dealing with new diagnosis and using this forum!

Hi All,

I have NEVER posted to the forum or been involved with a forum but really felt like I should post this message.

For those who are new to the diabetic cat diagnosis or cat forum, I wanted to tell you to use this forum. I have found it the most useful website for dealing with cat diabetes. While I have never reached out to a person or posted a question on this forum (and probably never will except this one!), I have found all of your insights to be so helpful that I needed to break my rule and post on a forum!

For the newly diagnosed cat owner, my first thought is EVERYONE has an opinion and everyone has things to say. Just take a deep breath. Don't feel the pressure of the vet telling you to act immediately. Yes, it could be crucial to save your cat's life but it also might not be crucial. Treating diabetes is a kitty life-long decision and THERE IS NOTHING WRONG IN THINKING ON HOW YOU WANT TO HANDLE IT!!! I REPEAT, YOU ARE NOT A BAD OWNER FOR TAKING A DEEP BREATH (EVEN A WEEK OR TWO) AND THINKING ON HOW YOU WANT TO PROCEED!! Okay that being said. I spent the first 1-2 weeks reading tons of posts from people, looking up different vet sites, understanding the whole treatment. My questions to myself were: How can I do twice a day injections while working full time and being a parent and having a life, how can I afford the insulin, the testing, will I be a "obsessive cat lady forever" by going down this road. These are all good questions!

Every cat is different and the best thing you can do is try understanding it all so that you can be your cat's or YOUR advocate. I will give my story in case somewhere there is someone reading this and it helps them make them feel not overwhelmed or helps make their treatment decision. I realize my story is different than so many of yours, but maybe it's helpful to just 2-3 people and that is why I am posting! My 12+ year old cat was diagnosed with diabetes in the spring 2018. He had started losing weight quickly. Being a plump 20 lb cat, it wasn't a shock that diabetes came to him. Before people think...how did you get your cat so fat (please don't judge--that is one of the hardest parts of forums), I will say that you can't control your neighbors and what they feed (even when you ask them not to). Even after making him an indoor only cat, the damage was done. He was overweight and wow, shocker, he had diabetes (450 blood glucose level). My first step was RESEARCH (this forum). I recognize that diet does not need to break the bank!!! Friskies Pate!!! I went to the website https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf that you all recommended and found the flavors that are the best. Shockingly the Costco Friskies variety pack is FANTASTIC! Granted my cat turns his nose up at some of them but he eventually will eat them--hey if you are hungry, you will! Unfortunately, diet alone did not fix the problem. It did lower the blood glucose a bit, but still had to decide on insulin. After doing more research, I decided to go with Lantus insulin. While expensive, it seems to be the best insulin around if your goal is remission. I will admit my goal was 100% remission! I decided I wanted to go with low dosage twice a day. Reading the forum, I felt 1 unit twice a day for 1-2 months seemed reasonable and the vet understood that I wanted to start small. I work and monitoring the cat for issues, wasn't in the daily ritual!. Guess what, WALMART sells the solo star pen as an individual pen for $95!!! Fast forward 2 months, the cat stopped losing weight, and was "playing and running" (Gasp!). I took him in for a fructosamine test (at 6 weeks) and a urine test. Levels were WAY down. However testing the cat once a month seemed like a lot of money. I decided to order the hydrophobic cat kitty on amazon and a small tray so that I could periodically check his urine for no glucose. A few weeks later.....no glucose in urine, back to the vet for a fructosamine reading of 217. One month later still no glucose in urine and fructosamine reading of 227. Vet decided to do 1/2 unit for a week and went off insulin. One month later he is still doing fine and I check his urine every 3 weeks for glucose in it. Still none but I am ready for if he slips out of remission. For the record, on wet food only, he is down to 15 pounds and exercising regularly (laser). I miss my fat cat a bit though as this skinny diabetic remission cat has now become a nocturnal exerciser and man I miss the sleep!

So in a nutshell I took a cat that only ate dry cat food, weighed 20 pounds, newly diagnosed diabetes to a svelte nocturnal maniac that turns his nose up at times atfriskies pate (except for salmon dinner and flaked tuna). For the record, don't be discouraged if you have other cats in the household! As many of us know, diabetic cats lose their jumping abilities due to week back legs. I still feed the other cat dry food but I put it high on the laundry room counter--works like a charm.

Sorry if I bored anyone or offended. My intention was simply to help someone who stumbles across this forum by accident, overwhelmed with their diagnosis and just plain feeling like "what to I do". I am one person who felt that way and feel so happy that I took the hours to read through the many posts on this forum

 

Glad you broke your silence. Great that your cat is doing so well!

 

I am so grateful for this post. This is my first forum as well. Im praying everyday for remission myself. It is very overwhelming, I myself feel like a "cat lady." My cats have their own room, a huge basket of toys, indoors only, had plenty of treats, stairs to run up and down-yet I fed them the wrong food and now Nermal has gotten to 11 pounds. He used to be heavy picking him up. I never realized he was overweight before. He always looked beautiful to me. Im glad you posted.