Intro

Hi all,
My cat Kiki was diagnosed as diabetic this past Wednesday November 7th. I found this forum while searching for resources and recommendations. She had been peeing a ton and lost 2 pounds. Her glucose was in the 420 range. The vet has been pretty vague on how to treat and cost which is why I've been searching the net.
He wants to do the blood curve thing and told me buying an insulin from walmart was cheaper (I don't remember what brand he said it was).
Kiki is my first cat. I've only ever had dogs before. I adopted her from a rescue in Texas she is 5-6 years old now. She is the perfect cat for me because she acts like a dog lol. She doesn't like other cats but is best friends with any and every foster dog I bring home and is either very stupid or very brave because she just walks right up to them with no fear.

 

Hullo! If you're looking for information, you're certainly in the right spot. There's a lot to be learned here. I'm pretty sure wiser and more experienced folks will be along shortly to point you. I'm still a bit new to this, since my Sherlock's only been on insulin for about a month now. For what it's worth, the things you'll need to treat Kiki do include a glucose monitor (mine came from Wal-Mart, and lots of us here use human monitors because they're less expensive than the fancy pet ones, but that's totally up to you on preference) and the testing things that go with it (strips, lancets), insulin, and a diet change if she's on any kind of dry food. Hopefully your vet did have some thoughts on an insulin, but if not, there's plenty of information here to learn if you want to make a suggestion. Sherlock is on Lantus, for example, and I was the one who suggested it to my vet after a previous bad experience with a different kind of insulin.

Don't get overwhelmed. You're in the right place and you'll get lots of pointers and support here.

Welcome!

 

Hi Kiki's mom!

Welcome to the FDMB...the best place you never wanted to be!

Yes, the WalMart brand insulin is very cheap, but it's also not very good for cats. It's fine for dogs, but a cat's metabolism is different and it just doesn't work as well.

The best insulins for cats are Lantus, Levemir or ProZinc.

Doing curves at the vet is unnecessary and actually pretty useless. We are big proponents of home testing here because it's the only way to safely give insulin and really know what's going on inside your kitty's body. Tests done at the vet's office aren't good because the cat is under stress and that stress can raise the blood glucose up to 200 points! The vet thinks the cat is running high and suggests a particular dose....you take kitty home, she relaxes and you have the recipe for a tragedy.

Home testing sounds daunting but it really isn't. Most of us use human meters and our protocols here were all developed with human meters so don't think you have to buy one of the special "pet meters".

The cost of the strips for the meter is the biggest cost moving forward, so getting a meter than you can afford to use is the most important part!

Come on over to the Health forum and keep asking questions!! This forum is just for a general "hello"...the Health forum (and then the insulin support groups) are where the best advice can be found!

 

Hi and welcome, Kiki and Kiki's Mom. You will certainly find lots of information about life with feline diabetes here.
I know that you feel overwhelmed right now, there is a huge club of us! I assure you, as you learn more and get answers to your questions, you are going to feel more comfortable, and this will get easier.
If you have not already done this, I suggest you go back to the Home Page and read the Getting Started and the Education sections. There is more information here in different forums, and it's all good information that you will be able to access at any time. I just don't want you to feel buried at the very beginning. We do recommend home testing, it's the best tool you have for knowing real time, what Kiki's BG (blood glucose) is, if you home test you do not need to take Kiki to the vet for curves which saves Kiki the stress (which does raise BG levels) and will save you money. We also recommend a low carb wet diet for our sugar cats, and suggest that you make any diet changes before starting insulin, if you can. We can help with home testing, a good diet, suggestions for insulin.
Please post in the Main Health forum, about home testing, diet changes, anything that's on your mind. This Introduction forum is more of a Welcome mat and there are more eyes monitoring the Main forum, so you will get more responses. Here is a link for the main forum: MAIN

 

Welcome! This is a great place for support and information about managing Kiki's diabetes.