Confused - Lost - Figuring it all out

HELP!

I found you guys because I was searching for a bunch of random things online.

Very recently diagnosed because my cat started to walk odd in her hind legs, went to the vet, vet said she was around 450 on her glucose.

Just started YESTERDAY (night) the diabetes injection. I am only on injection 3. I don't know if I am doing it correctly or not. I switched to 100% wetfood from a 85% dry (I now know I messed up) my cat loves it so that isn't a problem at all.

Current situation:
1 Unit twice a day
100% wetfood
THREE cats 13 years, 10 years (the diabetic) and 5 years
Switched all cats to pure wet food
Portion control issue with three cats!

QUESTIONS:

- MONITOR: my head is spinning...I don't make make much money so that is an issue for me. Recommendation?

- THREE CATS: This is the most challenging, separating for feeding, keeping portion consistent...It's not easy any have advice? I tried locking my cat in the bathroom for her to eat her plate, but she gets very unhappy, i open the door and she eats fine, but then the other cats interrupt her. I locked them away, but its scratching (damaging) the door. I don't have much time in the morning, i leave at 530 for 9 hr shifts with 1 hour drive time to work. I live alone, don't have anyone else to do this. ANY recommendation is helpful!

- The spreadsheet is a tad confusing even after reading the stickies...any dumbed down directions?

VERY new to this, sorry if my questions have been answered 10000 times. Also..HELLO!

-Steven

 

Welcome to the best place you never thought you would be.
And thanks for setting up a signature and a spreadsheet.

Back in a minute or two with more.

 

Welcome Steven and your diabetic cat. What is his name? Would you put that info in your signature please?

Sorry, but there have been a lot of emergencies with other people on the board today, so it has taken time to get back to you.

Meter get the one with the least expensive test strips. That is where you are going to be spending money. Do you live in the US? Then many people go to Walmart and buy the Relion Prime meter, test strips, lancets, ketone test strips. If you live elsewhere, will try to get you other ideas from people that live in other countries.

Feeding/food feed all 3 cats the same food. Low cost options in the US include Fancy Feast pate style, Friskies pate style, Special Kitty (wal-mart brand, comes in 22 oz cans) If you live in another country, I can give you links to food for other countries. Let me know.

What those columns on the SS mean is in this link.

What questions do you have on the spreadsheet (SS)? ones that might not be in that link above.

Anything else we can help you with? We like to give individual attention whenever we can, but it gets really busy for us volunteers, especially with the holidays and all. Please be patient with us.

 

Yeah Red & Rover are here. Thanks for popping in to help Steven.

 

Ty! no rush! I am nowhere near emergency status just glad to have others who know what they are doing!

I live in the US so I guess the Relion Prime?
I am currently feeding Friskies pate but I have some flakes/chunks of Friskies wetfood as well. Is the variety a bad thing? I choose the same protein content 10-11% on every can, I avoided all the 8-9%

-Is it best to stick one flavor? My fear is my cat will reject the single flavor and won't eat her normal portion.
-Is a different flavor OK as long as its the same protein content?
-What protein should % should I be striving/min for?

 

Feline diabetes is a steep learning curve. We can help you not become overwhelmed.

That is a sign of peripheral neuropathy. Methylcycobalamin (a type of B12) can help with that. A lot of people here use Zobaline because it does not contain sugar. Some people use Vitacost.

Here is the link to the Food Charts
Food / Feeding

• Links to Food Charts

Any flavour of Friskies is fine as long as it is the pate. 8-9% is fine. You can check the carb % of the flakes/chunks on the food chart. It is the carb count that you need to be concerned about.

With Lantus, you (1) test - to make sure you have a high enough number to shoot; (2) feed – to make sure your cat will eat; (3) shoot.
It is necessary that Navi have some food on board at shoot time. Lantus does not kick in right away. If you can leave food out for Navi, that would be good. A lot of people use timed feeders. Some of the timed feeders need a chip worn on the cat's collar to open. If you freeze portions of the food, it will thaw out slowly throughout the day.

Free feeding is fine but make sure to pick up the food 2 hours before shot time so that your test number is not food influenced.

Lantus needs to be consistent timewise. You want to be able to shoot as close to 12 hours apart as possible. What does your timeline look like?

I'm in Canada. A lot of people in the US use the Relion meters. The strips are inexpensive and you will go through a lot of strips. More than you think you will.

The good thing about living in Canada is that Lantus is cheap. You can order from Canada and save yourself a lot of money. People here order from Mark's Marine Pharmacy. It is a reputable pharmacy. You just need one prescription from your vet to fax to them.

• Ordering Lantus, Basaglar, or Levemir from Canadian pharmacies

I don't want to inundate you with too much information. Ask any and all questions.

 

Relion Prime meter is $9, 100 test strips are around $17.88. 50 will cost you about $9. lancets are <$5 and try to find the ones that are around 26 gauge to start as they have a bigger metal part for poking which can really help when you are learning to home test. Walmart is everywhere, so easy to get to and restock when you need to. Where in NH (I'm in coastal MA, near Newburyport and shop up in Seabrook all the time.

Variety is a good thing! I was always afraid my diabetic would refuse to eat his favorite flavor so getting him to eat other flavors was such a relief.

Friskies pates in multiple flavors are good to have around, especially if you have a picky cat. No reason to weed out those 8-9% carb content of the Friskies. You are looking for foods <= 10% carbs. Walmart Special Kitty ( in house brand, 5.5 oz cans and 22 oz cans sometimes available) is <10% but NOT the ones in gravy or sauce. The Friskies Flaked Tuna is good. Have you found the food chart we use? Sounds like it.

Protein around 40% would be nice but that is not always possible in the lower cost cat foods and you mentioned finances. The higher protein foods are more expensive because they don't have cheap fillers like corn, wheat, potatoes, peas all of which increase the carb percent in foods.More meat means more expensive with cat food.

In NH you need a prescription from your vet for insulin syringes, at least you did years ago when I got them from the Wal-mart in Seabrook.

 

I am having the hardest time posting here...i consistently get errors saying I am doing some sort of spam...help?

 

I'm sorry that you are having problems posting. As I understand it, newcomers can only post x minutes apart. It is to help prevent spammers.

 

SO MY BIGGEST WORRY...and why I freak out so much is over FREE FEEDING....

Since I wake up around 445am and leave for work at 530 and I am away for 10.5 hrs, I need to make sure my three cats are fed. So what i do is make sure my diabetic cat eats her meal while I shower, i put her in the bathroom with me...she eats about 2.5-3 oz then I give her, her shot...The problem is the other two cats! If my oldest 13 year old doesn't have food out, he will eat EVERYTHING and anything..and throw up everywhere. There is always, i mean ALWAYS about 1.5oz -2oz of food left over after the feeding in the morning for hte 3 cats. I have been dumping it out of fear of my diabetic cat nibbling later. She isn't a glutton, she eats her fill, usually around 2.5 oz and stops, but she will go nibble a few later for another .5 oz.

MY LIFE would be so much easier if I knew I could leave the 1.5 -2 oz of food out during the day while im working. Is this feasible? My vet was absolutely no help, and I get why, they are worried about false info etc...its very hard with 3 kitties with 100% differently personalities.

 

I think it's because I double space my lines, I've noticed when I over paragraph I get messages of spam, I take out the double lines, and it goes through.

 

Welcome to FDMB!

Can you be a bit more specific about the error message? We can always get the webmaster to take a look if it isn't the issue that was noted in the post above.

Regarding timed feeders, there are a couple of different models available. The ones that operate on a microchip that will only open for the cat with the chip that will open the feeder are very pricey.

It is absolutely feasible to leave food out for Navis to nibble on. There are many people here whose cat(s) are grazers. Having food out is just fine. As suggested above, some of us will make catsickles (frozen pucks of cat food) so there is food defrosting during the day.

 

That is good to know, for the first couple of weeks I will be super strict and monitor....but i'd love to leave the 1.5 -2 oz of food for the three cats to nibble on. 12 hours is a long time without food for anyone! this would make my life so much less hectic. I just want to make sure my cat goes full regulation and the goal obviously is remission. I just don't want to mess her up.

Unfortunately since I work so early in the morning, I am already giving up so many daily routines like going out after work and sleeping in, since she needs her shot at 530pm for 12 hr consistency. AAAAAH the things we do for our pets!

 

If it's any consolation, I am not a morning person! I also work full time (although my commute time was far less than yours). My cat had an early nadir and was prone to dramatic drops in her numbers. As a result, my shot time was at 5:00 so I could get tests in before I left for work. I adjusted.

The every good deed never goes unpunished aspect of the shot time is that my non-diabetic cat was also getting fed ad 5:00. He now makes sure I'm awake at 5:00 AM by engaging in any number of antics (such as standing and staring at me, walking on me, standing in the middle of my chest, or pulling the covers down). He's also a big cat so having 15 pounds of Norwegian Forest Cat telling you it's breakfast time means serious business.

My cats have me very well trained.

 

glad to know I am not alone in the early morning struggle haha.

Were you able to keep food out or were you strict? any remission at all? My cats are 16 pounds (big bones, wide cat, could lose a pound by he means business) , 15 pounds (very pudgy, needs to lose a few) and 12 pounds (my diabetic girl)

 

We free feed fancy feast or friskes but our lives have become much easier since we started making frozen cat food popsicles for nighttime. We pop them out of the freezer into automatic feeders before bed and holy moly no more 4:30am bag chewing contests between my boys to get our undivided attention that they’re “starving” has been heavenly. We also do this during the day when we’re not going to be home every 3-4 hours to feed them, so it’s definitely something for you to consider. We use silicone ice cube trays.

 

I also do the cubes of canned food in the automatic feeders and I don't know how else I would be able to manage this otherwise !
The good thing is with smaller, more frequent meals you might noticed some weight loss in all of your babies ( in a good way)

 

Thanks so much everyone! with knowing leaving a tad of leftovers out is OK my stress level has gone far down. Now my biggest struggle is the METER...I keep researching and I know I am on a budget, but the ReliOn PRIME seems to get so many bad reviews online. I am looking for real stories, not ill-informed users giving things one star.

Thoughts on METERS?

 

Maybe the Relion Premier line of meters? Came out in 2018.

There is no meter that is going to get 'perfect' reviews. When you look at meters, also think about the cost of test strips. You can go thru 100 test strips pretty quickly.

 

Yea i totally get that....I don't mind spending the extra 25 or even 50 (ouch) a month if i gets accurate within a 10-15% range..I just don't want cheap stuff with huge needles that is more miss/pain than hit/annoyance

 

Maybe check some of the human diabetes forums or try Consumer Reports?

Consumer Reports 2018 meter reviews. Consumer Reports
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:ae50dd6d-69fa-469f-bb82-ba23e67491dc

There is also a thread in the Health Links/FAQ forum with an index of where to find things.as the first sticky post, (always at the top, pinned).

 

Hi!! Welcome to this fabulous site!! My 12 year kitty was diagnosed last month and I am still spinning. If it wasn’t for this site I don’t know what I would have done. Ninja and I are still trying to navigate this but the help here has been lifesaving.

I started home testing with a Freestyle meter but quickly changed to the Relion Premier Classic meter because of the lower price point with the strips. It is super easy to use and I have found it uses less blood than the Freestyle I was using. That has made testing much easier. I get it at Walmart. In the beginning I felt pretty bad for his poor little ears but I realized it was hurting me more than him. lol!! Keep the questions coming. There is sooooo much to learn and asking questions is the only way I am learning about this process!!

 

Navi D, Please remove the country and state from your signature. I mistakenly had you add it and it should not be there. Thanks. Sorry for the bit of extra work.