New here and overwhelmed

My 7 year old Bella has always been a big girl, right from the start. We've noticed a few things and have made comments that there is "something wrong with that cat... maybe she's diabetic." (My husband is diabetic also, so we were familiar with the signs.) She was 22 lbs at one time, so I cut back on dry food and switched to Fancy Feast wet food with out even knowing that was a good choice for diabetic cats. I switched to FF because it was one of the few my other particular kitty would eat!!! It did some good because Bella was down to 17 lbs at weigh in yesterday.

Bella seemed to be suffering with a UTI, so I brought her in to the vet yesterday. Yes to the UTI and they found ketones. As we figured, she is diabetic. They called her a "happy diabetic" and ran a bunch of other labs. Everything else came back normal, thankfully.

So, here I am joining the diabetic cat club.

I picked up a Lantus pen this morning, as that seemed to be the best option at the moment. We'll be starting the insulin injections today. We go back to the vet Monday, and I guess we will go from there.

It is completely overwhelming and scary to think of what is involved. I am so sad.... yet I feel guilty because this feels so challenging. Bella is super friendly and sweet, and I hope we can get this under control so she will be around for a while.

 

Welcome! I know it's a lot to take in at first. We all started out as beginners here. I still feel like a beginner most days, but Cleo is doing great. That's what really matters. Read everything! Post if you have questions. The people here are great and very understanding. Hang in there! It gets easier.

 

Welcome. Bella is elegant! It does feel overwhelming and scary, you will be surprised how fast you will learn and be more comfortable. You have a bit of a head start, with a direct association with human diabetes. A change to an all wet low carb diet will have an effect, lowering BG, so testing helps avoid hypo. Lots of info to read, lots of people here to help.

 

Hi! Welcome!

I'm new too - and it's been beyond helpful already especially in terms of finding more piece of mind AND in getting valuable info that seems to be very hard to find anywhere else! <3

People are really helpful too! They will check on you and check your spreadsheets and all that stuff!

Good luck to Bella and to you! <3

~ Abbey

 

Welcome!

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I've been looking around and reading. Love all the info here and it helps that I'm not alone in this.

We gave Bella her first insulin shot last night (Lantus Pen.) It did not go so well. I cried and cried afterwards. This morning we gave her the second shot, and it went a little better. It still took two of us and I had to stick her twice. I know this is our new routine, and I will get better at giving them in time. My poor kitty just doesn't understand though. This is hard.

 

Do you have treats you can give her? Cleo gets a treat before and after each injection. She knows this and starts begging for treats about an hour before she's due for an injection. I never thought she'd be able to accept injections twice a day, but she really likes her treats.

 

Thanks, I will try with treats. The vet suggested to do it while she was eating so she is distracted. I think with all the prodding and poking at the vet the other day, she knows something is up. As soon as I sat down next to her at the food bowl, she started to back away.

 

The first couple of weeks are so hard! It gets easier as you become more confident and the cat figures out what is going on.

Cleo and I have this whole ritual. She has a little canned food, while I test her blood. Then she gets a treat, an injection, and another treat. Then she gets a lot more canned food. She knows all this and leads me to the place where we do the blood test and then the place where she gets her injection and finally to her dish. She thinks she's in charge of all this and that's fine with me.

 

Welcome to you both. It can be slightly challenging, but the treatment path for diabetes is very well known, and not uncharted territory.

I don't want to overwhelm you more, but the ketones concern me. The development of ketones can lead to DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis), which you want to avoid at all costs. The recipe for DKA is an infection, high BG and low food intake. I am assuming that your vet didn't really raise any alarm about this, and I don't want to either, but it would be good to know what the ketone level actually was if you have your lab results. Hopefully it was "trace" or less (ref: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Ketones ).

You are seeing the doctor today apparently (so I am assuming you are not in the U.S. as today is a holiday, unless it is an ER vet), which is good. Just be sure to keep Bella eating and hydrated, and see if you can tell us more about the ketones, if the vet didn't at your appointment today. And it might be a good idea for you to jump over to Main Feline Health forum (http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/) and create a new post there to talk about ketones. I have not been through ketones or DKA with either of my diabetic cats, knock on wood, but we have folks here who have. And both home BG testing and urine ketone testing would be a really good idea for you to get started on, whether your vet recommended it or not. BG testing should be a piece of cake for you all since you are already familiar with it in humans. You can even use the same meter, no need for an expensive pet-specific meter unless that is just your personal preference.

Hope to hear from you soon about your appointment, your recommended insulin dosage, Bella's current BG readings and the ketones. And don't worry -- you got this. We'll help you through any and all questions that you may have to get Bella healthy and safe. At 7 years, she would be considered still a youngster in my household, and having youth on your side is always good.

Best,
Sandi.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone....

Hi Sandi and thank you for your help! I know the ketones are bad. They did not give me a level, just that she was 'throwing some ketones.' At a previous vet visit with a different doc at the same practice, we talked about DKA. Bella wasn't diabetic then, but she was 22 lbs. From there, I took away the dry food buffet and would only give it to her a little at a time. That was quite some time ago and she is down to 17.1 lbs. since then. They did do a full lab workup to see if anything else was going on and everything came back normal, other than being diabetic of course.

I am in Louisiana, but Memorial Day isn't a big holiday here so it was business as usual around town! Bella's BG was 330 at her visit yesterday, which is still high. They did not have me change her dosage yet. It's 1 unit every 12 hrs. She goes back tomorrow to spend the day for a glucose curve.

I do have keto urine strips and actually tested her in the past when we first suspected something was up. (negative) We also have several meters laying around, but haven't ventured into testing Bella yet. I've watched videos on how to do it, and they make it look so easy. We are still fighting with the insulin shots though, so pricking her ear seems impossible. As soon as I sit next to her with the insulin pen, it's like she smells the insulin and starts to back away. She's not fighting us terribly, but it is taking two of us, even with a distraction of food/tuna/chicken treats.

One thing I was wondering about is how much/how often should I feed her?? The vet had said once every 12 hours when we're giving her a shot, but that seems so little. She comes looking for food at least twice during the day, so I've been giving her a spoon of Fancy Feast here and there or some chopped up chicken.

 

HI! I could have written your first post myself as I am sitting here in tears waiting to take my girl in for her first vet stay required by my vet for her first insulin dose and monitoring. I feel so guilty and overwhelmed. She hates being held or restrained and I don't know how I'm going to do this alone. I don't want her quality of life to diminish because she's going to be scared constantly. She probably won't eat the suggested treats when she's pissed off. Or eat at all when she is for that matter. My biggest fear is after reading the horror stories about hypoglycemia.

 

Yes, pretty much the same here. Sorry you are having to deal with this also. It's all so new and so hard. I hate the idea of scaring my Bella too. She's super sweet and dog-like friendly. She always looked at me with the sweetest, most content kitty face when she sits with me on the couch. I know she doesn't understand why we're hurting her or suddenly forcing her into a crate to go to the vet so often. She hissed and growled at me a few times while we were trying to give her a shot. I know it's for her own good but she's confused by this new routine. I'm going to do the best I can to keep her happy and healthy as possible for as long as possible, but I don't want to make her life miserable either. My biggest fear is she dies because of something I did or didn't do. I have lost 2 young kitties suddenly in recent years and I'm keeping careful watch on my almost 17 year old cat as I know her time is coming. Now I have this going on with Bella. It has me so stressed and upset. I know it is what it is and we are taking it one day at a time, but it's overwhelming. Hang in there, and hopefully this gets easier for both of us and our kitties will be okay for a quite a while longer.

 

It’s truly heartbreaking and gut wrenching. To say I feel your pain is an understatement. And yes, having them lose their trust and possibly seeing you as the person that is hurting them when we’re trying to help them is just awful.

 

I remember how hard those early weeks are.I had just started a new job, so work was super stressful. Then I'd get home and I felt like I was spending all my time chasing Cleo around with a syringe. The videos make it look so easy, but Cleo hadn't seen the videos and didn't know that she was supposed to sit there patiently and wait for her injection. And then I was supposed to test her blood too? I was pretty sure that was never going to happen, so don't even try to talk to me about it! (Then she had a hypo episode and I became a little more open-minded about that.)

I actually considered euthanasia. She's an old lady and what kind of quality of life is she going to have if I'm constantly terrorizing her with syringes? I'm glad I didn't follow through with that, because we did get used to our new routine... even the blood tests. I relate to the fear that we will lose our kitties trust. I have learned that Cleo is very forgiving. Humans do all kinds of weird things that cats don't understand, like showering and vacuuming. They learn to accept that and they can learn to accept this too. Treats helped a lot. Cats are very interested in food and Cleo was so hungry all the time when we first started treating her diabetes.

 

Alex, I was so glad to see your post. Our kittehs are VERY forgiving, and the important thing is that the testing and syringes are taking care of the health of the fur people we love. Gosh, wouldn't it be great if we could show them the videos and say, ok this is how we are going to do it? So, Jill Hollister and MomofBella, I have no doubt that you will learn and become more experienced and relaxed. You love your fur people.

 

I am sorry that I don't have much time today and probably tomorrow -- in your reply to me, if you can copy and paste that into a new posting over in the Feline Health forum it will get more eyes on it and hopefully others can chime in until I am available.

Best,
Sandi.

 

I just found out our 12 year-old cat (the gray one), Skippy, has diabetes. I have a one year-old and we are moving from South Carolina to Illinois in a month. I don't know how I'm supposed to do this. He won't even let me put flea medicine on his skin without a huge fight - how am I supposed to give him shots every 12 hours? A friend suggested re-homing both of my cats (Skiddy, the golden one, is borderline) to a loving home that will give them the care and attention they deserve, and while that may be the most convenient option, it makes my stomach turn. I don't know how to do this.

 

I suppose, I would try and do the shot every 12 hours and see how it goes, especially if you don't particularly like the idea of re-homing them... at least after trying, you will know at least what directions you need to go in. I am sorry that Skippy has diabetes. It's hard sometimes but it is manageable! I think we all need to have someone else that "gets it" (without a better way to describe that) to just let us know it can be manageable! I need that sometimes too! Love to you, Skippy and Skiddy)!

 

@KGWeiser why not give a few weeks and see how it goes? I found that was the time frame when it all started to get easier. Cleo and I settled into a routine and everything started to seem a lot more comfortable. By that time, she was also feeling better physically, so she became a lot friendlier. I thought she was just a grumpy, old lady, but now I see that she didn't want to hang out with the rest of the family because she wasn't feeling well. Seeing that improvement made me feel a lot more confident about what I was doing to her and helped her to feel more trusting toward me. I wasn't just doing stuff to her; I was helping her!

 

@KGWeiser welcome. Looks like you might have been a bit overlooked here in MomofBella's thread. You can introduce yourself by creating your own thread in the Welcome to the Group forum. There are always people on the lookout for new members, remember we were all new and had that "deer in the headlights" stunned look too! We like to encourage all new members here to post in the Main Forum, more eyes and experienced members to answer questions. There is tremendous support, and so much valuable information right here, right now. Hugs.

 

MomofBella, I suggest you start a new thread in the Main Forum, there are so many wonderful, caring, knowledgeable and experienced members who can answer questions and address concerns. Let them help.