Belle says "Hi!"

My cat Belle is 15 and was just diagnosed with diabetes in early June. She receives 2 units of insulin twice a day. It's been emotionally overwhelming, I've already cancelled my vacation plans for this year and financially it has been difficult for me; and it hasn't even been a month since she's been diagnosed yet. You can follow our journey on Instagram @bellethetabbycat .

 

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:

- 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 keeps your cat safe and 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. We record them on a grid; instructions are here.

- 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.

 

Welcome Belle

 

Hello and welcome. Many ways to cut your costs down. Alls you need from the vet is the prescription for insulin which can be bought elsewhere for cheaper and some states require prescription for syringes and those can be bought online or at pharmacy's for a lot cheaper than the vet.