My heart is
in pieces; Saoirse is a Soul Cat (her brother, Amadán, too). I'm only barely managing by talking to Saoirse all day, every day, as I always have since I became her Person, and visualising her as my little Spirit Kitty following me around or snuggling beside me. (Your description of how your little Snugglebunny shadows you very much reminds me of things between myself and Saoirse.
)
I posted a few times to the CKD groups (Tanya's and also the Yahoo group); Saoirse was stage II but stable so I didn't post very much there - couldn't get my head around how those message boards worked.
There are a number of members here whose kitties have both CKD and diabetes and they helped us a lot.
The food causing problems is the UK Sheba Fine Flakes in Jelly Poultry Collection. We've seen reports here and on a supermarket website of some other cats who also experienced problems with it since the formula change.
am not buying anymore of that DM dry food that my vet forced (actually FORCED) me to buy--everyone hates it plus the carbs are too high.
It could have been worse; your vet could have forced you to buy Hill's w/d dry food which is even higher in carbs (as the vet Saoirse was registered with at time of Dx forced me to give her
). The w/d is essentially kitty cornflakes. We changed vets very soon after that. Our main vet at the current practice had a diabetic kitty himself so he is much more switched on and progressive in his treatment approach (supports feeding of wet, low-carb food and, unlike the other shower, is very supportive of home BG testing).
Evo Cat & Kitten kibble is, I believe, relatively OK carb-wise for a dry food if you can't facilitate switching your clowder to wet, low carb food. Young Again Zero (available online) is another low carb dry food available in the US. They offer sample packs if you call their customer service department.
Are you home testing blood glucose (BG) yet, Lily? If you're planning to switch to a lower carb food you need to closely monitor BG levels throughout the transition because Mamacita's insulin dose may very well need to be reduced; BG levels can drop quite significantly and quickly when the carb load is reduced so a previously OK dose could very easily end up being too much. Here's a very helpful and informative link about this:
Feline Diabetes, diet and the importance of home testing for safety
(catinfo.org is a highly-respected, vet-authored site about cat nutrition and health; recommend reading the whole site!)
Re treatment costs we can help you with money-saving tips on insulin, food and supplies. Most members in the US use Walmart's Relion Micro or Confirm meters (together with a cat-specific BG level reference range) to monitor their kitties. Both meters need only a very small blood sample and the test strips are affordable. I believe that Walmart also do urine test strips in their Relion range, or you can get Keto-diastix to monitor ketone levels. (Best to get ones which detect both urine ketones and urine glucose levels, especially if you're not yet monitoring blood glucose levels.
Here are forum stickies you might find helpful:
Home testing tips
Testing and injecting tips
Are you testing your kitty for ketones? If not, do it!
If you can let us know which insulin you're using, Lisa, we'll hopefully be able to point you in the direction of further useful information.
Mogs
.
)