Scooter and me

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jholl99

jholl99

Member Since 2014
I am new to this site with a recently diagnosed diabetic cat. Thank you so much for the wealth of information that I can access here. Scooter is a 14 year old domestic med hair cat. He quit eating two days ago due to a respiratory infection and I have been force feeding him and giving him his insulin shots twice a day. He actually licked up some of his mixed canned food and water today, so I have hopes he is getting better.
 
Welcome to FDMB.

Please tell us a bit more about:
What is a name we might call you?
Rough location where you live - city, state, country.
What insulin are you using and what dose?
What are you feeding?
Are you home blood glucose testing?
 
I am Jeff and I live on social security income in Green Valley, Arizona. My girlfriend and I have two cats, scooter, 14, and socks, 7. We took Scooter to the local vet 4 days ago after we became worried about scooter not eating and drinking loads of water. I also noticed he was urinating more and his pee had a funny smell. He has been healthy for 14 years and hasnt had a trip to the vet since he was neutered as a kitten. Both cats eat Iams brand dry food healthy diet with canned food occasionally. I changed scooter to iams canned food after his diagnosis and have been mixing it with a little water and feeding by syringe for two days. The vet, after testing, put him on 1cc vetsulin twice a day, and did subcutaneous injections for dehydration. I havent started blood glucose testing at home yet but plan on it tomorrow when I get a glucose meter and strips. Money is very tight for us and I am sure everyone knows how expensive vets are. But we are doing our best for scooter and our vet is letting us make payments....which in itself I know is unusual for vets. I have watched videos and am reading as much as possible on this site about diabetes, force feeding, insulin, and basically anything that will help me help my best friend scooter. I am praying that he can get his appetite back soon to eat on his own. He is trying hard though and so am I.
 
Welcome to the FDMB Jeff and extra sweet Scooter! You've come to the best place you never wanted to be!

Right now, you're right that the most important thing is that you get Scooter eating again. When you can, we'd suggest transitioning him to a low carb wet food on Dr Lisa Pierson's Food chart. You want to focus on foods that are less than 10% carbs (column C)

Home testing is vital to keeping Scooter safe as well as seeing how he's doing. You don't need to pay for expensive fructosamine tests or curves at the vets office if you home test. Here's a real good video on how to home test. [youtube]_zE12-4fVn8[/youtube]

When you go shopping, here's our "getting started" shopping list.

1. Meter ie Walmart Relion Confirm or Micro. (about $15) These are the best choice until Scooter's ears "learn to bleed"...then the Prime is the cheapest one for replacement strips. The Confirm and Micro take the smallest sample size...the Prime take a little bigger sample
2. Matching strips (about $19 for 50, $36 for 100) Prime strips are $9 for 50
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool. (about $8 for lancets, $5 for lancing tool ...not required if you can freehand poke)
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment with pain relief to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast

Now for the bad news...Vetsulin really isn't a good insulin for cats. It's mostly used in dogs and is too harsh for cats. It can take them down too far, too fast and then they bounce back up high again. The only insulins that work well in cats are Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc, but these are much more expensive (the initial cost is high, but once you have the insulin, it'll last a long time if it's cared for properly)

I understand money is tight! I'm living on SSI myself and it's sometimes a choice between the cat and the electric company, but so far anyway, we're making it. Not paying for vet visits every week or two helps though.

I don't want to overload you too much more right now, but please ask any questions you may have. The people here are very generous with their time and will help you learn everything you need to know to help Scooter live a longer and healthier life
 
Hi Jeff,

Welcome to FDMB! My name is Shelly and my cat's name is Jersey. We started out on Humulin (which is similar to Vetsulin) and ended up switching to Lantus. The Humulin did just what Chris mentioned - brought Jersey's numbers down hard and fast and then wore off. The Lantus worked much better for us, and we were able to get Jersey into remission on it.

I did a lot of research on cat foods after Jersey was diagnosed with diabetes, and I learned that the "brand names" aren't always the best foods for our kitties. A lot of members here feed their cats Fancy Feast (classics) or Friskies canned foods. You just have to make sure you pick the flavors/varieties that are low-carb, as Chris mentioned. Switching from Iam's to one of these less expensive foods might be a way to help you redirect money to the insulin and testing supplies as you get started. Just a thought! Also, do make sure that you don't switch foods (from high-carb to low-carb) without home testing. Sometimes, a food switch can cause a drastic decrease in the amount of insulin needed so close monitoring of the numbers is needed if you're making a switch.

I also really advocate home testing. I know it sounds scary to a lot of people, but it's not as bad as it sounds. After a while, it simply becomes routine, and the kitty doesn't hate you for it. My vet(s) were not very knowledgeable about feline diabetes. The first vet I went to wanted to run expensive tests every week or two. My second vet didn't understand dosing. Once I received the insulin prescription, I tested Jersey at home and posted here when I had questions. The people here helped me with dosing, and I didn't have to go back to the vet at all for the diabetes. (We were fortunate Jersey didn't have any other problems like lack of appetite, etc. that might have required a vet visit.) Although it was expensive to buy all of the supplies up front, we ended up not having vet bills, which helped financially.

Most people here use regular human glucose meters (like the Relion Prime or Micro). The test strips for pet meters are really expensive. A human meter is much more affordable and still gives us the information we need about our kitties' numbers.

Like Chris said, I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll stop here. Just don't hesitate to ask the questions you have. We all remember when we first started out with our kitties. It's overwhelming, confusing, exhausting, scary.....you name it. We'll help you through it, though!

Shelly
 
Thank you all so much for your help and information. It is overwhelming and its great to know I have people who have had the experience with a diabetic cat.
 
I was wondering if it is okay to let scooter nibble on grass. He has always loved the little grow-grass kits.....think its oat seeds or something. He seemed to really love nibbling on it today after I fed him and gave him his shot. He usually hides under the bed and sleeps for awhile.
 
Yes it's ok....Some kitties must have a long lost cow in their family tree somewhere considering how well they like to eat their cat grass....LOL

Sometimes grass eating is done because they have an upset tummy, but I know a lot of cats love those things so if he's ok with it, it's probably fine for him to nibble
 
In terms of getting sharps container to dispose of lancets and syringes, you should check with whoever does your waste removal before buying one. Our local garbage company supplies one for free (and disposal of it!), but you have to call and request them.

It's overwhelming to get started, but it's very possible to treat your kitty on a budget. We were in absolute sticker shock after our diagnosis, but the people on this board countered a lot of the poor information we got from our vet with both experience and evidence, and we have been able to treat our cat for a fraction of what we initially thought it would cost, all without another vet visit! Hopefully the same will be true for you.
 
Last night Scooter tested glucose level at 224. I syringe fed him and gave him 1cc vestulin. This morning he was on the end of my bed staring at me. Before he got sick, this was his way of letting me know he wanted to eat. So I tested him and he was 124. He ate about a 1/3 of Iams brand cat food and I force fed 3 syringes of wet food mixed with warm water and pumpkin before i gave him his shot. Seemed like his old self. He has always been a dry food eater and nibbled throughout the day. The hardest part is getting him to eat enough at one time on his own and stick to two meals 12 hours apart. I am getting the hang of testing. I watched the video....thankyou! :) First time I did go thru the ear, but scooter seemed to understand and didnt make a fuss about it. I think we are both starting to feel more confident. :)
 
Many of us free feed our cats, diabetics included. I put down the food twice a day; the 15 cats in the house eat some at first, then nibble throughout the day. All seem quite healthy doing this.
 
You are truly blessed to have 15 cats....each with their own individual personalities. :) Thank you for the free feed info! My oldest, "boocat" died last year at 18 years after a lengthy illness. The vet I took him too charged $600 for tests that were "inconclusive". They thought he might have had a tumor on his thyroid. Looking back on his symptoms which were classic diabetes, I feel awful that I did not know the information that I know now.
 
With Vetsulin, is IS very important that Scooter eats enough before he gets the shots. Yes, you can leave food down (a lot of us add a little extra water to keep it from drying out, or just feed smaller meals several times per day) but with that particular insulin, you need to make sure he eats most of his food before shooting.

With a BG of only 124, I would have really wanted to get a +1 and +2..that's pretty low for a starting blood glucose when you're using vetsulin

The edges of their ears don't have many pain receptors...Most cats just don't like having us fool with their ears..It's great that Scooter is being such a willing patient!
 
Thank you! Yes I am closely watching his food intake and I am testing before and several hours after to get a general idea of the insulin reaction. To make matters even more complicated is I think he is having teeth and/or gum problems. The vet mentioned his gums looked inflamed but wanted to tackle the diabetes first. Today I put a little wetfood out whenever he was awake and walking around and he licked some of it, (about a teaspoon), then chewed on his grass awhile and went back to his nap. His teeth may have been a big reason why he quit eating his dry food in the first place. Anyway, I plan on switching him to another insulin after a week or so because I havent read anything good about this vetsulin. He is very easy to tell when he is not feeling good.....he hides under the bed. He has been active today.....well as active as an overweight older cat can be. :)
 
We hear that so much! The "let's get the diabetes under control before we tackle the teeth" statement

The facts are that needing a dental is one of the main reasons for higher numbers in the first place, and for a cat that's been able to go into remission, needing a dental is one of the biggest reasons they need to go back on insulin.

If you can swing it, getting his teeth taken care of will go a long way in helping get his numbers under better control, as well as giving him the best chance of getting off the insulin altogether.

Glad to hear you're going to switch to a better insulin too! If you can get a prescription for Lantus Solostar Pens, there's a pharmacy in Canada that will sell a pack of 5 for $113.95 plus $19.95 shipping. That's 1500 units of Lantus so should last a good long time. The vials might be cheaper, but only last about 6 months and you end up throwing a lot away. The list price for the 5 pack of pens around here is over $360 so that's a significant savings (and the only way I could afford it) Since my pens don't expire until 2016, I should be good for awhile....LOL Most cats are on about 1-2 units every 12 hours, so you can see that 1500 units is going to last awhile.

For now, it will be helpful for you if you'll start keeping track of your test results on our spreadsheet. Once set up, it's very easy to use..you just enter the numbers as you get them. Here's some instructions on How to set up a spreadsheet If you have trouble, let us know and we can help get it set up for you.

When you have a few minutes, it'll also help if you'll add some information to your signature block. Just go to the "User Control Panel" (top left side of page) and go to "Profile", and then "Edit Signature". A new little box will come up and you can add your name/cats name, type of insulin you're using, type of meter you're using, food you're feeding, any other health problems Scooter might have and once you get it set up, the link to your spreadsheet.

It keeps us from having to ask the same questions over and over again..lol
 
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