Twee Says Hello

Hello everyone,

My cat Twee (12 years old, roughly 9 pounds) was diagnosed on December 14th. I was away on a trip and boarded her at the vet and I'm so glad I did because she got really bad while there despite not displaying any symptoms before I left. We don't know how long she's been dealing with it, but it looks as though we've avoided any internal damage!

She's currently receiving one unit of ProZinc every 12 hours and has a glucose curve scheduled for the 26th.

Today I switched her food from Chewy's American Journey chicken flavor dry food, which is 22% carbs per their website to Blue Buffalo's Wilderness chicken pate, which is 3% carbs according to the CatInfo Food Chart. Her treats have been freeze-dried single ingredient proteins since before the diagnosis. I haven't had any problems with her eating all of her food. Though, she used to be able to free feed her daily serving of kibble, so we're having issues with hunger (or at least what looks like hunger to me). She's never been a vocal cat, but now she's softly meowing at me for more food and it's honestly breaking my heart because I can't tell her why she has to eat this way. She kind of roams around like she's anxious when she sees she has no more food in the bowl. I fed her a half serving of kibble this morning and five ounces of wet food in the evening, so I don't think she's lacking in calories. Tomorrow will be a full day on the canned food. Will she adapt to this new eating schedule?

I also went out and picked up a glucose meter, lancets, and ketone strips today. I tested her a couple of hours before her evening shot and wet food meal (5 pm); it came back as 508. I tested her again about five hours after that, and it was at 275. I will check her again in the morning. I haven't been able to use the ketone strips yet.

Twee has been very good about getting her insulin and having her ears pricked. I find that the injections are a lot easier to give than trying to squirt medicine down her throat or give her a pill. It still feels a little weird to pierce her skin, but I think I'll get used to it. I'm having a hard time with pricking her ears though because she gets a little worked up, but she hasn't been aggressive.

This whole week has been quite the whirlwind of emotion to say the least. Twee's my childhood pet and I just want to do everything I can to make sure the rest of her time is as normal as it can be.

This forum has already helped so much!

 

Welcome.

Just a quick note: switching from a high carb food to a low carb food can drop numbers overall by up to 100 points. This is something you will have to be aware of and watch for in the next couple of days. In some cats, just switching foods will necessitate a decrease in dose. It is great that you picked up a glucometer.

Diabetic cats cannot metabolize their food properly so yes, Twee is hungry. Snacks throughout the day also help slow the insulin drop during the first part of the cycle. Do feed Twee at shot time, then snacks throughout the day. The only rule is picking up the food at +10 (2 hours before shot time) so that the test at shot time is not food influenced.

Come over and post in the Feline Health Forum where more eyes will see your posts.

We can help set set up a spreadsheet (we have fairly data driven here) and a signature.

 

Welcome to FDMB!!

There is no reason to not give Twee multiple meals. Many of us spread out our kitty's meals despite many vets saying to only feed twice a day. You may need to increase the amount of food that your giving Twee. Like Kel (Red & Rover) said, one of the issues with FD is that despite being hungry and eating, cats can lose a fair amount of weight before their blood glucose (BG) numbers become better regulated. Insulin is what helps to move the end product of metabolism (i.e., glucose) out of the blood stream an into the cells. Since the glucose is still floating around in the blood, Twee is hungry. As numbers improve, your kitty's appetite will return to normal. For now, increase the food so Twee doesn't want to chew on your ankle but also keep an eye on your cat's weight so you don't end up with a "extra-fluffy" kitty.

 

Thanks you two!