Newly diagnosed 10 year old

We are Rusty & Jennifer, we are the blessed parents of our 10 year old orange & white prince charming. Ernie is our little sugar baby. Our other fur babies include his litter mate sister, Elsie. They came into our lives at 6 weeks old, when we adopted them from a rescue group. The trio is rounded out by our spunky princess, a 6 year old grey tiger stripped named Annie.



A little back history, in 2011, we lost a 11 year old tortie named Rosie to diabetes unexpectedly. She had masked the signs for far too long & far too well. By the time we knew something was wrong & ran her to the vet the same day her gluc was through the roof, and she was also in a state of DKA & renal issues. Unfortunately, at the time, we chose, for her sake, not to wage that war & we bid farewell to her the same day to give her relief. Looking back on it now, I partially blame the vet we had at the time, maybe she wasn’t overly educated with diabetes. And of course, I blame myself, because we didn’t see any signs, I know, cats hide it so well & she certainly did! I also should have educated myself before making such a pivotal decision. However, with compounded issues & early system failure, I felt like our choices were narrowed. However, if there is any saving grace, Rosie helped us to become better fur-parents, because we watch our babies like a hawk now.

In June of 2014 we said goodbye to our 15 year old Golden Lab / Rhodesian Ridgeback / Chow female, named Mistie Lou. In September of 2014, we provided relief to Rosie’s littermate, Rudie who was 14 & had battled colon cancer for 3 months. And again in June of 2015, it was time to let our last canine, Mollie Ann go at the ripe age of 15. Mollie was a pure Golden Lab who’s legs & hips had aged to that point. So, it had already been a rough year, before getting Ernie’s DX on 7/13/15. Ernie is truly the rock of the family & the biggest love bug in the world. Mommy & Daddy don’t have a favorite, but he sure is close!

The last dog we lost was Ernie’s “big sister” in every sense of the word. After losing her, he became a little reclusive & lost, as well as a little less interested in food. He had reacted in similar fashions when we lost Mistie & again when we let Rudie go. So, at first we attributed it to his mourning. However, after about 3 weeks of not snapping out of it, we started watching him even closer. We soon saw a problem when we looked into his “eyes” & he was also throwing up a lot of his food, we called the vet right away. They found some inflammation in the pancreas & his glucose level was right at 500. They advised that we treat the pancreas inflammation & stabilize his diet with canned food. They wanted to make sure his insulin production hadn’t dipped due to the inflammation & also make sure his sugars didn’t spike due to not holding food down.

We went back to the vet a week later on 7/20/15 & his glucose was 425. At that point, the decided it was time to help the body out with 2x daily Vetsulin injections @ 1 unit. The first week was hit & miss on the injections, as we continued to train him on eating the canned food as soon as we put it out. So, we had to cancel his 1st follow up check because he didn’t eat, thus he didn’t get his insulin. So, he instead had a follow up on 8/1. His gluc level was down to 180, 5 hours after eating & injection. So, we are off to a decent start & are still learning to navigate the waters together.

The bottom line is, we love our son & would do anything to preserve, prolong, & protect his little life. He has given us so much & it is time that we give back to him!

Ok, I am off of the soapbox now!


Thank you FDMB. In the past week I have dove into educating myself & my wife & this forum is simply amazing, filled with such loving, helpful people.

 

Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

Vetsulin/Caninsulin Guide

 

Sounds like you are doing a great job with your sweet Ernie. Changing the food is a big step as is hometesting. We have a color coded spreadsheet that will help you keep track of his numbers. It's a great tool for you, your vet and us, when you need dose advice.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...te-a-ss-and-link-it-in-your-signature.130337/

 

The spreadsheet is just a grid for reporting the numbers and automatically color-coding them. There's no math required.

 

Hi Rusty and Jennifer. Welcome to you and your fur babies. Wonderful pictures of you all!

My but you and your little furry family have an awful run of things. I've been through something similar and I feel for you ...

I lost my beloved Danú in 2010 to hepatic lipidosis (very poor response from the vet at the time and I didn't know how to fight for her - a sorrow I will carry with me all my days). Danú came to me when I lost Saoirse's brother: I would have been lost without the comfort she gave me. She was a Healer Puss. And her last gift to me was to teach me to be stronger next time. The oh-so-painful lesson Danú taught me helped me to fight for Saoirse. It helped me to save Saoirse's life last year when I had vet issues again. This time I fought. Very hard.

You're in a great place to get help for Ernie. I have a picture in my mind of Rosie watching from the Bridge and smiling.


Mogs
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Thank you Mogs for your reply. You are correct, it has been a tough pet year. But we have pulled our boot straps up for Ernie's sake. We really are blessed, because he has always been at the center of the family. As evident by the pics, it doesn't matter if you are human, feline, or canine, he loves you all the same! The last picture was taken of him & Mistie Lou, we loved the fact that she was hanging out of the bed so he would have room! The next to the last pic is Ernie & his littermate sister Elsie & was taken the day we brought them home. The middle picture was Ernie & Rudie (the cancer patient that we lost last September) And of course the top 2 are him with Mom & Dad!