New to insulin

Hi All! My cat, Garnet, was diagnosed diabetic last December. I was told that it could be controlled with diet. So, I fed her DM wet food and Friskies Turkey and Giblets on recommendation of my vet. Her blood sugar went from 333 to 197 in just a few weeks. I was thrilled. But she lost almost 5 pounds in just a few months and was ALWAYS hungry. So, I brought her back to the vet and he had me cut back her food intake. Of course, she seemed more hungry than before, and she was picking my other cat more than normal. I decided this week it was time for a second opinion. I was told that she will need insulin. I was so very upset and scared. After I stopped crying, I realized that this will her life better and mine(she has me up every hour in the night to eat!). We are going Monday so I can learn how to give her the shots. But, my husband and I both work jobs where we never have a regular schedule and we are very socially active. I am worried that we will not be able to give her the injections when she needs them. How strict are the times that we need to give her the injection? I have already changed her diet over to FF wet food. I am a little overwhelmed, and nervous! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

Hi there!

Don't be too upset, diabetes is a better disease to treat than many others that cats can get. Yes, it may require some adjustment to your schedules but it is doable. Your best insulin for difficult schedules is PZI - either by BCP or Prozinc (BCP is better known as Prozinc is relatively new). I'm just so glad that you got a second opinion as any vet who tells you that diabetes can be diet controlled is trying to do you a favour but you're lucky your cat didn't die as a result from complications....

Depending on the state of her pancreas (no way to know), a course of insulin may be enough and she may eventually become diet controlled. But if not, she can still be happy and healthy and you guys can still have a life. But there will be an adjustment period, when you learn to give shots and learn to test her blood glucose levels at home the way human diabetics do. That way you can best find out what her insulin needs are.

Make sure your read the fdmb faq linked a bit higher up in this forum, and come back with more questions ok?

Jen

 

Garnet is very pretty - welcome to FDMB

There is a ton of information here - read and post your questions here in the Health forum.

Firstly, there are several good insulins for cats and a few not-so-good ones.

Of the good insulins, the only one that is fairly flexible for time schedule is PZI or ProZinc.

The good insulins that need a pretty solid 12hr schedule are Lantus and Levemir. They build up in the body so if shots are late or missed, the stored insulin is consumed.

the not-so-good insulins to be avoided are Vetsulin aka Caninsulin and Humulin NPH

Please feed your kitty as much as she wants to eat -- when not on insulin, she is literally starving and can't use the energy (sugar) from the food without insulin.

It is great that you have switched to Fancy Feast -- one caution though -- I recently found that two flavors that my diabetic cats could eat have changed -- and now it makes their blood sugar jump up -- so Purina has changed the formula.

Wellness canned and EVO 95% meat flavors are good foods while we are trying to get updated info from Purina about Fancy Feast changes.

Learn to home test Garnet -- you will save on vet bills and help Garnet feel better faster by controlling her blood sugar. The ear pricks for blood take some practice, so don't worry if it takes several tries to get blood. We adopted a "3 strikes and we're out" rule to keep the frustration level down while we were learning to test.

Human glucometers work just fine for cats and are much less expensive than "pet" meters. I personally like the Maxima AST from http://www.hocks.com (I haven't seen it in stores)

When looking for syringes, higher needle gauge numbers mean a tinier needle -- 31 ga is less ouchy than 28 ga.
Again, human syringes are less expensive than pet syringes because they are manufactured in much larger quantities.

Anyway, keep a calm and confident attitude -- if you are scared, Garnet will also get scared. You ARE the mommy-cat!

Keep good records of blood sugar tests, including the food given -- especially since the Fancy Feast is a bit questionable right now.

 

hi jen, don't worry. alot of us cried and freaked out at first. it all turns out to be rather simple and easy once you get past the first couple of weeks. it will be a whole lot cheaper if you hometest which i already forgot in your post...are you?
also i will link you up to our food chart, under 10 carbs only...cheaper than vet food and often better quality. i like the fancy feast.
as for insulins. if you are concerned with tight scheduling than you might want to go with pro zinx pzi, the only other two acceptable choices are levemir and lantus. those 2 are great insulins but require exact scheduling and alot of testing. the pro zinc pzi is more flexible.
if you are not set up for everthing contact me via pm...see on lower left on this message. it's a private message. you can ask here too by all means. i have newbie kits if you are not fully prepared to get started.
and don't worry to much. in no time you will actually be prepared to teach others!
btw, do let her eat as much as she wants right now, her body is literally starving to death.
and let her drink also. many cats end up in remission so you may go back to diet controlled.

 

thanks everyone! I am feeling a little better about this now. I am taking our 2 normal babysitters with me tomorrow so that they can learn how administer the shots too. I have written lots of questions down for my new vet. I know that she is going to put garnet on lantus for now, but I am going to ask about pzi. The words of encouragement are greatly appreciated! I just cannot wait for my baby to feel better! I will start looking for new food to put her on, but for now I have a case of FF to go through. What I did not mention in my first p-post is that this is partially my fault, I let my cats eat dry and wet food and never really looked at portion size. So they were a bit over weight. My other cat is slowly starting to loose weight on the wet food only diet, and I am hoping that she does not become diabetic as well. again, thank you so much and I will reach out soon I am sure!
Jen and Garnet

 

Like for most things, a constant schedule is best. However, we have to do what we can do. A PZI insulin like ProZinc or BCP BZI seems to be more amenable for a varying schedule than Lantus or Levemir. However, last year I had a varying schedule on the weekends and had to shoot at a 16/8 hours schedule with Lantus (four cats) U (one) and N (one). My cats did alright.