After a vet visit, Oliver was prescribed Purina dm, as he was just a little diabetic, per my hubby, a few weeks ago. Now Oliver is on 1 unit of insulin twice a day. We didn't like the ingredients in the dm, so we switched him to Wellness grain free chicken. The vet expressed concerns that this food may not be high enough in protein, and that the dm is designed to get Oliver off the insulin, but admitted he got worse while on the dm and she wants us to be happy with his food. He is no longer starving, but is hanging out at the water bowl, is sleepy, and a little wobbly on his hind legs, but more so in the mornings to early afternoon. He's more like his normal self in the evenings. When speaking to the vet, she stated we would likely need to increase insulin, lantus, to 2 units twice per day. Oliver has only been on the Wellness exclusively as of today. Wondering if we made the right decision regarding food, and if I should start home testing. Not one word was mentioned regarding testing Oliver at home. I know absolutelynothing about it, and having to give him insulin freaked me out. A lot! He's only been on the insulin for a little over a week, and he goes back to the vet in 5 days. I don't understand what all the numbers mean, and admit that because I felt so overwhelmed I can't even remember what they were, but will write everything down next time. I live near Walmart, target, numerous drug stores, so I can easily pick up whatever is needed for testing. I just don't know where to begin. Thank you for any advise.
Pretty newly diagnosed, need suggestions please.
- Thread starter cainduce
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MommaOfMuse
Very Active Member
First off you were absolutely right to switch his food to the grain free Wellness! Lots of folks use it here for their diabetic kitties. I don't since I have 13 cats only two of which are diabetics and it just doesn't fit into our budget to feed everyone that, so we feed good old fashioned Friskies pate, which got one of my diabetics into remission and off insulin. There is nothing special about the DM except the price and there is far better stuff out there on the commercial market, plus most cats tire of DM.
Secondly great instincts on wanting to test Oliver at home, this is absolutely the very best thing you can do to keep him safe while he is on insulin. Being tired especially in the morning is rather concerning because it could mean that he is going to low and starts acting more like himself once it starts wearing off. The only way for sure it to test him yourself before every shot and getting spot checks in when you can to see how low he is going. You will find lots of tips and tricks as well as some excellent videos here on how to start testing him at home Home Testing. It can be a little frustrating at first but once you find your groove it gets as easy as brushing your teeth. I can literally now wake up, grab the test kit, test Musette and be back to sleep in 10 minutes.
Not only will testing Oliver at home keep him safe it will also keep money in your wallet. Since he won't have to keep going back to the vet's to have curves run, you can do them yourself at home and just share your data with your vet. As well as giving you truer numbers, since Oliver won't be all stressed out by the vet visit, and stress will raise his bloodsugar.
A shopping list for you for testing at home.
Human Meter that takes a small sample of blood and strips that sip. Walmart has an excellent meter called the Relion Micro, the meter is around $9 and 100 strips are about $40 (the strips are the most expensive part)
Test strips to match your meter
lancets and a lancet device in the beginning you want a slightly larger gauge, normally these are marked as "for alternative testing spots" but you want about a 25 gauge, the smaller the number the bigger the lancet.
Ketostixs to test Oliver's urine for ketones, these should be right next to all the other human diabetic supplies and are pretty cheap as well.
A rice sock for warming up his ears..warm ears bleed better than cool ears. These are easy to make, just take a thinnish cotton sock put about a 1/4 of a cup of plain uncooked white rice or oatmeal in the toe, and knot...easy. Then when you are ready pop it in the microwave for a few seconds until it is very warm but not hot ( I test it on my wrist just like you would a baby bottle). Hold this to his ear for a few seconds to get it nice and warm.
And if you are still having problems getting it down and want some hands on help just give us a general location, city and state and we will see if we can round up a member that lives close to you that can pop in and give you a hand.
Congrats you are now a proud owner of a Sugarcat! And you have landed in the very best place you never wanted to be, but will be so blessed to have found to help you help your extra sweet Oliver. Everyone here either has or has had a Sugarcat that they are treating successfully, some of us even have several
You are off to a very good start, you are on an excellent insulin, and started at a good dose, on a great diabetic diet and wanting to test at home...we can help you figure out all the rest.
Read everything you can here, print out the stuff you want to refer back to, and ask all the questions you want, someone is always around to answer them or at least point you in the right direction to the answer. We never close as we have members literally around the world.
Welcome to the FDMB Family of Sugarcats and the people that love them.
Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
Secondly great instincts on wanting to test Oliver at home, this is absolutely the very best thing you can do to keep him safe while he is on insulin. Being tired especially in the morning is rather concerning because it could mean that he is going to low and starts acting more like himself once it starts wearing off. The only way for sure it to test him yourself before every shot and getting spot checks in when you can to see how low he is going. You will find lots of tips and tricks as well as some excellent videos here on how to start testing him at home Home Testing. It can be a little frustrating at first but once you find your groove it gets as easy as brushing your teeth. I can literally now wake up, grab the test kit, test Musette and be back to sleep in 10 minutes.
Not only will testing Oliver at home keep him safe it will also keep money in your wallet. Since he won't have to keep going back to the vet's to have curves run, you can do them yourself at home and just share your data with your vet. As well as giving you truer numbers, since Oliver won't be all stressed out by the vet visit, and stress will raise his bloodsugar.A shopping list for you for testing at home.
Human Meter that takes a small sample of blood and strips that sip. Walmart has an excellent meter called the Relion Micro, the meter is around $9 and 100 strips are about $40 (the strips are the most expensive part)
Test strips to match your meter
lancets and a lancet device in the beginning you want a slightly larger gauge, normally these are marked as "for alternative testing spots" but you want about a 25 gauge, the smaller the number the bigger the lancet.
Ketostixs to test Oliver's urine for ketones, these should be right next to all the other human diabetic supplies and are pretty cheap as well.
A rice sock for warming up his ears..warm ears bleed better than cool ears. These are easy to make, just take a thinnish cotton sock put about a 1/4 of a cup of plain uncooked white rice or oatmeal in the toe, and knot...easy. Then when you are ready pop it in the microwave for a few seconds until it is very warm but not hot ( I test it on my wrist just like you would a baby bottle). Hold this to his ear for a few seconds to get it nice and warm.
And if you are still having problems getting it down and want some hands on help just give us a general location, city and state and we will see if we can round up a member that lives close to you that can pop in and give you a hand.
Congrats you are now a proud owner of a Sugarcat! And you have landed in the very best place you never wanted to be, but will be so blessed to have found to help you help your extra sweet Oliver. Everyone here either has or has had a Sugarcat that they are treating successfully, some of us even have several
You are off to a very good start, you are on an excellent insulin, and started at a good dose, on a great diabetic diet and wanting to test at home...we can help you figure out all the rest.
Read everything you can here, print out the stuff you want to refer back to, and ask all the questions you want, someone is always around to answer them or at least point you in the right direction to the answer. We never close as we have members literally around the world.
Welcome to the FDMB Family of Sugarcats and the people that love them.
Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
MikeysMom
Very Active Member
Welcome to the board! It sure is a great place for somewhere you never wished to have to be!
The Wellness is fine for your cat; many on the board feed it. In general you want to choose a food with less than 10%of calories from carbs; most of us aim for under 5-7%. Here are a couple of links to some charts that have the correct numbers; you can't get them from the guaranteed analysis on the can.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8U...MyMC00Y2Y3LWI4ODMtMzhkYTkxOGM4NThk/edit?pli=1
Hometesting is definitely an essential part of treating a diabetic cat. Why more vets don't insist on it is a mystery to us; no human doctor would ever think to not insist that his patients test.
An increase of a full unit of Lantus at a time is too much, unless your cat has another medical problem causing insulin resistance. Current protocol calls for increases of no more than .25 units at a time, unless the cat is already on a very high dose, and then it's no more than .5U at a time. It's better to increase slowly than to risk an episode of hypoglycemia, which can be fatal. I would not increase at all until you begin testing at home and have a handle on your cat's numbers, so that you know when the nadir of his cycle is and can also get some values before you give the shots.
Here is a great link for newbies from the Lantus section of our insulin support groups:http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139
It has TONS of helpful info to get you started, and there are other "sticky" topics on the Lantus Tight Regulation board that we recommend reading as well, even if you aren't goint to follow the TR protocol. They have great information to help you.
We were all new to this too, and totally overwhelmed. My cat is doing great thanks to everyone here, and yours can be soon too!
The Wellness is fine for your cat; many on the board feed it. In general you want to choose a food with less than 10%of calories from carbs; most of us aim for under 5-7%. Here are a couple of links to some charts that have the correct numbers; you can't get them from the guaranteed analysis on the can.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8U...MyMC00Y2Y3LWI4ODMtMzhkYTkxOGM4NThk/edit?pli=1
Hometesting is definitely an essential part of treating a diabetic cat. Why more vets don't insist on it is a mystery to us; no human doctor would ever think to not insist that his patients test.
An increase of a full unit of Lantus at a time is too much, unless your cat has another medical problem causing insulin resistance. Current protocol calls for increases of no more than .25 units at a time, unless the cat is already on a very high dose, and then it's no more than .5U at a time. It's better to increase slowly than to risk an episode of hypoglycemia, which can be fatal. I would not increase at all until you begin testing at home and have a handle on your cat's numbers, so that you know when the nadir of his cycle is and can also get some values before you give the shots.
Here is a great link for newbies from the Lantus section of our insulin support groups:http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139
It has TONS of helpful info to get you started, and there are other "sticky" topics on the Lantus Tight Regulation board that we recommend reading as well, even if you aren't goint to follow the TR protocol. They have great information to help you.
We were all new to this too, and totally overwhelmed. My cat is doing great thanks to everyone here, and yours can be soon too!
Thank you so much. We only have 2 cats, the other is only 6, but we switched him to Wellness too even though we feed them separately. I will do some reading over the weekend and make a trip to the store and hopefully be on my way to understanding more by the end of the weekend.
cainduce said:
Welcome to the site and WELL DONE TO YOU to realize that vet food is mostly crap.
Here are some food links for you; see if you can select foods from Binky's list that are under 10%carbs:
Binky’s Food Lists
Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basics of Feline Nutrition
List of Low Carb Healthy Treats
Home testing? YES! Human diabetics test themselves frequently so why not our cats?
Testing on cat’s ear
I guess a Relion meter would be great, test strips, lancets, and also a container of KETOSTIX to test urine for ketones.
Some other questions that are important are what insulin are you giving, what dose and how often.
The feeding is pretty important, low carb wet, as you may well find you have a DIET CONTROLLED cat.
Ask every question you have; someone will have answers for you.
I did not even know cats could BE diabetic so I bet I knew less than you!
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