Another newbie......

I have had cats my whole life and this is the first one that has been diagnosed with any sort of chronic illness. My 8 year old kitty named Molly was just diagnosed with Diabetes today. Her blood glucose was 382. Thankfully, she is otherwise a healthy kitty. I'm a nurse and my husband also has Diabetes so this isn't a new illness. I have probably given hundred's of insulin shots; I just haven't ever had to give it to my furry family member before. I think she did better than I did. She is already acting more like her old self and not being as hard to get along with between feedings.

 

Hello and welcome to FDMB. So sorry you find yourself here but so glad you found us. This community is a treasure trove of knowledge and everyone is eager to help in any way they can.

Don't feel bad! As a retired RN I was surprised by how nervous I was and how my hands shook for my girl's first few shots!

Are you home testing Molly? BG levels in felines are often elevated at the vet's office, sometimes by 100 points or more so by home testing you can get a more realistic picture of how Molly is doing and also save on vet bills by doing glucose curves yourself. Most folks here use a human glucometer and the reference numbers in the documentation on this site are based on human glucometer readings unless stated otherwise. There are pet specific meters but they are considerably more expensive to use.

Looking forward to getting to know you and Molly!

 

Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes safely:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.