Waiting for confirmation of Diabetes

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tabby4life

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Hello, I am new to the message board. At the conclusion of a routine check-up today, I was informed that my one year old cat may be diabetic. We are waiting for final test results to confirm the diagnosis. I am no stranger to diabetes as I suffer from the same ailment. Knowing the challenges I have been through managing my own condition leaves me feeling very overwhelmed and afraid of what the future may hold for my darling Bella. Sadly, there are no "pet lovers" among my family and friends and I definitely need some support to weather this crisis. I am praying for a different outcome, but I am prepared to provide Bella with whatever she needs to be my tabby4life.
 
Welcome to the best place you never wanted to be, but also the best place to help you help Bella.

Since you are already a diabetic yourself you already know all about testing before shots, should your darling Bella need insulin. You can even use your own meter to test her. We simply poke the edge of our kitty's ears to get a small sample of blood and then test it just the way you would yourself.

Since you still don't know if she is or isn't you won't be able to answer a lot of the questions we will have for you. But the one to start with is what has she been eating? We strongly recommend a low carb/high protein all wet canned diet.

If she is a diabetic then we can help hold your hand/paw through it all.

Also if it helps, we have lots of kitties here that have their diabetes controlled on just diet. My own guy Max is just such a kitty. I adopted Max just a little over a month ago from this very board as a diabetic, within just a couple of weeks of insulin Max went into remission. Now it doesn't happen for every kitty, we got lucky but we can help you give Bella the best life possible and even a chance at remission.

Mel & Max
 
Dear MommaOfMuse,

Thank you for your reply! Bella has a uti and started taking Clavamox today. We are scheduled to return to the vet next week for a day of blood tests to confirm or rule out diabetes. Being able to share some of the same testing supplies will help keep the costs to a minimum :0)

The vet did mentioned the possibility of a special diet. Bella has been dining on dry Meow Mix...Seafood Medley is her favorite. Once a week, as a treat, she gets a can of wet. I'm glad Max is insulin free now and it gives me hope to hear that there is the possibility of remission.

Thank you again for your words of encouragement! I will be sure to keep you posted on Bella's progress.

Ari & Bella
 
You will not need to give Bella a prescription diet. She needs a low carb / high protein canned food diet. If you can start to switch her off of the dry food to canned, that will help immensely. Many of us feed our cats either Friskies or Fancy Feast canned foods. Sometimes all that is needed is a diet change. If you can take the dry away immediately and start feeding her canned, you may find out that may be all she needs

If she has a UTI, that will also affect her glucose levels. So once the infection is gone and with a diet change, you may find that she does not need insulin or may quickly go into remission.
 
hi ari,
yes we find excellent results when we put our cats on a low carb diet and we just so happen to have a list of every cat food and it's carb count in every flavor! i will link it up for you.
we suggest under 10 carbs only...i personnally like 8 carbs and under.
you will note that all of the reccommended foods are wet or canned. this is becuase there is no suitable dry food. if you have a family of cats in your home they will all benefit from the diabetic diet.
also...please don't worry too much. almost all of our cats here do very very well. many of us take care of our cats completely on our own.
now i will go find your link.
lori and tomtom
 
Welcome again Ari & Bella,

Like the others have said, if you can get Bella switched to an all wet food diet, you may find that is all she needs, if not then you will be able to share a lot of your supplies with her. She can use the same meter, test strips, syringes, and even a possiblity of the same insulin. Lots of kitties here are on Lantus. In fact that was what we started my Max on, but for him it just took a small amount of insulin and a diet change to get him into remission.

Plus you have the added advantage of being a diabetic yourself, so you are WAY ahead of most of us when we first got here. :-D Since we aren't going to have to get you over the fear of needles or blood testing. You already know how important it is to test before giving insulin.

You can start with some of the basics while waiting for the UTI to clear and to take her in for her tests to see if she really is a diabetic. First get her diet switched...Like Lori mentioned if you have a houseful you can switch everyone, as they will all be improved with the diet..I feed 11 so I can tell you that even my non-diabetics or civies as we call them have gotten a great benefit of us having a diabetic in the house. So even if Bella proves not to have diabetes the food change will do her a world of good. I have two kittens that I have never fed dry to and they are some of the prettiest cats you would ever want to see. Their coats shine like the sun and they are so soft they are like petting silk. Even my 3 seniors began to play like they were kittens again once we got everyone off the dry.

At first I was concerned about the cost of switching everyone, but between the lack of trips to the vet, and the improvement in everyone's over all health it was well worth it, and it only really added about $15/month to our animal's food bill.

The other thing you can work on while waiting so if she does prove to be a diabetic is start getting her use to having her ears played with, and you can even take your lancet device, without a lancet in it, and start clicking it near her ears so she gets use to the sound of it. That is usually the worst part of the whole experience for a kitty.

Keep us posted and if you have questions just ask, we have years and years of experience dealing with kitties with all kinds of health problems.

Mel & Max
 
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