A new Australian diabetic "parent" seeking some help..

Hi all

I am the mother of a newly diagnosed diabetic cat (Max) which let me say when diagnosed it was a big shock. My beautiful 7 year old boy started to show signs late last year - weight decrease from 9kg (yes - I know he is a rather large cat but most of it big bones) to 7.5kg, eating more than usual, drinking a considerable amount and peeing a lot as well as being generally unhappy. He was tested about 4 weeks ago and had a blood glucose QVH of 23.27 which according to the vet is high. He has just come back from a 3 day stay at the vets where they started him on the insulin program and got his levels stablised. We are now starting his home program of shots - twice a day and coming from a person who nearly passes out anytime a needle comes near her it has been a challenge.

After a great suggestion from my partner who highly recommended Forum's as a great area for information and support I found this site and will be looking forward over the next couple of weeks reading the considerable amount of discussion/information/suggestions to become informed on what I need to do for Max. I would appreciate any general advice from other diabetic "parents" as this is very daunting.

Leissa

 

Re: A new diabetic "parent" seeking some help..

Leissa,

Welcome. You have found a great community where you will definitely get a bunch of support. Read, read, read and read some more - see the main website (if you have not already) for links to a ton of information on feline diabetes. http://www.felinediabetes.com/

You will find we are curious group and want to know all about your kitty and your treatment program.

What is your kitty's name? What insulin are you using and how many units are you giving at each shot?

Are you hometesting your kitty's blood sugar? If not, you may want to consider starting - it is a powerful tool when managing diabetes in humans or animals.

What are you feeding your kitty? - you will find much support here for a low carb (wet food) diet. see Dr. Lisa's website for information feline nutrition http://catinfo.org/. However, if you are feeding dry, and switch to wet, you will find that your cat may need less insulin so please do not switch until you are hometesting.

You can do this. It is very daunting in the beginning, with a steep learning curve but completely manageable once you get through the initial weeks. There are always people here to offer support and answer your questions.

Your kitty is lucky to have such a pro-active pet "parent".


Edited to Add - oooooooops - I see that you already told us your kitty's name - Max. Sorry for missing that.

 

Re: A new diabetic "parent" seeking some help..

Hi Leissa and Max

Welcome to the FDMB!

Yes, start with covering some of the questions just asked:

what insulin are u using and dose.
What food are u feeding
Are u home testing
plus, any other health issues Max may have, how was diabetes diagnosed at the vets? what tests were done?
By the way, where are u located? Country, state, province is fine. The board has members from all over the world, so some time zones may be different, therefore, there is always someone on willing to help out.

You'll find this board very helpful and a valuable source for parents of diabetic kitties. Take your time digesting all the info, it will be a bit overwhelming, but you've already taken several steps in the right direction to help your kitty Max.

 

Re: A new diabetic "parent" seeking some help..

thanks for the responses....I have the below further information on the treatment for my boy..

The insulin is called Lantus insulin glargine (rbe) and I give him 2 ml twice a day. I have changed his dry food to the Royal Canin Diabetic (on vets advice) and have now introduce standard wet food into his diet (after advice from the vet that wet food is Ok). I am not home testing - the vet has indicated that for the first month of being on the insulin that he needs to be brought in once a week for an entire day so they can test the levels 3 times during that day. After this I am sure that the vet wants him brought in for periodical testing but there has been no mention of me monitoring at home or the way forward .

The tests were initially a blood and urine test by the vets that indicated high levels and then a further labatory test on fructosamine resulting in 595 umol/L.

It is all very confusing as the vet tends to speak "technical" as apposed to simple so I am having to reasearch myself in order to fully understand the entire concept of diabetes.

Thankyou for the link to the nutrition site as I am very keen to see what is the best food for the cat and I am also wanting to make sure that my other cat (Molly) does not develop the same condition. The size of Max is apparantly one of the causes of his diabetes. Molly is also going to be eating diabetic food as its very hard to feed two different types of food as they both eat in the same area. Both cats are purely indoor cats and as a result do not get enough exercise to keep them a healthy size which is why I think Max is perhaps a little big even though he is a large build cat. Molly even though only 18 months old is starting to develop a bit of a bulky frame so I guess it is time to get preventative.

We live in Canberra, ACT, Australia

Leissa and Max

 

New Lantus user in Australia

Lantus is a very good insulin. I'll let people who are experienced with it bring up the details.

Food: Wet food is more than OK. Wet food is what you want both your kitties to be eating. No dry, if at all possible. Wet will be the best for Max's diabetes, and will keep Molly healthy. They also will get to a healthy weight much more easily on wet food than on dry.

Most vets don't tell you to hometest, but you don't need the vet's permission to do so, and a lot of vets are happy to see the testing results, after you have some. Testing really will give you the best possible control over Max's diabetes treatment. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't dream of treating diabetes without testing.

We have a few members from your part of the world. Let's hope they see this subject line and check in. (It wouldn't hurt for you to put "Australia" in your original subject. I can't edit it for you, but you can edit your own post.

Welcome to a wonderful resource and a very supportive bunch of people!

 

Thanks Megan's mum.......I have been very confused re the wet versus dry food debate and my vet seemed to prefer dry. Would seem I have SO much to learn re treating and managing Max's condition and am excited about the amount of reading on this site....will be keen to hear from some Australian members on some good wet food..


Leissa and Max

 

Another great resource is Janet and Binky's food charts. Over many years Janet, with the help of other FDMB members, has compiled nutritional information such as carbohydrate and protein content of both dry and wet foods. Here is a link to her Non-US charts -

http://binkyspage.tripod.com/nonusfd.html.

I am not sure if any of these are available in Australia - it looks like Whiskas is available in NZ so maybe it is available in Australia, as well.

Please also take a look at the Stickies in the lantus forum for information on how Lantus works.

viewforum.php?f=9

There is much to learn in the beginning but knowledge is power in the treatment of this disorder.

Ask as many questions as you need to.

 

Hi Liessa,

Welcome to the group - we do have another Aussie over on the lantus forum - Andrew & Mim - you may want to contact him about finding local foods and such.

You wrote that you are giving 2 ml lantus - do you mean 2 units? As 2 ml is an awful lot of insulin.

As for what you need to do, I'm going to give you my general welcome speech.

This forum is a great place to gain knowledge and really learn how to manage feline diabetes. By doing just a few things each day (that really won't take up much of your time at all), you won't need to worry about losing your precious cat, not where feline diabetes is concerned.

There are three key factors to managing diabetes: food/nutrition, home testing and insulin

1) Feline Nutrition: Now, as far as diet - definitely dump the dry food (if you are feeding any) and if the vet recommends purchasing prescription food like DM just say "no thank you". ALL cats, and especially those with diabetes, do best on a species appropriate diet that is high in protein and low in carbs. Dry food DOES NOT fit that bill and DM food, even canned, just really isn't that great as far as quality. Most here on FDMB feed low carb/high protein canned, raw bought from a pet store or they make there own.

Here great links, one is to a food chart put together by one of our board members that breaks down the carb % and protein % of most of the commercial brand foods. You want to keep the carb % below 10% and around 7% is great. The other link is to a site by a vet "Dr. Lisa DVM" ... who also posts on this board from time to time ... there is in-depth info. there about many things, including nutrition and how to make raw food.
Nutrition/food info

The good thing with feeding your diabetic cat this way, is that it is ALSO good for any non-diabetic cat too. All your cats can safely eat the same food without worry and it may save you some costs and headaches of having to do separate feedings and keeping track of what they are eating.


2. Home testing: It is impossible to convey the value of testing your cat's BG (blood glucose) level at home. Some vets will "suggest" this, but most won't even mention it. They will send you home with insulin and an amount to shoot and maybe some instructions about hypoglycemia (blood sugar dropping to a dangerously low level).

Well, the thing is, human diabetics don't EVER give themselves insulin without checking there BG to make sure it is safe to do so, so why shouldn't it be the same for our kitties. Here on FDMB it is. You will notice that the vast majority of people here test their cat's BG at least 2x/day (before giving each shot to make sure the level is safe enough) and periodically at other times to see how the cat is responding to the current dose. We use a human glucometer, test strips and lancets - which are all very readily available and easy to use.

Our kitties get lots of love and treats for "putting up" with this and most of them actually come out to be tested on their own 'cause they want those treats . Here is a collection of great links that "Carolyn and Spot" pulled together about hometesting. See what you think ... it truly is the best way to not only keep Your cat safe but also really get a handle on this disease and help him to live a healthy life with FD (feline diabetes).

Home testing Links

3. Insulin: There are several types of insulin available. Many people, myself included use Lantus or Levimer both of which are great insulins. They are gentle insulin and given twice (BID) per day in 12 hour increments.

Please read up on the insulins available, here is a link to the Insulin Support Groups:

Insulin Support Groups

However, one caveat and again this shows how these three things are inter-related:


If you are feeding dry food or even a high carb food, BEFORE removing these foods, please make sure of your insulin dose as it will most likely need to be reduced, so as to avoid a possible hypoglycemic situation due to the removal of the dry/high carb foods that will lower the BG’s and reduce the amount of insulin required. Again, another reason why home testing is important.

I know this all seems like a lot, and that's because it is ... there is a learning curve here. But as long as you are determined and keep at it, you will have it down before you know it and you'll be seeing the results in Your cat' overall health and happiness. Ask all the questions you can think of - that's why we are here!

 

Re: A new diabetic "parent" seeking some help..

Hi Liessa, and welcome!

Let me try to deal with your statements and questions one at a time:

We have people in Melbourne, Sydney and, I think, Adelaide. I'll send off some messages and see if they're around. Meanwhile, please post your location on the Community forum as some of them visit only there.

Gia & Quirk (GA)

Guilt trips are a detour from life

 

hi Leissa,

We are in Geelong VIC so are in the same time zone. Welcome to the FDMB and the diabetic dance - this site and its users have some great info and support - you are not alone.

On hometesting -- we got a glucose meter at the local chemist that handles lots of the local diabetic people in the community. We did this because Loki gets really stressed at the vets and won't eat or drink - which of course throws his BG all over the place. He would then come home - scoff every bit of food he could find - drink - throw everything up and collapse -- as well the vet was charging us a small fortune for this. We find that we can get a full curve on him now wthout too many issues - this gives us an idea of how the insulin is doing in him and if we have to increase or decrease his dosage (and talk to our vet about it). The vet also loves it that we are hometesting him and the hard copy of the data is useful to them. THe vet was quiet happy that we started hometesting on our own as they did not suggest it and no one else in the area are doing this.

Supplies -- best place I haave found price-wise is the office of the state Diabetes Association - they would not let me enrol him though which would have made it even cheaper! Howver syringes and test strips (always pricey) are cheapest there.

Any other Australian specific questions you may have that we may be able to answer please let us know?