Newly diagnosed

[Mary and Sumo]

I came across your site today and realize I have alot of reading to do! But for now, I need some help. My Seal Point Siamese Sumo was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday with a BS of 423. My vet started him on Pro Zinc insulin 1 unit bid and sent me home with Science Diet W/D dry and also wet with an appt to recheck his BS in one week. Sumo has weighed 19lbs for the last 5 years, I took him in when a neighbor relocated and left him behind. Recently he began loosing weight and didn't seem to be himself. His weight at the Vet was 15lbs. He hates the wet food, only smelling it and walking away. He did eat some of the dry. I was hoping you could provide some info as to what I can give him prior to administering his insulin. I understand the importance of him eating prior to his dosing. This morning I opened a can of tuna, knowing that would get his attention, but am not sure if this is something I should be doing. Is there another type of food you can suggest that I try for him? I have 2 other non-diabetic cats that will have a tough time adjusting. His diet up until yesterday has been a small amount of Friskies wet and Eukanuba or Purina Pro Diet dry food. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We live in the Los Angeles Calif. area. Thank You, Mary and Sumo

 

[MommaOfMuse]

Welcome Mary and Sumo to the FDMB family.

How well does Sumo like the wet Friskies? If he likes it, then it is perfectly fine to continue to feed him and your other cats that, you are just going to want to stick to the pate-style stuff, nothing grilled or in gravy. I personally have 13 cats, two of which are diabetic. Everyone here eats exactly what my two diabetics eat, just regular Friskies pate canned food. Maxwell my first diabetic went into remission on Friskies and will be celebrating his 1 year anniversary off insulin this coming November 1st, Musette I adopted in June of this year as a diabetic and she is also doing wonderfully on the Friskies diet, although she is still insulin dependent. But even my non-diabetics are doing wonderful on an all canned food diet. Especially my two year and a half old kittens that have never in their lives have had dry food! Everyone is sleek and shiny and in tip top health.

Some tricks to getting a kitty to eat would be mixing in a little tuna juice or even a bit of tuna to their canned food. Or warming it up in the microwave to make it nice and stinky. Sprinkling parmasan cheese on it etc.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

 

[Anonymous]

Mary, I south of you in Ca. I know someone in Los Angelos who could teach you how to home test your kitty which will really empower you with your entire diabetes experience. We all test our kitties before every shot. And then at various times during the day when you can to get a good idea of how well the insulin is working on him.
If you want a kit complete with everything you need to start testing immediately I can get one to you....with a nice cat nip toy...or 3 (one for each?)
There is also a rice sock. Not to be mistaken for a toy. It is meant to warm the ear before getting a bit of blood.
Check out the Newbie Kit site in the link below on my signature.
It is not for sale...it is FREE! Just cover shipping.
If you want contact with another Angelino let me know and I'll see if he lives near you ok?
Lori
and Tom

 

[Mary and Sumo]

Hi Lori and Tom, thanks so much for your info. I will order the the Kit and would love to get in touch with your LA contact to learn home bs testing. My concern tho, is Sumo has dark brown fur on his ears. I know this may sound stupid, but don't I have to see a vein before I can "poke" him ? Is there another site to obtain blood? I am new to all of this, so thanks for your support! Mary

 

[Anonymous]

No Mary, you don't have to see anything. You just warm the ear, maybe massage it for minute and poke as close to the edge as possible. That is ALWAYS the right place.
After awhile,, you don't even have to warm the ear as it 'gets used to bleeding' at least for many of us.
If you pm your phone number I will see if an old member who does'nt post anymore, Justin, will be able to help you at your own home.
I can vouch for him, we are freinds and he is a very very nice guy. A big cat lover.
Lori
and Tom

 

[MommaOfMuse]

Mary,

Like Lori said you really don't have to 'see' the vein just want to poke as close to the edge as possible..Musette my insulin dependent sugar cat is a blue cream tortie Himalayan, not only are her ears dark in color they are also very fluffy. So actually seeing anything on her ears is nearly impossible, but if you truly want to see what you are doing at first you don't have to poke on the outside of the ear, you can always poke on the inside too. Then once you get it down you can either continue on the inside or switch over to the outside. I, personally, find the outside is easier but with all of Musette's fluff a lot of the time I still go for the inside of the ear where I have less fur to deal with. I also have a non-diabetic guy here that is getting older and has to be on steroids for his allergies so I periodically check him as well, since I have now learned that steroids in cats can lead to diabetes. Onyx like his name implies is jet black, he is also very fluffy but hates to have his ears bend so I can test on the inside, with him I just put a very thin coating of neosporin to help the blood bead up and still poke on the outside. Because of his laid-back temperment he is actually the cat I learned to test on.. :lol: At first I just stuck a flashlight under his ear so I could see where I was aiming for, but now with a year and some odd months of testing not one but two sugarcats I can pretty much test in my sleep.

At first it seems very overwhelming and somewhat frustrating trying to get that precious red bead, bu with patiences, time, and practice it will become as natural as brushing your teeth. And I know without a doubt saved my Maxwell from some very nasty hypos, since he went off insulin very quickly after I adopted him as a diabetic. If I had been just shooting him blind on the dose that he came to be on, I wouldn't have caught the fact that he was ready to stop needing insulin at all, because I had no history with him at that point to know what he was like when he was a healthy cat, and for that same reason wouldn't have caught the subtle shifts in his personality that would have told me he was going into hypo.

It really is absolutely the best way to help keep your baby safe while they are on insulin, and give you the peace of mind that you are doing the very best in caring for them.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

....I know this may sound stupid,

No stupid questions here - I've already asked all those....... ;-)

but don't I have to see a vein before I can "poke" him ? ...........

I THINK you're thinking the same thing I was originally - you have to hit the vein for testing. No, you don't try to hit the vein. The blood comes from the capillaries just under the skin, NOT the vein. I do have to warm KT's ears a little bit but if I warm them and accidently hit the vein, it bleeds BIG TIME. In the beginning, I had to get them fairly warm (30-45 seconds) before I poked - now they just have to not be cold.....15 seconds or so of warming.

 

[Sherry & Squirt (GA)]

Hi Mary and Sumo,

Welcome to the best site you could ever find
I am in the San Fernando Valley and am currently dealing with my second diabetic kitty. I am going to send you a private message (pm). Just look at the top next to User control panel and you will see that you have a new message.

Sherry

 

[Becky and AJ (GA)]

Hi Mary and Sumo,

I live in Fair Oaks Ranch (Canyon Country) and am happy to help with the pokies. Let me know if you already found someone. I'm going to the Dodger game today, but should be home early afternoon.

Becky and AJ (GA)

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Hi Mary!

It's a really good thing that Sumo doesn't like the W/D! It's about the worst thing you can feed a diabetic cat because of the carb content. It frustrates me to no end that some vets still prescribe this food to diabetics. Diabetic cats need low carb wet food. You can feed any commercial canned food that's below 10% carbs (but preferably below 8%). Here's a link to the cat food nutrition charts:
http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm
There's also a link there for the low carb versions of Fancy Feast, which Bandit ate the entire time he was on insulin (he's in remission now).

What insulin do you have and what is Sumo's dose? Many cats drop 100-200 points right away once they are on a low carb wet diet so you want to make sure you lower the dose as you make the diet change. This is very important because otherwise he might become hypoglycemic.