Help for St. Nick

Hello. I have joined this group on behalf of an elderly cat who came to our animal sanctuary on Christmas. St. Nick was near death, found on the snowy side of the road, thought to have been hit by a car. Turns out he was not hit but just very thin and weak. He also had something wrong with his eyes and his vestibular system. He used to be a very big boy, with lovely lynx points. When all his fur grows back he'd like to look like that again!

He got better for a while, then much worse. We rushed him to the vet who drained an abscess near his ear and he made an amazing recovery. He is getting insulin twice a day, and his appetite has picked up tremendously. He will basically eat anything we put in front of him.

I am on the board of the sanctuary and also a volunteer. We are a very small group, with one employee, in a poor rural part of WA. We have cats with other health issues, but he is our first diabetic. The prescription food is prohibitively expensive, and doesn't seem to be very good for a diabetic anyway. The little I know about diabetes is from experience with humans, but a high carb diet doesn't seem to make any sense. But I know messing with his diet (and it has changed several times since Christmas) can be dangerous for an insulin-dependent diabetic. I have downloaded a list of canned foods so we can find him something < 10% carbs. What else?

Thanks in advance for any help with feeding this sweet old guy.

Susan

 

Hi Susan

It is lovely that you are doing this for St Nick.

Yes changing his food to low carb whilst great can lower blood glucose levels and hence the need for insulin. We usually advise getting used to testing blood glucose at home first so that you can monitor the change in levels and adjust the insulin accordingly. In fact we always advise that you test blood glucose before giving insulin so that you know it is safe to do so. Is this something that you might be able to organize for him? could you and your employee learn how to do it together?

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

The other thing you should learn about is low blood glucose. I would print off this sheet and keep it somewhere easily accessible

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

Susan what insulin is he having and what is the dose?

 

Diet plays a major part in managing FD. You need to feed him a low carb/high protein diet. If he is eating dry food, you want to begin transitioning him over to canned food. Dry food is high in carbs and that cause the glucose levels to raise. By switching over to canned food, you can significantly lower his glucose levels. There are many brands of foods that are available, but a lot of us feed our cats either Friskies or Fancy Feast pate flavors. You want to avoid canned foods with gravy in them, pate flavors are usually lower in carbs.

There are several insulins that work well in cats: Lantus, Levemir, Prozinc and BCP PZI. The first two are human insulins. If your vet prescribes either of these, ask for the prescription for the pens instead of vial. In the long run, this will save you money. Prozinc and PZI are bought through your vet's office.
You also want to learn to hometest. This means testing a small drop of blood before every shot. This will help you determine if it is safe to give the insulin and how well the dose is working. There are pet meters available, though most of us use human glucose meters to test. Almost any brand will work; many of us use the Walmart Relion Confirm or Micro meters. They are good meters and inexpensive to use. You vet can show you how to test, but if they do not, let us know. There are several good videos that we can recommend to show you how to test.

 

Changing to low carb canned food may drop the glucose 100-200 mg/dL and reduce the insulin dose 1-2 units.

 

Hello Susan and St. Nick, and welcome to FDMB

Bless you for taking care of this little guy.
Do ask any questions you want to. We're here to help.

Best wishes,

Eliz

 

Hi Susan and St. Nick.

I think it's wonderful the way you're helping him. And I just love his avatar picture.

You've found a great place to learn more about diabetes and how to help your sweet little fella. I'm so glad you saved him.