Freshly diagnosed

Hello all, new and old,

My rescue, Rai (short for Sarai) was recently diagnosed with FD on Thursday last week. While I'm not unfamiliar to medical situations, having feline conditions hasn't been a strong suit for me. My first adult pet, Puma, passed away about 5 years ago due to a misdiagnosis of FIP (she was 12 years old) and I believe she went into renal failure. Fast forward to now, my second rescue, only recently developed diabetes. When I got her, I was told she was spayed and everything was up to date. Almost immediately I noticed she was displaying estrus symptoms that she shouldn't. I took her in, and the vet assured me that they could do a 'side' cut and that she was spayed. I still was uneasy about it but she wasn't displaying a full blown estrus cycle so I monitored her over the course of a few years ( she never went into these symptoms around the typical mating season for cats so it was hard to pinpoint). This last cycle, I was able to get her in during her episode to where the vet was able to see that there was in fact an in tact uterus and she had pyometra. We removed it immediately. Her pre-surgery blood work was normal as well as her post surgery blood work. That was back in April. She was fine up until about three weeks ago, when I noticed she was peeing excessively when she rarely used the litter box before and she was following me around the house, begging for water. I took her in this past Thursday, blood work came back Saturday, and she was diagnosed. I believe they want me to start on Lantus injections, and he mentioned something about prescription dry food but I'm going to decline that as it's high glycemic and counter productive to a good diet for her.

I'm very grateful to have a group out here that has the information and support that this group provides so thank you very much for having me and nice to meet you all.

 

Welcome!

 

Hi and welcome to both of you.
Rai is a beautiful kitty! So glad you were able to sort out her other issue.....poor darling!
Lantus insulin is a great insulin for cats but the prescription dry food is not good at all and totally unsuitable for feline diabetics....it's too high in carbs.
You need low carbohydrate canned/wet food 10% or less carbs, that you can buy in the supermarket. There is no need to buy the prescription canned food. It is no better than ordinary canned food and is a lot more expensive.
Here is a link to suitable foods
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/links-to-food-charts.174182/

We also recommend you home test the blood sugars to keep Rai safe when giving insulin. Here is a link on how to do it
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

Scroll through all the yellow stickies for information and on the FAQ page.
Ask lots of questions as it is a steep learning curve in the beginnning.....and can seem overwhelming, but there are many people here who have been in your position and understand.
Post next time on the main forum page where there are many more eyes to help you. Here is the link..
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

 

Welcome to the board. Good call on declining the prescription food, there are better options out there. So very sorry to hear of Rai's other health issues. I hope all has been resolved on that front. I echo Bron's advice and assure you that this is a very good place to learn to manage the diabetes. Ask questions, read the information ( I went back and read many times because it's a lot to learn and absorb at first) and before you know it you and Rai will be in step in the sugar dance.

One note, be sure you are home testing before your change to low carb wet food, as this lowers blood glucose. This may affect the correct insulin dosage and you don't want to send Rai into hypoglycemia. We weren't testing as we should have been and Idjit's BG went down fast on the low carb all wet diet. I happened to be testing at the right time and caught him going down, and was able to help him before it became dangerous.

 

Thank you all for the advice. Where should I ask questions that I'm sure have been asked a million times? I haven't been testing her as I'm waiting to hear back from the vet to get insulin. I'm working on getting her the pens instead of syringe vial because the s.o. is a little squimish and anxious about that and I don't want him to have a hard time. We will be doing the Glargine for sure though. Should I just be putting out a 1/4 cup of dry for her in the meantime so that her sugar doesn't get too low?

 

You can post in the Main Forum http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/
It doesn't matter if the questions have been asked before, this is all brand new to you and we are glad to help. You can start testing now, get all of you used to the process, and start tracking the numbers in the spreadsheet we use. You will have a head start on most of us in the beginning..we gave the insulin and then learned to test. Ideally, they go hand in hand, together.

 

@Idjit's mom Thanks so much! I tried posting in the forums about a quick question with diet when I first get started but it wasn't letting me (marked as spam or unfit for posting). I did try to search the forums for this but I didn't get quite the exact same question I needed. I know it was mentioned to be cautious about switching her over to wet without testing her levels, which I kinda accidentally had. I was wondering if I should give her a little bit of dry (less than a quarter cup) a day until we get her on a normalized schedule. In a support group over FB, it was also suggested to give just wet food for a week while monitoring her to see if levels came down with a more healthy diet. Is that a good suggestion? I'm confused on what to do for this week while I wait for the insulin.

 

I'm sorry you haven't had success with posting in the Main Forum. Please give that another try, so that more members can help answer your questions. Just go the the forum list, and the Main Forum is directly below this forum (Welcome to the Group )

It is advised to be cautious transitioning from dry to low carb wet food when you have already begun injecting insulin, because the low carb food lowers the BG. You don't have to worry about a hypo if you are not giving insulin yet, however, a good record of the BG numbers is a factor in how large, or small, the insulin dosage would be. What kind of insulin are you waiting for? What is the dosage that the vet prescribed? I am not qualified to answer dosing questions, but there are many experienced members here who are.

So, for now you can start Rai on the wet food diet, continue to test and record those numbers. We have a spreadsheet here that we use and members can refer to it when you ask for advice. If you have trouble with setting it up, someone will help.

Two links for you:
Signature, this is the lines of info on your cat that members can see with each of your posts, so you don't have to repeat and they don't have to keep asking

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Spreadsheet: There are 3 yellow tagged stickies/info The Basics, Setting up the Spreadsheet, and Understanding the Spreadsheet

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/suggestions-tech-support-testing-area.6/

And please do post in the Main Forum, I want you to get the very best help you can, and be as successful as possible caring for Rai.

 

@Sarai

The syringes are preferable to the pens as we recommend going up in 0.25 unit increments when increasing the insulin dose. You are unable to do that with pens. I think they go up in 1 unit increments which is too much for cats .....although most vets increase in 1 unit increments ...but we think it is much safer to do it in the 0.25 unit increases.