New diabetes diagnoses

I am new member and I live in South Africa. On Tuesday my 10 yr old cat Danica was diagnosed with diabetes. I never even suspected it as she is not overweight and is very active and vocal. She eats and drinks well. I thought she might have a thyroid problem. She came home this morning and has been prescribed 4u Protaphane (insulin injections) twice a day. I was told to feed her when I have injected her but she is not to eat in between. The vet did say she should be put onto Hill’s md.
My cats (I have 9) usually eat Royal Canin Indoor or sometimes Fit. I do sometime give them chicken as well. I have two 16 yr olds who like getting a late night snack of a pouch of soft food split between the two of them.
I would appreciate any and all advice you can give. Especially as Danica seems to be constantly hungry since she came home. She is trying to break into the food bin as I write this. The vet did say she ate very well while in hospital and wasn’t fussy about what it was.
I have looked at the food lists on this site but none of them seem to be available here. We do have Friskies/Pamper and Fancy Feast but not the pate. Just the saucy mince.
I asked about testing but the vet said just to watch her incase she became lethargic. I would think it better to test - at least occasionally to make sure all is well?
I am going to try attach some photos of what is on the food bags wrt food composition. They don’t give % on the RC food.

 

Hi and welcome Carol and Danica. There is a great deal of information here on the board about food, insulin and testing, however we face greater challenges when members are in different countries and the food isn't available and we may not be familiar with the insulin prescribed. One of the reasons this board exists is because we have found on many occasions that the information, advice, member knowledge, experience and support here is more helpful than the vet clinic, in any country.

But we have faced these challenges before and will do our best to help you as you take good care of Danica.

Yes, definitely test her blood sugar. Visual observation is not enough, many cats are not symptomatic..until they are and sometimes on the way to an emergency vet clinic. You can use a human meter, and you can price what is available there so that you can be sure you will be able to afford the strips. You will always want to have a good supply of strips.

I suggest that you create a signature and set up the spreadsheet. You can provide more information about Danica and yourself in the profile information section, as the signature itself is limited to less space and you want the spreadsheet link included in the signature.

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.
When you set up the signature and then the spreadsheet, it's very helpful to put the spreadsheet link (eg. Danica's SS) at the very end of Kitty's info, even make it bold so it stands out.

Spreadsheet Instructions
Understanding the Spreadsheet

New? How you can help us help you

Then, since you are in South Africa and will need some input about figuring the carb percentage and content of the food there, plus exploration of the type of insulin Danica is on, please copy your post here, create a new thread in the Main Health forum HERE and paste the message. This Intro forum is just the welcome mat and the Health forum is much more heavily monitored.

We can also help with learning to test, procedures that will help both of you get used to the process, what supplies you will need and lots of support along the way. This is doable Carol, even though right at the moment it might not seem that likely. We all started at the beginning and here we are, all along at different levels of the journey, helping each other out.

 

We've been chatting on the Feline Diabetes Facebook group but I wanted to welcome you here too!

The insulin your vet has started you on really isn't a good one for most cats. It tends to be too harsh, cause them to drop too quickly and then wear off too soon. You might want to look into Lantus, Basaglar, Levemir or ProZinc. The first 3 are human insulins that work very well in cats and should be available at any local pharmacy.

As we discussed on Facebook, 4U of any insulin is a HUGE dose....Most cats here start at 1u or less and the majority never go over about 2.5U

As long as there weren't any ketones present when she was diagnosed, I'd get her off the Hills and the RC (which are too high in carbs for a diabetic cat) and learn to home test for a few days. Holding off on insulin for a few days is the safest way to get her onto a low carb food quickly and will give you some time to learn to home test. That way, if the diet change isn't enough, you'll be ready to keep her safe as well as being able to see how she's responding.

 

Welcome.
I think you may have better luck with the Australia/NZ food chart here and the UK food chart (for Sheba) here