Sarah and Cooter from OKC

Good evening all, I want to introduce my 14 year old boy Cooter who was just diagnosed today (My profile pic). He started howling mostly at night, but off and on all the time towards the end of February, and I took him to the vet. She ran blood work and the normal routine. His glucose was 296 that day, but he also had a temp of 105.7 (2 different thermometers) despite socializing with everyone at the office and eating treats the whole visit. The vet figured stress of the trip, infection (hence the fever), and the treats he had been eating while there spiked his glucose. She gave him an Antibiotic shot (which caused some nerve damage and partial paralysis of his rear right foot which we are dealing with now). His fever was resolved by morning, and we retested his glucose the next week. It was in the normal range, I don't remember the exact number. He has been back and forth to the vet a lot the last few weeks, his toe has gotten Infected from knuckling, but today when he was weighed he had dropped 3 lbs in just over 4 weeks. Vet ran blood work again, and his glucose was 510. We have now started him on 1 unit twice a day of vetsulin. I will be getting a home glucose meter tomorrow to try and keep an eye on his numbers. I plan on switching him to a wet diet, he currently eats Nutro max dry with the rest of the furry crew. I can't switch him yet, between cleaning out his foot, the antibiotics, now insulin shots, I'm trying to keep stress down to a minimum. I appreciate all of you being here to help, and I 'm sorry this post ran so long!

 

Welcome.
Vetsulin/Coninsulin is not the best insulin since it is really for dogs. It only last 6-8 hours in cats. Good insulins are the human Lantus and Levemir and the pet insulins ProZinc and BCP PZI. For those two human insulin it is best to get the 5 pack of 3 ml disposable pens via a 10 ml vial. Although per ml the vial is less expensive most cats will not use up a 10 ml vial before the insulin goes bad/becomes ineffective.

It is goo that yo want to home test. A human meter. Most of us here test before each shot and periodically between shots. We record our reading and other info in a spreadsheet. See:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
A low-carb canned is best. No reason for a prescription food. Here is a list of commercial low-carb canned

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/shortcut-shopping-list-all-8-or-less-updated.117688/

Here is a link to home testing blood sugarshttp://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

 

Welcome Sarah and Cooter. He's a cutie! It's good that you plan to home test and switch food. Take your time when switching and please make sure you're testing his glucose before you begin. If you have any questions, post them on the health forum where there are many people who can help.

 

Hi fellow Okie Kitty and MamaBean!!! Okie Kitties RULE! We're way down on the border toward Sherman/Denison but had to wave really big!

Unfortunately the dry food is going to be working against you badly. That particular dry food is very high in carbs. With everything else going on, I'm not sure you'll be able to easily shoot it down. I'm glad you're planning to test at home - when you take away that dry food, you will likely see numbers start zooming down...

HUGS and Welcome!

 

hello and welcome