Welp, We're Here

Hi, I'm Summer and my sweet girl CryBaby (pictured in my avatar) was diagnosed earlier this week during a routine yearly vaccination and wellness visit. She's a few months shy of 17 years old and has otherwise been in fairly good health with just a few small bumps in the road the last 5 years or so...her vet always comments on how great her and her tests look for her age, so this was a real blow to us.

Soaking up all of the information has been overwhelming to say the least the last couple of days, but my husband is helping me stay calm, and I know we have so much more to learn. I know we can handle this...we'd do anything in the world for her...but it's SO scary because I want (NEED!) to be perfect for her and that's terrifying. Our vet has prescribed Lantus for her (and dietetic food that she's transitioning to very well so far) and it hurts my heart to have to stick her each day. I know it's 100 times worse for me than it is for her and I hope to get more comfortable and confident with it soon.

We also have another 5 1/2 year old fur ball in the house, Penny. Other than some urinary issues that we control beautifully with Rx food, she's in great health. Diet control is definitely going to be our biggest challenge with both cats on different food coupled with the amount of time DH and I are out of the house for work during the week...and changing the timing/habits of an almost 17 year old? OOOF!

 

Hi Summer and CryBaby and welcome to FDMB. What a pretty little extra sweet girl you have!

There is a lot to learn but once you get the basics and get over that initial shock and anxiety, and you get into a routine, you may find your self wondering why you thought it was going to be so difficult. Yes there is a need for some changes for everyone and it does take some planning and organization, but you'll be surprised how easy managing CryBaby's diabetes will be.

Many of us have kitties who actuallly come to us at test/shot time! We strongly recommend testing before each shot to ensure it is safe to give insulin along with some mid cycle tests to be able to determine how low a dose is taking kitty and make dose adjsutments. I firmly believe our kitties get to know that what we are doing makes them feel better and they get the bonus of some extra attention too! And don't worry about "sticking" CryBaby. Our cats barely feel either the ear tests or the shots. What they feel doesn't come anywhere close to us pricking our fingers!

As for your other fur baby, Penny and feeding different diets...you don't need to. You don't need to keep Cry Baby on the Rx food. There are many OTC canned foods available that are inexpensive and under 10% carbs, readily available and healthy for both your fur kids. Many folks here use Fancy Feast Classics (Pates if you are not in the US.), Friskies, and 9Lives. If Penny's urinary issues are kidney related (I'm guessing it's more likely crystals given her age), there are many others which are a little more expensive but still good choices and of course you could also go for a raw diet. I'm sure you can find food suitable for the both of them. Let us know where you are located and what the urinary issues are and we can provide you with information about appropriate foods you have access to.

Come join us on the Health forum and ask any and all questions you have. There is an amazing amount of knowledge and experience available here and all you have to do it let us know how we can help even if all you need is a little moral support.

 

Thank you for the warm welcome

You are correct, Penny had some issues with crystals in her urine a couple years back and we switched her to Royal Canin Unrinary SO dry food and she hasn't had any problems since! She won't touch the canned food. As for CryBaby, I've always fed her Fancy Feast Classics and occasionally have seen her nibble on Penny's dry food, but not too much...she mostly sticks to the FF. The vet is having me transition her over to the Purina DM though, but we've only been doing that for the last couple of days since she was just diagnosed this week, so at the moment her mix is still mostly FF. We are in the US (Texas).

 

Also, wanted to add a pic of little miss Penny...she doesn't enjoy having her picture taken.

 

Wow! Penny is quite the looker too! Beautiful fur family you have there! My little sugar is camera shy too so I treasure the pic in my avatar as it's one of the few I've managed to get without her turning her head away or worse. exiting the frame completely!

I can understand the food issue. I have 3 fur kids and my diabetic, much to my chagrin, is the ONLY kibble addict in my house and she tries to bury her brother's soft food if it's within a foot of her food bowl. To boot though, my young boy likes her kibble so sometimes I admit, I feel like a lunch room monitor. There are automatic food dispensers which can be programmed to only allow a certain cat to access although they can be expensive. The other alternative might be to switch Penny over to a dry food such as Young Again (acceptable for diabetics but only available online) but you'd have to check and see if that would be appropriate given her potential for crystals. I'm sure others will have far more suggestions over on the Health board as that's where the majority of folks hang out.

The vet suggesting switching from Fancy Feast Classics to DM makes no sense to me other than to pad his/her pocket book. In all fairness, vets get brainwashed into pushing their Rx foods because most of their nutritional training is done by Purina, Royal Canin and the Science Diet folks. If you check the label on the FF Classics, the ingredients are just as good, if not better than the DM at a fraction of the cost. Many folks have found that while kitty will eat the DM for a short time, it frequently seems to lose favour with finicky felines. Of course, it's up to you what you choose to feed CryBaby but it likely your vet is unaware of the ingredients in FF Classics as there are other FF products that are totally inappropriate for a diabetic and not that great for our civies (non-diabetics) either. I had a vet dental specialist tell me FF was kitty candy and when I asked her which FF product she was referring to, she told me didn't know there was more than one. Sometimes we have to educate our vets.

 

<Shudder>

Several members here, myself included, were feeding the above before our cats developed diabetes (some with comorbid chronic pancreatitis).

Years ago two of my cats developed urinary tract problems so, on the advice of a vet, I fed them an allegedly high-quality urinary protection dry food. As a consequence, Saoirse developed calcium oxalate uroliths which had to be surgically removed. The vet who treated her prescribed the RC S/O dry food for her. In Saoirse's case she remained clear of uroliths while on the food but she struggled to keep weight off despite being on starvation rations of the moderate calorie version. Needless to say I was nervous of her developing urolith problems again as a result of changing her diet after she was diagnosed with diabetes and pancreatitis.

When I first joined FDMB members kindly pointed me to vet-authored site, catinfo.org. Oh, how I wish I had found it when my little ones were kittens because they could have avoided so many health problems. I can't recommend strongly enough that you read through the entire site but, given your current situation, I think the page on urinary tract health would be a good place for you to start. Here's the link:

catinfo.org - Urinary Tract Health

I hope it will help you and your little ones.

I switched Saoirse to all wet, low carb food and added a little water to her meals. She did not have any further problems with either struvite or oxalate uroliths.


Mogs
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Thank you both so much for taking the time to give me the info/suggestions! I'm definitely keeping a list of things to ask the vet and websites to visit for research so we can come up with a good plan for our babies. Really glad I found these forums!

 

When you have the time, you might want to make copies of some of the stickies here so you can educate your vet. My vet doesn't have time to study much. She is at the mercy of sales representatives for information about new products or procedures. My vet likes it when I bring in new things and passes some to other pet parents.