Recently diagnosed

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rhiannon and shadow (GA)

Member Since 2012
Hello. My name is Rhiannon. My girl is named Shadow, 12 yrs old and was just diagnosed on monday, july 9 with 431 bg. I have been reading and reading and really like Lisa Pierson's advise on catinfo.org Shadow was already a canned food eater so that shift was easy. She always had dry food available but since she had all fangs (Feline Resorptive Lesions ) pulled in March, she wasn't eating the dry food anymore, just a kibble or two. However, she did get a lot of treats, kind of replacing the dry food. I would let her have all the greenies she wanted. I have no idea what the carb load for all the cat treats are. I haven't seen any postings
for those. From the binky list, I bought Wellness canned, merrick, Innova chicken and a few fancy feasts. She's liking all of these so far. She had been eating Friskies canned but the carbs in it are much higherthan the one's I bought yesterday. I did find 2 replacement treats that are pure protein ...Nature's variety freeze dried chicken and Purebites freeze dried shrimp ( chicken is on order). I also bought the natures variety raw chicken but we haven't tasted that yet.

She is very shy to everyone and easily stressed out especially if we have to go see the vet. She had a horrible experience at 5 months old. My daughter, then 5 yrs old fell off the bed holding her and fell on the cat. Shadow's ball joint of her hip broke off and she had to have emergency surgery so going to the vet for surgeries
has always stressed her out. She has had 5 surgeries. I stay with her until they are ready for anesthesia and won't leave her at the vets unless I have no choice. I will never be able to go on trips because no one else would be able to give her the shots and I can't board her at the vets.
She had her first shot last night, 1 unit of Lantus. I bought a Accu-chek aviva plus glucose monitor. I'm checking her bg before each shot, 1 unit / twice day.
I am reading up on getting a bg curve and might do one tomorrow since I can be around every 2 hrs.
I definitely am having revolving emotions. Yesterday, I was grateful for the diagnosis because I was afraid the vet would call with worse news like pancreatitis.
I felt optimistic all afternoon that we could get this into remission and then went to bed worrying about her levels dropping too low. I think the fantasy in
my head was that I had caused this high sugar with all the treats and her recent stresses and that we would immediately start this process and her levels would
all go normal because I changed her diet immediately upon readin Pierson's website. I had no idea how bad dry food was. The treats must have been far worse.
I do wonder if we had spent a week with the new diet before starting the Lantus if we would have gotten lower?normal bg levels. The vet thinks this has probably been developing for a while but she is optimitic about remission. The sooner we started .... the sooner we might help the situation.
I would very much like to find if there is any research on the effects of stress and bg levels. It's mentioned everywhere but I want some science and numbers.

The most difficult part for me is the shots. Besides the part that I always hated needles , I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and manipulating the syringe with it's
tiny amount in it and pushing the plunger and not feeling like I'm actually gettig it inside her all the while thinking I'm twisting the needle at the same time.
 
Hi Rhiannon and Shadow! You're in the right place for help!

I am certainly no expert, but there appears to be a lot of research out there on stress hyperglycemia in cats. Not sure if this is what you were referring to though with your question. You can google it too, but here are some links. In the first study, normal cats were given a 5 minute spray bath in a clinical setting, to see how the stress resulted in increases to blood glucose concentrations. If I am reading this correctly, the stress doubled their numbers for a period of time, up to 90 minutes. I would assume the same would be true for diabetic cats (increased BG numbers over what they would normally run if placed in stressful situations). The second study talks about sick cats, and differentiating stress hyperglycemia (that can happen to any cat) from diabetes, and talks about the fructosamine test which (I believe) reveals BG levels over time (so you could tell if the numbers are stress related or not). But again there seems to be lots out there, and seems to be a commonly accepted occurrence -- that cat's BG levels increase during stress (like visits to the vet). Have you been getting significantly lower BG readings at home than at the vet?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11899027

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15379170

Again, welcome! Some of the more seasoned posters may have additional advice/info for you. Best of luck!!!
 
Welcome Rhiannon and Shadow. I am fairly new to this, too. We were diagnosed on May 23rd. Revolving emotions is the name of the game, and I am still going through it. I know Melanie and Ninja (previous post) are still going through it, too. I don't have any advice to offer, just a welcome. There are many very knowlegable people on this board. They are very caring and helpful in so many ways. I hope the best for your girl and don't be afraid to ask, complain, whine, cry, whatever it is you feel or need because we have all been there.
We wish you all the best and a speedy stabilization (or remission) ;-)
 
Welcome Rhiannon and Shadow!

You seem to be making all the changes necessary to help Shadow with this problem!

You've got a good insulin- remember when you up the dose only do it in .25 or .5u increments- most vets insist on full unit raises and from 1u to 2u that is 100% raise and could be too much. More lantus people will get on later and give you some great advice and tell you where to look.

You have changed to a lower carb canned food- while most say stay under 10% I actually prefer to stay under 5% as my Sneakers is so carb sensetive and reacts to the least little extra bit like crazy :lol: .

The meter- I haven't heard anything bad about it so it must be good! And you know you can do your own curves as well- excellent!

Good luck in the dance!
 
Hi Rihanna and Shadow! My Bella was just diagnosed on Wednesday (7/5) and we started 2 milligrams of Lantus twice daily on Saturday. We just went for a test yesterday and the vet changed it to 2.5 which we started today. Bella and her 2 kitty sisfurs eat dry kibble all day and then have wet food at night. The vet has given us Purina DM, which I've just read is not good, so I'm looking for something else that all three kits can eat during the day. The girls prefer Fancy Feast and Bella likes the Friskies, so I sometimes alternate those.

Bella is 10 and has been mostly healthy all her life, she always was a rather "large" kit, with a big bone structure so she held her weight fairly well. Last year, she lost alot of weight and we found that she had a growth in her mouth which she had surgery to remove. It was not cancerous. Thank cat!!! :smile: After the removal of the growth, she never put the weight back on even though she was eating normally. When she went in for her annual we had the full bloodwork done and that's when we found out she had diabetes.

I cried at first and hugged her too tight that she yelled at me, and I too feel that I'm not getting the shot in either. I have the needle in her and I'm moving her fur around to make sure luckily she doesn't move and she takes it all in stride, but I hope I'm doing it right.

Natalie and Bella
 
Welcome! You certainly have a good vet--you are home testing shadow (I have the accuchek and it's a great meter), he's on a fantastic insulin for cats with a nice low starting dose, and you have switched to low carb, canned diet for him. These are usually the first things we recommend to new people so you are way ahead of the game! :smile:

I just have a few bits of advice that might help you out. First, when you get a chance set up a spreadsheet so you have a clear way to record Shadows blood glucose numbers: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207. This is an excellent tool that you can use to both share his numbers with your vet, as well as with other members here in case you need dosing advice. Many vets go way to fast with raising the insulin dose, so I would also recommend you check out the stickies in the Lantus forum: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9. There is a wealth of information there, including how to properly handle and store Lantus, as well as dosing guidelines. When the right dose adjustments are made, the majority of cats do go into remission, so your vet is right to be optimistic.

What size syringes are you using? If you're using the ones with the 1/2 inch needles, there are smaller syringes you can get that are easier to give injections with. You also want to make sure they have half-unit markings, because dose changes with cats are made in .25u-.5u increments, which are very hard to measure without the markings.

Be vigilant in comparing your vet's dosing advice with the guidelines here and don't be afraid to print things out for your vet and ask questions. My vet had me on all the right treatment guidelines from the start, just like yours, except her dosing advice was incorrect.
 
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