Taking a breath to finally introduce myself

I have now been posting to the boards since last Saturday night when after giving my first insulin injection to my kitty, Callie, she dropped low and I needed advice but I really haven't made an introduction. I have been so busy learning about this disease that I have really put everything else on hold!

So here it goes...

My name is Melissa. I am married and have a five year old daughter. My husband and I are both teachers (I'm kindergarten, he's 5th). We have two cats that are about six months apart. Callie, our newly diagnosed sugarcat, and Marley. I grew up always having multiple pets in my home but Callie is my first with my husband. My husband joked that we could not have a pet out of wedlock So we got married, went on our honeymoon, came home and adopted Callie. Six months later we determined she needed a buddy and since we went to Jamaica on our honeymoon, we named her Marley.

Callie has always been a small framed kitty with a lot of extra weight...we would call her 'chunky c'! She weighed about 14 lbs earlier this summer but then had a bout of pancreatitis in July that landed her in the kitty ER for three days! In August, she was down to 11 lbs and now she is down to 8.5. We got her dx the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I have had my head buried in my computer for the last week reading, learning and praying that we can handle this rollercoaster ride. I think I made my husband nervous that we may never again talk about anything other than the cat I am so thankful to everyone on the board for helping me out this past week and thank you in advance for all your help in the future. We have made a lot of changes in a short amount of time and I am feeling more and more confident with each passing day. I look forward to getting to know more about all of you and your kitties as well

 

Welcome. If you have any questions just ask. It is goo that you are home testing BG

 

Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

@BJM covered the important stuff, I just wanted to say Hi -- Callie is beautiful! We have a calico named Molly who sounds like she is built like Callie used to be. I prefer to call her "voluptuous".

I'm Sandi. Whisper is our second sugar cat and we have 5 civvies (non-diabetics) too. What part of Wisconsin? I grew up in Racine but have been south of the Mason-Dixon Line many years now. We hope to retire and move back to the Great Lakes eventually.

Nice to meet you and the family. And tell your dear husband sorry, but yes Callie and diabetes are in fact the only topic of conversation for the foreseeable future! Maybe he and my husband can form some kind of support group!

 

Hi Sandi, Whisper is a cutie as well! I live in the Milwaukee area. I grew up in one of the suburbs and ended up back around home after college. I will be sure to tell my DH that he is not the only hubby feeling this way

 

Yum, stop by Kopp's and get a custard for me!

Let us know if you have any questions about Callie. No doubt that someone here has experience with just about anything you might run into.

Best,
Sandi.