pzi users there who would be happy to help you figure out what you can do to get Clover regulated.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top