Newly diagnosed and open to advice

Hi,

My fluffy, orange, 12 year old Maine Coon mix who slightly resembles the Lorax was diagnosed with diabetes last Tuesday. He's my kid, so I notice any type of change in his behavior, even subtle ones. He had slowly, gradually been drinking a lot more water than I had been used to seeing, and I addressed that issue last October of 2014 with our vet. She drew blood and found nothing. Mentioned it again October of 2015 and she didn't really acknowledge it. Well the water consumption had gotten worse and worse to the point where he would never stay far from a sink or his water bowl. Two weeks before I took him back to the vet, he was also urinating a TON. 8-10 times a day this baby was having to pee, and each time was quite a significant amount. Along with this, he would have days where he'd just sleep all day long or hide in weird parts of the house he's never been before. He also lost 2.5 pounds since November when he was last at the vet for a cough. I'm a pre-nursing student taking all these biology classes, so my mind was racing in directions I never want it to go again. I went up to the vet on my day off and demanded a full panel be run, and they were happy to accommodate that. They took his blood, then 20 minutes later came and got him from me again to get a urine sample. 20 minutes after that, the lady walks in with a vial of insulin and a syringe and tells me he has diabetes. Pretty shocking and devastating. Cried for three days. I'm just thankful it wasn't renal failure like I had first feared. At the moment she has me giving him 1 unit of novulin-n in the morning after he eats. Next week I take him in for a glucose curve so she can fine-tune exactly how much he'll need and how often. I've switched his food to canned only, we've gotten ourselves on a nice little "getting ready" morning routine, and things are rollin'.

Happy to be here amongst others who have also gone down this path. Won't be so scary if I arm myself with knowledge

 

Hello and welcome to FDMB. You have come to the right place for info, support and all the help you need. We have a wonderfully friendly group here with a vast amount of knowledge we love to share.

You are not the first person to arrive on this forum with a tale of being told your cat has diabetes and handed a bottle of insulin and not much more. No more tears..... you have arrived at a safe haven!

I'm sure you have lots of questions so why don't you post them over on the Health Board where we'll do all we can to help you learn the steps to this sugar dance! Here's a link to that board. I'll be watching for you!

 

Hello and welcome!
I absolutely relate to being devastated and thankful at the same time.
Knowledge definitely overpowers fear, and you've come to the right place to learn.
Post any questions you might have or anything you need advice on ( testing, food, etc)
over on the Feline Health forum http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/
and the wonderful people here will help you.

 

Thank y'all!