New diagnosis concerns

My name is Jim, and my little buddy penguin was feeling a bit off and had lost a lot of weigh, and now after a vet visit has been tentatively diagnosed with diabetes. The vet is doing more thorough blood tests and plans to call tomorrow, but I’ve been freaking out since I started doing some research upon returning home. This forum looked like a good place to ask some questions, and hopefully ease my mind or help me know what our options are.
A little backgroud on penguin, he was a stray when we got him, we don’t know his exact age (somewhere north of 8 1/2) or what if any vaccines he had had. He’s a happy, well adjusted little guy who until recently was a bit on the plump side. He is very picky on his food and getting him to eat wet is difficult on a good day. As far as the diagnosis goes, my concerns are as follows. First, obviously there is the cost of the insulin.

 

Sorry I got cut off there. Anyway, cost. A vial of Lantus around here (southeast Indiana)is somewhere in the neighborhood of $400, and a box of the pens is comparable. While I would try to test his blood myself and I would give him the shots (that will take some getting used to for both of us), that is very cost prohibitive. We have taxes due, both income and property coming up, and while I understand that box may last a good long while it’s still high. Secondly, I am VERY worried about the rigidity of the shot schedule. My wife and I both work, we travel fairly extensively, and stay fairly busy when in town. This will sound selfish, and I feel terrible for it because it makes it sound like I don’t love my buddy which couldn’t be farther from the truth, but it would be very life altering for us to completely change our lives to adjust to an insulin schedule. My wife and I don’t have children and love that we have the ability to go visit family out of town, spend a night out with friends, go on a long weekend or vacation etc. without obligations. Would an insulin regimen totally blow up our lives, or am I over-reacting? Any thoughts, alternatives, advice etc would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been super upset all day, I love my little guy and want him happy and healthy, I’m just really worried I can’t provide the care he’s going to need moving forwards. Help!

 

First of all, welcome to the FDMB! The best place you never wanted to be!!

On the cost, most of us buy our Lantus from Canada because it's a lot more affordable. Here's the Information on buying insulin from Canada.

Next, it's possible for cats to go into remission! The sooner you start treatment, the better the odds! You will need to feed a low carb canned diet (like Fancy Feast Classics or Friskies pates) but there are a lot of other readily available canned foods too. Here's a Food Chart with lots of brands of foods. You want food that is less than 10% carbs

Yes, it can be hard at first to stick to a schedule, but most of us adapt and figure out ways to make it work so we can keep our kitties as happy and healthy as possible. Finding a good cat-sitter is a big help too! There are lots of professional cat-sitters out there that you can train to take care of your "extra sweet" Penguin when you can't take him with you or you just need to get away!

 

Thanks for the reply. I’m really hoping we can make it work. Sadly and ironically we had a friend who was a vet worker and always took care of him when we were out of town pass away from diabetes herself a few months back. This disease can pretty much go eff itself!

 

Oh yes, I was just overwhelmed for the first month after M'row's diagnosis! You are in the right place here, just take some deep breaths and keep asking for help. Diet matters; I am fairly new at this myself, so I am feeding fancy feast classic as everyone says it's great for kitty, and not bothering to study all about choices re what to feed right now. Then I am lessening low-value cat effort by getting litter & food delivered right to my door (great prices, too) by chewy.com. This saves shopping & lugging litter, cat food, etc around. The ideas from other folks re getting someone to drop by to give you all a break: excellent. Do you like your vet? Is your vet good with diabetes? Mine is, but I've read some stories here about vets that aren't. Keep reading and asking here--time will pass, and you both and kitty will be doing fine. There are great videos re how to test blood glucose & how to give injections. That's all you need to do. Later you can get into other stuff like glucose curves etc if you want.

 

Welcome. You can get 5 pens from Canada for about $170. That lasts most people a year.
Syringes are about $13-15 for 100 on Adwdiabetes.com

Meters are cheap but the strips vary depending on which meter you pick.

I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home.

 

It doesn't really take that long to get used to the shot schedule and for giving the shots themselves. If you have someone else that can learn to do it while you're out of town, they should get used to it quickly. For the rest of the time, the shots just need to be 12 hours apart so you can find a time that works for you. It can be overwhelming at first and you think that it's going to consume your whole life (and it might for the first week or two) but Alex was diagnosed just over a month ago and at this point it feels like routine.