Hello, hello!! Newly diagnosed kitty. :)

Hi everyone!
My Ten year old Harry cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes. The symptoms started about a month ago... But him not acting like himself, (lethargic, not playing, acting depressed.) pushed me to take him in. I was so happy I listened to my instincts! He had small traces of ketones and his labs came back in the 500's. My vet prescribed Novolin at 2 units twice daily. And she wants to see Harry back in 4-6 for his first curve, which I'm dreading.
At the moment I'm not home testing, but plan on to real soon! And I changed his diet, (it was only dry food) even though my vet said to keep it the same. He's eating FF chunky chicken with a little dry food to help wean him off. My vet also said I have to wait to home test my cat after his first curve, and I have to use "special" testing equipment that I can only order through them. Really want to change vets at this point. Lol.
So that's where we're at! I'm still overwhelmed, still need help figuring things out and if anyone lives in the east valley of Arizona can recommend a great vet, please let me know! Thanks! And happy to be here!!

 

Hello and welcome!! Harry is so handsome, and he's lucky to have you looking out for him.

I'm only new here too so I won't offer any advice except to say that the sooner you can start home testing, the better you will feel because you'll know what's going on with Harry's body and can take action accordingly if necessary. Our Ivana was on insulin for about 10 days before we started home testing - she didn't die or anything in the meantime, but we had no idea how she was actually responding to each shot. It's a lot more comforting when you can see the numbers as they happen at different times of the day.

You don't need a special pet meter, my vet said any from the pharmacy would do. The one I got was recommended to me from another member I met up with to learn, and it only needs a really small amount of blood to get a result. It's the Abbott Freestyle Optium Neo. Not sure if it's available in the US though, but it's really simple to use and I'm happy with it.

Also, ask as many questions as you like (I certainly have!) as it's such an overwhelming diagnosis to process. You will be fine

 

Thank you so much, for the supportive response Tara!!! I'll go out and get it done now. And get a spread sheet started.

 

Hi Tara! Harry is a sweetie!!I am new here myself, but I can recommend a few things here real quick. I am taking into consideration that you have done a certain amount of reading here at FDMB.
As for a glucometer, a good share of us buy and use the ReliOn brands from Walmart. None of them are very expensive, and work very well for what we're trying to do.
I personally use ReliOn Prime, which is the cheapest. And because the STRIPS are only $9 for 50 and you will be using those excessively! Trust me. Although I don't hear the Prime mentioned as much as the others, and I don't get that..?...it works great for me & Tucker.
Another awesome advantage to buying Walmart brand...24 hour shopping! Believe me, it comes in real handy.
I wish you well on the Novolin. We used it in the beginning, but my baby didn't respond very well, so with help here at FD, we switched to ProZinc for now.
Wishing you well. Hope to see you around!! -Brenda

 

Please get the testing equipment asap. You have set him up for a possible hypoglycemic attack by changing the food with such a harsh insulin. His dose may drop as much as 2 units by changing the food.

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.

 

Wow, the prime strips are $9 for 50!?? I use the Relion Micro and I think for a box of 100 (2 vials of 50 each) I am paying $37. It would be worth it for me to buy the Prime meter to save on the strips. Thanks for posting this, because every little bit adds up.

 

Yeah, this is very puzzling to me! Prime is never recommended on here. I had problems at the beginning, but they were strictly human error..me!! It wicks the tiniest of blood drops, but yet I see, people want even tinier. I couldn't even SEE a droplet any smaller anyway! Lol. It's the cheapest, does the job and the strips are cheap!
It has my personal recommendation!
My wallet loves it too.

 

Some folks have had issues with the slightly larger blood drop required and with more wasted strips due to that.
Your mileage may vary.

 

The Relion Prime requires

• A small 0.5 microliter sample size gives accurate results in as little as 7 seconds

In the past I have used meters that required 3 ul and 1 ml. Using the 3 ul meter was OK but I wasted few strips because if not filling them. With the 1 ul meter I had no problem.

 

What's a mileage mat?

 

Oops. Sorry! I see what you're saying,.

 

Thanks Larry. I've never had a wasted strip since I got the hang of it, even when I thought I would. A couple times, when I felt the drop was super tiny, I retested though, just to be sure the reading was accurate.

 

I started out with the prime and had difficulty getting blood, so switched to the micro. Now that he's bleeding easier, I'll go back to the prime when I run out of the Micro strips. I like that the Prime gives me more info, such as time the sample was taken. Sometimes I forget what time I did it in the AM! I checked Colin yesterday with both meters and they were nearly identical