In crisis mode right now

I'm Neal. My wife, Carrie, and I have a cat, Thomas, who is dealing with diabetes, anemia, and possibly cancer. We're hoping to get the blood sugar stabilized so we can start working on the other things. I have an AlphaTrak monitor on order.

Thomas is allergic to chicken, turkey, and tuna does not set well with him. He has been eating the Hill's ID formula canned food since this started. I hope to find some home made food we can get him on. He likes beef liver too and does OK with that.

There are several supplements (vitamins, minerals, herbs, mushroom extracts) that I think have promise. A home glucometer will help the process quite a bit.

This looks like a good place to get and give help. Thanks. Neal and Carrie Lewis

 

Glad you found us. Let us know how we can help.

Have you seen this site by a vet? Www.catinfo.org. She has great food info and recipes for making raw food at home. Novel proteins like rabbit might help also.

 

Welcome to FDMB.
See my signature link Glucometer Notes for feline-specific reference ranges.
See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional assessments you can make to evaluate your cat, including ketone/glucose urine monitoring and dehydration checks.

 

Thank you Sue and Oliver. I have checked Dr. Pierson's excellent site. I need to translate it to something Thomas can eat. He is allergic to chicken and turkey. And right now, rabbit is out of our price range. Neal and Carrie Lewis

 

Thank you very much for the reply. We just returned from the vet. We had to up the dose to 6 units. However, he is pleased with Thomas' over all condition. And this evening Thomas is doing much better. I will look at the information you recommended. Thanks again. Neal and Carrie Lewis and Thomas.

 

Hi Neal and Carrie and Thomas,
6 units is a lot of insulin.
When was Thomas diagnosed with diabetes and what dose of insulin did he start on?
Can you tell us what type of insulin Thomas is on and his weight please?
Are you able to tell us any of his blood sugar readings?
Thomas needs to be on a low carbohydrate canned cat food if possible. Do you know the carbohydrate content of the hills ID food?
Here is a link to a list of suitable food for Thomas. It is not necessary to feed expensive vet prescription food. There are many suitable canned foods which you can buy at supermarkets and pet stores which are also cheaper.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/food-links.133016/
Do you test for ketones? It would be a good idea to have some glucose and ketone urine test strips called Keto-Diastix by Bayer. It is a simple test ..all you need to do is catch Thomas's urine and dip the urine test strip into the urine and follow directions.
It is great you are going to monitor Thomas's blood sugar. Once you get the monitor and start testing you can set up the spreadsheet. It will then be much easier for people to help you.
Here is the link to set up the SS.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...te-a-ss-and-link-it-in-your-signature.130337/

 

Until you are home testing easily, keep the food the same. Changing the carbohydrate levels drastically will alter the insulin dose needed, too, and you must be able to monitor for that should you do so.

 

We got the AlphaTRAK2 on Friday of last week. Tomorrow we have an appointment to see the vet and learn how to use the glucometer. I plan to download the software and track trends. The Hills ID food (according to a quick glance at a spread sheet indicates it is about 30% carbohydrates (way too high). However, the primary meat source is pork and at the present, Thomas tolerates it OK. I think I can do better making my own using pork and following the guidelines for making homemade cat food. Obviously it will need to be cooked. However, it will only need to be cooked enough to be safe. I will need to see where pork lines up in terms of phosphorus. I plan to get a milligram scale so I can weigh the necessary vitamins and minerals on a individual dose basis until I can establish (through testing) how Thomas does with each change. The changes will need to be done relatively slowly and on the more important substances, one at a time so I can know for certain that any change in glucose or other readings reflects changes in what goes into the food. Dr. Tonn tried out his new hi tech X Ray system on Thomas' abdomen. No apparent cancer masses just yet. So cancer has temporarily gone down the list of concerns.

 

Absolutely! We are trying to keep the amount of dry cat food, again Hills' ID, as low as possible. Fortunately, Thomas doesn't like it very much. We cook and give him liver treats to build up his blood. That is per Dr. Tonn. I am also doing a B12 shot once a week for six weeks, and then once a month thereafter.

 

Thomas is on NP. He was diagnosed as being insulin dependent about a 2 months ago.

I can tell you more about blood sugar levels once we start to monitor it at home.

Thomas dropped to 7.4 lbs. he has stayed there for about a month.

Dr. Tonn checked for the ketones. That does not appear to be a problem yet. However, monitoring it is something we need to do.

Thanks for the help. Neal, Carrie, and Thomas.

 

While you work on blood testing, see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools and this chart for tracking some of them. If I did it right, you can File, Make a Copy to your own Google Account, then rename and edit your copy to make notes for your cat.

 

Thank you! Nice chart. I will see what I can do to import it to something I can use and maintain.