Introducing

Hi! I am Billy the Kid's mom and today we have discovered that Billy has Diabetes.

At 8 years old and his second Veterinary visit involving needles and the dreaded "back room", this was most likely the last time he will ever willingly get into the carrier again. He has always been "stranger danger" sensitive, emotional and a clown, an escape artist to top it, thus with his name's sakes personality traits he really just is Billy the Kid.

I am glad to have some medical background, surely now. I just hope to have the benefit of the individual experience of board members to help me and my husband weigh options. Make the informed choices about products and such.

I thank you all already for just being out there, going through what we are as a fuzzy family.

Sincerely,
Billy's Mom

 

Hi Billy and Billy's mom, welcome!
You will get great advice and tips here to help Billy and you get your routine into this sugar dance.

Here are some questions for you.
What type of insulin are you going to use?
And are you willing to home test? This is something recommended by all of us because you know how your fur baby is doing and it saves money (don't need to go to the vets to get BG tested) what type of food do you give Billy? (Dry food or wet food?)
These are some first questions that are always asked here just to know a little bit more about the situation of your kitty.
When Billy was diagnosed, what was his BG number?

Ruby

 

Thank you for the welcome Ruby and Back. Apt choice in calling this the sugar dance. Good thing this Momma knows how to boogy.
The type of insulin we have been provided with is Caninsulin Porcine insulin zinc injectable at 2 iu x 2 daily. Billy is a big boy. Is a Porcine procured insulin better/worst?
Yes on home testing. Raised in a medical home, testing blood sugars will not bother, though Billy may mind it.
For food, until today he had free range of wet canned, six types of dry mixed together with a twice daily handful of temptations treats as a reward for particular behaviors which we encourage. Now..... that has been what I have been investigating. We ordered pate diabetic wet and bought diabetic dry to help while my husband and I make decisions.
The average cat is between 3 and 8 BG levels. Billy was 25. (Rounded numbers)
It's taxed his liver however this should clear in time.
Does this reply help clarify?

 

Haha had to laugh about your comment about you 'know how to boogy'
I don't know a thing about caninsulin, I had Prozinc, so I will let that be that and someone will come by soon who can help you with the insulin, and the way 'it works'
Oh that's a great thing that you know how to home test, you are one step ahead
That is something to do, because like I said it will save you money but also you mentioned Billy getting nervous about the vet trips so he doesn't need to go to the vet!

Well about the food, it's recommended to give our diabetic fur babies low carb wet food. where do you come from? Not the US I think because you refere to mmol numbers instead of dg/ml? (Because you mentioned Billy's 25 number) I'm asking you this because if we know were you live, someone in your country can help you with some low carb brands!

 

Right continent. Canadian, maple leaves included. Just no maple syrup!
In the family we have insulin dependent humans already, so we are familiar with what's going on as far as how insulin functions, peaks and valleys in level monitoring.
How this relates to Billy, I am quickly learning. I have poured over a large chunk of the threads on this message board. Found alot of useful information.
Keenly interested in which dietary changes have successfully contributed to keeping the balence. Recipes, I could use.
Read sixteen veterinary medical papers regarding diabetes in felines.
We have known Billy is diabetic for an hour and a bit. Very, very new to this.

 

Glad you can boogy, cuz these sugar cats can keep us on our toes! Have you come across this site
http://www.catinfo.org it will tell you all about nutrition. A low carb canned food is the best for Billy. Doesn't have to be from the vet, and in fact many of the vet brands are not low carb. The exception being Purina DM canned.

 

Yes, this site I read about twenty minutes ago, at least the pages pertaining to Diabetes. I very much suspected prescribed food, with a few exceptions, is mostly a product push, as veterinarians are in the business of animal health. This is why I desire to just make the food for Billy. I suspect human and feline diabetes to work in proportional relation of biomass.

Working around farmers and producers for a few years now. I may have grown up in a medical house however I chose to work in agriculture. This is why I had my vet order the closest to appropriate food. Besides that Billy doesn't like gravy, just paté. Experience taught me to weigh vet direction with a liberal dose of common sense on the other side of the scales.

My poor vet is used to this though. I am their only customer who has near as much medical knowledge as they do, just mine is human based. I have a Production animal Pharmaceutical license, so they know I am familiar with the majority of terminologies, procedures and outcomes.

Simply put however, I just want the best for Billy the kid. He is my little boy, and I would do anything to make him better.

For those curious, we have had the first injection with some food about the time of my first post. He is doing very well, non lethargic. Very responsive.

 

Another Canuck here. Welcome to the FDMB family! Sounds like you have a pretty good starting knowledge to use to help Billy the Kid! Love his name and description of how he came by it! I also love the fact that you "weigh vet direction with a liberal dose of common sense". Unfortunately, vets are not always as up to speed as we'd like them to be with diabetes in our feline kids. I am a retired R.N. and have always been the biggest thorn in the side of all medical professionals because I speak the jargon and ask tough questions!

Caninsulin may work fine for Billy but you should be aware that a cat's metabolism is much faster than that of humans or dogs. As a result, the Caninsulin, which was originally developed for dogs, may not last a full 12 hours for Billy. This means you may see a significant drop in his BG starting about 3-4 hours after his shot and then a rise back to his starting numbers around 8 to 10 hours post shot. Many folks who initially use Caninsulin switch to either Lantus, Levemir, or ProZinc because of this lack of full 12 hour cycle coverage and the steep drops of BG it causes.

Testing at home is a very important component to keeping Billy safe and as long as Billy is OK with it you should have no problem at all but if you need any tips/assistance, just holler on the Health forum HERE.

On the diet front, sounds like you are looking at home prepared foods. If you need some options to use until you find recipes you and Billy like, HERE is another list of foods available in Canada put together by another member. Fancy Feast pates (our cans don't say "classic") are another popular brand amongst the members.

 

When you have a moment, could you add a few tidbits to your signature (most of the ones you explained near the top)? It will help us give you feedback.

Editing your Signature

In the upper right corner of the screen, within the dark blue bar, you will see ID, Inbox, and Alerts

Click on your ID.

On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature.
This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback. You are limited to 2 hard returns, so separate pieces by | or -.
This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
Add any other text, such as your name | cat's name | date of Dx (diagnosis) | insulin | meter general location (city and state/province) any other pertinent issues like if there are any food issues, history of DKA, hepatic lipidosis, pancreatitis, allergies, IBD, etc.

Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.

 

Hello and welcome

 

I really thank the welcome my Billy and I have received. The information received from this forum has been super helpful.

To update Billy is adjusting well, as are his housemates to the new routines. We found incorporating routines to pre-existing behaviors smoothest for him.