Welcome to FDMB!
This
post may help with interviewing a vet.
A few basics to get you started.
Insulin: There are only two insulins that are recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn for the treatment of feline diabetes. They are either Lantus (glargine) or Prozinc. Lantus is now available as a generic/biosimilar and is a human insulin or Prozinc which was developed for animals. There are other insulins that vets will prescribe (e.g., Caninsulin) but it is not as long acting as the other recommended insulins and it tends to act fast and drop blood glucose numbers rather abruptly. If your vet recommends something other than Prozinc or Lantus push for either of those insulins.
Food: Many vets will recommend a "prescription" diabetic food. The pet food manufacturers have done a very good job of pushing these foods. The problem is that there is nothing in a prescription diabetic food that is actually "prescription." In fact, the pet food companies lost a class action lawsuit due to their misinformation. Rather, what is important is that just like a human diabetic, cats need to be on a low carbohydrate diet. Unfortunately, the cat food manufacturers don't put that information on the can. Go figure!! This is a
chart that has nutritional information including the carbs in most of the canned foods available in the US. Canned food is preferred over kibble. Most of the dry food that's available is outrageously high in carbs. We consider low carb as under 10%. However, most of the members here feed their cat a variety that's around 5% carb. You will want to have some medium carb (10 - 14%) and high carb (over 15%) food on hand in case you need to bump up numbers should Gracie's numbers drop into a lower range.
Home testing: We strongly recommend that you learn how to test your cat's blood glucose. There are both glucometers that are developed for pets although it's fine to use a human meter. Many of the members here use the Walmart Relion meter because the strips are considerably less expensive than those for a pet meter (Relion is about 17 cents per strip vs $1.00 per strip for a pet meter.) Home testing is the best, if not the only way to ensure that your cat is in safe numbers and it allow you to gauge her progress. It will also allow you to make dose changes and you can do curves at home rather than have your cat spend a day at the vet's office and cost you a small fortune to have the vet do the curve. Also, most cat's blood glucose numbers are artificially elevated at the vet's office due to stress so you really don't get an accurate picture when your cat is tested at the vet's office. Frankly, if your vet is of the opinion that it's not necessary for you to test at home, ignore the vet. Most professional organizations support home testing but there are vets who will tell you that your cat will "hate" you if you test. I've been here a long time and there are only a very few cats who couldn't adjust to being tested at home. There are now continuous glucose monitors available (i.e., there's a sensor that's attached to your cat and replaced every 2 weeks) that's an alternative to poking your cat. You can also share your test results with your vet.
Helping us to help you: this is a post that goes over some of the basics. It also has information for setting up a spreadsheet so you can track Gracie's blood glucose levels as she makes progress. There's also information on setting up your signature. This will provide some information about the insulin you're using, date of diagnosis, etc. so we don't keep pestering you with the same questions.
I'm hoping that a newer member will stop by and fill you in on what was helpful in getting started. There is a whole section of
FAQs and links that you may want to review. The amount of information at the beginning of this journey is overwhelming so please, don't hesitate to ask questions. The members here are very generous with their time and knowledge.
