New here

My 7 yr cat (Orange) was just diagnosed diabetic, and I just wanted to share where we are now.

He was acting pretty normal, but we noticed he was peeing a lot and looking kind of scrawny so we took him in for a vet visit on Tuesday. He had gone down from 13lb to 11.5lb since his regular checkup about 6 weeks ago. The vet tested his blood sugar = 230, said that was a little high but within a stress range and took more blood to run tests. They sent us home with Purina DM and said to put him on a high protein, low carb diet. He refused to eat that, so I picked up another vet recommendation of EVO and he loves it. (He's eating dry food now, he's never wanted to touch wet food every time I've offered it to him since he was a kitten - but we'll try to work on that).

On Thursday the vet called us up and said the lab tests showed much higher glucose levels over the past few weeks and to bring him in right away. They tested him again and read over 400. She prescribed 1 unit of Lantus twice per day and to see him again next week. My poor kitty! You should have seen me trying to steady my shaking hand to give him that first injection. I used to feed him meals twice a day (he tends to overeat), but the vet said to leave food available to him all of the time to try to keep his sugar steady. Well, the first night back from his appointment he ate almost a full cup of food in one sitting.

Since then hes been pretty miserable. He has no energy, will walk over and say hi when I call him and rub up against me a little, but overall just wants to lay down and won't look at any of his toys. And he keeps eating a lot (which really I would expect from him if there is food out). I mean, he's still jumping on the counter for food and walking around fine when I ask him to, he just seems.... sad. We called the vet early today and she said that was normal. When should I expect his energy back?

 

Welcome to FDMB! This is truly the best place to be to help Orange. When Baxter was DX my vet would not let me leave the office until I gave him his shot. I was weaked legged & sweating. I thought I was going to pass out right there in room #3. Then when it was time for his pm shot I put it off for 1 hr. I guess I thought I would wake up from the nightmare. It all gets better with time.

DIET-the sooner you get the dry food out of his diet the better BG numbers he will have. Dry cat food is like chips & cupcakes to humans....it's junk! Like the vet said a diabetic diet should be low carb, high protein. That diet can be found in canned food. Fancy Feast Classics is a perfect example of low carb food. Many memebers feed their cats Fancy Feast. Not all canned food is low carb.
Since you have already started insulin you are going to need to slowly transation to canned food. If you do it all at once you run the risk of a hypoglycemia. Because the BG is high from carbs & once those are removed BG will drop. Then you add the insulin & you have a bigger drop in BG. Please take some time to visit & read this website it will teach you about feline diet. It also has lots of other helpful & knowledgeable information.
www.catinfo.org. Dr. Lisa is the writer of the info on the website. She often visits the board.

HOMETESTING-Are you hometesting? This is very important. It's important for a lot of reasons. The main reason is it helps you know how much insulin to give. It also let's you know how Orange is responding to insulin.
You will always want to test before food. You can get a meter at Walmart. Many members use the Relion brand. The test strips are less expensive then other brands.
Test, feed, shot.

I hope this helps some. There will be other members that will come long with a lot more helpful information.

Jenn & Baxter cat_pet_icon

 

Hi jules and Orange



You can get a human blood glucose meter for hometesting the blood sugar yourself.

Many here use a Walmart Relion bought at Walmart since it is around $9 and less expensive sip strips that goes to the meter.

 

Also, they get pretty crappy when they have high blood glucose, but that usually solves when they are been regulated well on the insulin.

Your vet did the right thing to start low and go slow as we advocate here with the insulin, and 1 U of Lantus morning and night is a good starting dose. EVO is also the better low carb dry food for diabetics to prefer.

 

Thank you for the responses!

My vet had said there wasn't a need to hometest since shes starting him on a low dose and checking how he responds next week. I'll have to look into getting a meter - just a little nervous about it since noone has shown me how to do it in person. Is that something I could hold off and bring to the vet appointment next week so they can show me how its done? Or should I be doing it right away?

Right now I'm reading up on as much as I can.

 

Sometimes there are angels here on the board that happens to live right near by you, and have come over and helped out with showing and learning how to hometest.

But you can bring it up with the vet, mine here at our animal hospital where I live are all pro-home testing.

 

You're vet has been very good up until telling you not to home test!

Think about it this way. If it were a human child, or yourself that needed insulin - would the doctor tell you not to test? No, the doctor would tell you test, before every shot and during the course of the day/night to get readings.

So, I ask, why is it different because the one needing insulin is a cat and not a human?

It's like injecting yourself blindly or driving your car wearing a paper bag so you couldn't see where you were driving. It's silly and very dangerous.

Many vets don't recommend home testing, (my former vet actually forbade me from testing and refused to treat my cat if I tested). And the reason - they don't think we humans are smart enough to test or are too squeamish to handle it. With my former vet, she was only concerned about her liability and a potential lawsuit if I made a mistake.

So, think about it and please consider home testing. It's not difficult to do and it even creates a closer bond between you and your cat. Many cats, learn that treats and good things come with home testing and when we humans forget or are late to test, they remind us. My Maui, would refuse to move from her testing spot, until I brushed her (that was her "treat"). And If I tried to walk away without brushing her, she would stay in the spot and meow at me to get over there and brush her.

 

Vet says not to 'hometest' - I would have to ask why? A human diabetic never takes insulin without knowing what their BG is - why should we treat this differently? The disease is the same, we even use human insulin.

I encourage you to go ahead and get the meter and try it on yourself. It's VERY VERY easy to actually do the test part - doing it on yourself will show you how. Getting blood from his ear may take a bit of time and patience but it WILL happen! And NO, you won't be 'killing your cat'. There are lots of videos showing you how to do this testing.

"Waiting for vet to teach you to do it" - I doubt your vet knows HOW to test like we do using the ears. They usually always use a blood draw from a vein. Human meters aren't calibrated for venous blood, they're calibrated for capillary blood like in the ears. That's not dissing the vet, they can't know everything!

My vet discouraged home testing...I later asked him why and got an honest answer - "Because I don't know how to do it".

BIG HUG! This really gets much easier!

 

Went out and bought a meter. Tried it on myself, then after watching every you tube video I could find showing how to do it moved on to Orange.

This first attmept was about 2 hrs after he had a meal and his insulin shot. Read 291. Thats not horrible for his first couple days on insulin, right?

I'll test again before he gets his next shot tonight.

 

OH WOW!!!! Welcome to the Vampire club!!! I'm SO excited that you got a test the first time!!! WONDERFUL! Oh this deserves a huge happy dance!!!! See....it wasn't nearly as bad as the 'imagined horror' beforehand was it!!

BIG HUG! Treat yourself too!!! YOU deserve it too!!!

Oh I'm just so darn happy about this....

 

Congrats to your first test!

That's a good starting number for you and those that will help you.

 

YAY for the first test! Good job! It is soooo important to test and to log your numbers so you know what drives up/down Orange's BG numbers. Put your city in your profile and perhaps someone that lives nearby can help you a little more.

Good thing you found FDMB. It is the best place on earth for information on FD. And the people here are fantastic too.

Scritches to Orange!! dancing_cat

 

awww.... thanks guys

Luckily, I have a very mushy, cuddly cat that will put up with just about anything from me. My friends were always amazed at how he just sat there nicely when I clip his nails. Hopefully he'll continue to be cooperative now that he knows whats coming.

I added my location to my profile, and I'm starting to think that I should change my screen name to "Julie & Orange". That seems to be the standard around here.

 

Congrats on your first test!!! Whoot Whoot! You did great!

Welcome!

Tanya and Elie

 

Make sure you give him a low-carb treat after each test, and he'll continue to to be cooperative! I get the Beefeaters freeze dried chicken and salmon at PetSmart, and here's a list of some more diabetic safe treats: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9172&p=90450&hilit=treats#p90450

Bandit fought me tooth and claw the first week of testing, but now he jumps in his basket when he hears the meter beep on, lies down, and starts purring. I 100% credit the treats for that. If you had told me in that first week he'd act the way he does now, I'd have told you that you were crazy.

Now that you've started testing, here's a link on how to set up the spreadsheet that many of us use: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207. The spreadsheet is a fantastic resource that charts your cat's numbers so that you can see patterns over time and dosing adjustments can made be based off of your testing. With Lantus, it's recommended to get at least three tests a day--once before each shot, and then another test halfway through one of the cycles. The two preshot tests tell you whether it is safe to give insulin, and the mid-cycle test tells you how much the insulin is lowering your cat's blood glucose.


I know it's a lot of information to digest, but when you get a chance, check out the stickies in the Lantus TR forum: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9. There's a wealth of information that will help you get Orange regulated, and hopefully in remission.

 

Unfortunatley test #2 did not go as smoothly as the first one. The first one must have been beginners luck. The first test I poked him once with the lancet, got an appropriate size drop of blood and the meter gave me a number.

For the second test my husband tried it out. After poking Orange's ear twice he asked me to do it, and it took me 3 more tries to get enough blood and make it work Orange was a trooper though and was very cooperative. He definitely deserves some treats! Julia & Bandit, the link to the treats takes me to the spreadsheet page. Where do I find that list of treats?

I'm so stressed about this now! I'll try to do this once per day for now, but until I get better at it I can't put him through more than that.

I've tried using the lancet both in my hand and in the pen. It seems impossible to aim with the pen trying to hit such a small space between the vein and the edge of the ear, but without it I'm completely inconsistent with how hard to prick. Any suggestions?

And thanks again for the help and support.

 

You are doing great. Testing will get easier and easier the more you do it. I cried for a week or two each time I tested my Ollie. I kept rewarding him with treats of freeze dried chicken. Very soon it got to the point that when he heard me opening the freeze dried chicken package he would come running.....he still does over a year later.

I have also found that using a dab of vasoline helps the blood not get soaked into his fur...just a small dab. Neosporin rubbed on the ear will also help heal it, I usually put some on after his last test of the day and the next morning his ear is perfect.

You'll be a pro before you know it! So glad that you are hometesting...too many horror stories when it's not done. Don't forget to reward yourself...it's not easy being the caregiver. :YMHUG: But so nice to see the patient improving.

 

Whoops! Sorry about that--I've fixed the treat link in my post above!

What gauge lancets are you using? Many of the meters come with 31-33g lancets, but these are not good to start with because it's really hard to get a drop of blood. Grab some 26g lancets instead. Don't worry about the larger lancets hurting more--the tests really don't hurt the cat, especially after the first week.

The tests don't hurt the cat, and you're not putting him through an ordeal (even though it seems like it in the beginning)! The tests will actually help him get better faster, and hopefully into remission. Cat's that are dosed correctly based off those 3 or more daily numbers have an 84% remission rate.

Here's a picture of where you should be aiming:http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m267/chupie_2006/testingear/sweetspot.jpg. I also use the pen when pricking, and what I do is aim the pen so the exact center of the hole in the middle is where I want to prick. Make sure you're backing his ear with a tissue or piece of cotton to make sure the lancet is actually pricking him. If the ear isn't firmly backed, it won't prick deep enough to draw blood. I always prick the inside of Bandit's ear because it's easier to see the where I'm poking. Also, it helps to warm the ear before you test. If you have a rice sock, that will work, or I used a damp washcloth that I heated in the microwave and put in a ziploc bag. After a few months, I got good enough where I didn't need to warm his ear anymore, but it really helps in the beginning.

Just remember, it will get WAY easier! I promise. I was in tears the first week I tested Bandit because he fought me so bad. But I just resolved myself that this was the only way I had a chance of getting him 100% better, so we were doing it and that was that. My vet had also told me that if I didn't home test, we couldn't dose him properly and his diabetes would likely get worse and worse until he passed away, or he could die from hypoglycemia because we wouldn't know if we were giving too much insulin, so I was too terrified NOT to test and that was a huge motivating factor for me as well.

 

You will do great with the testing...it took us a couple of days to get it down. Take a deep breath and find your calm...

In order to get the right amount of blood, we hold some gauze or a folded square of toilet paper behind the ear (on the inside), lightly pinch and hold the area just above and below where you want to prick. This will pool the blood and make it easier to get a good bead of blood. Think of it like when a human gets their blood drawn and the lab tech uses that rubber tie on your arm. As for how hard to prick...you only really need to go about 1-2 mm deep. Our vet says don't worry too much if you accidently go right through on occasion (which I did my first time) :shock: Just apply some pressure for a minute or so... ;-) Our guys ears were a little bruised for a few days, but now he's gotten used to it and there is no more swelling/bruising anymore.

We had such a good laugh at how bad we were with the insulin vial and syringes...it is so foreign to us. :lol: :lol: :lol: We were all thumbs!