Ready to Fight for my Boy! What to Expect?

Hi all, I just got the call from my vet with the results of my cat's blood test and he is diabetic. I am devastated because I am concerned for his quality of life, but I read a lot of encouraging things that indicate that he can live a normal life, which is a huge relief. His name is Brucie and he is a 7 year old, 22lb large, shy but affectionate, Tuxedo sweetie who has been with me through the hardest times. I am willing to do anything for him. I am a little intimidated by what is to come, but I am willing to do what it takes to give him a normal and happy life.

I just got the phone call from the vet with the results of his blood test, his glucose reading was at 420. Tomorrow, I am bringing him in to spend the day at the vet, where they will give him insulin and monitor him. It looks like he is going to need insulin until if/when we can (ever) get his blood sugar under control. I am concerned because Brucie is a very skittish cat, I'm worried about the logistics of getting him his shots or home blood tests. He can be very squirmy and resistant. Getting him to the vet alone is an ordeal that involves 2 people and backward army-man crawling (while hauling a cat) from under a bed. Anyone else have a cat like that? Any tips/tricks/distractions to make blood test and injections easier?

What kinds of "treats" can a diabetic cat eat? He doesn't like the treats that are actual dried meat, so it's a challenge, I end up buying a ton of treats that he wont eat. So far, I've switched him to wet food (low carb and high protein as per the charts I've found via this site) and he loves that, but he misses having treats. He used to eat a crunchy Trader Joe's cat treat, but now I keep him strictly on the canned food.

I'm also worried about costs. How much does monthly food and insulin come to? Whatever it is, I will find a way to make it work, but I'd just like to have a ballpark idea. I'm really nervous, but ready to tackle diabetes for my boy. I look forward to any advice you guys can give me, any insight, or questions I should ask my vet. Anything would help right now, I feel like I'm walking into a situation blind. I'm trying to cram as much info into my brain as quickly as possible. I hope I ask the right questions tomorrow and am not completely stupefied and overwhelmed when the vet starts explaining.

Anyway, any advice is welcome. Thanks for reading this post I'll update on his status when I know more.

 

Hi and welcome to you and brucie

It's great that you have got him onto the low carb wet food already that should help to lower his blood glucose levels and so he will hopefully need less insulin.

Do you know what insulin they are going to try him on. On the forum we recommend a long lasting insulin such as lantus, levemir or prozinc /PZI. These insulins will provide longer control of glucose levels and enable better regulation. If you have time have a look at this link

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...-from-aaha-convert-your-vet-if-needed.131187/

With regards low carb treats many give freeze dried chicken but here is a list of possible options. Most people use these treats are a way of establishing a routine that your cat wants to be involved in and so are used when testing blood glucose, after giving a shot,etc. I can't advise much on squirmy cats as remi is the complaint cat in the whole world so hopefully others will.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/list-of-low-carb-healthy-treats.9172/

Hometesting really is the third ingredient to good regulation and maybe even remission. We recommend that blood tests are done at home where it is less stressful and the levels more like the everyday norm for your cat. We advise that you test before giving insulin (so at least twice a day) and then if you can at least once during each cycle.

This link has lots of tips on hometesting

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

With regards cost you are right it can add up and so it is important to find ways to cut costs where you can. We can give advice on the insulin once you know which one it is and the other supplies can vary a lot depending on where you buy them. I live in the UK and buy my test strips in bulk off eBay at about half the price of in the store. I also buy my syringes off the internet rather than off the vet, etc.

Hope that a start for you. It is great that you want to help your cat as best you can. We are all here to help you do that.

 

Hi, I see no one has responded yet so even though i am fairly new thought i would offer some encouagement. my 14 yr old absynnian Simba was diagnosed 1/21/15. i am a nurse so understand diabetes disease process but this has still been quite a process. the expenses involve the cost of the insulin, depends on what your vet chooses, the syringes and if you choose to home test, the glucometer, strips and lancets. also at some point you may test for ketones in Birdies urine and would need to purchase the urine test strips. the insulin is the biggest expense. you say your using ff classic which is inexpensive and also what i use and alot of others on this site.
your biggest expense will be vet bills if you rely totally on your vet to manage his diabetes. i simply cannot afford the vet bills and other than the initial visit have not been back yet. i plan to go back in a few weeks for some bloodwork but not the all day glucose curve which i have done at home several times now. if birdie is as skittish as you indicate the trauma of the vet visit will skew the results anyway.
so, buckle up, use this site as your main guide and keep an open mind especially with the info you get from your vet. the members of this site are wonderful, helpful and very knowledgeable, perhaps more so than your average vet.

 

See my signature link Glucometer Notes for cat-specific glucose reference ranges using various meter types and measurement units.

 

Does your kitty Brucie like any type of pure cooked meat, like some cooked chicken breast or pork or beef or shrimp, perhaps a teeny tiny bite of cheese? Those would be fine to give him as a treat.

 

I give a small piece or two of raw chicken. I buy the breast, dice it up (or get someone else to if I can - I'm vegan so for me that's the worst job!) and freeze it in 100g packages.

To prepare Brucie (I have a good friend by the same name ) for testing you can start now by rubbing his ears and praising him for letting you do that so he starts getting used to his ears being messed with, when he's okay with that you could add clicking a pen next to his ear so he starts desensitising to the click the lancet device will make before you have even begun. As for the injection, if you test then feed you can inject while he's busy eating and chances are he won't even notice.

Another thing you should expect is to feel completely overwhelmed at times while you're trying to adjust and it all seems impossible. That is normal, we have all been there but I promise you it will get easier as you go along. I highly recommend a good cry here and there to let the pressure out

Well done for finding the best place that you never wanted to be, we will provide all the technical and moral support that you need, welcome aboard.

 

Thanks for the responses! I just dropped off Brucie at the vet, he was pretty upset with me. I snatched him right after breakfast and cuddled him right into his carrier. The vet didn't say what insulin they were going to try on him, but they will try to get his glucose as safely low as possible for today, and then I would have to bring him in weekly for blood tests. As far as I understood, it didn't sound like I was going to be blood testing him myself for at least a few weeks when they are able to figure out exactly how much insulin he needs. They are going to be sending me home with prescription food as well, I don't know if it's going to be wet or dry, but I think I will request wet if I have a choice. I pick him up after work in around 8 hours and my vet will give me more directions then. I plan to ask about home blood testing at that time.

Brucie doesn't really like any human food at all, but he does eat bacon. I never give him more than 1/3 a strip of bacon, and I know that's not good for him, but would it be acceptable to give him a little as a treat when he gets shots or blood drawn? I'll try giving him some chicken or fish the next time I make it, if I break it into really tiny pieces, he might be fooled into thinking its canned cat food.

I'm grateful for the resources you guys have provided so far, I'll be reading up on all of it, and not getting much work done until my boy is healthy. Sometimes I feel totally ready to deal with the diabetes, but sometimes the reality of how much will be different in our lives scares me. What if I can't give him his shots on time? What if we need to go out of town? He's very skittish, so it will be hard to find people to care for him or people he will trust. Normally, when we go out of town, someone will come over twice a day to feed him and change his litter, but he rarely comes out. I guess we'll cross those bridges when they come. Until 8 mos ago, my job involved A LOT of domestic and international traveling and irregular hours. I guess it's now a "lucky coincidence" that I moved to a different area and happened to take a job with regular hours so I can accommodate his schedule.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent my fears, and thanks for all the helpful links! I will be reading and digesting as much info as I can. Hopefully, the vet will have good news about Brucie when I pick him up tonight. He'll probably be mad at me tonight, but he'll eventually have to forgive me when he gets hungry!

 

Be prepared that the vet may not support home testing. Many vets for whatever do not. and if they do, they insist on your purchasing an expensive animal meter. This is not necessary, you can purchase a human meter with same results. If you have a Walmart nearby you can get a relion - confirm, micro or prime - they are inexpensive, strips are cheap and work just as well as any animal meter without the cost!

Now a cat cannot get regulated in a day or even a week. My vet did the same, insisting on keeping Maui for at least a week to "regulate her." The problem with this, aside from the obvious - no human stays in the hospital to get regulated.....is that most vets are not 24/7 businesses, so what happens when they are closed and nobody is there to monitor? And my vet was going to give insulin not in the recommended 12 hour cycle - because the office would be closed, rather in less than 9 hours and then again when opened in the morning. I did not allow this and took her home instead.

The vet also insisted she had to have prescription food, which we also know is just plain nothing special except expensive and I had to be Maui's advocate on all things diabetes. I did find a new vet that was willing to work with me and follow the standard protocols.

So, be prepared for push back from the vet, but stand your ground. You have our support!

 

Hi Buffalobluejay. Brucie is lucky to have a friend as caring as you, so that is a huge plus already. I hope that things went OK.
My Sasha is on a horrible hypoallergenic diet and has heart issues and high cholesterol (which rules out regular use of the cheese treats he loves), so I plan to try to bring him around with ear rubs. He lives for those! He is an allergic kitty so he gets very itchy ears. Works as a distraction technique as well as a treat, although I have to admit that I am not sure it would work on my more-skittish cat. I always have to make sure I close the bedroom door before I start chasing the skittish cat when she has to go to the vet. Once she gets under the bed, there is no way I am getting her out. I am lucky that she isn't the one with diabetes.
Best of luck!

Fiona

 

Hi @Fiona and Sasha

My cat remi was on a hypoallergenic diet but this really was not the best. I switch him over to a very high quality single protein source low carb wet food and he is act sully doing better than before. Will see if you have started your own thread.

 

Hi Sarah @phlika29 ,
Fiona's thread is here: My old mancat just diagnosed

 

I was just reading in another thread that bacon is cured with sugar, if that's the case you won't want to be giving Brucie that for his testing treats

 

Thanks for the responses, everyone After a day at the vet, his glucose went from 420 to 390. I was sent home with insulin and Purina DM and have to bring him back in 10 days for them to measure his glucose again.

Last night was Brucie's first insulin injection at home and it went well. The vet gave me instructions to feed him once every 12 hours and give him his shots at that time (3 units of Novolin each time). The only problem is, Brucie gets hungry about midway through the 12 hours, can I give him any food? I think the vet only wants me to feed him twice a day because they specifically wanted to measure his glucose 6 hours after a meal (when it should be lowest?) when I bring him back in 10 days.

The vet sent me home with only 3 cans of Purina DM, should I continue to feed him that, or should I look for something more low-carb (also, a little cheaper wouldn't hurt either)? The Purina DM wet was $1.75 a can at my vets, that can add up quickly! Recently, he's been eating the Friskies Special Diet (Salmon, and Whitefish/Tuna) which is lower than the DM in carbs, can I just put him back on that since I would like that to be his "regular" diet?

Anyway, Brucie is happy to be home, but still a little mad at me. He's been giving me the cold shoulder since we got home, but he can't stay mad at me forever. I think I'm now over the scariest hump! I was worried that injecting would be difficult, and it's not, he really doesn't feel a thing. The next step is his next vet visit in 10 days, crossing my fingers it's good news. Thank you all for your advice! I will continue to check in

 

Are you planning on home testing?

It is vital that if you are giving insulin - especially 3 units of N that you need to home test. N is a very fast acting insulin that when it hits, can drop the BG levels dramatically and you could potentially have a hypo situation. Additionally N doesn't last a full 12 hours, you may get 5/6 hour duration at best. Then his BG will go up again and he'll be on this yoyo cycle that will make him feel horrible.

Is there a reason the vet chose this insulin on one of the three that are better for cats with longer duration? Lantus, Levimer or Prozinc?

Also, regardless of the insulin being used - 3 units is considered a high starting dose and not what we recommend at all. We recommend using the start low/go slow approach - where you start by giving 1 unit or even 1/2 unit and slowly over time (with home testing to tell you) adjust the dose accordingly. By starting at 3 units and NOT home testing is just dangerous.

Think about it this way - would you give yourself insulin and not test? Would any doctor tell you to do this? Of course not, then why is it ok to do it, because the patient is a cat not a human?

Would you get in your car, blindfold yourself and drive? Of course not, it's dangerous and stupid and who knows what trouble you would get into....well by not home testing you are doing the same thing....And I can't stress enough the importance of home testing.

Regarding feeding - many people will feed several small meals throughout the day and bigger meals at shot time. Just like with people, you want to keep them as much at an even flow as possible. Small meals are easier on the BG - preventing huge spikes and dips.

Go back to my earlier post and read the attachment regarding prescription food and why it is just unnecessary hype and a waste of money.

Additionally, don't feed dry food - for the best explanation - visit Dr. Lisa's site - www.catinfo.org.

 

Because you are feeding N, you should feed part of his food 30 minutes before you inject. This is because of how fast N can hit.