Kyo joins the party

Hello everyone,

I joined this forum after a recommendation by http://www.dcin.dreamhosters.com when I was looking for financial assistance for my cat. Her name is Kyo and she is 7 years old. I am a 22 year old full-time college student and have always been on my own when it comes to finances. We were diagnosed March 5th, 2019 and it felt like my entire world crashed down on me. I was scared, grief stricken, and anxiety riddled as all the questions flooded my mind. Was it my fault? What did I do wrong? Is this a death sentence for my fur baby? and to top off my misery the inital diagnoses cost $300+. I barely held it together as I paid at the vet and broke down when I got into my car in the parking lot. After I had my moment, I collected myself and went full on research mode trying to literally become an overnight expert on feline diabetes mellitus (as I'm sure everyone has gone through).

We are still hard at work trying to get to regulation. I'm currently trying to get a handle on figuring out how to make treatment affordable and already making plenty of mistakes along the way. I come from a low SES family and taking pets to the vet was never really an option for us. However, I refuse to let my financial situation take the life of the best thing to ever happened to me. (You can tell I'm still very emotional about all of this).

A little info about Kyo's current status:
She is a short haired domestic brown tabby and spayed
She receives 1.5u of Prozinc twice a day (10 am and 10pm).
She is 13lbs of sweetness, trying to figure out with the vets what weight she should be at.
Before diagnosis she was on Rachel Ray Nutrish Indoor complete chicken with lentils and Salmon
After the diagnosis and doing research on feline diabetes I attempted to switch to Blue Buffalo Wilderness Adult chicken. However, her blood glucose level still were fluctuating.
The previous practice I was going to was checking her levels at peak insulin time (6 hrs after shot), and never did a full curve.

I wasn't happy with the way things were going with them price wise and other so I looked for a different practice.

The current practice I am with immediately recommended a glucose curve be done and they are a much more feline friendly practice, so I am now going off of their advice and recommendations.

They recommended Purina ProPlan DM (wet food). After pricing it out, I saw that I could not afford the diet as it would be $100+/month. So I just picked up the DM dry food after looking at all the great reviews on it and started transitioning her to the food and low and behold this forum hates that food. I am so lost and to be honest with lots of misinformation being easily spread through the internet I am nervous to completely dive in and trust all this information and have been leaning more toward vet recommendation more than anything. I am still so ignorant of this process of posting so please forgive me until I learn all the short hands and everything. I am still so overwhelmed.

I see that the Fancy Feast classics are recommended as a wet food alternative here to the Purina Pro Plan DM wet food and I will definitely look into that as an option.

Kyo has a full curve test scheduled in 2 weeks and I was hoping the food would help regulate her levels. If not I guess its time to switch to something else. I am working to get a glucometer sent to me through the http://www.dcin.dreamhosters.com organization, and am learning how to read the results through this forum.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and I look forward to putting more and more trust into this website for all my diabetic cat needs.

Here's Kyo chillin' on her chill pad

 

Hello beautiful Miss Kyo!

Welcome to the place you never wanted to be. I guarantee my Alice would not be here now without this amazing resource, nor without the help of DCIN.

Food: ditch the dry food period. I tried Alice on the Purina DM and tried dry. It wasn’t until I found a link on here to catinfo.org that I realized the mistake. It’s easy to want to trust the vet, but over time as you browse on here you will see, not all vets really know how to treat FD.

I’m going to grab you a couple of links, to help get you started. You can also help us help you, by creating a signature with pertinent information, like type of insulin, dose, date of DX, etc.

There are insulin support groups (ISGs) for each insulin type, and there is one specific to ProZinc, which you may want to check out, as well.

And I take it you are into Japanese? 大学に日本語を勉強しました！

 

Here is a post where I linked a study published on the NIH website.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...ay-be-good-to-print-out-for-some-vets.215309/

 

This is our bible of carbs in cat food. https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

 

Here are instructions for creating your signature.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

 

And here, @Ti-Mousse is great at introductions, maybe she can fill in what I have left out.

I want to add, we really have all been through the panic and devastation and wondering if we did something wrong, etc. It is all part of the grief of a diagnosis like this. More than anywhere else, you will find that here we all understand because we have been there.

Two months ago my Alice was a walking skeleton who couldn’t hardly stand up, and now she is playful and purring and happy again. With the right treatment, FD can get better!!!

I’m glad for you and Kyo that you found us!

 

Welcome!
Caring for a diabetic cat doesn't have to cost you arm or leg.

I am very glad to hear that you are going to do home testing - that's is huge saving right there and then. All my testing supplies come from Walmart and very affordable. Let us know if you want the list of supplies commonly used for insulin therapy.

Another way to save is food.
No need for Rx foods whatsoever.
In fact, most are lower quality than Friskies Classic Pate or Fancy Feast Classics.
I attached below the food chart compiled by renowned cat nutrition guru Dr. Lisa Pierson.
Any canned food from the chart that is below 10% in carbs is diabetic friendly.
HERE is the link to Dr. Pierson blog - great explanation as to why dry food is to be avoided. Have look.

We can help you to read the numbers.

Switching to low carb food can dramatically lower the BG levels.
We have cats here who gone into remission after ditching dry foods and feeding low carbs wet only.
Please hold on to switching to the lower carbs food until you get your meter. The Low Carbs food alone can bring the BG levels down and giving insulin blindly to a cat who already low can turn tragic - it can cause Hypoglycemia.


It is certainly hard to trust anything on internet.

About 2.5 years ago my girl got very sick and I was offered help by the same organization that sends you the meter, DCIN. I initially declined their generous offer because of this believe of mine - that nothing good comes out of internet.
Well, nothing but good came to me and my cat from this site.
The people here had literally saved my furbaby. And taught me how care for her at home because I cannot afford going to the vets.

Stick around, ask questions. Everyone here walked in your shoes in the past and we know how hard it is for you and Kyo right now, and we all are happy to help. Diabetics is quite manageable condition, and certainly not a death sentence.

 

@Tanya and Ducia thank you. I appreciate you covered not ditching dry for low carb alongside insulin without testing etc. I forget sometimes to add this because my vet tried to start us with dietary modifications first.

 

Welcome to you and Kio! What a good looking girl, she looks so much like my Ti-Mousse! I have the feeling I look at my Ti-Mousse when I look at her!

First I want to say that we all feel guilty and overwhelmed when we hear the diagnosis; I was also asking myself what have I done wrong for my Ti-Mousse to be DXd at 5 yo!!
Remember you're not alone anymore! We are all together with the same issues and all looking for the same thing! Getting our sweet litle kitties back to a healthy life! You'll see that it's not as bad as you think. In a couple of months, everything will be part of your routine and your little Kio will start to feel better!

For the food, as everybody said previously, diabetic cat food is not necessarily the best! Most of us are feeding regular LC wet food ONLY, no dry food; and we refer to Dr. Lisa Pierson's list which gives the percentage of most cat food! But as Tanya said, don't switch before being able to monitor closely by testing! A change from dry to LC can lower her BG drastically, so wait to get your meter and be able to test before switching!

When you'll get your meter, testing should always be done before each shot to make sure kitty is in a safe range to get her insulin! Here’s a link with some helpful info on testing !

A few things that help when starting when you have a minute...:
- we have a spreadsheet where we enter our kittie's testing numbers; that way when we need help, experienced members can give us advices. How to set up spreadsheet
- If you like to see how to use the Forum, here is another link FDMB
- and for the signature, Cassandra already gave you the link !

I know this is a lot of information to start with, just take your time! If there are any things that you can't do or are not familiar with, post for help! Don't be shy, ask as many questions as you need!

Subsequent posts could be on the Main health Forum for general info, or you can start using the ProZinc insulin group! On the ProZinc forum, there are many Stickies to read; you will find valuable information regarding that type of insulin!

Welcome again, don't worry you will get there! We'll help you!

 

Thank you so much @AliceMeowliss&Cassandra, @Tanya and Ducia and @Ti-Mousse for all the information and help in getting me started! I cannot express how much I appreciate all of the support.

I already heard back from DCIN and will be receiving my testing kit two weeks from this weekend! YAY! And yes, I completely agree in not changing the food to a LC until I receive the testing kit and learn how to do it. I will keep her on the Purina DM only until I can safely switch her over to FF classics, that was my biggest concern for the time being to avoid a hypoglycemic episode. I chose the prescription food because although her water and urine levels are steady, she was still DESPERATELY hungry! It seems this food is actually helping her appetite for the time being. In the meantime I will be reading up on all of these resources, looking into setting up a signature and trying to set up my spreadsheet. (I have been documenting all of my insulin times, dose changes, food changes, vet visits, etc in a spiral journal so I hope I can transfer most of that over!) I look forward to working with all the wonderful people here in this forum!

Thanks again!~

 

What a pleasure to see that we can help you and your lovely Kio! Don't forget, if in need... ASK, and keep asking until someone is there for you and your sweetie!

 

Re: Kyo being “desperately hungry”... diabetic cats are often very hungry because their cells are not getting all the energy they need, but no matter how much they eat that won’t matter until they have insulin to help that energy get into their cells.
That being said, if Kyo is feeling a little more satisfied with this food for now, then that’s good that she is more satisfied, for now.

I am glad you found us and we are glad to help. I second Lyane, ask questions as often as you would like!

I hope Kyo is feeling much better soon.

 

Yes it definitely seems like a good idea at the time. And after reading all of the great reviews on it from their website, I truly wanted it to help and work for her. However, I read more into some of the lower reviews and started to question the carb content..very odd for ALL the information I've read about FD being LC based. I should have known better, I'm a very anti-corporate person lol.

As soon as I get my meter from DCIN I will definitely begin her transition to a LC wet food diet. She does really like dry food though, is it possible to do a combination of the two? Or is that something that I'll be able to determine is okay after I start interpreting her test results? Also if I should be posting this question somewhere else please let me know! I know this is only supposed to be a mostly introductory post. Thanks again @AliceMeowliss&Cassandra !

 

You can move over the the main health forum for a question about transitioning from dry food, if you’d like. It’s a great starting point!

ETA:

Here!
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/


(I also want to give a quick short answer, you can do things like crumble freeze dried zero carb meat only treats on top of wet food. Brands include Zesty Paws and..... well, I forget right now even though it’s on the tip of my brain. )