Newbie

My 13 1/2 yr old cat was diagnosed on 3/16/15 with FD after senior wellness exam for yearly physical. The vet went through all the numbers with me but it was all a blur of what she was telling me. Vet recommended Lantas for insulin and change diet to Hill's M/D canned. He went to vet the next day to start shots and they monitored him. When I picked him up, his glucose level was within normal range with one shot that morning at 9am and not a lot of food eaten. He ate about a tablespoon of food that night and I called the after hours vet and was told not to give him evening shot because he hadn't eaten enough. They just told me that he needs to eat a "good amount" of food. He has been on prescription dry food for 12 yrs for crystals in his urine. He eats a tiny bit of canned in the morning/evening when the other cats get their canned food but for the most part he is a free eater of his dry food. The food has now been taken up so I can monitor his eating and because the vet hadn't talked to Hills rep I was to feed him canned. He had 2oz of a Fancy Feast shredded chicken this morning and I gave him his insulin shot. When I picked up his food, the vet said I should give him 1 1/2 cans of wet food per day. The cans are 5.5 oz and this just seems like a lot of food at one time. It's roughly 4oz per meal. I'm getting rather annoyed at my vet's office because they just say that he needs to eat a "good amount" and to mix in the dry with the canned. My idea of a "good amount" and theirs are apparently not the same since I thought that 2oz of Fancy Feast was pretty good. This evening when I questioned them about the amount of food the tech said if I thought it was to much then give him less. When I told them that he ate just a small amount of food like last night, they said well, if you were told last night not to give him the shot, don't give him the shot if you don't want to. They told me his diet is critical and the amount of food is critical, but it's my pet so I should feed him what I think is the correct amount. They told me his insulin is critical but don't give it if I don't think he ate enough. I'm so frustrated at them, that I'm about to look for a new vet. I'm going to look into getting Fancy Feast canned food, Gluten Free variety if I can find it and taking the prescription food back.

The vet did not even mention monitoring his glucose. I'm going to go to purchase a kit tomorrow so I can learn how to do this. I'm going to have them send me his test results so that I know what numbers I'm looking for when I read the strips.

One thing that they noticed is that his pupils are dilated. The vet originally thought he had high blood pressure but all the other test results were normal. She now wants me to go to an optimologist to see if they can determine what is wrong with is eyes. I have read that this could be a symptom of FD. Has anyone else's cat have this symptom? If so, did the eyes correct themselves?

 

Hi and welcome to the FDMB! The best place you never wanted to be!! Could we know your name and the name of your sugarcat?

Food....we want our cats eating a low carb wet food, so you'll need to get rid of all the dry. Dry is too high in carbs as well as being very hard on kidneys. Here's a Food Chart that we use that has most of the foods available in the US. You want to find foods that are less than 10% carbs. You're right in taking back the "prescription" foods..just tell them your cat won't eat them because they're guaranteed. They also don't have any "magical properties" that make them good for diabetics.

For now, don't worry about how much you're feeding. Until your cat's blood glucose is under better control, they're really starving to death, so let them eat! Without insulin, the glucose that cells require to live can't get into the cells...that's why a lot of our cats lose weight despite eating lots of food.

YEAH that you're willing to learn to home test! It not only keeps your kitty safe, but it lets you know what's really going on inside his body. Knowledge is power against diabetes! Most of us use human glucometers instead of the animal ones because of the cost and availability of testing strips. WalMart has their Relion brand Confirm or Micro which are both great meters that take the tiniest sample and the strips are affordable ($35.88 for 100)

Don't feel too upset with your vets office....The truth is that vets are lucky if they get a few hours of education on diabetes while they're in school and after that, most of their education comes from Hills food representatives. It's also true that IF your vet spent the time it takes to keep up to date on the latest treatments for every disease in every type of animal they see, they'd never have time to actually see patients!

Lantus is a great insulin, but most vets don't know how to use it correctly. The starting dose should be based on weight, so if you can find out how much your cat weighs, we can help you figure out what the correct starting dose should be.

It's getting late for me, but I wanted to welcome you and give you at least some information to get started with. If you have any questions, please ask! The people here really love to help new members learn all they need to know to be successful in "The sugardance"!

 

Hi and welcome

If your cat has been on dry food for a long time I would switch over slowly. Ideally you would do this once you are testing glucose levels at home. For one thing you want to minimise the risk of upset tummies and also a low carb food can really reduce the need for insulin as it lowers blood glucose.

Here is a useful link on how to go about hometesting
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

It's great that the vet has given you lantus. What dose did they suggest you start on?

You need to keep a watch out for and know how to deal with low blood glucose

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

With regards feeding many people free feed wet food. I would feed remi four small meals in the morning and four in the evening. You should remove the food two hours before the next shot is due to make sure that they will want to eat and also when you are testing the test won't be influenced by the food.

 

I notice Buds eyes are dilated a lot. Every once in a while he'll have clear "cat eyes" but most of the time they are dilated. I mentioned it to the vet but she didn't seem concerned. He had an eye pressure test that came back fine. I don't know what to think about it either.

 

You might call and ask if your vet has the equipment to test blood pressure (not all of them do)

 

Thank you for your responses. I don't believe my vet has the equipment for blood pressure other than when they run tests in what they call the senior wellness package which is blood tests, urine, fecal, x-ray, etc. I bought the wrong test strips today to go the reader so I will start tomorrow. I will look at all the links that you have provided me. He is on 1 UI of insulin, twice a day.

 

Hello there, welcome aboard. Once you start testing you are going to want to record that data. There's a great spreadsheet in the tech forum that you'll be able to put in your signature here (and send a link to your vet if you want to) so we can all see kitty's results and be able to provide advice accordingly. If you have any problems testing just ask, we are here to help