Overwhelmed

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by srk4cats, Mar 22, 2017.

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  1. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    Hi,
    my name is Roberta and my 14-year-old kitty is named Chloe. In November, she became very skinny and I took her to the vet. The vet gave me (well, sold me) a ProZinc kit and recommended Royal Canin hypoglycemic food. I ordered both dry and wet. Being so expensive, I asked if there were any regular foods I could give her and was told only the Fancy Feast (ff- it took me awhile to figure out all your acronyms and I'm a special ed teacher!) Tender Beef Feast Classic was acceptable. Chloe loves this, but doesn't seem to like the Royal Canin now. If I'm not careful, my kitten, Chico, gets in there and eats it. So, I've had to shut Chloe in the bedroom to feed her. I have another cat, Fuzma, who is also on a special diet for skin problems. This week, I'm on Spring break, so I can monitor everything. Chico is now called Chico Grande, and he is so fat now that he actually lies down when he eats. I've had many cats, but I've never seen this before! All of this diabetes stuff is new to me. I bought an Everpaws glucose monitor and tried it once. It took me awhile to get some blood from her ear and she did not like it, not one little bit! Also, I ran out of syringes, and I think I read here that you can use u-100 syringes so I bought those from WalMart and made the conversion. Yesterday, I took Chloe to the vet for a glucose monitoring and they refused to do it because I was using the wrong syringes. They said they weren't as accurate. I finally read the directions on the ProZinc (doing things backwards, as usual) and it did say to use only u-40, so I ordered some from Alivet that were half as much money as what the vet sold them for. Back to the glucose monitor-- I'm going to give it another shot (no pun intended) today. Boy, do I need help! The vet told me that cats with diabetes usually only live less than 2 years. They also said that I would kill her by using u-100 syringes. Anyway, I would appreciate any tips or encouragement you can spare me.
     
  2. Yong & Maury GA

    Yong & Maury GA Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    That is preposterous! Sorry for the outburst, I have been frustrated by a few Vets but at least I never heard that. As for using ProZinc with U-100 syringes, as long as you use the conversion chart, you won't kill her with just a different syringe to administer the insulin. We have a couple ProZinc users here that use U-100 syringes.

    Home testing is one of the best tools to manage Chloe's diabetes. For pet BG meters, majority of us are familiar with the AlphaTrak / AlphaTrak 2 but use a human meter for daily testing due to pricing of AT strips. Popular brand is Walmart's ReliOn Confirm or Micro.

    Food chart, low carb options are 8% or less. Most of us use Fancy Feast pate and Friskies pates: http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

    The SpreadSheet (SS) we use here, instructions link: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
    If you need help setting it up there are people who can do that here. Otherwise it's just entering numbers, dose, and notes.

    Little bit of info in your Signature helps with a quick glance for those of us with bad memories: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

    Do not hesitate to ask any questions here, the only dumb one is the one you don't ask ;). This is a support group for your kitty and YOU!
     
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  3. jackie hill

    jackie hill Member

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    Mar 17, 2017
    I use prozinc and yup my vets has my cat on D/M hills prescription to actually thin down smooch, we have been using prozinc for 10 days now and smooch is being a madam so much better.
     
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  4. Larry and Kitties

    Larry and Kitties Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2009
    I have had two diabetic cats, Bailey and Patch (I) that were on insulin for over 10 years.
     
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  5. Squeaky and KT (GA)

    Squeaky and KT (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2011
    See that cute big gray and white kitty over there as my avatar? That's Dakota...he's been diabetic for 7-8 years, he's 16 years old, has slowly failing kidneys and is a silly happy boy.
     
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  6. JanetNJ

    JanetNJ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2016
    Any of the fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods are fine to feed.... They are all under 10% carb.
     
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  7. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017





    Dakota is beautiful and looks healthy and alert. My profile pic is not any of my cats. It's a jaguar. I will post a picture of Chloe soon.
     
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  8. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    Thank you for responding. When your vet gave you the diagnosis, did he or she also mention euthanasia as a choice?
     
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  9. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

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    Jan 19, 2017
    Smooch has beautiful markings. Cute name, too.
     
  10. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    I'm so happy your cat is in remission! I hope Chloe can go into remission.
     
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  11. jackie hill

    jackie hill Member

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    Mar 17, 2017
    Thank you she really is Miss Smooch lol she is a madam
     
  12. JanetNJ

    JanetNJ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2016
    At diagnosis my vet said it's very treatable and they can live along healthy life and some even go into remission..... Sometime for months or years. She never mentioned euthanasia. my cat went into remission in four months, and many others on here have as well. This forum has cats that are living happy full lives for many years on insulin.
     
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  13. Squeaky and KT (GA)

    Squeaky and KT (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2011
    My vet didn't say a word about euthanasia and he's not even UTD on feline diabetes care...but he also knows we treat all kinds of medical 'stuff' with our many rescues. He also didn't say anything about testing, feeding, care, etc and prescribed poor choice of insulin...we treat the diabetes, he treats other stuff...
     
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  14. Noah & me (GA)

    Noah & me (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2016
    Euthanasia is not a choice, it's what happens when an animal has lost all sense of dignity and lives in pain. I know there is no answer to this but how can using (properly of course) a different syringe kill a cat? This makes me so angry, exactly what are they teaching in veterinary colleges? "Food goes in here, comes out there, customer normally keeps wallet here." My tech friend told me that diabetes is rare in cats so not a lot of time is spent on this. I'm too pissed to go on as I'm sure all of you are.
     
  15. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    Yes, I'm thinking of getting a different vet just to do a glucose curve. I'm upset that I put Chloe through all the stress of going to the vet and they didn't do the glucose curve because I used a u-100 syringe.
     
  16. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    I think she mentioned euthanasia because she knows I'm working. I once knew a woman whose cat was diagnosed with diabetes and she had it put down because she didn't want to deal with it. Some people do make that decision unfortunately.
     
  17. srk4cats

    srk4cats Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2017
    I couldn't figure out how to do the signature yet. Or the spreadsheet. I'm also dealing with a cranky old man who crashed into my car and is saying it's my fault. His insurance won't claim responsibiltiy, but mine (Geico) is doing an investigation and will support me to get my deductable back.
     
  18. Yong & Maury GA

    Yong & Maury GA Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    Glad you were not badly injured in the accident. I included links to help you with Signature and Spreadsheet :)
     
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