update on beeber

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lucybooz

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beeber had a great checkup at the vet today. they did charge me for the alphatrak, which was no surprise. i told them i was almost out of test strips and they gave me more. i did order another box on-line thru the american diabetes folks. i think i'll just use this meter and get over the price. i'm comfortable with it and so is beeber. hopefully we can cut back on the testing soon and that will make it a bit more affordable i guess.

my vet wants me to get her on a twice a day (10:30 a.m./p.m.) feeding schedule - canned food only. he said if i've been giving her food, a little at a time, throughout the entire day and i guess that could explain the #'s she has been throwing. we have 3 cats and i have to get them ALL on the canned food. they have always had free access to dry food day and night so this will be hard for them as well. beeber is jumping up on the table all day, expecting to be fed - i feel bad for her but i guess i gotta do what i gotta do.

she's getting 1 unit of insulin in a.m. and 1 in p.m. he didn't change that. she hasn't gained any weight but he said she may have gained a little because she probably lost some when hospitalized and was so sick.

i'm happy with the way she's acting, eating, and just acting like her old self. i look at all this as good.

i want to thank everyone who jumped in to answer the many questions i had. you guys have been life-savers for both myself and beeber. this has been quite an ordeal to say the least.

hopefully we will be settling down and things will be back to a sense of normalcy soon.

thanks again everyone, and i'll be back if i need you.
 
If you can afford the Alphatrak and you like it, go ahead and continue using it. It's just not worth it price-wise for us folk that are on tighter budgets.

Please disregard your vet's advice on feeding twice a day. Diabetes makes a cat unable to properly process the food they are eating... which is why most cats are severely underweight when diagnosed with diabetes. Feeding twice a day is VERY hard on a hungry cat, as you can already tell, and it is also very hard on an already struggling pancreas to be dumped with food and then left starving for 12 hours. You can feed small meals a few times a cycle. I feed one and a half cans of FF per cycle, within the first 6-8 hrs of the cycle. Scooter is a scarf and barfer so I feed 1/4 of a can at a time. No food 2-3 hrs before a preshot BG test.

Glad to hear all else is well though :)
 
believe me i cannot afford this meter nor these strips but i had to purchase it because i used it. might as well keep it. this entire situation has put a major crimp in the budget. however, having a pet is kind of like marriage - for better or worse. the credit card will get paid off eventually.

i'm really torn with advice my vet has given me today and things i've read on here. it is already very difficult to see her wanting to eat. i've given her a little here and there rather than cut her off completely until this evening. i guess i'm thinking that starting tomorrow a.m. i can put out a full can and if she eats it all i'm thinking she may be comfortable until the night dose (12 hours). i will probably let her nibble a couple of times, i just won't constantly be putting food out for her like i have been. i will definitely not starve her. i also have 2 other cats that i must get off dry food as well. they all used to have dry food available to them day and night. this is not going to be easy for them or me, but i'll do what i must.

my vet believes like this - and it's so totally different from what folks have been telling me: have a set schedule - am/pm. put food out - if she eats give her her insulin, if not do a bg. if you do a bg and it's over 200 give the insulin, if under don't give the insulin. he said to do a bg perhaps at 6-8 hrs. post a.m. insulin to see where she is at. he said it's not necessary to be testing constantly, and will definitely be less expensive buying so many strips (i've used about 50 during this first week). he said i will certainly know if she's not herself and then is the time to be checking more often, and of course let him know or bring her into the office.

i'm sure just about everyone on this site will think that is NOT the way to go. i'm not going to stop checking entirely, just maybe not every couple of hours, as i have been, unless she indicates she's not herself.
 
There is no need to check every few hours, unless you think something is off or you are doing a curve. Generally, if you test before each shot and around 6 hours after the shot, you can keep her safe and get a good idea of how the insulin is working.

I don't agree with the vet about the food. Unregulated diabetics don't process their food well so they are hungrier than unregulated cats. I see no benefit in withholding food. What was the reasoning?

I would figure out what she needs to eat and divide that amount into 3 or 4 meals a day.

The sooner you can get rid of the dry for everyone, the healthier they will all be.
 
i tend to agree completely with all you said sue. i feel so bad seeing her and knowing she wants to eat somthing. i'm going to do just what you said. i'm trying to be sure she gets 2 cans of fancy feast classic/day. i'm going to divide them into four feedings, like you said.

his reasoning for the am/pm feeding thing is to get her on a strict schedule. i strongly feel that is a bit too strict.

i see no reason not to make that schedule into four feedings instead of just 2.

perhaps i misunderstood about the "checking". she was really sick last week when all this started and perhaps folks were wanting me to check so often until she was feeling better. i was looking at some of the spreadsheets and most of them check alot. i'm glad you see no harm in checking once at around +6-8 hrs just to be sure things are ok.

thanks for input.
 
You can definitely split up the meals. The key is never to feed in the two hours before a shot time. Most of us try to give the majority of the food before the cat's nadir. Personally, I like to do more spot checks than just the nadir, but you can do just the couple of tests a cycle once you know when the nadir is. Do bear in mind that it's not +6 for every cat, so you may want to test enough early on to find out when it falls.

Two cans of FF is not many calories, unless Beeber is a very small cat. Most FF's are around 90 calories a can, and cats need 20-30 calories per pound of body weight. Remember that a diabetic needs more calories as long as his BG is high, because he's not able to use the energy from his food efficiently. 180 calories is the minimum amount you would want to feed a 9 lb cat, without taking the diabetes into account. Now if Beeber is overweight and 9 lbs is his ideal weight, you're more on target. But do keep careful track of his weight; you may need to add a can or two. Just as a reference, my diabetic gets roughly 12-15 oz. a day(4-5 cans of FF), but he needs to gain weight . My big civvie gets about 8 oz a day (1.5oz. cans) and is the perfect weight for his size, and my fattie-on-a-diet gets about 6 oz (2 cans FF or one can of Great Choice), and is slimming down nicely to her 9 lb ideal weight.

As for the meter, you can always keep the AT as a back-up and use a cheaper meter for your everyday testing, just not on your SS when you use that one. It's good to have a back-up anyway...as I found out when Mikey knocked his off the counter and broke it.

You're making the right call switching everyone over to canned food...hopefully it will help ensure that Beeber is the only sugarkitty in the house!
 
beeber weighed around 9#'s at her february checkup. then all was well. her illness dropped her down to about 6-1/2#'s. i'm hoping she will gain some weight along the way.

i'm under the impression that ff classic is the ONLY ff product to feed the diabetic cat. is that correct? someone else mentioned using frisky pate. the larger pate cans are more economical than ff, but beeber loves the ff. i'm thinking about the other 2 fuss-budgets :lol: :lol: .

the other 2 cats are not canned food finatics, but thankfully beeber loves it. will have a harder time switching the other 2.

also, will it hurt to change her 12 hr times from 10:30 to 10:00? 10 works best for me, but i originally started her at 10:30. i'm thinking that 1/2 hr won't make a difference.

thanks for replying.
 
You can move a half hour; I'd do it 15 minutes at a time, do 10:15 tomorrow AM and then 10:00 either tomorrow PM or Sunday AM.

You are correct; you want to avoid canned foods with gravy or sauce as those have higher carbs (though always keep a couple of cans of FF gravy lovers on hand in your hypo kit!). I use FF Classics and Great Choice (PetSmart's house brand) Poultry Platter flavor, which has muscle meat as the first ingredient; the other flavors don't. A 5.5 oz can is 40 cents. Others use Special Kitty (Walmart house brand) or Friskies pate in the big cans. The Friskies do contain a small amount of rice, which does affect some cats' BG numbers.

For an underweight cat as it sounds like Beeber is at the moment (weight loss is common in diabetics), I would definitely up the amount to at least three cans of FF a day, maybe even 4, or 2 5.5 oz cans. With Mikey, who has an early nadir, I feed one can of FF at shot time, 1/4 can of Great Choice an hour later, and another 1/4 can Great Choice at two hours after his shot. I may do another 1/4 can depending on his BG readings. He's gained weight steadily but slowly at that amount, which is what you want, and it doesn't seem to affect his curves at all. He's pretty well regulated below 200 BG's though. You may need even more food while the numbers are higher; some people have fed twice what I am in order for their cats to have enough calories. You'll have to experiment a bit to see what amount Beeber starts to gain on-I'd go up to 2 5.5 oz cans to start with, and weight him regularly. If he gains weight, keep that amount; if not raise it a little, but slowly.

You're asking great questions...it's a lot to absorb!
 
my vet believes like this - and it's so totally different from what folks have been telling me: have a set schedule - am/pm. put food out - if she eats give her her insulin, if not do a bg. if you do a bg and it's over 200 give the insulin, if under don't give the insulin. he said to do a bg perhaps at 6-8 hrs.
Click to expand...

The only thing the vet said that I disagree with is "if she eats, give her her insulin, if not do a BG". No matter whether she eats or not, you should always test before giving a shot. You want to know if she's under 200 with NO food in her system. Her BG will rise from eating, and counteract the insulin. If she's at 150 before she eats, and you give her a shot because she does eat, then the dose could still be too high. Food is guaranteed to bring up her numbers. Does that make sense or did I confuse things?

You can adjust Prozinc by 30 minutes (it is important to only adjust the "L" insulins by 15 minutes per 12 hours, but Prozinc is more flexible.

The Friskees Pates are low carb as well, so if she decides she likes those, and your other two find that they do too, you can save a little bit of money buying the larger 5.5oz cans and give it to all 3 of them. Yes, the "classic" FF flavors are the low carb ones. You should pick up a can or two of the higher carb (with gravy) flavors and put them in your "hypo kit" stash. You may need them in an emergency when you test her at +6 and find her numbers in the 50 or less range. Sometimes high carb gravy fed then will pick up the BG enough (rather than using honey or karo).

Hope that helps,
Carl
 
i'm so ignorant to this disease i don't even know what a "hypo kit" is. PLEASE tell me what to have in this "kit" and what to do with it and when!!!!! sounds like something important.

i took my little book with my # record and he wasn't concerned much with the high #'s i had listed. he said he would be concerned, at this early point in getting her adjusted, if the #'s were 30-40 or 600-700. i was really concerned that she was reading those high #'s practically all the time.

yesterday i gave her her shot at 10:30 and we were at the vet's office around noon. she had had nothing to eat and he checked her at 234. he said there was nothing wrong with that #.

i'm hoping that if i'm not feeding her all day long (thought i'd try to feed every 3 hours) those #'s might not get that high.

i agree with you bob, checking the #'s before the insulin sounds like a good idea. i can afford to check twice/day :lol: :lol: .

thanks for all the suggestions - so glad i'm dealing with folks "WHO KNOW" this stuff.
 
Glad Beeber is feeling better-I'd been reading your posts and keeping my fingers crossed for you.

A hypo kit is one of those things that you need to have on hand, but hope you never have to use. :smile: It's a collection of high-carb items that you would give to your kitty in the event her BG dropped dangerously low and she needed immediate help in getting it back up. Things like Karo syrup or honey and some regular high-carb canned kitty food, like the kind in gravy. Hypoglycemia is the medical term for low blood sugar, and it can pop up quickly and it's a serious situation. There is an awesome thread that gives a lot of information on signs of hypoglycemia and how to treat:

http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

Hope that helps, and have a great day!

Kate & Leo
 
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