Our cat Samantha - newly diagnosed

[samanthacat]

Hello,
I'm Chris and our cat Sam has been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis about a year ago, and more recently also diagnosed with Cushing's disease. Her BG levels have been observed to increase during a pancreas flareup in the past, then return to normal. Since the Cushing's has become more evident, her BG levels have been anywhere from about 200-400 whenever checked. We finally found a good internist with experience in this sort of thing and we are treating her for Cushing's as we also nurse her out of a pancreas episode. Our doctor suspects her Diabetic condition may be brought about by the Cushing's and may well subside once the Cushing's is controlled. For the time being though she has been put on 1 unit of Humilin N every 12 hours. They had good results with that while she was in the hospital. He says we are using a very low dose to keep BG in the 200 or so range so that we can keep Sam out of danger BG wise as the Cushing's treatment begins to take effect. She is on Hills w/d (canned) at the moment at his advice.
Now that i've explained a little background, I'm curious. ATM, they are having us give her small to med. sized meals as she requests them and that goes fine during the day. We are concerned that if we don't feed her during the night that here BG may fall too low? They don't seem too concerned at the hospital about that possibility because of the low dose and her situation. They said leave out some dry W/D and we tried it but that kitty crack had her off her canned food for half the next day till we weened her off of it. No more of that. So should we get up in the night and feed her do you think, or is the meal she gets with insulin (a bit larger meal) supposed to take care of that issue? I know this question is steeped in ignorance but we really love our cat to death and we're new to this kind of situation. We have had very little sleep in the last week and a half because of her recent difficulties including a 3 night stay at the emergency vet (they took great care of her and we visited 3 times a day). Now we are home with her and she's looking happy finally and we want her to do well. Thank you for any helpful advice you may have!

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Welcome! You are very lucky to have the Cushings diagnosed early. Often, it is only after months with FD that the tests are done. Did you see this info? Our high dose forum is not very busy, but there are a few people posting there.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=375

Lots of us use automatic feeders. My favorite is the PetSafe5. My cats have never been able to break into it (unlike other pop up types), it is easy to program by minutes/hours elapsed instead of the clock and has 5 slots. I freeze the food using a silicone cupcake pan - one can of Fancy Feast fits perfectly - and let it thaw in the feeder, but it is fine without freezing for at least 12 hours.

You will find Humulin is not a favored insulin here and very few people use it for long. It tends to hit hard and drop fast and then wear off. We prefer slower, longer lasting insulins like Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc.

The most important thing you can do for your kitty is to test at home and it sounds like you are planning on that. Very few of us use the AlphaTrak. It is expensive initially and the strips are only found at the vets or online. They are very expensive also. We use human meters. They may read a little higher than the AlphaTrak but since it's patterns and trends we are looking for, they work fine.

 

[BJM]

Is she a nibbler, or does she tend to scarf 'n' barf?

Even without a feeder, if you freeze part of the canned food and put it out at bedtime, she'll be able to nibble on it through the night.

 

[samanthacat]

Hi - i just wanted to post a quick thank you for the advice! Been very busy and very little sleep to be had sometimes but she's doing well. I think the humilin is temporary and our vet intends to switch her to Lantus if a long term solution is needed. Will ask him about it on Friday when we see how Cushing's treatment is going (dosage test). Freezing the food sounds like a brilliant idea - she likes to lick her food - we put it in a blender because otherwise she ends up just smashing it down with her tongue. Thanks to both of you! I'll update when we get things to a more ideal state. For now just mastering administering her injections is my best achievement so far lol.

 

[BJM]

When you get a chance, maybe add your general location to your signature in the User Control Panel section (link near top of page)

There might be users near you.

 

[squeem3]

If you do switch to Lantus, be sure to read the stickies on how it works for cats over on the Lantus board: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9 Some vets are unfamliar with how Lantus works.

There is a $25 coupon for the Lantus SoloStar pens here: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=36964 Most people here use the SoloStar pens instead of the 10 ml bottle. The pens are used the same way as a bottle with an insulin syringe.

You don't need the Hills W/D, canned or dry. It's full of junky quality ingredients and the carbs are too high for a diabetic (26% in the canned and 37% in the dry :shock: ) Think ice cream and candy for a Human diabetic. Diabetic cats should have no more than 10% carbs.

Here are the food charts that most people use:

Binky's canned food charts
Pet Food Nutritional Values list
Hobo's Guide To Nutritional Values
Dr. Lynne's Wet Food list
List of low carb gluten free Fancy Feast

On Binky's charts, stick with foods that have a number 10 or less in the carbs colum. On the Pet Food Nutritional Values Chart and Hobo's Guide, look at the %kcal from carbs column and choose foods that have a number 10 or less.

We are concerned that if we don't feed her during the night that here BG may fall too low?

That's where blood glucose testing comes in :smile: By knowing what your cat's blood glucose level is before you give insulin, you can prevent most hypos. And if a hypo does happen, you can immediately test and see how low the blood glucose level is and what course of treatment you should take. Here is the hypo info and treatment posts: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1122 and http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2354

You can use a timed feeder to provide mini meals during the day and night.

 

[samanthacat]

Thanks for the heads up on the w/d carbs. She had completely stopped eating and we were extremely upset, so we went with what they gave her. We've always been annoyed when vets push the prescription diets and now that she is eating well and behaving more like herself again we are going to get the food situation addressed as well. She had completely stopped eating and we were extremely upset, so we went with what they gave her. We also prefer foods with higher quality ingredients. For the moment, her digestion actually seems better on this than it was on Instinct, way less gassy and more regular but that carb content in a so called diabetic food is absurd. We will do our best to find a low carb food with low fat too if possible. Not many of those around (low carb AND fat). Merrick would be great but the potato starch seems to have given her trouble in the past when we tried Weruva. Purina DM has good specs but I got worried looking at the ingredients list.

We have started doing some BG testing - haven't mastered the technique yet but we have some results to discuss with the Doctor on Friday. Look at me I'm rambling on - sorry bout that. Thanks to you all again - its good to hear all of your advice and your experiences.

 

[Susan D]

Hi,

I'm Susan from the Feline Pancreatitis Support group (angel Sasha's and angel Orlando's mom), and I am so glad to see you here about your beloved Samantha. I'm continuing to keep Sam in my thoughts and sending healing energy. I felt it was important for you to check out the FDMB board on your blood glucose situation and for the food choices, too. Between the FPS group and the FDMB board, you have a world of support, resources, and wise folks!

It really helps if you can get trusted veterinary help combined with the advice here and from FPS to get a big picture. I agree with everything that has been said above about W/D, ESPECIALLY the dry as well as the wet. My holistic vet called such foods "kitty Crackerjacks." For awhile I mixed in some W/D wet with the grain-free foods for Sasha but only as a transition. I was working with this excellent holistic vet on a changeover in Sasha's foods, and I could see an immediate impact once I got him off W/D, on to higher-quality foods from Wellness and Nature's Instinct, and getting supplements. (Daily subq fluids helped very much, too, with him dealing with chronic pancreatitis flare-ups.) Once I did subQ fluids, got him B12 injections every other week, changed his diet, and gave nutritional supplements, he went a long while without a flareup, showed more energy than he had for a long while, and had good digestion. In the end, I think my Sasha just had a tough time overcoming the number of things he was battling, but many of this last days were such good ones right up until I had to let him go.

In retrospect, I wish that I had paid more attention to the level of fat in his foods, but the holistic vet wasn't as concerned about that and was advising that we would build him up on the higher-quality, grain-free foods I was giving to him.

It may be a good idea to post a separate thread asking about recommendations for higher-quality low-carb, lower-fat foods for Sam.

Try to get some rest! You are doing a great and loving job in caring for your Sam.

Susan