started my cat on insulin last night...

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eric

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Hi,

I started my cat on insulin last night, it went well. So his second dose was this morning. I fed him a half tin of wet food, and I'm kind of freaking out because I wont be home to feed him for another 6 hours, all in all, he'll be going 8 hours without food. Is this really bad? Like, am I going to be coming home to a dead cat? Should I leave work to go feed him in a couple of hours?

Any guidance is much appreciated,

Thanks,
Eric
 
Hi Eric!

We need a little more information to help you.

First, what type of insulin is he on and what dose? (Also, what is your cat's name? That's just for my benefit :-)

Second, what food is he eating? What brand/flavor?
 
Also, to provide a meal when you are gone, you can freeze snacks in ice cube trays.

Pop one out and put it on a dish.

He will be ready for a snack about the time it thaws out.
 
Hi Julia!

I'm not sure what brand of insulin he's on. This all got started last night, so I was a little overwhelmed and didn't get some of these details. He's on a low does, I think 1 unit, does that make sense? I think it's the lowest possible dose I can give him?

The food, again.. I'm not sure the brand name.. I want to say MD, but I'm not positive. It's special diabetic food from the vet, and it's apparently pretty good. Low carbs, high in Protein.

The problem with feeding during the work day is that I also have 2 other cats, and I don't want to leave food out for them because Shaky(the diabetic cat) will eat it.

Thank you for the quick response!
Eric
 
If you can, find out what the insulin is. It makes a difference. Lantus or Levemir are very slow acting, and it takes about 24 hours for those insulins to start working on blood sugar, so if it's one of those you're probably fine. If it's another type of insulin, I would suggest you run home to feed.

You don't need to feed prescription vet food--in fact, if it's the canned Hills M/D then that food is still too high in carbs for Shaky. If it's Purina DM then it's fine to feed, but you can get a commercial food that is pretty much the same thing for way less money. The other problem with DM is that it has a very high liver content, so a lot of cats will eat it at first but eventually get sick of the taste and refuse it. Take a look at the cat food nutrition charts: http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. There are many, many choices, you just have to make sure the carbs are under 10%. I am currently feeding Bandit Fancy Feast, and he does great on it. Find something affordable that you can feed all of your cats, and then just get rid of the dry for all of them. That should solve your problems with leaving food out, and it's healthier for all your cats to be on a canned diet. You can just freeze the canned food and leave it out. Bandit will gnaw at the frozen food so I have an autofeeder that I put it in.

Also, are you home testing with a glucose meter? Only some vets recommend testing but it is very important in keeping your cat safe while giving insulin. Not only that, but it will allow you to get his blood sugar under control sooner which presents a better chance for remission.
 
Julia is referring to a TIMED auto-feeder....not one of those tube-things you
dump dry food into and just keep filling from the top.
 
I actually use and prefer this feeder: http://www.amazon.com/QPets-Automat...DTJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309278125&sr=8-1

They have them on ebay, too, and sometimes you can get them for a bargain there.

It's less expensive and good for multiple cats because it's easy to sync up multiple feeders. If any of your cats are more aggressive with wet food, then I would recommend getting one feeder per cat, so you can have them go off at the same time.

Plus, it was the only one that Bandit couldn't rip open and get into his food early. I threw away two other more expensive feeders that he destroyed because he's a crazy cat when it comes to eating.
 
Thank you for your help!

I called my vet and I think I'm going to go home and check on him. And those self feeders seem like a good idea!

Thanks again!
Eric
 
Eric where are you located? I'm wondering if you are in Europe, as you used the word tin and well in the US we say can.

No matter, we can help guide you through all this and you can easily feed your cat wet food and leave for work - a couple of tricks:

1) mix the wet food with water (personally I use 1/3-1/2 can/tin of water) - take this and freeze it - you can freeze it in ziploc type baggie, plastic container, whatever - I use the baggies

Before leaving for work, put out a fresh can/tin of food, and put out the frozen food. It will take a few hours to thaw and by the time it does, Sparky will have a fresh meal waiting for him.

2) in general adding water to food will keep it moist longer, reduce the need to drink fresh water and ensure that Sparky gets enough water in his system.

So, you see you can easily feed wet food and go to work. Most of us here do this.

Also, has the vet talked with you about home testing? And if not, would you be willing to learn? We can't stress enough the importance of this aspect of treatment. Especially if you are administering insulin, you want to do so in a safe way.

Again, knowing where you are located, will help, us to help you by providing in person assistance and training on home testing too.
 
Eric,

I think it may be a little early to suggest this to you so maybe you should jot the information down for later.

There is a low carb dry food called EVO. We feed our cats low carb meaning we stay under 10% carbohydrate and we mostly feed wet food. But the EVO is 8% so it is well within the parameters of what we feed. I keep a bowl of it out at all times.

The EVO website has a "where to buy" menu item where you enter your zip code and it will tell you who sells it in your community.

Lana
 
Hey welcome!

I have an autofeeder since I work 7 days a week, and I am usually gone typically 9 hours a day. I bought it a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/elec ... eeder.html

It also comes in a single unit, but I don't think that one has an ice pack. The double unit has the ice pack. I put a cold 1/4 can in one that will open about 4-5 hours after his breakfast, then a frozen 1/4 to open about 8-9 hours after breakfast. I then feed him again around 8-9pm. He hasn't tried to break into it.

before getting the feeder, I put out frozen quarters for him, but I felt the feeder would help give him meals throughout the day when I wanted him to eat (lol). See his spreadsheet below, we were on insulin for a month, and now he's "diet controlled." We feed him Wellness & Evo canned.

We also use the Relion micro meter from Wal-mart. That reminds me, I have to go take his BG.

This place has a lot of great people who want to help others with their diabetic cats. They have lots of advice since they have been were people like you and me have been. good luck and see you posting again soon!
 
Lana & Yoyo said:
Eric,

I think it may be a little early to suggest this to you so maybe you should jot the information down for later.

There is a low carb dry food called EVO. We feed our cats low carb meaning we stay under 10% carbohydrate and we mostly feed wet food. But the EVO is 8% so it is well within the parameters of what we feed. I keep a bowl of it out at all times.

The EVO website has a "where to buy" menu item where you enter your zip code and it will tell you who sells it in your community.

Lana
Click to expand...


WE prefer not to feed any dry food if at all possible. EVO is still DRY and if the cat will eat
canned/wet food that's much better. Read here to find out why:

http://catinfo.org/
 
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