What can I expect with successful treatment?

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OhLily

OhLily

Member Since 2016
Lily was just diagnosed on Wednesday (after about two months of thirst, weight loss and the occasional spaced-outness). She is on 1 unit of Lantus twice daily and our followup visit/tests isn't for another two weeks (after which I assume we will begin home glucose monitoring). She is a very healthy cat otherwise (age 10) and does not seem to be in a severe stage of the diabetes so we're glad we caught it relatively early...

My question is, what can we expect if her treatment is successful? How soon should she bounce back, once we figure out how much insulin she needs and how to get her on the best diet and feeding schedule? Will it take weeks or months for her to start playing again, for example, or should she be feeling better more quickly?

I just don't know what to expect and how to gauge how well she is doing, aside from glucose monitoring which we haven't had a chance to get started yet. After four Lantus injections (er, I hope) she seems to have stopped being so thirsty and peeing so much, and her appetite is OK, but she seems more listless than she has been up until now, and she wants to go down into her quiet spot in the cellar way more than she used to.
 
Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be! If treatment is successful (and there's no reason to think it should be anything but) your Lily will pretty much be back to her old self. Insulin is a hormone, not a medicine, so it may be taking her a little while to adjust to new/fluctuating hormone levels. It will also take her a little while to get used to the routine of daily tests and injections. The absolute best way to gauge her improvement is to begin home testing as soon as possible! You don't have to wait till after her next vet visit to start testing her blood glucose at home; it not only gives you measurable numbers to see improvement, it also is the best tool to keeping her safe! Most of us use human meters, because the cost for the test strips for pet-specific meters is outrageously expensive, and they can only be purchased from a vet or online. Many of us have found Walmart's Relion brand meters to be well up to the job. Here is a link to home testing information:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

We have a spreadsheet we use to enter and save our data, it is a wonderful tool for seeing trends and patterns in your kitty's treatment, and it helps provide us with information if you need help.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

What is Lily eating? The best diet for a diabetic cat is comprised of wet/canned food that is 10% or less in carbohydrates. In spite of what you may hear from some vets, it is not necessary to buy expensive, "prescription" food, which is all-too-frequently very high in carbs. There are a lot of popular brands of cat food that is fine to feed your cat, Fancy Feast, Friskies, etc. Most of the pate-style foods are lowest in carbs, with the gravy-style foods being the highest. This is a list of many popular foods and their percentage of carbs:

http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

I know it's a lot of information to take in, and I hope I haven't overwhelmed you! Trust me, before you know it you'll be an old hand at this sugar dance! Any time you have any questions, just ask away, there is always someone around who will try to help you!
 
OhLily said:
Thanks. I still don't know where to begin with all those links though.

What do I buy?
Click to expand...


Home testing is important to keep your kitty safe and see the progress with the insulin. Most people in the US will use the Relion meter since it is readily available and the test strips (which end up being most of the cost on an ongoing basis) are quite inexpensive. I am in Canada and can't get the Relion meter so I can't say offhand which style is the best. You could change your title and add a "?" with something like "What meter and supplies do I need?" One of the US members will be able to give you all the details on the meter, strips and lancets you need for home testing.

A wet low carb food is important. Many people on here use Fancy Feast classic pate (not the gravy type) since it is low carb and readily available at a much cheaper price than the prescription foods.

Those are 2 things to get started with and then you can get some help setting up a spreadsheet to record your tests, once you are home testing. Small steps so not to overload yourself ;)
 
Be sure to read the ingredients on the label. Sometimes the ingredients change. Friskies added rice to their pate cat food. Just watch out for food with gravy, rice, potatoes or any kind of fruits or vegetables. Many foods can be ordered online to save money. It is a good idea to just buy a few cans at first. You don't want to be stuck with a case that your cats don't like.
 
Feline Diabetes can be managed by consistently doing several things.

1) Low carb/high protein diet. - the food chart will help you determine which food to feed. You want to look for foods that are 10% carbs or less. Many of us feed our cats either Fancy Feast or Friskies canned foods. The pate flavors are lower in carbs. Dry food is almost always higher in carbs. You also do not need to feed your cat prescription food. Most cats quickly stop eating it anyway.

2) Insulin - most cats respond well to longer acting insulins such as Lantus, Levemir, PZI and ProZinc. The first two are human insulins you will get from your pharmacy. If your vet prescribes either of these, ask for a prescription for the pens instead of the vials. With the vial, the insulin becomes ineffective long before you can use it all and you end up throwing a lot of it (and money) away. With the pens you will be able to use almost every drop. ProZinc and PZI are pet insulins that your vet will order for you. If your vet prescribes BCP PZI, they can go to their website and order the first vial for you for free. With these insulins, they do not become ineffective as quickly as human insulins, so you can use the vial.

3) Hometesting - this means using a glucose meter to test your cat's glucose before every shot. Most of us use the human glucose meters instead of the pet meters. The pet meters are expensive to buy and the strips are costly. If you are in the US, the Walmart Relion meters are good and inexpensive to use. The link to the spreadsheet above is for you to keep track of your readings. By doing this, we can help you if you have any questions and it will also help you determine how well a dose is working. If you do need to change the dose, we recommend only doing it in 1/2 unit increases and waiting at least a week before increasing it again. By testing before every shot, you will know if it is safe to give insulin. For newbies, we recommend that you use 200 as your "don't shoot" number until you understand how your cat responds to the insulin dose. Hometesting will also save you unnecessary trips to the vet just for testing. Their numbers are not always accurate anyway since stress can also increase glucose levels.
 
I use the Relion Confirm meter from Walmart, it's about $15.00 to purchase and the test strips are $35.99 for 100. You will go through a lot of test strips. Relion also makes two other models, the Prime and the Micro. The Micro uses the same strips as the Confirm; strips for the Prime are a little less expensive but require a bit more blood per test.

http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=relion confirm meter&typeahead=relion confirm

The food chart that I gave you the link to lists carb % in the third column from the left. There are quite a few readily available foods with less than 10% carbs. There is one caveat, however, and it is very important:

If your cat is currently eating a high carb diet you MUST be home testing before you attempt to transition kitty to a low carb diet!!!!! Suddenly lowering kitty's carb intake can lead to a blood glucose drop of 100 or more points, causing hypoglycemia, which can be deadly. Food transitions should be made very gradually (also easier on the tum!) and with regular home testing.

It is also important to note that some cats seem to be more carb-sensitive than others; it is a good idea to try several foods before determining which one is going to be best for Lily.
 
I want to start testing as soon as I can, but we are feeling overwhelmed having only had 48 hours since diagnosis and our vet went on vacation. We are barely getting the hang of insulin shots to start with and now doing blood tests seems very daunting as well, especially when we have little idea from our vet where to begin on that. Thank you for the Walmart suggestion, I will pick up a kit tomorrow. Lily is going to the vet on the 17th for an all day blood workup and we want to have numbers to compare to whatever numbers the vet may find on the 17th.

To be honest we feel like our vet has kind of left us high and dry - no home testing was mentioned, although we assumed we would be doing this.

Now we have another issue because Lily has to be gotten on a regular low-carbohydrate diet (she's been a free-nibbling kibble cat all her life) and she has not been eating all her food since she got back from the vet this week. Her appetite seems strong but she won't eat all her food, she just nibbles, and then it's time for her shot and we're afraid she doesn't have enough glucose in her bloodstream when it's shot time. Although we have been careful about giving her the correct 1 unit dose, she just seems listless (though not scarily so) and we're worried she's getting too much insulin. I will deal with this in another subject
 
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