New Diabetic kitty

Hi everyone, I'm new on the board.
My cat Max was diagnosed with diabetes on Saturday. He is turning 12 at the end of the year. I started to notice excessive urination and weight loss. His blood glucose on Sat at the vet was 20mmol/L, and there was glucose in his urine. I'm in South Africa, my vet is a good vet but it's been fustrating reading all the info on the net, that is just not available here.
I am not home testing. I know....it's driving me nuts, but please give me the alternatives if you were not hometesting. This is going to be a long term thing to convince vet and hubby to home test. She is currently treating 12 other diabetic cats and she is adamant that the blood glucose obtained from the ear is a different reading that bloods obtained from the paw. She said she has ran this comparison with all the diabetic cats and it's always not accurate. They also do not test for fructosamine here either.
She put him on 1 unit of Lantis twice a day. Tomorrow, he goes in to do a blood glucose curve. He has always eaten wet food twice a day and then kibble free fed, although he really doesn't eat that much kibble. Preference for FF. I have 3 other cats as well. I'm watching him like a hawk and worried sick, in the last day both morning and night feeds he has been wolfing down the FF. I've just opened another can and let him eat as much as he wants. Before the insulin he was not eating that much, very low appetite. Is the increased appetite possibly a good sign? The urination seems to have lessened. Remember this is a cat that has lost weight so i'm thrilled he is eating as much as he is, but worried that its a bad sign.I feel like I'm driving blind without the hometesting, but it's all I can do right now. He is also only doing his full bloodwork tomorrow. So I'm not sure what is happening in his kidneys yet.
Vet said we will look at diet after she has done the glucose curve and once she gets the bloodwork back. Also she has put him on antibiotics in case of infection due to glucose in the urine, however I'm not giving him those until I get the bloodwork back, too scared that he has something else happening in the kidneys and the antibiotics make it worse. Please can I have your take on his increased appetite. Thanks for the help


Sandra

 

Hi Sandra and Welcome!

Your vet doesn't sound all that bad, but she is just plain wrong about the testing.....

Her good points are that she has given you Lantus insulin (which works very well in most cats), and she has started you off on a very reasonable dose.

I understand your holding off on the antibotic (needlessly giving everything an antibiotic is a big problem in medicine today!) of course an infection is possible, diabetics are more prone to developing infections and an infection can also worsen the diabetes (making the blood glucose even higher). Testing the urine for the presence of bacteria and determining the type and which antibiotic is most effective should be preformed for the best optimal treatment.

Just as it is your choice rather to give those pills to your cat, it is also your choice if you want to hometest, you do not need anyones premission to try it. You should be able to purchase a meter at any pharmacy or medical supply store. Most of us use a normal inexpensive meter for humans (Freestyle, One Touch, Bayer Contour for example) there is lots of information here on what supplies you need and how to test (including videos). For many people our pets are like our children and we would certainly want to test our children if we were giving them insulin everyday! Human diabetic test thier own blood regularly and although thier results on a home meter may vary slightly from what the doctor measures no doctor will ever tell them it was pointless to monitor at home. The truth is your home results are actually more useful because they give you an immediate information about the cats glucose under normal circumstances (in his natural enviroment) your cat lives with you not at the vets. Going to the vet is for most animals very stressful and stress affects blood glucose levels (even in non-diabetics) so the numbers your vet will measure do not reflect what the cat will have at home when you are giving him insulin. Testing is the safest and most reliable way to get the blood sugar under control and by using Lantus insulin getting good control of the BG (blood glucose) and a proper diet (which it sounds like you already have a pretty good diet going, you do not need any special diet from the vet) it is very likely that your cat will go into remission and possibly not need insulin anymore. About 85% of cats that are treated this way do go into remission.

Please consider testing, later when you have lot's of information and your cat is doing so well you can show your vet and perhaps impress her enough that she will encourage her other patients!) Ask lots of questions here and read all you can, there is a ton of information and experience.

 

Hi and welcome.

Your kitty could be eating more because he's feeling better on the Lantus.

Hometesting is not going to give the exact results as the vet. In fact, if you hometest you'll see that even if you use the same blood droplet and two different strips from the same meter the number will be different. I've tried lots of times when I get too much blood. It's just a fact. The numbers aren't so off that they would scare me from hometesting. A few points up or down.

If your vet has had folks test at home, then drive the cat in for a test the BGs will be different, probably significantly different. Stress will cause BGs to rise. I'd even think that if you test the ear at the vet's office and then the vet draws blood from the paw the BGs would be different due to the stress your cat feels when having blood drawn by the vet in the white coat. Stress can cause BGs to rise and fast.

If you can take away the dry food and feed just the canned, a low carb canned. All of your cats will feel better for it.

By the way, you can hometest your cat and tell your vet after the fact or even tell your husband after you've learned to do it. Once the data is there you may be able to convince them both that it's worth it.

 

In the 11 1/2 years I have been on this board I cannot even begin to give the number of cats whose lives have been saved because of hometesting. You do not need permission from anyone to do it. I remember giving one vet over 20 pages of printed articles from vet journals promoting hometesting. Two things to think of...Russian Roulette with a syringe and if your kitty should hypo, it is your cat that pays the consequences, not the vets cat.

 

The idea that the blood from the ear and the foot are different is just plain bizarre to me! Maybe one of our medically trained people can explain it (lol) but I sure don't understand it. Blood is blood, and blood from the foot and the ear are the same, capillary blood.

I was in a similar position in that my vet didn't support hometesting. So we wandered around, relying on fructosamines, and we helped Squeak and then it became apparent that we were only operating on partial info. Hometesting was a godsend, a lifesaver, a stress saver...you get the picture.

You do not need your vet's permission to test, nor do you need your husband's...husbands tend to listen to authority figures, so it is up to you to help him to understand. If if was a child and not a cat, you'd be testing......

Let us know how else we can help ok? Oh, and I THINK we may have one or two SA members....

Jen

 

Just for information, in humans the alternate testing sites (everyplace but the fingers) are know to respond to changes in BG slower than the fingers. The manuals for human meters that are qualified for alternate sites discuss this difference. In felines there may be a similar phenomena between ears and paws.

 

Good points Larry! But it doesn't support the idea that testing from the ear (or foot) is invalid.

 

Hi Sandra, and welcome!

I think your biggest problem at this point is your husband, not your cat. Many men are overly respectful of authority figures. Fortunately for me my DH is an authority figure, a professor of medicine at one of New York City's leading teaching hospitals. Please tell your DH that mine says not only that blood from the paw and blood from the ear are identical because in each case the reading is from capillary blood, but he also says that he would not dream of giving insulin to our cat before testing at least before every shot.

I hope this is helpful.

Gia & Quirk (GA)

Guilt trips are a detour from life

 

FWIW I can tell you my hometesting story. I found this board before we got our fructosamine test back. Oscar's vet glucose level was 490 at the vet, but I later found out that his average home number is 280 - big big big difference! I came in to our diagnosis appointment with all the facts from this board and with 2 days of hometesting numbers from when I learned to use the meter. My vet was not a fan or advocate of hometesting because they have had a previous client kill their cat because they did not heed their advice. I have been diligent about collecting home data and bringing it in for them, and they have since changed their minds. Most vets, I believe, are scared about clients "playing doctor". I had to prove that I was working in the best interest for my cat and wanted to help them and not go against their advice. As of now, we have a great partnership in treating Oscar. I bring in a new print out of his spreadsheet for every visit, and my vet has much more data to make more accurate dosing suggestions now.

 

Increased appetite is normal for a recently diagnosed diabetic, and it is good to feed them extra.

As their blood sugar comes under control, their appetite will return to normal.

 

If his appetite was poor and is now improving, that is good. Diabetes can increase appetite as the cat tries to get more food into its system, but it can also cause inappetance if the cat feels like cr*p. Feed well but don't over feed.

 

Testing from various body parts may vary.. meters vary.. testing the same drop of blood can give 2 slightly different readings..

The idea of home testing isn't to get the "exact" numbers.. it's to get a idea of what's going on.. you need to be aware when numbers are too high or too low.. as those can be dangerous.. and you want to be able to track trends.. whether the numbers are bang on or not doesn't really matter..but if your cat suddenly has a trend drop or rise.. it's a good indication that something has changed.. and you need to be aware of it.

It's your loss if something happens to him, not your vets.. it's your responsibility to be the ultimate care giver.. the vet is there to help.. but you are the one who has the most to lose, and it's your choice to make.

I would be absolutely shocked to find a vet who would look at any of our spreadsheets and think it wasn't useful information.. maybe printing off some other Lantus users spreadsheets to show might help? We could point you in the direction of some where home-testing has probably saved the cats life..

Randi and Max's comes to mind.. just because I had it open (I'm stalking your cat Randi!! ).. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... utput=html That cat was on a pretty big dose of insulin for quite a while..and then in the period of 1 month went from 5+ units twice a day, and has now been completely off insulin for almost a week.

 

Thanks for your replies. He is at the vet today doing the glucose curve which I know will be almost meaningless as stress will affect it. I'm waiting on the bloods as well. I don't need convincing on the hometesting. The practise's senior vet has been on holiday and is back on Monday, I really want to have a few words with him when he gets back. I think I might go ahead and hometest anyway, but I need to know the ranges and how I should be adjusting the insulin, and that's were I'm hoping the vet will help me. My husbands first reaction is that the hometesting will be too stressful on Max and that his ears will be pricked to shreads....but I also think that was reactionary as he was processing the initial diagnosis. I also need his support as I travel frequemtly and he then has to manage Max. Max is also starting to be very unimpressed with the insulin needle, so I'd be lying if I said that yet another needle on his ear doesn't stress me out. I'm really just trying to manage this one day at a time, and everytime I inject with no issues, is a win. Let's see what the outcome is this afternoon. Will keep you posted.

 

Which insulin and what guage needles? He should not be noticing the shots at all...

As for testing, we were all certain that squeak wouldn't let us test but it was actually quite easy so don't prejudge . We will he you thru this and hubby will soon realize that all the poking is a good thing !

 

That's a very good way to put it. Tell your vet this.

This is probably what your vet is worried about, you making changes without the vet's input. Most of us don't alter the dose based on each BG reading, we chart trends. The exception to this is when the blood glucose is too low to safely give a shot. So hometest and collect the data. Your vet may be happily surprised.