Another newbie...introduction

My cat Scooter (8y.o. neutered male brown tabby) was just diagnosed last week with diabetes. I had taken him to the vet a few weeks ago for possible worms...he goes outdoors and hunts, and had dropped a lot of weight since November/ December last year. He had gone from 21 pounds (yes, he WAS overweight!) down to 14 pounds. So, we wormed him and the other cats in the house as well. The vet asked if he had been drinking a lot when I got the worm pills, and I didn't think so. However I started to pay attention and noticed suddenly that he was CONSTANTLY at the dog's water dish, at the cat water dish, in the tub, drinking rainwater...so took him back in and sure enough, blood test showed sugar up in the 300's. He had also dropped another 1/4 pound. The vet has ordered insulin so I am waiting for that to arrive. Today they told me how much Rx pet food would cost, that is not going to happen! I figure all 4 of my cats will have to switch over and I can't pay a hundred bucks a month for cat food. Last year one of my other cats, Romeo, went into renal failure but has been fine ever since without any changes to diet. I recently added canned food for my oldest kitty Thea, she is tiny to start with and was just getting too thin, so she has already started on canned. Scooter tries to break down the bathroom door when I feed her, so I've been giving him just a tablespoon or two of the canned so I can get the bathroom door closed! I guess that worked out, taking dry food off the menu won't be hard since all my cats love it and are not having any troubles with it.

I guess from what I've read so far that the first thing I should do is get a home test kit..any advice on brand and where you can buy it? I'm ok with drawing blood and giving shots (always wanted to be a vet, just went through a lazy stage at a ctirical time and decided 8 years of school was too much! Oh well...), I think my biggest problem will be schedules. We have a big family and are running around quite a bit. Somehow we'll make this work. The canned food I've bought has their crude protein analysis at 10.0% min; crude fiber at 1.5% max. Is fiber what would be considered carbs? Some varieties have rice flour; other varieties don't seem to have any flour or plant products.

thanks for any advice!

 

Welcome Dana and Scooter,

While the diagnosis seemed overwhelmingly to all of us to, it is a very manageable disease. I would get a meter and start testing at home. Scooter was not terribly high, especially when you consider that cats are stressed at the vet and stress raises bg levels. It will help for you to get some numbers at home. Members here like the ReliOn from Walmart. It is the least expensive meter with the least expensive strips (they are the most expensive part of the process) and takes only a small amount of blood.

Changing to low carb may bring Scooter down to much better levels. Many of us feed Fancy Feast and Friskies. Here is a thread with lots of info. We try to feed under 8% carbs.

http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=115

If Scooter is high at home, with the diet change, then you could get insulin.

Just for reference, we consider a cat regulated if they are in the mid 200s at preshot and under 100 at. midcycle. But not under 40 which is hypo territory.

Keep reading and ask questions. We 'd love to help you help your sweet Scooter.

 

The Arkray Glucocard 01 is available from our shopping partner, ADW - link above. Or, you can pick up the branded version at WalMart as the ReliOn Confirm. Uses one of the smallest blood requirements.

For food, we use the % of calories from carbohydrates, not the % of protein by weight. At Cat Info, there is a food list where the manufacturer's values were obtained and the calories from protein, fat, and carbohydrate were calculated.

Friskies pates are the least expensive and I feed them to household of 14 cats.

 

Continuing my reading on diet...so far my generic canned cat food seems to be pretty good quality. There are no 'meals', no soy, corn, BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, no vegetables, no wheat, liver if present is low on the list, the worst thing I see is rice flour, which is about #6 on the ingredient list. I don't know if I'll be able to get a useful nutrition analysis since it is a generic, but it sounds like it should be a lot better than the dry no matter what.

 

Not always, some wet foods (see here http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf) can be very high carb, you want a food that has less than 10%calories from carbs (column C). Friskies pâtés and fancy feast pâtés are reasonably priced options

As BJ said, the Walmart relion or arckray brands of meter are reasonably priced and reliable. Here's a shopping list..

Getting started shopping list
1. Meter ie Walmart Relion
2. Matching strips
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool.
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie Ketostix or ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast


Wendy

 

Hows things going? How is Scooter feeling? Are you testing?