Hi, need some advice...

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by carmen830, Aug 3, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. carmen830

    carmen830 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2017
    Hi, my name is Carmen. I am the proud feline mommy of three wonderful cats and one dog. My reason for coming on this site is because I came across it when one of my kitties was diagnosed with diabetes. My baby boy Tigger who is now 12 1/2 years old was diagnosed with diabetes last October, 2016. Prior to this, my boy was always pretty healthy except for when he was 2 years old, he had a urinary blockage. He was successfully treated and was put on a prescription diet food for urinary problems. He was on this food for a few years and did fine. But after a couple of years, when I saw how much weight he was gaining and how well he was doing otherwise, I decided to try different foods to see if I could control his weight. Well, after a few different foods, I finally put him on a food that he did well on and was starting to lose some weight. Fast forward to March 2016 and he was blocked again. He was again, successfully treated but put on a different prescription food and a few months later, he was starting to lose a lot weight, started urinating a lot and was excessively thirsty. I told me husband I had a suspicion that he was diabetic. I took him to the vet and as I suspected, his glucose was at over 450. He was put on Lantus (glargine) 1.5 units twice a day. He was also put on a prescription food (Hills CD) which is the brand that I feel in my heart made him diabetic. I started giving him that prescription food and his sugars were topping at over 600. I called my vet, said I wanted to stop that food asap. My cat has always been a dry food eater. I now know that this type of diet is not the best for cats, period. Converting him to wet food took a lot of patience. The prescription wet food spiked his sugar immensely. I tried lower cost wet food, FF pates, Friskies pates and he loved them but they made him throw up a lot. At my wits end, I then started googling, researching, and read about Young Again food. I tried it and it started to work for awhile but I'm noticing that his sugars are spiking again. He is now on 2 units Lantus twice a day. I'm really not seeing an improvement. I started adding boiled ground chicken and he loves it, but could this be what is spiking his sugar? For a brief time, there were days that I didn't have to give him insulin for one of the shots but he would need the other. The lowest his sugar level became was maybe in the 80s but it didn't happen much. I tried going without the added boiled chicken and just giving him the Young Again but his sugars were still spiking. He was also constantly wanting that boiled chicken! I'm afraid I may have created a monster when I started giving him the boiled chicken but he looks so fragile and is so hungry all the time now that I feel really bad not giving him the chicken. He also still eats the YA. He's due for his exam again in August as well as his curve which I do at home but I'm just hoping for some advice. I'm so sorry for such a long post. He's my heart and I'm really trying my best to get his numbers somewhat regulated but nothing that I am doing is working anymore. Is ground chicken not good? Is there a better protein that I can boil and give him?
     
  2. Olive & Paula

    Olive & Paula Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2015
    Cooked chicken or homemade food is fine if you are using a premix or adding the nutrients. YA does have different varieties so make sure you are giving the lowest carb one they have. Also there is a new dry food CleanProtien that is under 5% carbs. It is now available from chewy.com

    https://www.drelseys.com/clean-protein/
     
  3. JanetNJ

    JanetNJ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2016
    If you are Only able to dose half the day but not the other that tells us the dose is too high. If you litter the dose of will even him out so you have two shootable numbers.

    In our signatures you see that we have a nifty spreadsheet that we can update and share in real time. If you can get one set up like that with all your readings from the past 2-3 weeks it would help people to give you more specific dosing advice.

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

    Young again is a great food but if my cat had blockage issues I would want to increase water intake. What I do is feed ff classic morning and night with extra water added to the food and free feed ya the rest of the day. I also added water sources with two water bowls and two Fountains avaliable.
     
  4. carmen830

    carmen830 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2017
    Thanks for your reply. He's eating the mature zero from Young Again. The canned food although he loves he throws it up. I've tried chicken, turkey with giblets, mixed grill all of them pates and within a few minutes of eating it he throws it up. Regardless of amount. Also I always check his readings before giving insulin. These last two weeks I've noticed though that his numbers are at 350-400s. So that's why I was wondering if it was because of the boiled chicken that I'm giving him too. He has a water fountain he drinks from and a bowl too. He's good about drinking water no issues there. I'm going to do his curve soon to see if I can get a better idea of where he's at.
     
  5. carmen830

    carmen830 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2017
     
  6. JanetNJ

    JanetNJ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2016
    Cooked chicken doesn't have carbs. Sometimes their insulin needs just change and you need to raise our lower the dose.

    Other times things such as hairballs or infection can raise bg.
     
  7. carmen830

    carmen830 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2017
    Ok, I uploaded a file that has all of the curves that I have performed on Tigger since he's been diagnosed. Each curve is separated by tab in the bottom of the excel sheet. Thanks again everyone that has taken the time to respond.
     

    Attached Files:

  8. Yong & Maury GA

    Yong & Maury GA Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    Welcome Carmen and Tigger!
    Sounds like you might have a bouncy boy living up to his name :smuggrin:. Come on over to Main Health forum to continue asking questions and you can start a thread (condo) on Lantus if you'd like some of those veteran members to chime in about Tigger's numbers :)
     
  9. carmen830

    carmen830 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2017
    Thank you! I just went on the Main Forum and posted.
     
    Yong & Maury GA likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page