I have a Gremlin

Hello!

Maybe I shouldn't have named him Gremlin, but its kind of perfect. I had to feed him before midnight and then again in 6-8 hours. But he doesn't mind showers/baths and being walked on a leash! He also knows many words and will do tricks for a wheatgrass/catgrass treat!

My Gremlin just got newly diagnosed 9 days ago. I'm still in shock, he's been a healthy guy his whole life and I've tried so hard to deal with what I thought was 'just' a sensitive stomach and skin issue. (He does still have sensitivity issues, he's half albino with white/blue colored red reflecting eyes that he got from his Siamese mom. He really is creepy if you look at him when he's under the bed.) I had him on an intense, strict portion controlled food regimen every 6 hours because that seemed to not make his stomach upset, for two years. Unfortunately I had to leave my home early one morning several months ago and leave him behind. I think that the upset in his feeding schedule and the stress of me trying to get out of that terrible situation and figure out where he could safely stay made him very sick and the diabetes kicked in really hard. We've been reunitied less than two months and he was sick for most of the last month. My sister is a vet tech so that's one small, but amazing, thing going for us right now. I'm just trying to manage getting him on better, wet, low carb food and pay for everything. My savings is wiped. I'm very worried as I don't have the money to take him for a blood glucose curve test ($200 here for it) at the vets. I'm trying to research as much as possible about insulin and figure it out myself. I really don't want him going into hypoglycemic shock. Anyways, I'll be doing a lot of reading through posts as much as I can when I get access to internet, which I don't have at home.

Best wishes to everyone else going through this.

E & Gremlin

 

Hi and welcome Eve and Gremlin to FDMB.
Could you tell us a little bit about Gremlin.
How old is he?
What is his weight?
What insulin is he on and how much insulin?
What country are you in?

Diabetic cats need to be fed low carbohydrate wet/canned food. Dry food is too high in carbs.
Here is a list of suitable foods
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/links-to-various-food-charts.169055/

One way you can save money is to test the blood sugar levels yourself. We all test our cats BSLs .....it is not only cheaper, and tells us how our kitty is reacting to the insulin, but it keeps them safe.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

Read all the yellow stickies at the top of all the forum pages. And ask lots of questions .....we are very happy to answer them.

 

Welcome! We can help. Please post all your questions on the main health forum where there's more traffic. Bron has included a list of information we like to have.

 

Welcome! What a difficult situation for you! But you came to the right place. Once I started testing my cat at home I stopped going for expensive curves at the vet. It's easy to do and we can give you a shopping list of you are willing to learn. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home.