Newly diagnosed

[Jeanine]

Hi everyone!

My handsome boy Ollie was diagnosed last week. For a couple of weeks he's been having litterbox mishaps. We have three cats and three litterboxes, they're all located in the basement of our house and one is on the other side of the basement from the other two. He's been using our hallway upstairs as his litterbox lately. He pees on the carpet and every morning for about a week, we've woken up to poop on the hallway floor as well. Steam cleaning our carpet at least every other day... ugh!

Anyhow, I took my big boy to the vet last week and he was diagnosed with a UTI and diabetes. All of his bloodwork was beautiful except his glucose level was very high. He was given an injection to treat the UTI, and the vet has me on 3u of Prozinc U40 insulin once every twelve hours.

He takes the insulin like a champ, I don't have to chase him down to do it, and he's usually a really good boy. I noticed he started using his litterbox regularly again, which was a huge relief. However... the last two days he's been in the hallway again. I spent my lunch break (I work at home) steam cleaning my hallway carpet yesterday and this morning I woke up to a stinky pile on my floor. It's frustrating, but I'm not disciplining or yelling at him because I know it's not his fault if something is actually still wrong.

Is it possible that he has another UTI already? I have a follow up appointment with the vet next Thursday to check his glucose levels, but I cannot really afford to keep getting test after test at the vet. Are there any kind of urine test kits that anyone has used and recommends here?

I have switched all three kitties successfully to Blue Buffalo freedom grain-free chicken dry food and the same kind of wet food which I feed twice a day, because Ollie LOVES wet food (which I know is good since it's better for him to be low carb) and I know he'll eat it so I can give him his insulin on time. I have the dry food out all day, because the other two are more difficult to get on a schedule. I know that Ollie picks at it throughout the day, but he mostly eats wet food, I'm not sure if that is good for me to do that or not at this point but it's tough with my other two, and at least I know I have them all on a better quality food than what we had before. (We used to give Purina indoor formula, that is what our oldest kitty had since before we took her in and we had tried to switch before and it made her sick, but this stuff luckily didn't give her problems.)

I am currently researching glucometers as I know testing at home is a lot more cost effective than vet visits every so often. Just like most other people, we are on a budget, yet we still want to do the best for our furbabies. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what they use to test their kitties?

Sorry for the long post, I just figured it's best to give as much info as possible. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Thank you!
Jeanine

 

[JanetNJ]

Hi everyone!

My handsome boy Ollie was diagnosed last week. For a couple of weeks he's been having litterbox mishaps. We have three cats and three litterboxes, they're all located in the basement of our house and one is on the other side of the basement from the other two. He's been using our hallway upstairs as his litterbox lately. He pees on the carpet and every morning for about a week, we've woken up to poop on the hallway floor as well. Steam cleaning our carpet at least every other day... ugh!

Anyhow, I took my big boy to the vet last week and he was diagnosed with a UTI and diabetes. All of his bloodwork was beautiful except his glucose level was very high. He was given an injection to treat the UTI, and the vet has me on 3u of Prozinc U40 insulin once every twelve hours.

He takes the insulin like a champ, I don't have to chase him down to do it, and he's usually a really good boy. I noticed he started using his litterbox regularly again, which was a huge relief. However... the last two days he's been in the hallway again. I spent my lunch break (I work at home) steam cleaning my hallway carpet yesterday and this morning I woke up to a stinky pile on my floor. It's frustrating, but I'm not disciplining or yelling at him because I know it's not his fault if something is actually still wrong.

Is it possible that he has another UTI already? I have a follow up appointment with the vet next Thursday to check his glucose levels, but I cannot really afford to keep getting test after test at the vet. Are there any kind of urine test kits that anyone has used and recommends here?

I have switched all three kitties successfully to Blue Buffalo freedom grain-free chicken dry food and the same kind of wet food which I feed twice a day, because Ollie LOVES wet food (which I know is good since it's better for him to be low carb) and I know he'll eat it so I can give him his insulin on time. I have the dry food out all day, because the other two are more difficult to get on a schedule. I know that Ollie picks at it throughout the day, but he mostly eats wet food, I'm not sure if that is good for me to do that or not at this point but it's tough with my other two, and at least I know I have them all on a better quality food than what we had before. (We used to give Purina indoor formula, that is what our oldest kitty had since before we took her in and we had tried to switch before and it made her sick, but this stuff luckily didn't give her problems.)

I am currently researching glucometers as I know testing at home is a lot more cost effective than vet visits every so often. Just like most other people, we are on a budget, yet we still want to do the best for our furbabies. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what they use to test their kitties?

Sorry for the long post, I just figured it's best to give as much info as possible. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Thank you!
Jeanine

Sorry about the diagnosis. At least you got an answer to why he was going out of the box! once the uti is resolved and you get the diabetes under control that should stop, but I would move a box upstairs. Steam cleaning may just spread the urine around... Instead use an enzamatic cleaner meant for pet accidents. My favorite is called Anti Icky Poo Unscented... I get it on amazon.
3 units of insulin is WAY TOO HIGH of a starting dose. Cats are supposed to start at 1 unit and move up .25-.5 units at a time as needed following lots of data collection (curves and tests) Most cats never need 3 units and it's putting him in danger of having a hypo event. Please read up on how to handle a hypo should one occur. It was irresponsible of your vet to start that high, esp. since once the antibiotic kicks in the BG will drop much lower. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you reduce that dose down to 1.

blue buffalo dry food is around 20-25% carb. Diabetic cats should eat foods less then 10% carb... HOWEVER, DON'T TAKE AWAY THIS DRY WHILE YOU ARE SHOOTING 3 UNITS AS DOING SO WILL DRASTICALLY LOWER HIS BLOOD GLUCOSE AND PUT YOUR CAT AT RISK. If you take it away I strongly suggest you lower to 1 unit. If you want to leave dry out all day a better choice is Young Again Zero Carb (about 1% carb) which you can get at youngagainpetfood.com OR Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein at about 5% carb. Both companies will send you a free sample if you ask for it.

I'M SO GLAD you are going to start home testing!! I use a pet meter called an Alphatrak, but it's super expensive for strips. a majority of people on this forum use a human meter found at Walmart called the Relion Micro or Relion Confirm....

So... go to Walmart and get

1. relion confirm or micro ($17)
2. a box of 100 28 gauge lancets ($5)
3. Extra box of test strips $36
4. Cosmetic cotton rounds $3
5. Neosporin with pain relief $4
6. a treat for yourself.

In my signature is a video showing how I test my cat CC

 

[Jeanine]

Wow, thank you for letting me know. I figured the vet started him on 3u because of his weight, he's 16 lbs. He's always been a big boy and he actually lost 2 lbs pretty quickly which is why we decided it was important to get him to a vet. Do you still think that the dosage is too high for his weight?

I am so upset that a vet would prescribe such a high dose if that's the case.... UGH. I do have another vet that I'd prefer to take him to but it's a little further away, we took him to one that is closer to our house (they did have good reviews, I wouldn't take him to just anybody) due to time/work... I definitely want to do the home testing, obviously it's cheaper.
I just want what's best for my baby. This is all new, I've owned cats in the past but none with any special needs or medical issues. I'm a little overwhelmed.

I appreciate your information.

 

[JanetNJ]

Wow, thank you for letting me know. I figured the vet started him on 3u because of his weight, he's 16 lbs. He's always been a big boy and he actually lost 2 lbs pretty quickly which is why we decided it was important to get him to a vet. Do you still think that the dosage is too high for his weight?

I am so upset that a vet would prescribe such a high dose if that's the case.... UGH. I do have another vet that I'd prefer to take him to but it's a little further away, we took him to one that is closer to our house (they did have good reviews, I wouldn't take him to just anybody) due to time/work... I definitely want to do the home testing, obviously it's cheaper.
I just want what's best for my baby. This is all new, I've owned cats in the past but none with any special needs or medical issues. I'm a little overwhelmed.

I appreciate your information.

yes, I do think it's high. I could even see if he started at 2 units, but 3 is a lot. His BG was probably very high... but it's always higher at the vet, and the UTI would cause it to be higher too.... once the UTI is treated the BG may drop.

It's not unusual that your vet prescribed too much... in the past week we had at least two people whose vet wanted them to give as much as 8 units... it was CRAZY. Now it could very well be that your cat will wind up needing 3 units, mine did for a very short time, but some never need more than 1 unit! The safest thing to do is bring it down to 1 and start testing. If it's not enough raise it to 1.5, then test for a few days, ect.

oh it's totally overwhelming. CC was my first diabetic cat... and My family has had cats since I was born. I cried non stop for about 12 hours when I heard the news. I PROMISE it gets easier.

 

[JanetNJ]

so to sum up, if it were my cat this is what I would do:

1. drop to 1 unit
2. get all the supplies to home test (see above)
3. once you drop to 1 unit, ditch the high carb dry food. Here's a food chart of wet foods.... anything under 10% carb is ok to feed. http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Once you are home testing we will help you set up a spreadsheet like the one you see in my signature below. It will help us to help you figure out your ideal dose.

 

[Jeanine]

you are amazing. thank you so much. he is due for his 2nd dose today in about 30 minutes.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

He was given an injection to treat the UTI

do you know what they gave him? It sounds like it may have been Convenia and that's something we worry about. It's a long acting (63 day) antibiotic and if your cat has a reaction to it, there's not much you can do about it other than treat the symptoms and hope for the best. Most of us have "NO Convenia" on our cats records. Here's an article written by a veterinarian on Convenia, Worth the Risk?

The next problem is that it's not really a good antibiotic for UTI's....it's more for skin infections, but a lot of vets use it because it's easy to give.

Any time you suspect a UTI, you should have your vet due a Culture and Sensitivity. This requires inserting a needle directly into the bladder (sounds worse than it is) and then having the sample cultured, which takes a few days. Once the culture grows, they use different antibiotics to see which one works best for that particular bacteria (Sensitivity) and that's the antibiotic you need to be on

 

[Jeanine]

Yes, it was Convenia. I just checked the print out statement that they gave me. I was working and my fiance took him to the vet and left him there so they could do the testing and waited for him to pee and test his urine sample. The place we took him to has good reviews and I had taken another one of my kitties there before once when she got sick, with it being down the street from my house it was a lot easier to be able to pick him up on my lunch hour when he was done with his testing. It's been five days since his visit and he is acting a lot more like himself, he's just doing his business in the hallway again as of yesterday.

After reading all your responses and from the things I have read both on here and elsewhere, I'm pretty sure I'm canceling his follow up and taking him elsewhere for a second opinion. I have another vet who also is an exotics vet along with dogs/cats that I took my guinea pigs to and after she treated my guinea pig, I just feel like I would also trust her a lot more with my cat.