Newly diagnosed

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MamasBoBoMan

MamasBoBoMan

Member Since 2017
I am hoping to get some help, my cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes and due to a history of severe asthma..(which is now controlled with atopica for cats) he was prednisone for several years. I wasn't aware of the damage if would cause until we switched him to Atopica. He currently take 2.5 each morning of Atopica and when he was diagnosed with diabetes Saturday the vet put him on Novalin N(1.5) twice a day. He currently eats prescription MD glucose management food, I ordered Young Again Zero Mature after research but vet disagrees with my choices. Any advice would be helpful!!!
 
You could send him an email with Dr. Lisa's cat food list. You want your kitty on a low carb food. It would be better if you could switch your cat to wet food. Most people here feed Fancy Feast classic or Friskies pate. There is no reason to feed expensive prescription food. Vet's like it because they make more money. Are you testing his BG at home. That is something you need to do to keep kitty safe. Testing at home saves you from having to take kitty into vet for expensive testing. Most cats get stressed at the vet.

You will learn a lot here, the people are great.
 
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Yes, Since his diagnosis on Saturday I have been doing home BG checks, the vet says I need to come in to the office to drop him off for the day to do my 1st curve which of course is a lot of money. His levels have ranged between 424/404 and this morning 524. She talked very negative about any other food besides the prescription kind but I told her I did my research and she proceeded to tell me other things and that there wasn't anything that I could do if his glucose level got to high, so I kind of felt like I was out of options when I spoke to her earlier today.
 
ChelseaMWells said:
Yes, Since his diagnosis on Saturday I have been doing home BG checks,
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Congrats! :D This is the essential tool to keep your kitty safe. What meter do you use?

ChelseaMWells said:
the vet says I need to come in to the office to drop him off for the day to do my 1st curve which of course is a lot of money.
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No - not necessary! you're testing at home so a curve can be done by you there. Your kitty will be stressed at the clinic and that can raise BG leading to the vet prescribing a higher insulin dose that might not be needed.

ChelseaMWells said:
She talked very negative about any other food besides the prescription kind but I told her I did my research and she proceeded to tell me other things and that there wasn't anything that I could do if his glucose level got to high, so I kind of felt like I was out of options when I spoke to her earlier today.
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Nonsense again - low carb wet food is best and there are grocery store brands that many of us feed. Friskies and Fancy Feast pate versions are popular.

Like almost all of us you're in that uncomfortable position of hearing one thing from your vet and something else from us. Ask questions here - we can help. :)
 
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A curve is just when you test every two hours, from testing before you feed a d give him his shot until the next test,feed and shot. 12 hours. You can do it at home, write it down, and chart it on so.e graph paper. That will show how fast the insulin acts on him and when the BS is at its lowest. We have a great spreadsheet here. You can e-mail to your vet. My vet just loves the spreadsheet so much she said all her diabetic pet's use it. There are people who will help you set it up.
 
@Kris & Teasel is right. It’s tough at first deciding to go against your vet but if I had listened to my vet my cat would have died. He made me bring Silver in for a curve which I did - not knowing better then - nice low blues all day then a black at PMPS. To which my vet said to increase from initial starting dose of 2u to 3! Obviously didn’t understand bouncing. Very scary. But you can trust the folks on this forum. They DO know better than most vets.
 
My vet was adamant about prescription food and I told her no and of course she readily argued about how everything in it was scientifically mixed for diabetic cats. Too high in carbs.
 
Lesliejm said:
My vet was adamant about prescription food and I told her no and of course she readily argued about how everything in it was scientifically mixed for diabetic cats. Too high in carbs.
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Yup. My vet insists prescription dental dry cleans their teeth! So logical.
 
Thank you! I was blessed by a donation...it' a Truetrack.

I think I am going to cancel my 2week curve with vet & do it at home instead. Gonna wean him into new food once his Young Again Zero Mature gets here.
 
FYI, be careful with the glucometer you've been given; we've had reports here that meters with "Tru----" names may not give reliable results for cats.

If you're in the US many members here use Relion Confirm or Relion Micro glucometers. They're available from Walmart and the test strips are much more affordable than for many other meters.

Whichever meter you use, remember that if it's a human one you need to use a cat specific blood glucose reference range with them (they read lower than pet-specific meters). In particular, when using a human meter any value below 50 mg/dL means that the cat is hypoglycaemic and you need to act to raise BG levels. (See the hypo guide in the FAQs section of this board.)


Mogs
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Critter Mom said:
FYI, be careful with the glucometer you've been given; we've had reports here that meters with "Tru----" names may not give reliable results for cats.

If you're in the US many members here use Relion Confirm or Relion Micro glucometers. They're available from Walmart and the test strips are much more affordable than for many other meters.

Whichever meter you use, remember that if it's a human one you need to use a cat specific blood glucose reference range with them (they read lower than pet-specific meters). In particular, when using a human meter any value below 50 mg/dL means that the cat is hypoglycaemic and you need to act to raise BG levels. (See the hypo guide in the FAQs section of this board.)


Mogs
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Oh no!! Thank you, I'll look into that.
 
Just an update since today is 1 week since we started insulin. Here are his numbers...We also switched food to Young Again Zero Mature Thursday night( no issues, no upset stomach) Still keeping close eye & monitoring.
 

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MamasBoBoMan said:
Just an update since today is 1 week since we started insulin. Here are his numbers...We also switched food to Young Again Zero Mature Thursday night( no issues, no upset stomach) Still keeping close eye & monitoring.
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It's hard to assess the current dose without having BG data from the middle part of the cycle. Novolin can drop a kitty quite low from even high pre shot numbers. Any chance you can get some tests in in the 4 to 7 hours past the dose time frame?
 
I'd suggest also grabbing tests at +2 and +3 after dose admin: Novolin N can drop BG numbers quite significantly fairly early in the cycle.


Mogs
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His numbers have ranged today, I was able to test 4 times....His last level was 294. Should I still give full dose of 1.5?
 
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