New kitty - Introducing Cotton

Where to start...Cotton's my big buddy; a slightly-battered rescue cat who joined our family 4 years ago. By our best guess, he's around 10 years old. Cotton got diagnosed with Diabetes on August 21st of this year at his annual check-up. Cotton's already hyperthyroid, so we run a full blood workup on him every year and this year his BG was through the roof. We'd just started noticing an increase in urination and the beginnings of a drop in his weight, plus he'd been in back in June with a clear slate, so our vet is really hopeful that we've caught this early.

Cotton's currently on Caninsulin, although it's not really helping so when he goes in tomorrow the vet will probably have us try Detemir (sp?) to see if that works any better for him.

This has already been a bit of a learning curve for me (especially since I have a major issue with needles) but we're working through it. I'm hoping it doesn't take too long for me and Cotton to get a routine going with his insulin. Biggest challenge we're hitting at the moment is food. Cotton loved his dry food, which of course he can't have anymore, so he's not too happy about that, plus the first thing he does when he's not feeling well for any reason is eat less, so I'm spending a lot of time coaxing him to eat. I really hope that once we get him regulated, everything else will even out.

So that's us, in a nutshell. I've had plenty of people over the last few weeks tell me I'm nuts for treating, but Cotton's an amazing cat and as long as he's willing to fight the good fight, I'm in here with him.

 

Hi Kate, wlcome. It's not fun and it can be scary, but treating diabetes for me has been easier than treating my hypert kitties.

You're switching to Levemir insulin, that's the brand name. I use that for my little man Tucker. I love the stuff.

It's different from what you have been using, it's gentler, there will be less dramatic drops in the BGs, in most cases.

What kind of food did your vet have you switch to? What did he eat prior to the dx?

What dose of Caninsulin is Cotton on now?

How do you feel about hometesting your cat's blood sugar? It's the safest and best way to get your cat regulated and avoid complications.

There's going to be a lot of folks who will have tons of great information for you and probably more questions, so I'll stop now and just say hi, glad you're here and how lucky Cotton is to have you as his person

 

Hi Jennifer,
Thanks. :smile:

He's currently on 5 units a day of the Caninsulin (3 in the am, 2 in the pm) and the vet suspects that the caninsulin doesn't last long enough for him, so it's funny you mention the ups and downs - that's exactly what Cotton's doing. He'll get his shot and be great for about 6-8 hours, then start to droop until the next shot.

The vet currently has him on Hills m/d but knows I won't keep him on it beyond what's necessary because I'm not fond of the Hills foods. He was eating a mix of Blue Spa canned and Eukanuba dry. I'm hoping to try him on the Blue Wilderness (because he's picky at the best of times and really liked the Spa) - I'd love to keep him on the Spa, since he loves it, but I suspect it's too high in carbs. Cotton's diet actually worries me more than the insulin, as weird as that must sound, because Cotton's always been such a picky eater.

I hadn't though of hometesting before coming here, to be honest, but I am interested. I've actually been looking through some of the stuff on this site, but I have a bit of a dilemma...Cotton's ears were both badly damaged by frostbite in his previous life, so I'm not sure how I'd go about home testing...

 

I also want to say welcome Kate. Hi Cotton.

You will get lots of advice.

I will just say that hometesting blood glucose levels is the first best thing you can do to treat Cotton's diabetes.

 

Hi Kate,

Please do look at changing the diet you feed cotton, that is very important. If at all possible, you should eliminate dry food and switch to a low carb wet food. However, you should start home testing before you change his diet, because just making that change can result in significantly lowering Cotton's BG, meaning he will need less insulin. You need to be testing so that you can adjust the amount of insulin you are giving to avoid hypo.

As far as testing, if you don't think you can prick his ears due to the frostbite damage, you can use his paw pads instead. You should use antibiotic ointment to prevent infection if you use his paw pads.

Levemir is an excellent long acting insulin, much better than caninsulin.

 

Hi Venita & Laurie!

He's already off the dry. One of the first things I noticed when he got his diagnosis and I was researching was that Dry food + diabetic cats is not really a good thing, so he's not had any kibble (other than a couple pieces as a treat) since his diagnosis.

I'm actually looking forward to the possibility of getting his insulin switched. The more I read about the Caninsulin and how it should work, the less I think it's working for my big buddy, so a change could make all the difference. The Wilderness food is supposed to be high protien/low carb, although looking at the Jnaet & binky charts, at least 2 of his current foods come in at 10 carbs or less, so I may not have to switch afterall...just out of curioustity, how do you go about getting the carb count in a specific food from the manufacturer?

 

Oh Canada!
Whereabouts are you located? Maybe someone is nearby who can help you with testing and other stuff.
I am in Toronto and there are others near me, plus others across the country.

About the ears, would you be able to take a picture of them? I am sure there will be a way to home test - some even test on the pads of the feet.
Home testing is really the safe way to go because cats are not that great at complaining or letting you know about problems.

I started my Shadoe on Caninsulin and it did her no good at all. We switched to Lantus and saw improvement immediately. Because you are in Canada, you don't need a prescription like the others in the states, so we are a pretty lucky bunch.

And last but not least, welcome to the site! Please be sure to ask any and all questions; someone will have an answer for you.

 

Hi Gayle,
I'm actually just a bit outside of Toronto. Small world. :lol:

It's kind of a goofy picture, but you can see how his ears are curled from here. The one that's not as curled has perptual scabs that just don't heal properly (although we're trying) I might be able to prick him, depending on how good the bloodflow is in his ears...what do you think?

Original Photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30691136@N06/3883054726/

 

HI from Calgary! There are lots of folks in the GTA to help you...

As already mentioned, thats a whopping dose of caninsulin for such a recent diagnosis...

Hometesting, a better insulin and getting him to eat will all make things sooo much easier!

Jen

 

Plenty of room on those handsome ears to test

I usually test Tucker at the base of the ear, right above the little triangle flap at the base of the ear. I find it bleeds the best there, at least for my cats.

Cotton is very handsome.

 

I think for sure there's enough ears left for testing! Ack, I don't even aim for a tip anymore, just poke and there the blood is!
I had a kitty decades ago in Winnipeg, who howled and howled and howled if he was not allowed outside every day, even in 40below weather. He did NOT care about the cold, and he lost the tip of one ear plus the hairs went white from frostbite, but he loved his outdoors.

There are others who are nearby Toronto, I guess you could call them outskirts. I bet we could find someone close to you!

And I must say that Cotton is adorable!

First thing you need is to get a meter, we pretty much use the same like you can get at any pharmacy for human diabetics. I use OneTouch and also have a Bayer Contour that I like.

Testing's pretty important because you don't want Cotton going to low and having the meter to test helps you know when to increase a dose or decrease a dose.

the next important thing will be the food. You want to go low carb and WET foods. There's a list you can use of tons of low carb foods to try with Cotton. Most people go with friskies or fancy feast pates, but there are others as well. If the ones he's eating now are low on Binky's list then you are set. For snacks, you should try something else .... no dry treats either. At Walmart and some other places, you can get some 100% freeze dried chicken pieces. Petsmart has them too, but shop around for good prices.

For my Oliver, he likes little chunks of raw chicken; you could try him with some raw if you eat chicken.
Who knows? If you switch foods, you may have yourself a diet controlled Cotton and no need for insulin at all! Several kitties have become controlled after a short bit of insulin.

What insulin are you going to use? Lantus is good and so is Levemir.

What dose are you giving right now of the Caninsulin? Still 3 and 2? If you look at my spreadsheet for Shadoe, you can see how we started out on the same but we did not give different am and pm doses, and we switched shortly after coming to this site.

It would be a great idea to be testing before switching insulin. Quite often, numbers drop with diet changes, but since you are already feeding the low carb, you just want to see where Cotton is, with his numbers, and then you can get an idea of what would be a good dose on one of the longer lasting insulins.

I am sure many others will come along with suggestions about meters and ways to test ears that have issues.

Setting up a spreadsheet for Cotton's numbers would be a great idea, and also a profile with some info so that people will not be asking you the same questions all the time.

 

Hi Kate! That Cotton sure is a pretty boy!

I second the recommendations on the food. My Calliope was at 500 bg (US number and it's high) at the vet's when diagnosed. Part of it was probably vet stress. In any event, we changed the food right away and started lantus, which is very much like levemir. We started low as recommended on those long acting insulins and with the food change, Calliope was off the insulin in less than 3 weeks. It can happen. It's not a guarantee by any means, but we've seen food change and a little insulin go a long way to getting a kitty regulated or off the juice altogether.

Definitely try the hometesting. It's so very important. Calliope was pretty low the first time I was able to get a test. Scared me enough to know that I needed to know those numbers.

With the new insulin, do consider starting low and going slow. That way, there's less chance that you miss the right dose or cause rebound.

I'm at work and have to run, but you should check for ketones, as well, and that's testing the pee with ketostix from the pharmacy. Hopefully, someone else will give you details. Actually, until you hometest, you could use the ketodiastix which test both the urine for blood sugar and ketones. The blood sugar reading will be hours old since the urine sits in the kidneys, but it's better than nothing.

Welcome and be assured that this is all new, now, but it will be habit and okay, later on!

 

Kate, you have plenty of ear to test. Click on the pic of Vinnie to enlarge it.....he also came with scarred and extremely thickened ears.....all you need is a little skin on the edge.

 

Thank you everyone...for the support and for the sweet comments about my boy. Hope, that pic of Vinnie just melted my heart. What a darling!

It makes me feel better to know people have gotten this under control. It's funny, I've been pretty calm about this whole Diabetes thing, but every now and then it kind of hits me that this is a reality shift and, while I'm hopeful we can get everything resolved quickly, I have to admit that it will probably never go away.

My DH is taking him in tomorrow for another blood test and possible insulin switch. I'm sending him with a list of foods to tell the vet we're trying and a list of questions because while he means well, DH never asks the questions that I want answered. I'll see if I can find a home test meter this weekend and try to get started.

Thanks again for all the replies. It really does help make this whole thing more manageable to be able to talk about it where people understand and have been through it.

 

what an adorable kitty. and a perfect name too!

i wanted to grab this while i was thinking of it and show it to you just in case you need it. it's a video of one of the gals here testing her kitty using the paw pads. so if the ears don't work out there is another option but i'm thinking you got enough ear there to work with. as long as there's still enough bloodflow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fRK7QY7ZEk

 

Thanks Cindy...it looks so easy in the video. Here's hoping that Cotton's that easy-going about it.