Hello My name is Mr. Higgins!

Hello! My name is Lianne and back in November 2015 I rescued Mr. Higgins with the help of Ninth Life Cat Rescue from being euthanized from an animal shelter. I am not too sure of his past but from the looks of him, it seems he was once someone's cat but he had been living outside for quite sometime.

Last month he had to undergo emergency surgery because he had a blockage in his intestine. After the surgery, we also discovered that Mr. Higgins is diabetic.

He's an amazing cat... loves snuggles and his head scratched.. loves to play. There's not an aggressive bone in this cat's body. He just wants someone to love and someone to love him back!

Feline Diabetes is totally new to me and was hoping to get some advice from this website!

The vet is having a difficult time finding the right amount of insulin to stabilize his levels. When he was diagnosed his insulin number was 21.

We just started him on 4 units of caninsulin twice a day and he's eating science diet d/m dry food. I am hoping to get a blood glucose monitor this weekend and start taking record of his levels. I just want him to feel better I am trying to feed him a couple times a day and spread it out as much as I can. He drinks so much water and he's like a fountain when he pees. I have to really have muscles when cleaning the litterbox because it's so wet.

Thank you for reading

 

Hi and Welcome! Glad you found this site. There is so much information to receive here. First, I just want to say that 4 units is a lot of insulin to be started on. Most cats are started at 1 to 1.5 units. So it will be very important that you start monitoring ASAP. We all use a Spread Sheet (SS) to keep track of the numbers and so that the people here can help you with dosing advice. I will link how to set that up . Our spreadsheet instructions are here. If you click in my signature you will see Bubba's SS ad you can click on it and see what one looks like. I will also give you an explanation of how to read and use it:

AMPS is the AM Pre-shot test (always test before shooting to make sure they're high enough to give insulin)...then the U column is for "Units" (how much you gave)

The +1, +2, +3, etc are for how many hours since shooting...so +2 is 2 hours after the AM shot, +9 is 9 hour after, etc.....Since we're all over the world here, saying "he was at 148 at 8pm" doesn't tell us anything...we need to know how long since his last shot

At the end of a 12 hour cycle, it's PMPS time! (PM Pre-shot) and the whole thing starts over.


A few questions for you. Do you know what his Blood Glucose was at the vets? And, after the surgery, did they happen to put him on a steroid? Are you in the US?

Also, we recommend wet food that is under 10% carbs and usually the dry food is too high. And that said, don't transition to wet food until you can get the monitor and start testing because just switching to wet food from dry can actually make the Blood Glucose (BG) go down as much as 100 points.

foodchart

This is the US food chart, if you are not in the US let us know and we will link you an appropriate one.

Also, there is lots of good food information here
http://www.catinfo.org

Please familiarize yourself with what a hypo event looks like and put together a hypo kit so you are prepared. The information is Here .

Ask any questions you might have as that is how we all learned and we are here to help you. You are a good bean to rescue Mr. Higgins from a shelter and to take this journey with him! I know this is a lot of information and hope it doesn't overwhelm but, obviously you want to know how to help Mr. Higgins.

 

Welcome Lianne and Mr Higgins! It's so wonderful that you rescued Mr Higgins! He is a beautiful cat. There are so many wonderful people on this site that can help you with any questions you may have. It's great that you are getting a meter and will start testing. That is the best way to keep Mr Higgins safe and get his glucose under control. Bobbie gave you several great links, but If you have any questions on how to test, or feed, post on the Health Forum. Again, Welcome!

 

Oh, thank you so much for all this information!

I should've been more specific.. we started him at 1 unit twice a day then he did a glucose curve at the vets and it went to 3 units twice a day and then they did another glucose curve and he went to 4 units twice a day. I am super scared of a hypo event happening I could hardly sleep last night since it was the first time I gave him 4 units. The vet said this is the most they will give to him so they hope it makes a difference.

I am actually in Canada but I do see a lot of the same food on the US list. Not sure if you have a Canadian one.

I am told his glucose number is 21 when he was first brought in. Does this make sense? This was before insulin.

After his surgery, he was put on an oral antibiotic, an oral pain reliever and some cream to put on his incision. I'm not sure if one of these was a steroid?

Should I be feeding him at the same time I give insulin?

 

Hi Lianne and Mr. Higgins and welcome from a fellow Canadian in your neck of the woods! I'm in the west end of Toronto. You have come to the right place to get the assistance you need to look after your furry friend.

There is indeed a Canadian food chart but before we share that with you I want to caution you about changing his diet right now. First of all the amount of insulin you are giving Mr. Higgins is fairly large given he's only been diagnosed a short time. Secondly, the D/M dry food is extremely high in carbs and switching Mr. Higgins onto low carb wet food will almost certainly reduce his insulin needs significantly and that could and likely would bring on a hypo event which we all want to avoid.

To safely change his diet, you really need to learn to do home testing. So how about joining us over on the Health Forum HERE with all your questions and we'll help you learn the steps to the sugar dance and have you waltzing with Mr. Higgins in no time! I'll be keeping an eye out for you!

 

Hello Mr. Higgins (love the name). It takes time, time and more time to get regulated. It does happen though.

Even though I'm in the states. My vet would not go over 5u of caninsulin. So other alternatives had to be tried. Vet wasn't ready to try other insulin because he wasn't use to it. First I gave cooked boiled chicken in place of the dry food. Eliminated dry all together. Wasn't home testing and unaware of the consequences of stopping the dry all at once. My boy went down to 2u. Then started going up again. We tried the wet prescription DM food. And it helped. I finally managed to convince vet we needed another insulin. So now on Lantus. Doing much better but still not regulated. Weaning off the DM.

It's trial and error, but being here can help keep Mr. Higgins safe while you learn.