Rudy's Mom with a question...first vet visit tonight

[Joely0128]

I would really so appreciate some help - my Rudy who's 7 has just been diagnosed w/diabetes. High sugar in blood and urine, going for initial vet visit tonight. He's currently on rx food, Hills Z/D originally prescribed for skin issues he was having. He started drinking tons of water about 2 weeks ago and he's also losing some fur...I hope we caught it soon enough. My questions are:

If I want to change him over to the recommended soft foods, I know it needs to be done slowly. I will speak to the vet about this - will my vet be receptive to me seeing if changing over to the soft food will cause his diabetes to subside? Or does it depend on how high his glucose level currently is which would force me to have to give him insulin regardless?

If he does have to take the insulin I know now which ones to ask for - but if I change food and do insulin, how will you know when/if it causes remission? I would have to do home checking, with a glucometer?

Do younger otherwise healthy cats have a better chance of remission?

I guess I'm very confused and could use ANY advice you could provide for my vet visit...

 

[Just-As-Appy]

Some suggestions are dependent on your location (mostly country, although state/province can hep too).

Are you currently feeding wet food? Is it helping his skin condition?

There are 3 important parts to treating/managing diabetes: Food, home testing, insulin.

Wet, low carb food is best. Vet food is expensive, but if that is working right now, and it is wet food, then I would not change it.

Home testing is really the most critical part. Insulin is a very strong 'medication'. You need to be monitoring how it acts in your cat.

There are generally 3 types of insulin usually prescribed for cats. Vetsulin (or Caninsulin, depending on the country) is fairly short duration and a bit harsh. Long acting insulins are Lantus (or Glargine) and Levemir (or Detemir). Prozinc is perhaps in between the previous two groups. You can read on the different insulin-specific forums about how each one acts in general, but every cat is a little different.

If you have a choice of insulin, Prozinc seems to work well for many cats.

And just a heads up - many vets discourage home testing. I personally would not give insulin to a child or an animal if I did not test to know that it was safe to administer insulin. It is not hard, does not hurt or stress the cat, does not result in scarred up ears. Always reward a test with a treat, blood or no blood. Kitty quickly comes for tests and treats. Again, low carb treats such as freeze-dried chicken are good.

 

[Joely0128]

Some suggestions are dependent on your location (mostly country, although state/province can hep too).

Are you currently feeding wet food? Is it helping his skin condition? No, I didn't realize dry food was so bad for him...he's only had dry for a long time.

There are 3 important parts to treating/managing diabetes: Food, home testing, insulin.

Wet, low carb food is best. Vet food is expensive, but if that is working right now, and it is wet food, then I would not change it. the food is Hills Z/D and is dry - from the vet....

Home testing is really the most critical part. Insulin is a very strong 'medication'. You need to be monitoring how it acts in your cat.

There are generally 3 types of insulin usually prescribed for cats. Vetsulin (or Caninsulin, depending on the country) is fairly short duration and a bit harsh. Long acting insulins are Lantus (or Glargine) and Levemir (or Detemir). Prozinc is perhaps in between the previous two groups. You can read on the different insulin-specific forums about how each one acts in general, but every cat is a little different.

If you have a choice of insulin, Prozinc seems to work well for many cats.

And just a heads up - many vets discourage home testing. I personally would not give insulin to a child or an animal if I did not test to know that it was safe to administer insulin. It is not hard, does not hurt or stress the cat, does not result in scarred up ears. Always reward a test with a treat, blood or no blood. Kitty quickly comes for tests and treats. Again, low carb treats such as freeze-dried chicken are good.

thank you! Do you think a food change could reduce his # enough to not need insulin? Is it safe to do a food change and then request a blood check @ vet?

 

[vbc2000]

A food change to low carb wet will DEFINITELY bring his numbers down. Tigger was on Z/D for skin issues also for years. I am convinced that and the prednisolone caused the diabetes.

First we switched to low carb wet and saw a difference, then we cut his prednisolone dose in half. I was so nervous about his skin scabs coming back but guess what? On Fancy Feast low carb foods (except for turkey which I think he was allergic to) and the decreased pred, no allergies came back and now he is regulated on 1.25 Vetsulin twice per day.

It makes me mad/sad because he was on that food and med dose for so long and obviously didn't need to be...and now he has diabetes. I don't think there is a recipe for getting a kitty in remission. It is individual to the cat but choosing the right food and med combination sure helped us.

We've done well with Vetsulin though some think it's a "bad" insulin. Home monitoring is a must I have to say too. Good luck.

 

[Joely0128]

Thank you! This sounds so similar to my story...minus the pred. Maybe a low carb food change alone will help greatly w/his #s, and then I could get him into remission if insulin is needed. Did you go immediately on insulin, or did you change food first to see? That's the part I'm confused on - if I can wait a little while to see if food does the trick, or if I have to use insulin?

I'm sad too....very sad thinking dry food caused this. Seems to be the case.

A food change to low carb wet will DEFINITELY bring his numbers down. Tigger was on Z/D for skin issues also for years. I am convinced that and the prednisolone caused the diabetes.

First we switched to low carb wet and saw a difference, then we cut his prednisolone dose in half. I was so nervous about his skin scabs coming back but guess what? On Fancy Feast low carb foods (except for turkey which I think he was allergic to) and the decreased pred, no allergies came back and now he is regulated on 1.25 Vetsulin twice per day.

It makes me mad/sad because he was on that food and med dose for so long and obviously didn't need to be...and now he has diabetes. I don't think there is a recipe for getting a kitty in remission. It is individual to the cat but choosing the right food and med combination sure helped us.

We've done well with Vetsulin though some think it's a "bad" insulin. Home monitoring is a must I have to say too. Good luck.

 

[vbc2000]

Thank you! This sounds so similar to my story...minus the pred. Maybe a low carb food change alone will help greatly w/his #s, and then I could get him into remission if insulin is needed. Did you go immediately on insulin, or did you change food first to see? That's the part I'm confused on - if I can wait a little while to see if food does the trick, or if I have to use insulin?

I'm sad too....very sad thinking dry food caused this. Seems to be the case.

He went on insulin right away because his BG was in the 500's! I'm lucky he didn't develop DKA. He did have a "very aggravated pancreas" according to the vet but not pancreatitis. It took a while to find our right combo of insulin dose, wet food switch and pred decrease but we got it! It took 4 months but we got it! At one time while he was still on the z/d wet, we were up to 5 units of Vetsulin twice a day headed to 6 units....then we changed foods and decreased pred. It was scary but his diabetes took precedence over the allergies and luckily they haven't come back. Allergies stink, but getting their BG to a normal range is WAY more important.

I would talk to the vet. What are his numbers now do you know? If it's not as high as ours was, he may agree to food switch first to see if that helps his numbers and if it doesn't enough, you'll have to add insulin. All depends on the starting number. You really have to monitor at home to get a handle on what is helping. Hypoglycemia is a real concern if too much insulin is prescribed. I'm thinking they might suggest 1 unit twice per day and a food switch. Seems like a safe course but see what they say. I hope you find a vet willing to work WITH you not just dictate to you. That relationship is so important.

Please don't do anything based on my feeling of what I think would be a good course. I am not experienced enough to give sure advice...these are just my feelings based on my knowledge and what worked for us. Let us know how it went.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Hi and welcome! Is good you are here and ask all you want, the tree types of insulin are good, they act different but there's people here that can help you with either.

One of the most important thing is home testing hopefully your vet will be ok with that. That will really help you help your kitty. Most of us use people meters because the test strips are cheaper and in my case also because there are no pet meters where I live and is perfectly okay.

If his numbers are not terribly high and since you will start learning how to home test it may be better to change food first and see how he reacts how his numbers are and later start the insulin(you will need to be testing to monitor this).

Once you start giving him insulin then it will be super important to test before you shoot to keep him safe.

In any case there's no guarantee of remission but you can get him regulated and feeling okay again and that I think the most important thing