Elvis is newly diagnosed

Hi, Elvis, my sweet 18-year-old female, just got back from the vet where she was diagnosed with a reading of 525. I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with similar issues and has any suggestions for caring for her. Apologies for the long post that follows!

Elvis has been in poor health for the past six-eight weeks, starting with chronic diarrhea. The vet thought that she might have IBD or lymphoma, but because of her age and general condition, suggested treating her symptoms rather than doing an ultrasound and biopsy. So Elvis got a shot of dexamethasone a month ago, which the vet now thinks made her diabetic.

Elvis has always been a picky eater who prefers her cat food watered down to a soupy consistency, so it was hard to gauge whether her drinking and urinating were very different, especially with the ongoing diarrhea problems. She's been eating only small amounts, frequently. But yesterday she stopped eating more than a mouthful at a time, and seemed nauseated even at just water, so we went to the vet, and here we are. She's lost a lot of weight - she was 13 pounds at the beginning of the year, 11 when she got sick, and is down to 8.5 now.

I have a little experience with this - about ten years ago I had a cat who was diabetic after a steroid shot, who went into remission after a month. The way I found out was from doing my first ever successful home test - Cady's blood glucose was so low, I might have killed her if I'd shot without testing. Instead, she regained her health and never needed insulin again.

So I need a refresher course in all of this, but at least I know already how important it is to test Elvis

The vet recommended 2 units of Lantus, twice a day, to start. When I said that I wanted to home test, she lent me an Alpha Trak meter. I think I've read that those are different from human meters, which I used last time?

This is long winded, so thank you for reading!

 

Welcome to you and Elvis! The alpha trac is a great meter, the only reason more of us don’t use it is the high cost of test strips. What are you feeding Elvis? Is she on any other meds for the possible IBD?

 

Hi, and thank you for the welcome! Elvis is getting leukeran . She was on 2 mg every other day, but the vet said today that we could cut back to twice a week.
Her diet's going to be hard - for years I fed her & her sister grain- free wet food, with a little grain-free dry as a treat. But Elvis won't eat the wet unless it's mixed with water into a soup she can drink. With her recent rapid weight loss, the vet thought that Elvis might have lymphoma, not IBD, so I was feeding her anything she'd eat, including baby food, more dry food, and Temptations treats. I know that ideally she shouldn't eat any dry, but in the short run I'm afraid of her losing more weight too.

 

Welcome Linda and Elvis. You are in the right place for your "refresher" course and to help Elvis get to feeling better. Please take a look around the forums and you will discover lots of information to read and refresh your previous education and experiences. You may want to include what kind of insulin, dosage and what kind of meter you are using in your signature. There are many knowledgeable and experienced members here to help with your questions and concerns, and all of us want to help with support.

 

Does she still have the diarrhea? Have you tried plain canned pumpkin (not pie filling), or the probiotic S. boulardi found in Florastor?

 

Thank you! I will add that to the signature. I really hope she starts feeling better soon. She's been such a trouper.

 

I'm getting error messages every time I try to reply now
My reply is getting tagged as inappropriate & I'm not sure why

 

That is due to some spam filters. Not sure why it happens to some people. Keep trying and if you can’t answer here, try a thread in the tech section.

 

Hmm - not sure what's triggering the spam filter, so I'll try this - she's better. I'm giving her a probiotics but I don't think it has s boulardi in it

 

And she won't eat pumpkin mixed into her food

 

Glad you’re able to post! If you decide to try the Florastor, it’s a human probiotic and can be found in many pharmacies. While she is having diarrhea, give her 1/2 capsule sprinkled in her food twice a day. When the diarrhea goes away, you will continue for 3 more days then go to a maintenance dose of 1/4 capsule for about a week. As for the pumpkin, my cat wouldn’t eat it either, but starting with a tiny amount and very gradually increasing helped some.
Have you started the home testing? We have a great tool to help you keep track of Elvis’ numbers. If you set up the spreadsheet it will really help you and your vet see trends and make it easier to decide on a dose. Here are the instructions to set it up, but if you need help, just ask and someone will do it for you.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

I planned to start trying to home test this morning but when I opened the meter kit, the test strips are expired. so I need to get some.

 

Will you be able to get test strips from your vet tomorrow, or do you have to order them? You mentioned that you used a human meter with your last diabetic kitty. You could just run to the store and pick one of those up and get started.

 

I didn't even think of trying to get fresh ones from the vet - that's a great idea. My vet is closed today but there's one nearby that's open Sundays, maybe I can buy a few strips from them. Otherwise I will head to a drugstore. I don't have any Walmarts near me or I'd get one of the Relion meters which it seems like many are using?