Scared for my newly diagnosed diabetic

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MartinJA527

MartinJA527

Member Since 2014
Hello everyone! I am a pet mother of 6, 3 cats and 3 dogs. I thought everything was going smoothly until about a month ago when I noticed my 7 year old cat, Booger drinking excessively large amounts of water and eating everything in sight. She has dropped a lot of weight and I was concerned she may have diabetes. I checked her glucose level with a human glucometer and got readings of 179, 233, and 151. I made an appointment with the veterinarian and we discussed the possibility of diabetes. He checked her for hyperthyroidism, which she didn't have and also checked her urine. Her UA showed a marked UTI and glucose. He said that the stress from being at the vet could be a contributing factor to the glucose in her urine, but with her physical signs and lack of presence of hyperthyroidism we needed to investigate further. He loaned me a feline specific glucometer and instructed me to use it over this next week. I'm also treating her UTI with antibiotics. Last night, her level on the meter showed 324 and today 365! I am anticipating the use of insulin and a little scared for my kitty. My biggest fears are how to deal with the insulin. I am fortunate to be able to be home many days during the week as I only work 3 days, but I am scared about the days I cannot be here. What if she has a hypoglycemic episode while I'm not at home? Or while I am asleep? How do you pet guardians handle giving insulin? I understand the feeding requirements and peak action of insulin, which I guess is what has me scared that I won't be here if something happens. Any insight or help is appreciated. I want to do what is best for my pet and do it right so I am reaching out to the veterans in hopes that you can guide me.
 
Welcome.
- The key is to start slow and make sure he eats before shooting. Many of us her have full time jobs and are away most of the day. I was when I had my first diabetic cats.
- What are you feeding? Best is a low-carb canned. Commercial like Friskies and Fancy Feast are fine. A prescription food is not required.
- If you are currently feeding dry, when you change to low-carb canned the insulin requirements will likely decrease so keep that in mind.
- A pet blood glucose meter is not required and the strips for those are expensive. Most here use a human meter.
 
A UTI can raise bg, you may want to see what her bg does after its cleared up with the round of antibiotics. Way to go on the home testing!!!! The other thing you may want to consider is food, what is she eating now? Infections, stress, and food can significantly raise bg. You may want to try alternate routes before insulin.
 
I work full time with a 2 hour rt commute. You will get to know you cat's bg cycle by collecting and charting numbers. People here will help you with proper dosing based on the numbers you collect with the intent on keeping your sugar safe. You have come to the right place. Stick with us and we will show you the dance. You are already way ahead with the testing. This disease is manageable - even if you are not able to watch your kitty every single minute of the day and night.
 
Thank you all for your quick replies! I was feeding Blue Buffalo dry cat food. The vet suggested I feed her canned Friskies. I went last night and found some specifically for urinary tract health and bought that. We don't go back to the vet for 2 weeks so hopefully the UTI will be resolved by then and we can get a more accurate account of her BS. As mentioned, I have already switched her diet and put her on a regular feeding schedule. How long until the diet change do you think will take effect in decreasing her insulin requirements? Is it something I will see with the home testing in the next 2 weeks? And the antibiotics have been in her system for 24 hours now so I guess daily I should hope to see improvement on that aspect and hopefully notice a lower number as well? I'm sorry for all the questions but please know your support is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi and welcome to the message board.

Which Friskies food are you feeding now? NOt sure which one you mean by the Urinary Tract Health one. The Friskies pate styles are nice and low carb for a diabetic cat. The Friskies Special Diet foods are even lower carb. We refer people to this food chart, by vet Dr. Lisa Pierson and suggest they look for foods with <10% carbs, 3rd column of numbers, for feeding their cat. That carb percent is closer to what would be in a cat's natural diet.
 
It is the Friskies Special Diet. I chose the Turkey and Giblets Pate, Classic Pate with Salmon, and Meaty Bits Chicken and Gravy. I went with the special diet because it says it "helps maintain urinary tract health by reducing urinary pH and provides low magnesium". Thank you again,
Jennifer
 
Hi and Welcome! You DO already have this dance started well! Good job on already testing!

Friskies - unfortunately no 'gravy' foods for diabetics. It takes carbs to make gravy. The pates are the ones to stay with but there is several flavors to choose from altho' not all 'special diet'. The Fancy Feast 'Classics' are also low carb. Glad you quit the dry!

HUGS!
 
[Glucose reference ranges are unsubstantiated and have been removed by Moderator]


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *​
Examples of using the chart:

Ex. You are a new insulin user and you test your cat before giving insulin. The test is 300. It probably is safe to give insulin.

Ex. You are an established user of Lantus, following the Tight Regulation protocol. You've tested around +5 to +7 to spot the nadir. It is 200 mg/dL. You probably need to increase the dose, following the instructions for the protocol.

Ex. Your cat is acting funny. The eyes are a bit dilated. You are concerned and test the glucose. The number is 35 mg/dL. ACK! The cat may be in a hypoglycemic state. You quickly follow the HYPO protocol linked in the glucose reference values chart. (which we really, really, suggest you print out and post on your refrigerator.)
 
Wow! I am so thankful for all of you! I will give the gravy foods to my non-diabetic kitties... thank you for that advice. And BJM, thank you so so much for the reference chart. I have a couple of questions about it though. My first readings are earlier this month when I got a hunch something was going wrong. They were performed with the human meter. I got 179 (7-2-14), 233 (7-22-14) and the day of her appointment while fasting 151 (7-24-14). Now, I know she was extremely stressed at the vet, and I did allow her some time (approximately 5 hours) to "relax" before testing her later that night on the Alphatrak meter but I got 324 that first day (7-24-14), 365 and 356 on 7-25-14 and todays reading was 300. My question is, on the day that I tested both meters, mine was off by over 150 points causing me to greatly doubt it. Do you think this could have something to do with the great amount of stress the vet causes? I guess the only way to know for sure is to test them both? It sure would be helpful to keep the same meter.
I had no Idea about the carbs in cat foods before all this. I have to thank the person that sent the food chart as well. Now I know how to calculate them! I went back and looked at the dry food I was feeding and it was so bad I don't even want to list it. I am glad I did make that choice and maybe I can help my other two kitties from succumbing to this.
Again, I can't thank you all enough for your help!
Jen
 
Check my signature link Glucometer Notes. It explains a few things about glucometers.
 
Your welcome for the Food Chart link. We really have the hard work and dedication of vet Dr. Lisa Pierson for putting that together after hundreds of hours of work getting the information from the pet food manufacturers.

Most of us that come here had no idea how high carb the dry foods were and how inappropriate they are for our cats. It took me fostering a diabetic kitty to finally switch all my other kitties, my non-diabetic (civies or civilians), to a low carb diet. Like you, I hope to stave off them getting health issues with a better, more species appropriate diet.

Keep asking questions. We'll try to guide you the best we can.
 
Depending how much gravy food you bought, you might want to set a couple of the cans aside for your hypo toolbox if you need to start insulin.

MartinJA527 said:
We don't go back to the vet for 2 weeks so hopefully the UTI will be resolved by then and we can get a more accurate account of her BS. As mentioned, I have already switched her diet and put her on a regular feeding schedule. How long until the diet change do you think will take effect in decreasing her insulin requirements? Is it something I will see with the home testing in the next 2 weeks? And the antibiotics have been in her system for 24 hours now so I guess daily I should hope to see improvement on that aspect and hopefully notice a lower number as well? I'm sorry for all the questions but please know your support is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

It can take anywhere from overnight up to around 2 weeks after a food change to see the full extent of its affect on BGs. As the infection clears, you'll also start seeing lower numbers. If after about a week and numbers are still really high, then it might be a good idea to start insulin. If the numbers have come down significantly, however, then it may be worth it to wait another week.
 
Thank you KPassa, I've been wondering that. Her numbers were at their lowest point today, yay! I have set aside a special drawer for her supplies and have the karo syrup in it already. I will add a few cans of the gravy food as well. Keeping my fingers crossed that her numbers do continue to decline and that maybe she can get better without insulin but I am preparing myself and trying to learn everything I can just in case.
Thank you again BJM for the glucometer help. I have begun testing with both meters now. I will keep a log until we go back to the vet and take your references with me.
You guys have been amazing. I cannot thank you enough. I will continue to keep you updated and let you know what we find out!
Jen
 
Hi again and thanks for asking. I've been really worried about waiting these past two weeks. They've seemed like an eternity. She is still pretty much the same with her increased hunger, thirst and urination. Her veterinary appointment is on Tuesday at which point we will begin insulin. She's settled nicely into her new diet routine. I called Thursday to discuss her very high numbers with the vet and asked about moving her appointment up. His response was that I needed to come pick up the insulin and begin injections. Her average glucose reading has been 348 (with the alphatrak he loaned me) and it has gotten as high as 500. I called to find out if it was ready and it wasn't. I was actually thankful because starting Saturday, I had actually scheduled vacation time at work and will be off for 11 days.. and starting insulin while I wasn't at home was not something I was willing to do when I had a few more days to go until I was off for a stretch. Nor was I willing to start the insulin by just casually picking it up at the vet's office.. I have a million questions and I'm going to use the time on Tuesday to get a few answers. I also want to make sure her urinary tract infection is clear. The only way to know for sure is for him to check her and tell me. We will be getting the urine tested Tuesday, picking up her insulin, getting some answers and beginning our new way of life on Wednesday starting with the glucose curve. I've been reading everything I can on here and some other veterinary resources and trying to arm myself with as much as I can. I've printed out the hypo page and have it on my refrigerator and in Booger's new diabetes binder. I THINK his plan is to go with Prozinc but I can't say for sure. I've ordered new testing supplies and insulin syringes wholesale so I can hopefully avoid paying so much at the vet. So.. in a nutshell we're in the same boat as before, but only for 2 more days.
 
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