Newly diagnosed

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Brandee&Peanut

Brandee&Peanut

Member Since 2012
Hello,

My kitty Peanut is about 12 years old, and he was diagnosed with diabetes this morning (1/25/12). His glucose was 450, he's been urinating a LOT over the last month, and has lost a couple of pounds.

It's been a very stressful and sad day to say the least. I feel that I need to give my kittyboo a fair shot and see if he'll respond to the insulin, regardless of cost. I picked up the insulin today (Lantus) the vet said to give him 1 unit, twice daily. We have an appointment to check his glucose again in 10 days. So I gave him his first dose at 9pm. And have been keeping an eye on him all evening (it's now 1:30am).

I've read just about everything I can on feline diabetes today, but one thing I haven't really come across is a TIME FRAME if a cat has insulin overdose?! Which is why I haven't gone to sleep yet, I'm super paranoid. I know the signs, and he is fine, but if he where to have a reaction, would it happen right away?

Secondly, and unrelated to my cat....how on EARTH does one make an avatar that is ONLY 9 kb?!?! I'm finding this almost impossible.

Thank you for your time. :)

-Brandee Lee
 
Hi Brandee! Welcome to you and Peanut!

I'm pretty new myself so don't consider me the expert :) but two things that might help...

First off, as soon as you can, like tomorrow, I suggest you learn to test Peanut's blood sugar at home. Folks here will help you out. You can read some of the other threads for tips and ideas about what kind of glucose meter to buy. I'm still getting the hang of it myself but my Scout doesn't seem to mind. It will work out way cheaper than taking him to the vet all the time and it will give you so much piece of mind!! I think 10 days is too long to not know how Peanut is responding to the insulin, you'll never get any sleep at that rate. ;)

I know cats can look just fine and be playing happily and while they have hypoglycemic readings (like below 50). They can also have symptoms (there is a sticky on this forum with the symptoms to watch out for). The symptoms can come on pretty fast. Probably not what you wanted to hear! Sorry about that. When you learn to test him, you'll first off learn what his cycle is like and when he should eat. Also you will have an idea if his number is high, low, rising, falling, and have plenty of warning if things are going south. I think 1 u is a normal starting dose for Lantus so he should be safe from dangers of severe hypo, but I can't say for sure.

As for the avatar, I used Photoshop's Save For Web option to make my avatar so small. I don't know how to do it without Photoshop though.

Also this is a really great community and you're in good hands here. I would have been lost without these kind folks and instead I feel great knowing they have my back and that there's a decent chance Scout will get better now I've switched her to a low carb diet.

Take care,
Lori and Scout
 
Welcome! Good on you for learning as much as you can about feline diabetes.

this is your help sheet for hypos: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887
I am using a different insulin to you; I have heard good things about Lantus, but I don't have any hands on experience with it. I can say that my cat has his lowest point done with by about 2:30 when I've shot him at 8:30.

You should home test, it will help you to keep your cat safe.
http://www.sugarpet.net/reasons.html
http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-home-test.htm

1U isn't a huge dose either, especially from 450, but changes can be pretty wild so you are right to not feel complacent
At the same time, you can probably get some sleep. But tomorrow, have a read about the home testing.
It's made a huge difference for my cat (he's on doing really well now, much better than before, it's helped me to stabilize him).
 
Regarding making the avatar, I don't have photoshop on my home computer, so what I did was (on a PC):

summary: I screen dumped it into paint to turn it into something editable, then pasted it into word to make it resizable, resized it in word, and dumped it back into paint to save as a jpeg.

1 open the photo I wanted to use (I used Windows Photo Gallery, just use the default photo viewing thing on your computer)
2 hit the "print screen" button on the top row of your keyboard, above the back space key, or it could be a bit further to the right, its always on the top row or two and on the RHS
3 open "paint" (you'll find it in Start> programs (or "all programs") > Accessories
4 "paste" into paint, (hold down the control key and hit v)
5 Up at the top LHS of the paint window, You'll see "File | Edit.." under it, a column of buttons. click on the button with a dotted square on it, top rhs of the column of buttons. Click on one corner of the part of the picture you want to use, and drag down to the opposite corner.
6 Copy (either by (1) holding down control and hitting "c" or by (2) choosing edit > copy)
7 open a word document. Paste into word. (control V or edit > paste)
8. make the picture small by clicking on the bottom left hand corner and dragging up towards the top right hand corner. Make it about the size it needs to be for real. The smaller you make it here, the smaller the file size will be. The bigger you leave it, the bigger the file size will be.
9. once its the size you want, click on the picture and copy it (control C or edit > copy)
10. go back to paint, choose file > new > don't save. You need a tiny bit of white on the grey background, so you probably need to go
image > resize and set the vertical and horizontal to 10%.
11. paste your small image here (control V or edit > paste). If your picture turned out to be smaller than the white space, you need to undo the past (control Z or edit > undo) and resize the white even smaller again.
12. save as jpeg.
13. you should be able to see the jpeg in the folder where you saved it, it will tell you how big it is. If its still too big, go back to the word document (step8) and make it smaller.

Fiddly but it might work if you have no other software.
Anyway hopefully you are asleep by now not faffing on fdmb! Good night and sleep well.

Clearly I am procrastinating.
 
Hi Nat! Sorry for the threadjack Brandee but I just wanted to say Scout is not letting me get any sleep tonight. She's in the 80s - first green numbers EVER and I'm thrilled but also scared to go to sleep. Sooo I am faffing about on FDMB hehe. Hopefully her number will be up at +5 and I can get a little sleep before work.

Lori
 
Welcome Brandee and Peanut :) Scooter and I are relatively new here, too.

The first thing anyone here is going to suggest is that you start home testing to see Peanut's numbers. You can use a human glucometer, from Walmart or any pharmacy, to test him. Walmart's ReliOn is a good one with super cheap strips. Stay away from the Freestyle Lite, or anything with "True" in the name and you should be good.

Luckily, your vet start you off at a pretty standard Lantus dose, so you might not be at 911 alert for hypo just yet. However, every cat is different (ECID) and Peanut could react very strongly to the insulin, and you need to be able to see where he's going with it.

Lots of cats hypo and don't show any symptoms until they're full blown seizing. Simply watching for hypo symptoms is NOT safe at all.

What food is he currently eating?

As you might already know, dry food contains a lot of carbs, and regulating a cat on a dry diet is extremely difficult, because you will have to inject massive amounts of insulin to counteract all the carbs he is eating. We recommend canned foods from Janet and Binky's list. You want, ideally, anything with less than 7% calories from carbohydrates. And because he is older, lower phosphorous. Most of these will be grocery store brand foods.

Don't fall for your vet telling you that you need to feed a prescription diet, like Hills or Purina. They are expensive and unnecessary. Hills, even canned, is too high in carbs, and it is full of byproducts and liver, which cats usually turn their noses up at after a while. While the Purina DM is low in carbs, again it contains a lot of liver and byproducts, and most cats won't eat it.

Please do not change his diet until you can hometest, though - some kitties can become controlled on diet alone, and if Peanut is one of those kitties, injecting insulin can make him go hypo. Even if he isn't diet controlled, reducing carbs can make him drop 100-200 points which you would need to adjust his insulin need to.

Welcome to the sugarcat family, and kudos to you for being so willing to treat Peanut's disease and seek help. :)
 
Welcome to the FDMB family, Brandee and Peanut! cat_pet_icon You're going to meet tons of super friendly folks who live with feline diabetes day in and day out. And what's even better? They freely share their experiences and knowledge! :-D

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon for home testing too. Even if your vet is adamantly against home testing, please, please, please do it for Peanut! And while there are some vets out there current on feline diabetes, most just have outdated information. They don't have to deal with this all the time, like we do. :-D They can still be a good vet...just ignorant when it comes to diabetes (not that they'll admit that though! LOL).

Home testing may take a bit of getting used to doing, for both you and Peanut, but once you get it down it's easy peasy! :-D And we'll help you along the way! :-D

I'm also going to say please, please, please give serious consideration to weaning Peanut off any dry food. There are so many folks here who diet control their diabetic kitties on wet food alone...that's how bad the carbs in dry food can raise blood glucose! BUT, please get home testing down before switching foods as it will effect insulin dosage.

In my signature there's a link to Janet and Binky's food list. We aim at foods with <10 carbs, and some aim for <7 or so carbs. As you can see on the list, there's plenty of foods to choose from, with prices ranging from bargain on up. :-D And while our babies might love the seafood varieties, only get enough for the occasional meal as seafood can have other issues if served too often.

I know, lots of information, right? We just want to help you help Peanut. We're all here to help each other. :mrgreen: Ask questions and let us know how we can help you help Peanut. :-D
 
Welcome Brandee and Peanut! Simba, civvie Gustav and I are oldies. The others have given good advice about starting and learning to homestest Peanut. And on food.

Hope to see your avatar pic of Peanut soon :-)
 
Good am to you and Peanut and welcome...
I would suggest that you glance at Beans spreadsheet to see what all the fuss (suggestions) is about on home testing. My first test that I got, Bean was only 27! I tested everytime before shots after she made it thru that nite. Also you should see what .50 of insulin can do even when she was 301... again, close to hypo. Not trying to scare you but let you know that home testing is definately a life saver!

If you are willing to try, I can say, it might not be the easiest thing - at first - but, once you and Peanut have a routine down, he will probably be reminding you that it is time for pokey poke... we all give treats during this time. :cool:

Walmart relion micro meters & strips are very affordable.

Lots of warm welcomes already thrown your way so I will not repeat everything that has been suggested already, just wanted to share my home testing story with you.

Furry paw hugs coming your way! ;-)

Keep us posted on the Peanut
 
Just make sure you've started home testing before you change to wet food!
I changed to wet food (its pretty easy to get a few cans of cat food). Akbah's insulin needs dropped through the floor, if I hadn't been testing I hate to think what might have happened to that creature of mine.
 
Good morning! ~O)

Thanks everyone for your support and suggestions! I sincerely appreciate them!!

I am currently unemployed, so I can't really afford to do home testing at the moment, and I know 10 days seems like a long time but it's my only option at the moment until I get a job. Hopefully I will soon, I just graduated (associates for MLT) and have been putting out numerous resumes, keeping my fingers crossed.

I can hardly afford to treat Peanut at all really, yesterday was pretty upsetting when the pharmacy told me the price, I was smart enough in my panic though to call around and found that Target pharmacy was 20$ cheaper, every cent counts! (My best friend secretly [ because I have issues with asking and receiving help ] went to my husband and paid for the insulin yesterday, knowing that we are pretty poor without 2 incomes, she's such a good friend!) So really, if I get a job within the next 3 months, the panic and depression over trying to figure out how to pay to keep my Peanut Butter alive will be better, and I'll be able to get all the right equipment needed.

Peanut is currently eating Pure Vita Grain Free Chicken Entree...and sometimes I feed my cats Wellness canned cat food. (My cats eat better and more organic than I do! lol) And I've been thinking of feeding them the canned food everyday instead of just as a treat now and then. I'll have to do more research into food of course. It's a little overwhelming at the moment. I know that the vet will probably suggest Science Diet, but I sorda have the same feeling about that food that I do with Apple (ipod etc) products....it's too heavily pushed, too expensive, and not necessarily better in my own opinion. We'll see, I'll get it figured out.

Thank you again!! I'm sure I'll be coming back here to get more advice and to see what others are talking about/doing for their kittyboos. :)

-Brandee Lee
 
Brandee
You CAN afford to do this... you can get the home testing supplues for the cost of shipping. Click on to "newbie kits" link at the top of the page ti see how.
Carl
 
Brandee, I am new here too and in a similar money situation. My unemployed husband has recently been diagnosed with cancer so we are already scrambling to pay for that. If money is short you really can't afford not to do home testing. Walmart has a meter for $9 and strips for $20, or look for the link for a free kit. Both those options are way cheaper and healthier for you cat than a vet trip every 10 days like my vet wants to do - she doesn't recommend home testing. If you have already bought the insulin and syringes and paid for the first vet visit you have already spent the big money, testing is cheap. And the people on this site are so supportive, thet will help you get through trying to figure out the home testing.
Good luck to you and Peanut!
 
It might seem expensive in the beginning, but you have to consider that testing at home is going to save you HUNDREDS on curves/tests at the vet office in the future. Most vets charge around $20 for a SINGLE glucose reading alone!! 3 of those and you have your meter, 50 strips, and a box of lancets. Curves can be upwards of $100. Hospitalization for hypo can be in the multiple hundreds.

Testing strips are the expensive part, which is why we recommend the ReliOn - 100 strips is only $36. Quite often they do promos that if you buy 100 strips you get the meter free. 100 strips for my Bayer Contour is $80!!! but Scooter is a DCIN sponsored kitty, because I too am low income, so fortunately, we have that covered :)

But if you are really tight for money, you can get a free meter, strips, and lancets from Rebecca here.
 
Ry & Scooter said:
It might seem expensive in the beginning, but you have to consider that testing at home is going to save you HUNDREDS on curves/tests at the vet office in the future. Most vets charge around $20 for a SINGLE glucose reading alone!! 3 of those and you have your meter, 50 strips, and a box of lancets. Curves can be upwards of $100. Hospitalization for hypo can be in the multiple hundreds.

Testing strips are the expensive part, which is why we recommend the ReliOn - 100 strips is only $36. Quite often they do promos that if you buy 100 strips you get the meter free. 100 strips for my Bayer Contour is $80!!! but Scooter is a DCIN sponsored kitty, because I too am low income, so fortunately, we have that covered :)

But if you are really tight for money, you can get a free meter, strips, and lancets from Rebecca here.
Click to expand...

Thank you! (and everyone else too) I'll look into it and discuss it with my husband. :)

-Brandee Lee
 
Welcome Brandee & Peanut!

You are on the right path to getting Peanut feeling better. Everyone on the board is so willing to help with advice, dosing or support. All you have to do is ask. I like to think everyone here are angels.

It looks like everyone has said exactly what I wanted to share with you.

I have the Confirm. My vet would love for me to purchase Alpha Trax ($200) from him. I purchased mine about 2 weeks after Baxter was DX which was to long. I can't believe that I was giving him insulin without testing him first. Within the first week Baxter started to walk drunk like a couple of hours after giving him insulin. I will never know how low his BG went because I didn't have a meter. The next day I bought my meter.


Jenn & Baxter cat_pet_icon
 
Hi Brandee,

I just wanted to add my emphasis that if money is an issue, home testing is WAY cheaper than testing at the vet. And the vet tests will be a waste of money because they are inaccurate due to stress anyway. Apart from when Bandit went in for his diagnosis 3 years ago, he has never had his blood levels tested at the vet for his diabetes. My vet was very emphatic that I HAD to test at home from the beginning.

I would get an inexpensive meter right away, start testing, and cancel that 10 day appt. with the vet for testing. You can call and give them your (more accurate) numbers, or create a spreadsheet like the ones many of us use here and share it with them. Whenever Bandit goes in for a checkup, or my vet wants to see how his blood sugar is, she goes online and looks at a copy of the same spreadsheet you see in my signature.

A diabetic human does not adjust their insulin without daily home testing because it is not safe--and it's exactly the same for cats!

Here's a link to the current AAHA diabetes treatment guidelines: http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/AAHADiabetesGuidelines.pdf. Read p. 218 (4), where it says "Home monitoring of BG is ideal and strongly encouraged to obtain the most accurate interpretation of glucose relative to clinical signs." I would print out this document and give it to your vet. I've also attached another article for you to print for your vet that specifically discusses the very high remission rate (84%!) of newly diagnosed cats with the combination of home testing, Lantus, and a low carb canned diet.

I speak from personal experience (from someone on a single, limited income) that a cat in remission is far less expensive than a cat with uncontrolled diabetes on insulin.
 

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