Recently diagnosed Kitty (and the owner :) needs help

[worldtraveller]

Hi there!
I have 2 cats - Kitty 11,5 yrs and Joey 8 yrs - and last weekend Kitty was diagnosed with diabetes. Since then I have been searching internet for questions how to treat him, and it's a bit overwhelming.... My challenge is that I am expat in Moscow (Russia) and had to visit a clinic where the staff spoke little English (and I don't speak Russian). So, not so much help from my vet here....

Kitty was given Caninsulin, 4 units twice a day. I have not started the treatment, as I wanted to make sure of my options first. So - I would be really happy to get some thougts and ideas how to continue... :
- any recommendations on which insulin to use? What are pros and cons for Caninsulin vs Lantus?
- if I start with Caninsulin now, can I change to Lantus later if that works better?
- am worried about the whole hypoglycemia thing .... can that happen any time during the day, or is it more likely to happen right after the insulin shot (how soon)? Do I dare to leave the house ???
- how to change kitties' diet? They have been on dry food all their lives; do I now have to change their eating habits completely?

What I am really worried about is that I am about to go for a short Christmas break out of the country.... if/when Kitty needs to be on insulin treatment within a week's time, it will be a challenge to find someone to look after him during his first insulin week. Ugh. Lots to think about..... All ideas as welcome!

 

[cellosmom]

Hello and welcome!! many others will be by soon with great advice, I'm kinda new but wanted to welcome you and give my input from what I know now!

Hi there!


Kitty was given Caninsulin, 4 units twice a day. I have not started the treatment, as I wanted to make sure of my options first. So - I would be really happy to get some thougts and ideas how to continue... :
- any recommendations on which insulin to use? What are pros and cons for Caninsulin vs Lantus?

generally people think caninsulin is the worst choice of the available insulins, it is very quick acting and harsh. I used PZI, but everyone who uses lantus loves it and it has a good remission rate so go with that if you can get it


- if I start with Caninsulin now, can I change to Lantus later if that works better?

yes! i was on caninsulin and switched to pzi, just need 12 hours off insulin to get it out of the system

- am worried about the whole hypoglycemia thing .... can that happen any time during the day, or is it more likely to happen right after the insulin shot (how soon)? Do I dare to leave the house ???

have you read up on home testing?! You need to do this if you don't have great vet help especially, this will really help you prevent a hypoglycemic incident. 4 U caninsulin is WAY too much. Start with 1 U and home test to see how it's going. Check out links on this website for that. Also if you do switch diets to all wet low-carb, it really lowers the chance of a hypoglycemic event

- how to change kitties' diet? They have been on dry food all their lives; do I now have to change their eating habits completely?

this is a hard thing to do! mine were dry addicts, but the diabetic cat has to be on low-carb wet food. some cats will go into remission on this alone

What I am really worried about is that I am about to go for a short Christmas break out of the country.... if/when Kitty needs to be on insulin treatment within a week's time, it will be a challenge to find someone to look after him during his first insulin week. Ugh. Lots to think about..... All ideas as welcome!
simple answer is wait to start the treatment until you get home if you don't have someone you really trust. My cat got diagnosed before I had to be away for work for a month, he was totally fine. Cats are luckily very resiliant to high blood sugar, it sucks but better than it going wrong while you aren't home

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

Welcome Extra sweet Kitty and Bean. You've found the best place it help Kitty thru this.

The first thing I encourage is home testing to see what's happening with Kitty's blood glucose. It's not hard to do, it just takes time to learn the steps. I don't know how easily human glucose meters are to find there, I use one we get at Walmart.

Yes you can start Caninsulin and change to Lantus later. We started on Humulin N.

Food - you want to get Kitty off dry food because of the high carbs which cause blood glucose to be high. The BG numbers will probably drop by just that change. Home testing will show you that.

Hypo - home testing.

Rushing out the door but wanted to say welcome and answer a bit...............


HUGS!

 

[SaraM2261]

I think with the help of people on this board and home testing unless there are major underlying issues you should be able to handle it on your own. This board is awesome. I got a home glucometer (for humans) at walmart, but they have them at most pharmacies. Meter, test strips, lancet and lancet device are your starter items. I would get the meter before you do anything with the diet to all wet low carb food, as it can really change the numbers.

That's about all I know because I'm too new here, but this board is totally awesome. It has saved my kittie's life twice.

 

[BJM]

You may find it helpful to use Google Translate as an aid in working with the vet clinic.

Enter in specific words to build a reference dictionary list for yourself and them. Enter things like insulin, diabetes, glucose, ketone, ketones, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, syringe, lancet, glucometer, urine, blood, test, fasting, meal, curve, serial, carbohydrate, fat, protein, low, high, normal. At a minimum, you can assemble some note cards of the words needed for what you are trying to convey.

Enter short phrases to get the Russian equivalent ... then translate it back to make sure the meaning is accurate for your purposes. The reason behind using short phrases is that they'll translate a bit better. "blood testing", "glucose curve" "low carbohydrate", "urine ketone test" and so on.

Enter in a web site link to see the approximate translation. You'll note that web sites will get some rather odd translations!