Newly Diagnosed

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lws

Member Since 2013
Hello everyone,

My cat Edward was diagnosed with diabetes last week. At the vet his BG ran 500. I need $750 to get the treatment started but recently lost my job. I don't mind spending the money, I just don't have it, my wife and I are barely paying the bills we have. I went home from the visit very distraught because I couldn't help my cat. I immediately started researching the condition to see what I could do. Edward has been on a grazing diet of dry food for the past several years and now I know how bad that is. I started him on a high protein, low carb diet that day. He has been on the diet for a week now and I started home BG testing. So far today I have had readings of 178, 190, and 195. My question is, is this an acceptable level of BG for a diabetic cat? Do I need to pursue insulin at this point or should I continue to monitor and keep a BG chart and see where his levels go? I thank you for any advice you can give.

Sincerely,

Wayne
 
Hi Wayne!

Great job on the food switch and home-testing. High 100s aren't terrible numbers, but they are diabetic numbers. Normal range for cats is usually between 40 and 120 and we don't even recommend for new members to shoot insulin on numbers under 200. That being said, the food change has done an amazing job of bringing down the numbers already and he might even still go lower with just the food change.

It should not cost $750 for start-up costs. If his numbers don't go down even further in the next week or so, I might suggest starting insulin, but ASK HERE FIRST as there are a lot cheaper options we can help you with so you don't have to shell out all that money.

ETA: might I ask what you're feeding? If his numbers don't go down any more, you might be able to switch to an even lower carb food and get the results we're looking for. :thumbup
 
Hello KPassa,

Thanks for the reply on my post. I was really encouraged by the BG readings but kinda wanted to hear it from someone else. The $750 includes an overnight trip to the vet, regulation, and his first bottle of insulin. To me that still seems high and is just out of my price range. I wasn't happy just sitting back and doing nothing though so I started the research and home testing. My hope is that with a chart I may be able to attain a prescription at a later date without the high costs. I may have to shop around to different vets, I don't know exactly how that works.

Edward is currently on a diet of Fancy Feast. There are three different Classic Fancy Feasts that I give him. They're all seafood formulas that run about 60% protein and 3% carbs. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thanks again for the reply,

Wayne
 
You've got 2 of the 3 things we do to manage diabetes.

An overnight stay and regulation is unnessary as you are home testing and can see what the glucose levels are doing yourself. If you were to give any insulin, it would be miniscule dose at best; he's not really high enough to shoot safely.

If he is a food scarfer, you can help him by feeding in mini-meals several times a day and spreading the food thinly across the plate. This slows the rate at which the food enters the digestive tract and spreads out the pancreas workload to protect it from further deterioration.
 
I think that's good advice about the mini-meals. Right after Ed was diagnosed I went really strict with the diet and fed him only twice a day. He was a grazer before that so needless to say he was not used to only two meals, and he let me know. I've been doing three feedings a day for the past couple of days now and he seems to be much more comfortable with that. I'm hoping that will help keep him even throughout the day as well. So far I haven't seen more than a 25 point fluctuation over the day so I'm remaining optimistic at this point.
 
Hi Wayne and sugardude Edward and welcome to the FDMB.

This is a great resource, by vet Dr. Lisa Pierson, for food choices. Look for the foods with <10% carbs for your diabetic cat Edward. The Fancy Feast classic pates are what my sugardude Wink eats. His favorite is the Turkey and Giblets, he hates the fishy flavors. ohmygod_smile Wierdo that he is. :lol: :lol:

Numbers are not bad for no insulin.

When were the tests done, in relation to the food being given? A non-food influenced number, at least 2 hours after being fed would be good to see. A second test, about 3 hours after feeding is the next test we need to see. Then we can judge better if his body is producing insulin on it's own to counteract the food.

Think of it this way. Food raises the BG (blood glucose), insulin lowers the BG. You want the two to balance each other out. We need to see the 2 different test numbers at different times to put the numbers into perspective.

The insulin is the biggest up front cost. If your vet will write a prescription for the Lantus Solostar pen, it's a mini vial and some pharmacies like at Target will sell a single pen at a time. Good article here by DCIN on how to get insulin less expensively. http://fdmb-cin.blogspot.com/2013/11/lantus.html
 
I just want to say what an awesome job getting the ball rolling and dang! look how much you've changed his diabetes already. :-)
 
I just wanted to say thank you to the community here. To the people that have responded to my post and to the rest of the forum in general. I'm really thankful for the supporting environment and the wealth of knowledge that is available here. After our visit to the vet I truly left with the feeling that I was going to have to watch my boy die and there would be nothing I could do about it. I wasn't okay with that so I started looking for more information. One of the first places I found was this forum and I am so glad I did. I realize Edward is not out of the woods but it is so nice to feel that there is hope and that there is something I can do about his condition.

Edward's last pre-meal reading was 178 and two hours later it was 176. I'm assuming this means that there is some natural insulin regulation going on.

Thanks again for this forum and to those that participate, it's a good thing that you are doing here.
 
You're assuming glucometers are perfectly accurate; alas, not so.

The FDA allow meters that read within 20% of what a lab would get. This means that any 2 tests may be considered the same if the +/- 20% ranges overlap.

How to determine:
Multiply each value by 0.8 to get the 20% lower estimates.
Multiply each value by 1.2 to get the 20% upper estimates.
If 120% estimate of the lower number is greater than the 80% estimate of the higher number, the ranges overlap and the numbers are the same.

Readings of 178 vs 176 are compared as follows:
176 * 1.2 = 211.2 vs 178 * 0.8 = 142.4
So the low number +20% is higher than the high number -20% and the numbers are considered equal.
 
What kind of meter is it? they do vary a bit.

Also normal cats are 50-130 on a human meter so Edward is a bit high. Does he get any dry at all? treats?

How often does he get fed a day? Many mini meals instead of a couple big ones can help his pancreas heal by not overloading it.

Wendy
 
Hello Wendy,


I use a TRUEtest meter from Walgreens.

All dry food and treats have been cut out of the diet for over a week now. I've changed from feeding two meals a day to three smaller ones. Ed's readings seem to be staying fairly even but I've only been testing for a couple of days now.

Thanks,

Wayne
 
Hmm.. the true meters can sometimes be inaccurate and show numbers lower than they are. You may need to start on a small dose of insulin to help support the pancreas but for now I would give it a few more days and try increasing the mini meals to 4-5 instead of 3. Perhaps get a timed feeder or freeze the food and let it defrost if you aren't home.

Hows his numbers today?

Wendy
 
I kind of figured the true test meter would not be the most accurate, it's a fairly cheap model. I've been thinking about testing his brother to maybe get an idea of what kind of baseline I'm working off of. His first reading today was 169 and 2 hours after his meal was 168, which is leading me to believe the pancreas is doing something.

Since he shares his space with his brother and a dog, spreading out feeding times any more would not be possible. Today was a good day though. He just seemed to be acting healthier than he had. He had some more energy and got into some trouble with his brother, getting into things they are not supposed to. I'm just going to keep watching him close and be methodical about the diet.

One more thing. His water intake before the diet change was off the charts. He was drinking like crazy and his urine output was very high. I have noticed that he is not drinking as much now. Would this be indicative of anything?
 
Where are you guys located? If in the US, you can go to Walmart and buy a ReliOn meter for about $15. The test strips are ridiculously cheap and the meter is much more accurate for felines than the True meter.

lws said:
One more thing. His water intake before the diet change was off the charts. He was drinking like crazy and his urine output was very high. I have noticed that he is not drinking as much now. Would this be indicative of anything?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is indicative of how amazing you're doing. ;-) Since his numbers are no longer off the charts, he no longer has that insatiable thirst. Since he's no longer eating dry food, he's also now getting most of his water from food instead (as cats normally do in the wild). I add water to my cats' food and I never see them drinking out of the water bowl. I leave it out for them as more of a courtesy than anything else. :lol:
 
I'm in Bakersfield, CA so I'll have to price the meter and test strips. I bought my first refill of strips for the true test and I wouldn't say they were cheap. I don't know how they compare to other strips cost-wise though. If it's more accurate for Ed though I certainly can swing $15 for another meter.

I figured the water issue was a good thing but it was such a drastic change from him jumping up on the counter anytime someone got near a faucet, to not really noticing him drinking water throughout the day. I know I had read about wet food helping to keep cats hydrated but didn't think about it.

Thanks again,

Wayne
 
Depending on how deft you have gotten with testing, the ReliOn brand comes in two versions. The Confim/Micro requires less blood (better when you're first starting out), however, the test strips cost around $36 for 100. The Prime does require a bit more blood, however, the test strips are the cheapest of all meters at only $9 for a box of 50 (they don't come in boxes of 100).
 
I just spent $15 for 25, so either way I'd be better off. Edward is fairly cooperative about the testing so I could probably get away with the latter.
 
At noon he was 168, before lunch. He just tested at 164. Even if he is testing low because of the meter I'm using I'm hoping 160's on the true test is still under 200. When I go through the strips I bought I will probably switch over to the different meter.

Whatever the true value of his reading is, the numbers tell me that he is relatively level. There are no huge spikes happening throughout the day.
 
And he's still coming down, too. Probably from the food switch still. Looks like he's really trying to get in normal range all on his own without the need of insulin. Paws and fingers crossed! :mrgreen:

IIRC, the "True" meters are not grossly inaccurate at ranges under 200, so it's a safe bet that he is really under 200 at least.
 
Well, his BG has not dropped any more. It was down as far as the 150's at one point. For the past few days he has been staying in the 180's and 170's. I'm hoping it will drop some more.
 
FF Classic...Cod,sole, and shrimp feast/Ocean whitefish and tuna. I believe those were two of the lowest carb and highest protein that they carry.
 
Hi! Great job so far! I purchased the Glucocard Vital meter plus 20 strips for $15 on Amazon. The Glucocard Vital strips are $12 for 50 (also on Amazon). I've had great luck with that meter.

As for the insulin, you may need to support Edward with insulin at some point. Before you do that, try to stick with cat food that is 3% carbs or less. My favorite is Nutro brand canned pates and minced varieties (zero carb) but they are pricey so you may want to stick with your FF fish varieties for now. :-D

If you try the very low-carb foods for a week and still see those higher numbers, insulin support is recommended (though at those mid-100 numbers, you may want to start with a very low dose like .5U in the beginning - some vets start cats out on 2.0 Units and that could be dangerous for your cat at this point). Keep in mind that your vet's BG numbers will almost always be higher than your readings at home due the stress of going to the vet! :-D Stress raises BG.

Best wishes to you!
 
Thanks Jess, I just ran out of test strips so I'm in the market for a new testing option. I'll check out the one you suggested and the Walmart option that seems to be popular on this board. If I'm not mistaken the food I'm using is 3% carb but I wouldn't mind picking something up that is 0 as well. Thanks again for the info, I appreciate it.

Wayne
 
The Tiki Cat Chicken varieties are ultra low carb (0%) and don't contain any fish, although they are fairly expensive. I created this sorted version of the catinfo.org food list to make it easier to spot low carb foods. It also has separate tabs for the various food types (non-seafood, seafood, poultry) that might help you find some more options.
 
The list above is great! Thanks KPassa! I also wanted to add Nutro Natural Choice canned Adult SOFT LOAF Duck pate, Chicken pate, and Turkey pate. They are all zero carb (sold at Petco and Petsmart). They have no grains and no veggies - just meat, liver, and vitamins/minerals. I have been using them with great success.
You can also try the Chunky Loaf and Minced version of the flavors above (I don't feed the minced because Mr.Cat had several teeth removed and the chunks are harder for him to eat). :-D
 
His BG has spiked above 200, it is as high as 260 and is not dropping. I am looking for a vet that will dispense me insulin.
 
Make sure it is one of three insulins: Lantus (also known as glargine), Levemir (aka detemir), or PZI/ProZinc. Do not accept any insulin in the form of pills as these have been shown to damage a cat's pancreas further. You also want to stay away from Caninsulin/Vetsulin or Humulin/Novolin as those are designed for a dog's slower metabolize and do not work well with a cat's much faster metabolism without extensive monitoring and 3x/day dosing.

Hopefully, he'll only need a small boost from the insulin for a short while to help heal his pancreas and becomes one of the many kitties here who achieve remission and become diet controlled (not needing insulin any more). :mrgreen:
 
Thats a shame but you are on top of things and perhaps he may not need it long. Just get a good insulin as Kay said and let us know and we can help with dose and protocols and so on.

Wendy
 
Sorry to hear about Ed's BG but the folks here will help guide you through the insulin process. It can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but once you and Ed get into a routine, it won't feel quite so daunting.

I wonder if your vet can prescribe the pens (such as a Lantus pen) instead of prescribing the whole vial. The pens are less expensive (less insulin than the big, expensive vials that can take 6+ months to use - my big vial was $200 and I still have 1/4 vial left after 5 months!). It doesn't hurt to ask your vet and see if he/she will work with your budget and prescribe the pens, if your local pharmacy has them. Good luck and hang in there!
 
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