Our Journey With Blossom

[JCD3]

Blossom is a 15-year-old spayed female who has recently been diagnosed with diabetes. We live in a rural area and she spends a portion of the day outside surveying her kingdom but is primarily an indoor cat. Last week on day one, she did not appear to be her normal active self. The next day she appeared very lethargic and off to be checked out. Wow. BG was 649 and dehydrated. Vet administered IV fluids and insulin. Boarded with insulin and monitoring for three days. No info on units of insulin or BG numbers provided. Back home for a week and received one unit of Vetsulin each morning. Normal activity. Spent the day following my wife around the yard as she prepared her flower beds and investigating random moving blades of grass. Went back to the vet the next day and BG back up to 453. Received 2 units of Vetsulin. Left at the vet’s office for care. 273 the next morning and two units. 350 that evening and two units. 558 the next morning (Friday) and 4 units.


It was at this stage that I began to question where we were going. By her very nature, Blossom has never played well with other cats/dogs. She really doesn’t seem to think they are of her kind! The vet wanted to keep her a few more days but instead, we moved her back home to a less stressful situation. Being a diabetic myself, stress is an enemy. The vet sent her home with instructions for 4 units in the morning and 3 units in the evening along with an expensive bag of Hill’s Weight Management w/d food. She likes it. Been eating it free choice all this time in her cage! Am I missing something. Feeding a caged and bored diabetic cat 37% carb food free choice!


Anyway, I am concerned about the diet. The war will be on as we try to wean her off of 15 years of dry food. Rather than the 4/3 units of Vetsulin, I began today with a 2/2 dosage, hoping a calmer environment and twice a day feeding will have some effect. Today's numbers were 318/263. Being a light eater, I worry jumping from one unit/day to seven so quickly.


Comments

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Welcome to the FDMB!! The best place you never wanted to be!!

Am I missing something. Feeding a caged and bored diabetic cat 37% carb food free choice!

You're not missing anything and you're totally right.....that's insane and the last thing you want to do.

Diabetic cats are a lot like diabetic humans....you want to feed a low carb diet in multiple small meals per day. Most of us feed Fancy Feast Classics or Friskies pates because they're affordable and easy to find. They're also low carb!!

Vetsulin also isn't a great choice for most cats, although some do OK with it. It's mainly used in dogs. It tends to hit cats "hard and fast" and then wear off long before the next shot time. The insulins we suggest for cats are Lantus, Levemir or ProZinc.

One thing about Vetsulin (since that's what you have right now)….it is important that she eats a normal sized meal before you give the insulin so that when it hits, there are carbs on board. With Vetsulin we suggest Testing, feeding, waiting 20-30 minutes and shooting.

2U is actually a higher dose than we recommend starting with. We usually start at 1U and then see how they do by home testing...especially if you reduce the carbs in the food!!! Tests done at the vet's office are unreliable because the stress of being at the vet can raise the blood glucose 200 points or more! The vet see's those high numbers, increases the insulin and then you take kitty home. She relaxes and you give the higher dose and you have the recipe for a tragedy.

We need to get you home testing ASAP. Most of us use the Relion Prime or Premier from WalMart. Learning to test isn't hard and it will get easier!! It's also the only way to really know how well your cat is doing and is vital to keep her safe. You wouldn't give yourself insulin without knowing your blood glucose and it's the same with your furkid!

As you poke more and more, new capillaries will grow in and make it easier and easier to get blood. Make sure you warm the ear up well before poking too. That makes a huge difference! A small sock with some dry rice that you can microwave to warm up works well, as do pill bottles filled with warm water. Anything small that you can use to warm up the ear will really help.

Here's a video made by one of our members to help

We have a spreadsheet we all use here that makes it easier to see how our kitties are doing. Here are the Instructions on getting the FDMB spreadsheet. If you have any trouble, let us know and we can help you get it set up and running.

Keep asking questions! The people here are very generous with their time and knowledge and we've all been there before!!

ETA....you can take the Hill's garbage back and get a refund. It's 100% guaranteed...just tell them your cat refuses to eat it.

 

[JCD3]

24 hours into attempting to take control of Blossom's meds/diet. Halved the vet recommended dosage and #'s in the mid to upper 200's today. Will see how this goes for a day or so.

Taking a hard look at her diet now. She has always been a picky eater and seldom eats more than a few bites at a time. Nibbles a bit, off to do whatever and then back for another nibble or two. We have a challenge ahead in moving her to wet food but my concern now is making sure she has eaten sufficiently before her insulin dose. From experience, withholding food doesn't alter her routine. Been there, done that for other reasons. There have been instances that she has not had food available for several hours...and then eats a few bites and saves the rest for later!

The other issue is that she does not seem to be on track to consume enough food with her current feeding habits. With our multi-cat household, leaving food out for her midnight snacks is not possible....and it has been 50+ years since I got up for a 2:00 AM feeding!

My main concern is that she may have eaten insufficient food prior to her insulin shot.

 

[Idjit's mom]

Hi and welcome to FDMB. Blossom sounds like a very superior (she's a cat after all) and independent little lady. I like her already!
Would you please fill in Blossom's information in the signature where the spreadsheet link already is. That way, it's available when you post.
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens:
kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.
Do you have a picture of Blossom you can use as an avatar?