Diagnosed today... overwhelmed but glad to find FDMB!

Boy am I really glad for the internet! My girl Ava was diagnosed today. We have had her for about 8 years and got her as a stray - we think she was 2 or 3 when we got her. She's an amazing cat! She was our baby for many years before we had a human one.

Ava gained quite a bit of weight over the last several years. We moved in December and she started loosing very quickly, 6 pounds in about 8 months. The weight loss despite eating more, excessive thirst, frequent urination with a change in smell, and changes to her coat were clear signs for me... I have 2 sisters with Type 1 diabetes, and my father had Type 1 as well. I was hoping it might just be her thyroid but deep down I sure knew it was going to be diabetes.

I really panicked at first. There's NO way our family could pay for what the vet said we would need -- a vial of Lantus insulin, an Alpha Trak meter and strips, an Rx diet, the 'curve' testing at the animal hospital plus 2 more office visits to learn injections and then BG testing... BUT luckily for my Ava (and my wallet), one sister has an extra meter and test strips and the other has some extra syringes and a backup vial of Levemir she will give me! With that and all the advice on these boards on feeding and testing, I'm confident we can treat her at home.

I'm really hoping that between changing her diet up, treatment at home and all of you AMAZING people, we can get her healthy and into remission soon!

I've been jumping around on the boards all day, but where's the best place to start? Especially how to tell the vet I'm going to use Levemir and do glucose testing at home? It's a new vet for us so I don't really know them well...

 

Hi Shanon and welcome to FDMB. It sounds like you are already gathering information and supplies for Ava. And treatment at home with visits to the vet when needed, is a good way to go.

You don't have to get permission to test at home, you can do your own curves at home and provide that information to the vet. That saves Ava vetty stress which can elevate the BG and give inaccurate information. You also don't need Rx food, we have found that that kind of diet is not actually the best for our sugar cats. Many of us feed Friskies pates and Fancy Feast classics from the grocery store. There are also other low carbohydrate brands that many members can recommend to you. You can visit, and refer your vet to www.catinfo.org.

As far as insulin, perhaps you can present that you have researched this insulin (here on the L&L forum and perhaps elsewhere on the net) and since it's free and available you want to try it. Then, if it works for Ava you can get an Rx from vet and order from Marks Marine in Canada for less cost.

We can provide links to videos for injections and testing, as well as where to find affordable supplies, as needed. One step at time and Ava can be on the path to better health and well being.

So, in my opinion, you are in the right place and have a great attitude that's going to go a long way in your endeavors. I would like to suggest that you start a new thread on the Main Health forum HERE and you can just copy the message here, create your title and paste the message there. More members monitor that Main Health forum and you will get more response, faster.

Then we can start providing the links to videos, more diet information, testing tips...well Shanon, it's a lot of info, but essentially you need it all right now. Are you ready? Heck, I guess you are! You already have the signature made and a spreadsheet set up. You are ready! Good going, looking very forward to helping you and I bet all the others will be too!

 

So glad you are going to home test. Welcome. If we can help let us know. Read the yellow stickies in each forum. That's a good place to start.

 

I gotta give a shout out to your vet, though. They apparently recommended home testing if they told you that you needed an Alpha Trak (which you don't). But good for that vet! So many either say it isn't necessary, or actively discourage it.

 

Read the stickies at the top of the forums. There's an overwhelming amount of information, but try to read through a lot of it and get the basics. You can go back later and reread. The people on this forum have been dealing with diabetic cats for years; your vet likely has no experience being the parent of a diabetic cat. I know who I'm going to trust. Data is the key to understand how to proceed; giving insulin without BG measurements can be dangerous; severe low blood sugar, hypoglycemia, can be deadly. Getting started with home testing will allow the people here to provide the best advice concerning dosage.