new diabetic kitty

so i took my 5 year old kitty polly to the vets on monday for a check-up and blood work since she was loosing weight despite an increased appetite. she's even been more talkative than usual, so i was leaning toward a thyroid condition like my 17 year old kitty has had for years...the symptoms are similar. anyway, they called me tuesday and said she is diabetic. her sugar was 417 and she had a lot of sugar in her urine too. so tomorrow she goes in for her glucose curve and we'll find out how to do things and be diabetic kitty parents basically. my hubby is diabetic and is an RN and we've taken care of many a sick kitty in our days, so this won't be completely uncharted territory, but i'm still nervous for her and the possibility of her getting hypoglycemic episodes. my goal is to have her on as little insulin as possible and maybe, hopefully, diabetic remission with a low carb diet. i've been trying to skim through the various threads on this board and i'm seeing it's definitely possible for remission, so i'm hopeful! there's so much information here and i'm a little overwhelmed with it all right now.

my goal right now is to find her a good quality low carb food. i found fancy feast classic is a recommended food on the main page so i got some of those last night to start her on so when she goes in tomorrow she'll be on a diet very close to what i want to feed her. i know it's important to monitor her blood sugar should i decide to switch food later on so i plan to get a monitor. i think my hubby might even have extra one laying around. although i may just get the walmart one everyone recommends here since it'll be new and no calibration issues etc. my main concern with the fancy feast is that it doesn't seem like the highest quality food out there. can anyone recommend a good quality low carb kitty food that doesn't have grain and gluten and all the "fillers" in it? she was eating blue buffalo canned chicken morsels and tractor supply's "4 health" brand of dry food. i'm not too sure of the carb content of the blue buff and i know the kibble is carb heavy anyway. we have 11 kitties total so feeding time is a process for sure!

now for the insulin my vet said they like lantus and also prozinc. lantus is really expensive i'm finding out....$275 ballpark. prozinc is about $120 at the vets and they keep it in stock, so that might be our best bet and i think we'll go with that. is there any big difference in the two insulins? does anyone have any thoughts on the two? from what i've read novolin is a harsher insulin. i think that's what my husband takes.
i'm probably overwhelming myself with all the info out there....but i'm trying to stay limited to this site and catinfo.org for the moment...i've looked to dr pierson's site for years for urinary info, etc...she's pretty amazing!
i've never dealt with a diabetic kitty before. i've dealt with a gamut of urinary isssues, megacolon, thyroid, FIP, kidney stuff and the occasional abscess from kitty fights, but diabetes is new for me. so i guess if anybody out there has any info or tidbits to share...advice...anything! i'd really appreciate it!

 

Welcome. You seem to be picking up fast and the best way to care for Polly.
In actuality ProZinc and Lantus cost about the same. The vial of Lantus is 1000 units while the vial of ProZinc is only 400 units.
If you go with the we recommend using the 5-pack of disposable pens and drawing up the insulin in a syringe. With most cats yo can use up a 3 ml pen before it goes bad but seldom a 10 ml vial of Lantus.
There is no reason to have a vet do a curve since yo can do it at home. Also, frequently the cat's BG is elevated at the vet so a vet curve can result in too high of a dose.
Make sure the vet does not talk you into prescription food.

 

thanks for the info and welcome yes i'm definitely not a fan of the RX diets and neither are my kitties!!! they usually turn their noses up at the stuff, lol. plus, i was doing a little research yesterday and the hill's w/d has a surprising amount of carbs in it, plus it's filled with junk! the vet curve is for the initial dose. she hasn't had any insulin yet, so it'll be a little bit of a tutorial for us too. my vet said the vials can last up to 6 months but not to go over that as they will start to lose effectiveness and you run the risk of contamination any longer than that. i think my husband's friend who is a doc is going to write him an RX for lantus (hubby is diabetic too) and we'll just get it filled with his insurance for about $40. so that will save us some money for sure. beats the $250 price range otherwise. if not, like i said my vet said the prozinc is $120 at the vets. but they also pricematch with online pet rx sites and i found it for $99 on the dr foster smith website. so i got a plan thus far for the insulin. just gotta find a good quality kitty food for her! and of course fingers crossed that everything goes ok and she responds to the insulin well. i'm still nervous!

 

Welcome! With 11 kitties I bet breakfast time is quite hectic! I have a large brood too(15) so I can sympathize! Since you shop at Tractor Supply, you might check out Wellness canned food-make sure it's the grain free. The chicken and turkey varieties are listed in Dr Piersons food chart as 4 carbs. If you and your cats like it, go to the Wellness website and ask for coupons. I'm not sure of the carb count in Blue Buffalo canned, but you can always call the manufacturer. I've only been here a month and I'm still a bit overwhelmed, but I'm understanding more and more and when I don't, I just ask and someone will have an answer for me! Please do start home testing. It's important to know what your cats BG is before you give each insulin injection. Also you may want to start a spreadsheet so others here can see your progress and better answer any questions you have. If you have trouble setting one up, just ask for help(I did). Good luck and let us know how the curve goes at the vet. BTW what are your and your kitty's names?

 

hi! my name is Tiffany and i just added all my kitties names to my signature wow! you have a busy house too! thanks for the info on Wellness. i've been thinking about that one too. 4 carbs is definitely good as well! blue buff doesn't have much nutritional info available on catinfo's page. i think dr pierson said they wouldn't disclose that info when she contacted them which makes me kind of question the brand...but it's the only canned kitty food all my kitties can agree on and it's relatively healthy...well, as far as we know it is! lol.

 

Welcome Tiffany and Polly et al. Wow, you have been doing your homework. It is great how much you have learned all ready. This is a great forum with lots of nice people who are there to help. Ask away so you can keep learning. The Spread Sheet will really help you and everyone here to see what Polly trends are to be able to give you advice for dosing. You can also post in the ProZinc forum where those peeps are most familiar with ProZinc. If ever you have an urgent question of dosing ASAP, also post in Health Forum as more eye see that one and ProZinc tends to be quieter at night. I'll see you around the forum.

 

thanks bobbie and bubba for the helpful tips! With 11 of them you kinda gotta be on top your game with stuff for sure btw, we got the lantus rx filled tonight for $10...thank goodness for that! Unfortunately its because my husband is diabetic we were able to get the rx under his insurance but hey,
every little bit helps with 11 kitties. Too bad we can't add our pets to our insurances policies...vet bills and meds get so expensive! Luckily our vet is a big help with our other kitty meds and they price match with online sites...that's a HUGE help.

 

Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

Tiffany, what are you currently feeding Polly? If you are currently feeding your cat dry food, it can take a while to get out of their system. So the curve taken tomorrow might still be influenced by this or any other high carb food. My cat went from 420 at the vet. I started measuring at 315 (on a human meter which reads lower and not stress influenced). In three days it dropped to 120. The drop happened in a stairstep fashion with consistant readings far a day and then a drop. 24 hrs after removing dry 180, 48 hrs 144 72 hrs 120. It dropped slowly thereafter another 30-40 points. So if you are making a food change you must be testing unless you have not made the change at least several days before getting the curve done. I don't think most cats drop that much but it can happen so you need to be prepared for it.

 

She was mainly on dry food with some wet food at night. I feed my kitties twice a day. Mainly dry in the am and both dry and wet at night. Except for my one male who has had past urinary issues, he gets all wet food. I really try to encourage my males to eat more wet food and I even add water to it as well so it has the consistency of a thick soup.
Since last night, Polly's meals have been a 3oz can of fancy feast classic beef and chicken and a little bit of dry food. She got that again this morning and the same again tonight. She likes her dry food but is willing to eat wet food...especially lately with her increased appetite, so that's definitely a good thing. I'm trying to steer her away from the kibble. I will definitely be checking her sugar at home and looking out for fluctuations with any dietary changes. Thanks for the tip on the glucometer...good to know human meters read lower!

 

There are 2 low carb dry foods:
Evo Cat and Kitten poultry flavor - estimated from 8-13% calories from carbohydrate
Young Again 0 Carb - 5% calories from carbohydrate
Most US dry foods are in the 30-40% calories from carbohydrates, which is the last thing you want to give an obligate carnivore (must eat meat), much less a diabetic cat.

 

So we do have and extra glucometer (relion confirm)...yay! we just checked her sugar about an hour after eating and it's 221. She took it like a champ and we had no trouble getting blood from her ear...woohoo! She had a 3oz can of fancy feast and a little dry food. Definitely better than the stress induced 417 at the vets office! And at least i can let the vet know in the am what her sugar was tonight to give them a more accurate idea of where her sugar might actually be...unstressed. So my question is, is 221 still really high for a cat? Does kitty BG typically run higher or about the same as humans?

BJM...I'm working toward getting the kitties, especially Polly on the low carb wagon. It's just a little challenging and more of a process when there's 11 finicky kitty palates to deal with.

 

I understand - I've got 15.
Moppet, Tux - half-sisters
Street - found downtown on the street near work
Precious - shelter adoption when I volunteered
Pip, Fizz, and Jojo - failed foster
Gigi, Blaze, and Julius
Cita (Mamacita to), Bits, Smudge
Jazzy, Echo - guests while a friend has some work done on her place

 

BJM...I like their names! And 15...you got your hands full! It's nice to see there are other "busy kitty households"out there too...sometimes I feel like we're the only crazy cat people with 11. Lol. Although a lady I work with has 9 dogs and that's equivalent to like, 30 cats if you ask me. lol.

 

check out the glucometer notes in BJMs signature. Human glucometers read lower but it's still ok to use them. Most people here do because the strips are so much cheaper. You're just looking at a different range than a pet meter will give you. The trends will still be the same. It looks like your food change may already be helping!

 

Wow BJM, 15 cats!! How can you feed all of them? And how long does that whole process take?? I love all their names.

 

Yikes! I thought my 6 and a dog was a crew! We call meal times "feeding frenzy".

 

I feed Friskies pates to everyone, mainly the poultry named ones as I have yet to see a cat take down a steer, or go sea fishing for tuna. (Your mileage may vary)
The dish washing is the most time consuming as I live alone and its not worth running the dishwasher for so few plates. I'm in the process of figuring out the right amounts since 2 cats moved out with the housemate recently. The 2 guest cats, Jazzy and Echo, and the 2 basement cats, Smudge and Bits, are accustomed to having some dry, so I have been giving them small amounts of Evo Cat and Kitten. Smudge and Bits are semi-feral, so they are in a huge kennel where I can monitor them daily, and the basement door is shut to keep the 2 guests separated from the remaining cats. I am going to start using baby gates stacked and overlapped in the doorway so they can start getting to know each other.

 

I bought some cheapo (97 cents) stainless dishes at Walmart, they work great and the cats lick them nearly clean. I just wipe them out (I feed three times a day) using a paper towel and then after their bedtime snack, I use a little brush filled with dishsoap to wash them. I then rinse them and just leave them in the sink. By morning they're dry and ready to go.

 

Hi Tiffany and Polly (and all the other kitties), welcome! Looks like you're all over everything, fabulous Best wishes for your journey.