Please Welcome Salem bobtail

Hi my babies name is salem we are from NC August the 3rd Salem was diagnosed with diabetes . Salem is a big black short hair domestic bobtail cat . He’s abt 10 yrs old now. I rescued him and his sister bella from a friend who let his cats over populate. He was going to start shooting cats ! No ! I wish I could have saved them all . He use to weigh 22lbs until we noticed he was always laying around his water bowel . Then we weighed him he was down to 15lbs . We started off trying a diet to control his sugar . But they had me put him on dry food half a small cup twice a day with a half of 5.5 oz canned food twice prescription food . Pro purina diabetes management . Under my budget there was no way I could feed Salem this $60 small bag of dry food and $30 for 24 cans of wet food . But I found out I didn’t need to buy that expensive food I found your sheets with all the store bought low carb foods on it . 9 lives was lower in carbs than the expensive food from 10 carbs to 4 and 5 carbs. Wow this is great ! Salems sugar was going down great the first week in only 4 days I finally got him down from 460 to 179 but he got ahold of the other kitties high carb food he got out of his room but I couldn’t get it back down he’s been in the 200s for two weeks now . So looks like Salem will need a little insulin . We are waiting to hear from the caseworker she’s going to call salems vet he wants to do a glucose curve which will cost me another $300 for a visit . I’m on disability it’s hard to pay that too but I cnt let my baby suffer cause mama doesn’t have money I got a credit card just to get him to be diagnosed . Waiting to see what happens next . I’m finding out from talking to Shellie some babies certain flavors dnt do as good on some kitties even though it’s low carb . Salem has always been a good eater too much if you ask me I figured through the years him being a large pawed cat he’s a good eater but he’s never full . So I read online his eating could be worms , thyroids or sugar . Well watching over the yrs it got worse then I noticed someone’s drinking a lot of water . It was Salem ! Worms was ruled out then I saw the thirstiness its got to be diabetes ! I was right ! I’m learning doing lots of reading and called Shellie twice she’s been great advising me ! Any advise is welcome . Thanks ! Tina

 

Got this message! Admin had to tighten up restrictions...we were getting spammed like crazy. Please try to post the intro again.

 

I can't change your title, but you can. Just look up at the very top of the page, and to the right you will see Thread Tools, and there is an Edit Title option.

 

Welcome Tina and Salem! You are going to find lots of good information here that will save you money and worry.

You can learn to test Salem's blood sugar at home and save stressful and expensive vet visits. Everyone here on FDMB is testing or learning to test. We can recommend supplies, where to get them, and provide testing videos and tips. Then you can do your own curves, if you wish, down the road. We recommend to always test before injecting insulin, just to be certain the blood sugar is high enough for an injection. We also test during the cycle between shots to determine how low the blood sugar goes, and evaluate the dose.

Please create a signature so that we can see Salem's information each time you post, saves asking and answering same questions over and over, or trying to backtrack through previous posts.

Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

It's going to be very important for you to learn about the insulin you will be using for Salem, how it works, if food needs to be "on board" before an injection or not, and depending on the insulin, where you can get the best price. We can help with information.

You are in exactly the right place to help that wonderful handsome very black kitty. We all started at the beginning, we all had to find the best way to meet the financial needs and we help each other through it all.

Going forward you can post in the Main Health forum HERE so that more members can meet you and Salem and begin offering support and information. This Intro forum is only the Welcome mat, and more members monitor the Main forum to offer assistance.

 

Oh ok thanks didn’t think abt the signature with salems info that’s great I just put my initials lol . I have been testing since Salem was diagnose my son and I read abt it on line so after he was diagnosed I remembered we had a glucose meter that I once used for checking low sugar it’s in the family high as well as low sugar . I have been using an app to log salems testing which I have done twice a day . We are not on insulin as of yet cause my vet will not prescribe until I bring him in for a glucose curve which I can not afford right now . Shellie is contacting my case worker to call salems vet to set up an appt for salem to be brought in for a glucose curve . Which I understand y’all help as well with the vet bill which is great ! I’m going to read abt this glucose curve to better understand it right now all I know is its needed to determine how much insulin Salem will need . Shelly’s suggested trying different flavors in the 9 lives to make a chart to compare the difference in his sugar levels with different flavors as she told me one ladies kitty couldn’t do well on some seafood flavors . I’m thinking that maybe the case with salem working on comparing it now as I record it in the chart . I have to check how y’all do a chart as well to see what I need so others can look and see what’s going on ? I will do anything to save my salem baby he’s so sweet !

Thanks again
Tina t Smith

 

Here are the instructions to set up the spreadsheet and also a link to understanding the grid:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

When you get it set up you can enter the data you have so far.

FDMB does not assist with expenses, but you can visit DCIN - Diabetic Cats In Need at http://www.dcin.dreamhosters.com/ and see if they can help.

Let members get a look at the blood sugar testing data, and they can make some recommendations.

The 9 Lives Meaty Pates are all below the recommended 10% or less carbs, as are Friskies pates and Fancy Feast Classics. You can look at the food chart here for protein, fat, phosphorus, carbs and calories: https://catinfo.org/chart/index.php

 

Oops I forgot this is the forum then there’s the DCIN
My apologies . They are the ones I’m referring to help with expenses and supplies sorry abt that . I will learn
I’m trying to put salems info in my signature but I’m down to three lines and when I try to save it tells me 3 lines is too many ? Three lines can not be too much then I cnt put in his information it’s got to be an error .
Thanks
Tina Smith

 

You do have to be very concise when creating the signature as there are only so many characters allowed. Just put the basic info in, and you can write more if you want in the Profile Personal Details. You will want to leave room in the signature for the link to the spreadsheet.

 

Salem is very cute! Your vet sounds conscientious wanting a curve before recommending a dose. But you are an experienced tester and able to do this at home. I would explain that you have budget constraints and are able to test at home, which is actually better because cats are often stressed at the vet and the BG numbers read higher. Ask him what procedure you should use for a curve: pre meal fasting, food, post food shot frequency.

 

Thanks ! I appreciate everyones advice im new at this and im very concerned for salems life and health . I love my little salem .

 

Oh by the way gypsy is very cute too she looks like my daughters brinney !