Meet TJ

Hi everyone,

My 11 year old kitty TJ was diagnosed with diabetes on at the end of May. Poor TJ has had quite the ordeal in the last month. Upon diagnosis, the vet showed me how to administer her insulin, sent me home with prescription Purina DM dry food, 1 unit of Vetsulin to start on, u40 syringes, and told me to watch for lethargy. I asked all the questions I could think of, cried my eyes out, and brought TJ home to give her her first dose. Within a couple of hours, she was acting sick, meowing strangely, and would not eat. I panicked and searched the internet. I gave her karo syrup and eventually she ate a bit. She continued to act sick so I took her to an emergency hospital where I found out just how sick she really was. She had ketoacidosis and was very dehydrated. She spent 5 days in the hospital, part of which was in the kitty ICU . She had a lot of complications, but they were thankfully able to save her. One of the issues she had was that the original vet gave her a steroid shot that fought the insulin (it took 3 weeks for the shot to leave her system). The internal medicine vet that oversaw her care changed her to 2 units of Prozinc. We went back to the hospital a week later for a curve and TJ was in the 400s and 500s, so they increased her to 3 units. Two weeks later, TJ had another curve and was in the 400s again, so they increased her to 4 units and that is what we have been on for the last week. I have since switched veterinarians (not telling me to give insulin with food was too much for me to get over, plus the steroid shot) and the new vet is working in conjunction with the internal med. vet from the hospital.

As far as food, TJ was a free-feeding dry food junkie. I have always given her Fancy Feast classic wet food and she has always licked the food until all of the juice was gone, leaving the actual food. I still give her wet food first twice a day, then I give her a measured amount of Purina dry DM (followed by insulin). I also give her dry food again 5-6 hours after insulin doses (so 4x a day). I have had this routine going for about a week now. I definitely want to get TJ on wet food only, but she is resisting tooth and nail. I have tried Royal Canin and Hill's prescription wet foods, but she will not touch the Hill's and only licks at the Royal Canin. I also tried Wellness Core (grain free) and she did not like that one at all. I have tried mixing them with her dry food, but she still just licks the juice and leaves both the wet and dry food. I am not home testing, but I have attempted it and had a little success. I have the Alphatrak 2 meter. I know I need to begin home testing again since the dose is continuing to rise. I am afraid they will want to increase her dose again next week .

The only other concern I have is that TJ's face has been twitching for about two weeks now. I took her to the new regular vet to run bloodwork and check her urine. Her urine was full of glucose, a little blood, but no ketones. The internal med. vet said there was no physiological explanation for the twitching in her bloodwork and that it looked fine. She does have neuropathy in her hind legs pretty bad, could the twitching be related to that?

Sorry for the very long post! I love this cat to the moon and it breaks my heart every day that such a wonderful cat has to go through this. Any advice and insight is very much appreciated! Thank you!

Christina

 

Welcome. You seem to know what should be done with regards to food and home testing. However, TJ is not cooperating for the food part and yo are having difficulty with ome testing.
What is the problem? It is easier if the ear is warm and youdo have to firmly backupthe ear where you prick the ear to get blood.

 

Hi Christina, welcome to you cute little TJ! Sorry you're having such problems, but you've come to the right place. Have you tried mixing some water in the canned food, mix it up good and maybe try warming it a bit too. As far as testing, tell us what problems you're having and maybe we can give you some pointers.

 

Thank you for the replies!

What do I use to firmly backup the ear? My hand? Or just firmly hold the top? The main reason I have not began home testing is that I nearly poked through TJ's ear on my last attempt. This was also the first attempt where I warmed her ear, so it bled a good amount. TJ does not like to be held, picked up, or confined so that also deters me. TJ is just starting to like me again after getting used to the injections and I'm afraid to make her fear of me, but I know I have to suck it up though and get back at it.

I have tried warming the food but I have not tried mixing in water, so I will try that tonight. I'll also try sprinkling some parmesan cheese on top if that doesn't work.

 

I use use cotton makeup pads. Folded in half they are the same shape as the cat's ear . I hold the pad to the inside of the ear and then poke the hairy outside of the ear. I had trouble with gauze 2x2 s and also with the cotton balls and I was trying to poke the inside of his ear. If his ear is cold I put the pad in the microwave for 5 seconds, then take care it is not too hot.

 

Also make sure to give some low carb treats right after the test, even if it's an unsuccessful test. If she really fights it, start taking her to the testing spot and rubbing her ear and giving her a treat with no poke. Do this as many times/day as you can and she won't even notice the poke when you add it.

 

Welcome to FDMB.
while you worrk on testing, check my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some additional assessments you may find helpful in evaluating your cat. Because she has had ketones, ketone testing is extremely important. It may be done via urine tests or via blood tests. I would suggest getting a blood ketone meter such as the Precision XTra or the Nova Max Plus, and testing any time she is dehydrated, refusing to eat or vomiting, and/or sick, as those conditions increase the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis and a blood ketone meter will detect this sooner.

 

Hi Christina and TJ, welcome!

 

Thanks again for the responses! TJ had a curve done yesterday and the results were not at all what I expected. She was hypoglycemic and not showing any symptoms. Two weeks ago at her last curve, TJ was in the 400s all day! The vet decreased her dose to 1.5 units (from 4) and said not to give her insulin unless her BG was under 200 (and said to skip last night's dose). After a lot of effort, I finally got enough blood to get a reading this morning- 161! Doctor said to try again tonight before her evening dose, but I was not successful. Using the makeup pad was helpful but the problem I'm having is that I can't seem to find a happy medium. Either I poke too lightly to break the skin or I poke too hard and she bleeds/cries a lot. I am using the Alphatrak lancets and using the warm rice sock as well.

 

161 is a good number! Be sure to poke right at the edge of the ear, and like most things practice makes perfect. I milk Colin's ear, rubbing vigorously from the base toward the spot I poked. That helps to get the blood flowing. Keep trying, and start a post in Health Forum if you need more suggestions.