Newcomers Stormy & Bekah

Hi there!
I'm Bekah and together with my husband I am a certified crazy cat lady! Last year we lost our 15 year old kitty to kidney disease. Last week we lost our 13 year old kitty to abdominal cancer. Our Stormy girl was taken to the vet last week also after we noticed she had suddenly slimmed down a great deal. We just received the news that she's diabetic and will be going tomorrow to meet with the vet to form a treatment plan. Stormy has two furry siblings (Bandit - 9 year old Tuxedo and Bella - 10 year old Black kitty), a 4 year old human sister and a human brother on the way. It's a busy life, but it's filled with LOVE!

I'm sorry that we are all here and that we have sick kitties. But I'm also really glad that if we have to walk this path that we won't be going it alone! Thank you in advance as I'm sure I will be bombarding you with questions over the next month or so!!!

 

Welcome! We can certainly help. Please go to the main health forum to post any questions you have. They'll be seen by more people there.

 

Hi Bekah. Welcome. I'm sorry about your losses two years in a row. That's tough.
The people are great here and have a wealth of knowledge.

 

Hi Bekah, hubby, Stormy, Bandit and Bella. Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

I am so very sorry to hear of your recent losses. That just makes the diagnosis of Stormy with diabetes that much more emotionally upsetting. The good news is that diabetes is a treatable condition and with treatment Stormy can live a long and healthy life. It takes a little commitment and a bit of patience but it's a lot easier than you think.

One thing to be aware of when you meet with the vet tomorrow is that we advocate home testing here and most of our members use a human glucometer. Home testing gives you the ability to ensure it's safe to give insulin, to see how Stormy is reacting to the insulin without any additional stress of frequent vet visits and this in turn keeps your vet costs lower and ensures you are getting accurate blood sugar readings on which to determine dosing needs. In the US, many of our members use the Relion Micro or Confirm meters available at Walmart. Both meters need only a small sample of blood and the strips are reasonably priced. Some vets don't tell their clients to test claiming it's not necessary or in some cases that it's not a good idea but we believe it is the only way to keep kitty safe and to get kitty regulated. They are after all, our furry kids and we wouldn't give insulin to our human kids without making sure it was safe to do so and monitoring how they were doing after their shots.

Some vets that do advocate home testing will recommend a pet meter. While pet meters are wonderful tools and do give readings closer to lab values, they are also very expensive to use as the strips are considerably more expensive and also only available through your vet or a specialty pharmacy. All the documentation on this site is based on the use of human glucometers unless specifically stated otherwise.

Once you have met with your vet tomorrow, come join us over on the Health forum with any and all questions. You can let us know what insulin the vet has prescribed, what dose etc. and we'll help in any way we can.

 

Hello and welcome!

Linda has given you a bunch of great information already, just wanted to add one thing since you haven't gone to the vet to get a treatment plan together yet. You won't know until you get there which insulin types your vet will recommend, but I wanted to put a plug in for the "L" insulins, Lantus and Levemir. While the right insulin for your cat is whichever insulin works best for your cat, and many people have had success (including remission) with other insulins, for some reason the "L"s do particularly well in cats. Most current users on the site are using one of these two insulins. If you are in the US, many cat owners are put off by the price of Lantus quoted by the vet, but we have suggestions for making it (much) more affordable.

Of course, the decision on "which insulin" may not be up to you (or even your vet if you are, say, in the UK where there are strict rules about what can be prescribed when), just wanted to give you a heads-up before you went in about what your choices might be!

Welcome again!

 

Welcome aboard! I have 7 cats... One of them also named Stormy. ...and a 4 yo son. Welcome... You'll get lots of help and support here.

 

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome! I just posted over in the Health forum with an update of today's meeting with the vet.

 

Welcome StormysMom! Lots of great people here to help and be supportive