Need help

My soulmate Gizmo, 12 year old Tabby was recently diagnosed with diabetes 2 1/2 weeks ago. A month ago I took him to our great vet and he had a uper respiratory infection (he has feline herpes) and didn’t get better from his first round of antibiotics... in fact he got worse. Went back and thats when vet did blood tests and put him on another antibiotic. He hasn’t been his normal playing self.

He never just walked a few steps and layed down. He started laying in weird not typical spots. At first, I was shocked and totally expecting him to be lowering his blood glucose once we got our home bg monitor. Instead, he was high.. around 500. It hit me like a brick that he wasn’t improving. He started off on 2 units of insulin x 2 a day with modifications to his prescription diet.

Anyways, yesterday the vet increased his insulin to 3 units x2. I took his bg 5 hours later and its 210! He was just 444 yesterday. I decided to work from home half the day because I was worried what if his numbers started to drop.. which leads me to this discussion board.

I have been none stop worrying about him since the diagnosis. The best way to describe his current self is he is okay but not thriving. He isn’t completely himself.. which leads me to this group.

My husband and I both work and don’t have family close. How did you deal with the changes and not come home from work everyday during lunch just to make sure hes not dropping to low?
How do I let go of this constant worrying that if I am at work and he gets to low? I know it takes time to regulate but I didn’t expect a 200 point drop. Yes, I am happy about the number bc its showing improvements.. but also wanting to be there for him all the time. I want to be there for him and I cannot work from home everyday.

How did you deal with the anxiety and fear with this disease? I am trying to be positive but keep getting this fear that what if he gets to low and im not there for him? I know I have the knowledge to not give him insulin if he is to low but I am still scared.

Did anyone else get upset knowing your cat’s body is losing weight? My cat didn’t need to lose weight and went from 13 to 10 pounds. This is also breaking my heart. Knowing he is eating but despite eating he is still losing weight due to not being regulated yet.

I apologize for the emotional post but appreciate any insight and guidance. Thank you!

 

Welcome Gizmo and his human. It’s scary at first. I used to follow my poor cat around staring at him, waking him from a sound sleep to see if he was ok and running home throughout the day to check on him. It will get easier! I see you are home testing. That’s a great first step. Please tell us what you’re feeding and what insulin you’re using so we can better help you.

 

Hi Sharon! I was doing that as well.. thank you for the kind words and warm welcome. Gizmo is currently on Prozinc 3 units twice a day. He is currently eating Royal Canin Diabetic dry and purina dm savory selects. He gets half a can of the wet in am and half at night. He likes having both it seems. I give him a few chicken PureBites chicken breast bites as well .

 

Hi again Gizmos human. (what shall we call you?). Prozinc is a great insulin. If you go to the prozinc forum there are some yellow stickies at the top of the page that gives some great info http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/prozinc-pzi.24/
You can also post there, as well as here on the Main Health Forum, with any questions or concerns
If you can set up our spreadsheet, it’ll really help you see how well the dose is working for Gizmo. (If you need help setting it up, just ask and someone will do it for you).
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

My name is Mary! Very nice to meet you. Thank you so much for that information. I so appreciate it!

 

Hi Mary! Yes, it's scary at first and for some time afterward.

I am doing what Sharon did and staring at my cat, waking up 3 or 4 times at night and running home throughout the day. I have faith that it will get better.

Doing a blood glucose curve on the weekend should help you better understand how your cat reacts to the insulin throughout the day.

My cat PrettyGirl lost half of her body weight - from 10 lbs to 5 lbs - but she has now gained most of it back. Two things helped me the most with her weight - changing to a high quality low carb non-prescription wet food and also letting her free feed all day and all night except for 2 hours prior to test/feed/shoot in the AM and PM.

As Sharon said, setting up the spreadsheet will help a lot.

You can do this! You are Gizmo's best caregiver and advocate cause you know him better than anyone. If you free feed most of the day and night, then Gizmo can eat if he needs/wants to or if he doesn't feel good cause his BG is too low.

There are alot of knowledgeable people here who can help you.

 

Welcome Mary and Gizmo!

I think we all felt like you at the beginning, I know I did, I was a nervous wreck also following or mainly staring (he wasn't moving much either) at my cat all day I asked for a few days off from work to look after him because on top of the diabetes diagnosed he had a bad UTI and I was having to assist feed him but even when he started eating on his own he seemed totally off and had lost a lot of weight he went from 9 pounds to 6.5 pounds

But you are off to a very good start since you are already home testing that will help you know how he's doing and also know what to do when you are not going to be able to monitor him during the day, once you start learning how he reacts to the insulin is easier to know what to do and that may include sometimes skip the insulin dose just to be on the safe side.

You may not be able to test during the day because of work so I suggest you program your schedule so that you can take at least a +2 (that is test him two hours after his shoot) before you go to sleep that will help you know he's doing ok and also learn how he reacts and just get a test on any other time you can ( before leaving home, just after you wake up and on weekends for example )

I do suggest you get a time feeder so that he has some food mid day when you are not home that will help him not to be so hungry and also you knowing that since he's getting some food that will help him with his blood glucose levels

Right now he's acting off because he's unregulated and not really feeling ok but once his blood glucose gets regulated, their appetite goes back to normal and so is their attitude and they slowly start to gain weight again ( it took Babu almos a year to regain most of his weight ) but you have to be super patient because it takes time to get them regulated

Also I suggest you try and get him off the dry food as soon as possible is too high in carbohydrates (carbs) and that is not helping his blood glucose levels to go down and just make sure that the rest of the food you are giving is also low carb ( here's a list that can help you find out how many carbs is what you are giving any food 10% or lower is ok http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf)

 

You do what you can do. You have three good things going for you. You love your kitty, you can test and you found this site. First comment is do not change doses too fast and be patient do things slowly and moderately. Remember high makes them feel bad and does damage , but low.... Also remember changing from dry to wet can cause sudden and large drops in numbers...be careful, move slow. Did the Vet check the Thyroid numbers? if you need to use dry and it is handy because they can eat and keep the numbers up you have one choice...Young Again. Fancy Feast works well for the wet, but watch the carbs in the valuable charts. Add water to the wet to make sure he is getting enough because of the dry. I gave both and it worked fine, but I was/am as consistent as possible with feeding and testing. I weighed the litter every 24 hours as a back up and used test strips to see what they were dropping. Always be as calm as possible. cats can sense your upset and it transfers. If Kitty exhibits odd behaviors like walking around in circles as if sniffing for mice or sitting on the floor like sphinx or other odd behavior do a test.
Read the great advice on this Board for a Hypo kit and have it at hand for immediate use. And as they used to tell me nearly a decade ago... have a lot of chocolate on hand. We have all been through it. juts keep a clear head no matter how much you are hurting.
There is a lot of love on here for you and others just finding out. I hope you can feel it.

 

Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback! I am blessed to have found this forum xox