Overwhelmed, need to get started

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Quiet Hugh

Member Since 2013
My pal Chum got diagnosed with FD today, and I am trying to get my act together without my son noticing the tears welling up.

Unfortunately I am unemployed, so the $400 to $600 tests to figure his insulin is beyond my mean right now. I did buy a 10 pound bag of dry Purina DM, at the Vet's suggestion, but after reading here and elsewhere, I betting I wasted $40 (I opened it before I found the FDMB).

Here is my plan, so far. I am hoping you kind people will help me fill in the gaps.

1. Order a Feline Diabetes Testing kit (from a link above)
2. Donate/Ditch Chum's dry food
3. Buy Fancy Feast Classic wet food (I'll appreciate any other brand suggestions)
4. Try to remain calm while I wait for Testing Kit to arrive
5. Watch more youtube videos about testing blood
6. Find a sample online of a blood testing curve

At this point, I assume that after I start testing Chum, and get a decent idea what his levels are, I will, if lucky:
7a. Maintain a wet low-carb diet.

If unlucky:
7b. Present the curve findings to my vet, and get a perscription for insulin.
8. Start shopping for insulin (I have seen many suggestions on these boards, thank you kindly, all)
9. Try to remain calm while I wait for the Insulin to arrive
10. Watch youtube videos about administering insulin
11. Start administering insulin

If anyone has anything else they think I can or should do, I would humbly appreciate your insight.

BTW, Chum is 12 years old and 11 pounds.
 
What a lucky kitty Chum is! You've done a great job researching. I have a couple suggestions.

Friskies pate is cheaper than Fancy Feast. You can buy the larger cans.
Contact Diabetic Cats in Need - google for their website. Sometimes they can help with insulin.
Get Chum ready for testing. Start playing with his ears, warming them up.
Find some cheaper low carb treats for testing. PureBites can be found in larger bags in the dog section.
Purina will take back the dry food. Just say he won't eat it.
 
Welcom Chum and his owner! You've found the best place you never wanted to be. ;-) If it is steroid-induced diabetes, there's a very good chance Chum can go into remission with a proper diet, proper insulin, and home-testing.

1. It's great that you're going to home-test. It's the safest and best way to manage this disease.
2. You can return the opened food for a full refund as all "prescription" foods come with a guarantee. Just tell them your cat won't eat it and they should give you a full refund under the guarantee.
3. Friskies pâtés are cheaper than the fancy feast and about just as good. Try to find the Special Diet ones as they're the lowest in carbs and might help with the IBD. You might also want to check out catinfo.org for more information on feline nutrition and a food chart of all the nutritional information of most commercial cat foods (for diabetics, you want anything less than 8-10% calories from carbs).
4. Have a read-through of this message from your cat. You might also want to check out these Secondary Monitoring Tools for some tips to use until your get your monitor.
5. Here's something I wrote up about creating a comfortable ear testing environment that might be of help.
6. A curve is simple testing every two to three hours across a cycle.** We have this handy spreadsheet that most of us here use to help us keep track of the numbers.

It sounds like you already have a good action plan in place! :thumbup As for insulin, if you do need to start it, there are only three insulins that are recommended for use in cats: Lantus (glargine), Levemir (detemir), or PZI/ProZinc.

**A cycle is the time between shots. The 3 insulin recommended above require 2 shots a day, 12 hours apart. That means the cycle would be 12 hours (even though he's not on insulin).
 
Fantastic advice, thank you so much!

I'm sure Oliver adventures in Valhalla with my Hawkeye, Trapper and Ida.
 
Thank you Kpassa! I did read the "message from your cat" earlier, and it did help me catch my breath some.

I will check the links you suggested, much obliged!
 
Welcome to FDMB! It's the best place for extra sweet kitties!

Just so you know, petsmart has a rewards program you can join. It's free to join and I get 10 cents off my friskies cans. They give discounts for lots if products and you don't pay to join! I'm sure other stores do too...petsmart is just what we have. Ask around! It can save you tons on low carb wet food.
 
Ooh! Thank you Rachel! I do have a Petsmart rewards card, but I hadn't thought of it in a long time. This will help!
 
I have an additional idea to save you doing the vet curves at all or indeed see the vet to get insulin- you aren't that far from the Canadian border so take a road trip to Gananoque or somewhere and go to any Canadian pharmacy and buy some Lantus and syringes.

You don't need a prescription in Canada. You can get a vial for $75 or a pack of pens for about $100 from most pharmacies (cheaper than the US). A vial will last you six months if you keep it in the fridge - pens even longer - take a cooler with you and an ice pack to keep it cold.

Wendy
 
Welcome to FDMB!

:RAHCAT I have never seen anyone put together a plan like you did so fast. Chum is sure to be in good hands during this sugar-dance. :smile:

Keep us updated and ask any questions you have. We are all here to help you help Chum (I love his name). cat_pet_icon

Looking forward to seeing Chum's spreadsheet and more updates.
 
I am new to this too and can't help with any dosing or treatment advice. There are some things that I have learned really quickly though that I hope will help you. It seems so daunting I know. How can I stick something in her ear? Won't she hate me? I have to stick a needle in her skin? Can I even do that? At first yes she hated the testing but now she voluntarily comes to me when I call even though she knows what I am about to do. She used to pretty much ignore me before all this. (She was my son's cat and made that plain) Now she cuddles with me as much as him so I am guessing she doesn't hold testing against me. Sticking her with the needle was hard at first till I realized the only problem she had with it was it meant she had to wait to steal her brother's food. She doesn't even notice the needle stick. Surprisingly the hardest thing lately was listening to my previously free feeding cat cry for food between feeding times. Settled that with a snack half-way through. Her numbers were so high at first I thought there was no way we would get them down. Now she isn't where we want her but on her way there steadily. I know its scary but deep breath and know that the people on this board are wonderful. They will help you through all those I-don't-know-what-to-do times. Only thing I can suggest is read the stickies and get to know the wonderful people on the board. Oh and looking at the spreadsheets in the signatures made me realize I am not alone a lot of the sugarkitties started out as high as my girl and are either under control or in remission now.
 
Wendy, thanks for the Canada advice. It's a bit too far to trust my clunker of a car, but I know a few people who go to Montreal semi-frequently. I'll see if I can work something out with them, after I get some dosage data.

Misty, thanks for the kind words, I'll get a spreadsheet up after I get my supplies and finish converting Chum from grazing.

TaintedHalo, thanks for the encouragement, and nicely done on getting your pal headed in the right direction!
 
Sounds good - get them to ask the Pharmacy for an ice pack to keep it cool. Pens last longer than vials and don't break as easy. You will need syringes for them though - no pen tips.

Wendy
 
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