Hello from Florida!

My cat, Red Dog, signed me up to the group today, hoping I might meet others going thru the same frustrations that we are going through. It's nice to meet you. Feel free to drop us a note sometime, as we will reciprocate. ☺

 

Welcome to you and Red Dog!

 

Hello! I am a new member as well and I must say that Red Dog has impeccable taste in websites

 

Welcome to you and your handsome red kitty!

 

Welcome to FDMB.

If you have any questions, post them on the Health board. It is the one that is monitored the most.

Where in Florida are you located? I am in Jacksonville.

 

Hello and CONGRATULATIONS on your remission! I am hoping that might be us some day....fingers crossed! I need to find a food that Red Dog will eat. He is about 14 yrs old (rescue kitty about 8 years ago), but has only ever eaten Purina Complete dry cat food. He HATES "people food" and wet cat food. I'm just trying to find a cat food that will lower his glucose levels cuz it's giving his poor Mommy heart failure. lol

 

Thank you for the message. Your kitty is so beautiful. I have a friend and her kitty has the same basic markings, including the snip on your kitty's face/nose/mouth area. My friend's kitty KNOWS she is beautiful! lol
Thanks again for the welcome note!

 

Hello, Kris & Teasel! Canada, huh? I'm a country girl and Red Dog is a "city cat" and very socialable....I mean this cat would die if I moved back to Tennessee! Thankfully for him, we live in Florida!

 

Good afternoon, Lisa and Witn. We are located in Largo, Florida, which is between Clearwater and St. Petersburg. I'm about a mile "as the crow flies" from the beach. The weather is nice today. We have had the most perfect weather here in several years. I'm lovin' it! However, once the summer arrives, it'll be so hot and humid that there won't be a day that I won't think, "I'm so ready to find someplace cooler to live." Know what I mean? lol

 

Red Dog was just diagnosed with Diabetes on January 25th. He started on 2 units of Vetsulin twice a day. We are up to 6 units twice daily now (changes made by his vet) and his glucose readings range between 500-too HI to read on the pet meter. I understand that cat's are not like people and adjust to insulin slowly. Having been a trauma nurse (RN) for close to 20 years, I know I have two issues that need immediate attention from what I have been reading: (1) Red Dog needs his teeth cleaned, and (2) a diet that he WILL eat. He weighed about 15 pounds this time last year, but is now 8.9 pounds. (I can feel every bone, so he needs to gain some weight.) My problem is that since I rescued him about 8 years ago, I discovered that he only eats and likes dry cat food. He will not eat any "people food" of any kind. So, we are struggling with his diet changes. He has diarrhea every other day like water. I am making the diet changes extremely slow due to his multitude of issues. I am feeding him a mix of 50% of the new high protein, low carb diet mixed with 50% of his "old" food. He is a "free eater" and goes outside when he wants to. Since becoming sick, he stays inside much more. As you can see, I have many challenges at present in attempting to stabilize his blood sugar. I need advice in 2 areas if anyone can help me:
1. I need a glucometer that the testing strips do not put me in the "poor house"
2. I need a diet especially for Red that he will eat, as the vet continues to suggest the $50+ food that he will not eat. While this process is frustrating and getting "old" for me, Red Dog is losing weight. PLEASE HELP...I'll try anything!

Any ideas and/or suggestions are more than welcome.
Thank you all!
Lee & Red Dog

 

1. I am certainly not a pro yet, but I bought a ReliOn Confirm at Walmart- the meter was $15, 100 strips were $35 and 100 lancets around $10 (if I remember correctly) I had also read that a lot of people use the human meter for daily testing and the pet meter for curves only, since the strips are more expensive.
2. My cats had in/fortunately been eating 1 can of wet food a day already, so I switched brands/to all wet food. They now eat Fancy Feast Classic which they love. It's about $.49 per can and I found that many websites sell it or if you can go to Target, Walmart, PetSmart, they sell it. At PetSmart they have some sale like every x/amount of cans you buy, you get 1 can free. Hey, I'll take it!
Hope that helps, he's a stubborn one huh?

 

If you can't get him to eat wet, you can feed evo cat and kitten in the purple bag or my favorite Young Again Zero carb food which you can get online at Youngagainpetfood.com. They will send a free sample of the Young Again Zero carb if you email or call them.

 

Omgosh love the name!! Newbie here too, these peeps are wonderful and full of info. Welcome to the best board ever.

 

Welcome to you and Red Dog!

Reading this, I am very concerned about the amount of Vetsulin Red Dog is getting. CaitlinM and JanetNJ has already given you some great pointers to glucose monitors and possible foods; please come on over to Feline Health for more tips and pointers! That board tends to have more traffic, and pretty much any issue you have in trying to help Red Dog, someone there has been there, done that, and can offer advice. You can just copy and paste the above post to give people some background (maybe add the brand/variety of the foods he is currently eating), then ask away with any questions you have!

 

6 units is a crazy high dose. The high readings you are getting may actually be from too MUCH insulin, and at that dose there is a great chance of hypoglycemia. In one month he went from 1 unit to 6??? Yikes. Usually increases are done 0.5 units at a time.

 

I agree with the concern expressed about Red Dog's very high insulin dose.

 

I agree that his dose is too high. Most cats only need 1 - 2 units twice a day.