Hi from Kate, mum to Toby in the UK

Hi everyone

I am so pleased to have found this amazing site full of you lovely people, so thank you in advance for everything I have read so far and for all the help I am sure to receive.

Toby is 12 and he is the love of my life! He is snowshoe and never far from my side when I am at home, he is extremely chatty and very needy and has a heart of gold, never resisting anything the vets do to him, taking it all in his stride.

Toby was diagnosed with diabetes in June after a series of urine infections and drastic weight loss, he had a keto episode which confirmed the diagnosis. He was started out on 2iu of Caninsulin, his levels were still high so this was increased to 3iu but his curve was still very shallow so last week he was switched to ProZinc, initially 2iu, he is due back at the vet on Tuesday to go up to 3iu and be monitored for the day (I give him his increased dose at 730am and then he goes to the vet at 8am when they open and he spends the day there having a curve).

He is fed a wet sachet of Sheeba with a small amount of biscuits to graze on, he then has a meal in the evening of fish/chicken cooked fresh.

I have ordered my own Alpha Trak glucose monitor so I can do the curves at home and also in case of a Hypo emergency, when I don't know what's going on with him.

I have done loads and loads of reading but still have lots of questions.

- Diet, I don't know where to start, he was a biscuit junkie for 10 years, I've slowly and surely reduced his biscuits to just a handful to tide him over whilst I am out for work, he doesn't always eat them, and I only top up the bowl once a day.
- What do I do if he doesn't eat his dinner or breakfast? I end up jabbing him anyway and then panicking and watching him in case he goes hypo, I am assured by my vet that he is still so high on his BG this is unlikely, but soon we will hopefully have his dose right.
- He has lost so much condition, he is skinny and very bony on his haunches, he weighed 9kg a year ago he now weighs 4.05kg :-( how can I help put on some weight and gain condition?
- Is it a good idea to buy the prozinc direct online? Its super expensive from my vet a 5x more expensive than the caninsulin.

I am sure I have more questions but for now that is us and we are very pleased to meet you all.

Kate x

 

Welcome Kate and Toby. Very glad you have found FDMB and hopefully we can get busy and help answer all your questions.

I'm very happy to read that you are going to be home testing, and we can help you with getting supplies and learning the process. You can start getting Toby ready for testing now, even before you get the meter and strips. Choose a testing station where it will be comfortable for both of you and has good lighting. Have some low carb treats on hand, a few pieces of cooked plain chicken work for us. Take him there, give a treat, rub and stroke his ears, pet and praise, give another treat and let him go. Do this as many time a day as you can. When you get the meter and get it all set up and ready to begin testing, you and Toby can go to the testing station, lay out the meter (no strip), the pouch it came in, and let him smell the "new stuff". If you are going to use a lancing device, click it so he can get used to the sound and not jump away when you prick the ear. It's a personal choice to use a lancing device or just freehand the lancet. You will decide whatever works for you.

Choose lancets of 26 or 28 gauge, as you will need the thickness in the beginning to get a blood drop. The larger the gauge (33 for example) the thinner the little metal spike. Most lancets included in your starter kits are too thin and don't work well until kitty's ears have learned to bleed.

In preparation so that we can better help along the way, please create a signature and set up the spreadsheet.
The signature will display Toby's information each time you post, saving asking/answering repeatedly or having to try to scroll back through previous messages.

Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

Another thing that will help us help you when you get started BG testing at home is to set up a spreadsheet like the one we use here. You will see how the trends and patterns emerge, and members can review his/her progress before offering suggestions or advice:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

I know you want and need answers to the questions you have presented above and we can definitely help with all of them. However this is not the best forum to begin that discussion in. This Introduction forum is only the welcome mat and it would be best to continue in the Main Health forum HERE.

You can copy your message here, start a new thread there and paste the message there. More members monitor the Main Health forum in order to be of assistance and you will be able to get more response to your concerns.

We do have a link to supplies and food available in the UK, as well as some wonderful UK members that can make recommendations regarding diet, obtaining the Prozinc, etc.

This is a world wide community of loving sugar cat parents and caregivers with the same goal in mind: providing the best care and effective treatment for our diabetic kitties, and we will help in every way we can.

 

UK Links
Information: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...-vit-b12-and-other-need-to-know-stuff.137376/
Food: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J5JpMe6TDXrHq_aTl9hUtHy6Gs9oRBqlz4nPGKxtySA/pubhtml
Come over to the Health Forum and we'll tag a couple of UK members for you.

 

Welcome Kate and Toby. So glad you foundthis site. It has wonderful knowledgeable individuals. See you around the boards.