Hello from a recently diagnosed kitty and me :-)

Hi everyone!

Happy to have found this site while searching for "diabetic cats" immediately after coming home from the vet on 21st August 2015 with a diabetes diagnosis for our 17 yr old Russian Blue kitty Ivana. I've spent a bit of time on the Facebook group but have just done up a spreadsheet for Ivana and will start posting here too.

A bit about us: Our household consists of Ivana (who is queen of the castle, of course), my hubby Darryn (Ivana's willing slave), four ducks (Bill & Ted and Thelma & Louise), five chickens (Chablis, Midori, Shiraz, Chardonnay and Jane), and currently two foster bunnies (Benedict & Bartleby) and two foster guinea pigs (Nicholas & Muffy).

We adopted Ivana from the RSPCA 15 yrs ago, and she has been in perfect health (although a somewhat portly) up until this diagnosis. Well there was that time we discovered she is intolerant to grains by accidentally buying the wrong dry food, but that was our fault...

Ivana's diagnosis was the result of Darryn's watchful eyes picking up that she was drinking a lot more than usual. The vet said we caught it really early so she has no kidney damage, thank goodness. She had also had some thinning fur around her hips on either side of her spine, which we thought was just part of her moulting, and didn't worry about it. Apparently it's also a sign of diabetes though, and the good news is her fur has returned to normal since being on insulin. The vet has said that there is a good chance she will go into remission due to such early treatment, so while we're hopeful of that of course, we're also prepared to be in it for the long haul if need be.

We're giving her 1.5 units of Lantus twice per day (vet told us the dosage). We also started home testing yesterday thanks to the wonderful Bron & Sheba showing us the ropes, and I've set up Ivana's spreadsheet with the few numbers we have so far.

As this is my first post, and I know that info in the signature is used to help with questions, can someone please tell me if I've got the right info there and if the spreadsheet looks ok? Thanks!

Looking forward to getting to know you and your kitties

Tara & Ivana
Central Coast (near Sydney), NSW Australia

 

Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

And I can see your spreadsheet perfectly. The signature is good, too, since it specifies country and options differ by country.

 

Hi Tara, Darryn and Ivana!
A very warm welcome to FDMB....it is great to see you here.
Your spreadsheet looks really good and the info in the signature is spot on!
It looks like you are managing the testing and injections well.
It was lovely to meet you all yesterday.....Ivana is gorgeous. I hope she has recovered from her little adventure. She was such a good girl.
@Chris & China look who has posted on FDMB!

 

You've done great Tara!!!...and Welcome to the FDMB!!

So happy to see you here and that you're ready to really start helping Ivana towards a happier and healthier life!! Was really thrilled to find that Bron was near enough to you so she could help "show you the ropes" too!

Ivana is absolutely gorgeous!!

Since you've already got your spreadsheet started, your signature line perfect and are ready to go, I'd like to invite you to start posting over in the Lantus and Levemir Forum. You'll get the most experienced people (all use either Lantus or Levemir) to help guide you along the way.

Each day you start a new post (we call them condo's) and put the Date, cats name and the AMPS number in the subject line. (as the day goes on and you get more tests in, you just "edit" the subject line and add the new tests) If you look in the forum, you'll see lots of examples. For you, today's subject line would look like this 9/5 Ivana AMPS 283,+6 295 (and when you get your next test, you'd just add that)

In the body of the post, first put the link to the prior day's post...that makes it easy for people to quickly go back and see what's been going on with Ivana....then just give the "Whole Cat Report"...things like how she's eating, how she's feeling, anything you think will help us get to know you and her better, as well as any questions you have.

We are very much a family over in the Lantus/Levemir forum, and I hope you'll join us! Reading other people's posts will also help you learn, as well as maybe bring up questions you didn't know you had!

 

Thanks for your kind welcome! I'm about to head over to the Lantus and Levemir Forum to do my first post. I also just wanted to know if it's possible to turn the numbers in my spreadsheet into an actual curve graph? I fiddled around with it but couldn't make it happen, I figure someone might have done all the hard work already.

 

I know others who have done it, but here, we really don't use curve graphs like that...the spreadsheet is color coded so it makes it easier for us to see "patterns" in the numbers to help make dose decisions on

 

Oh it was purely for my own benefit to help me visualise her curve, not as a replacement for the numbers to post here.

Also, for the post in the L&L forum, it looks like I need to use US numbers, yes?

 

We have a spreadsheet which automatically does the math and puts the mg/dL results on a 2nd page. If you select Insert, Chart, you can specify a range for graphing.

Instructions are here.

Understanding the spreadsheet/grid:

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning, pre-shot, test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening, pre-shot, test)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

The nadir is the lowest glucose between shots. There is a general period when it will happen which is specific to the insulin being used and testing then helps make sure your cat doesn't go too low.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.

 

There's a "World" spreadsheet that you can use that will automatically convert the numbers to the US versions

 

Thanks BJM, I will check out the app for graphing. The spreadsheet is such a great setup, and the colour coding makes it easy to see everything at a glance.

 

Hi Tara,
The first link is for most cat foods and was compiled in the US I think
hppt://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

This one has to do with fish
http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-fish-is-dangerous-for-cats/

This is the list I did a few months ago and is for Australians.. Scroll down 10 cats until you come to Sheba and that is the list
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/food-links.133016/

Let me know if what you are looking for isn't there

 

Thankyou Bron, much appreciated.