Not New to the Board, but I have a new diabetic kitty

Hi Everyone,

I joined here when our Eve was diagnosed in 2014. Eve is not a typical diabetic, she has multiple health issues and often has to be on Prednisolone, and when she is on Pred she needs insulin. When she is not on Pred she goes into remission.

But I'm not here to talk about Eve. A little over a month ago, I got a message through Diabetic Cats in Need on Facebook that there was a 15 year old owner surrendered diabetic kitty at San Francisco ACC and she was scheduled to be euthanized the next day. My husband and I adopted her and Keno is the newest member of our family.

Keno is actually 16 years old and after a couple of days in the hospital to get her diabetes under control (she had not had insulin for quite some time and thankfully was not DKA), it was determined that while she is in pretty good health for a 16 year old, she does have kidney disease. So we have her on prescription wet renal food. It's high in carbs, which I know is not the best for a diabetic, but her internist feels the kidney issues trump the diabetes.

Keno is on Lantus, 4 u twice a day and we are still getting her diabetes under control. She has a vet appointment today and I expect we will have to increase her dosage to 5 u twice a day. But her BGs are going in the right direction - we started at 571 pre-shot and today she was 322.

Although I've dealt with a lot of feline illnesses including cancer, asthma, pancreatitis, diabetes, and IBD, kidney disease is new to me. So I'm educating myself and am going to see if the prescription food helps. I will also explore other alternatives that can slow down the CKD and not aggravate the diabetes.

Jeanette

 

Hi Jeanette. Welcome Keno. Wonderful that you adopted a senior extra sweet kitty. I'm not familiar at all with kidney stuff. There are a few here that I'm sure will answer any questions.

One thing I'd like to refresh your memory on is that if an increase of insulin will be given, usually it's in .25 increments. I'm assuming you are home testing since you mentioned a reading today.

With Lantus and the dose you are giving now, higher dose can and or sting when you give it. You might want to ask the vet when you go.

Has Keno been tested for IAA (insulin antibodies) and for Acromegaly? These do required higher than normal doses of insulin. You might consider having them done if another increase is needed. At least you will know why higher dose is required.

 

Welcome back to FDMB.
You might take a look at www.FelineCRF.org for some details on renal management as well as the Facebook Feline Chronic Kidney Disease.
Someone here has compiled a list of low phosphorus, low carb foods; you can search for it in the upper right search panel.