New diabetic cat Canada

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alexanne

alexanne

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I am somewhat confused - I am new to this - My 14yr. old has been diagnosed with diabetes 2 weeks ago. I have been given the DM food by the vet and unfortunately she will not eat any tinned food. She has had dry all her life with occasional sardines. I am trying various tricks to try to get her to take the tinned stuff. I'll have to persevere being new at this - trial and error. I should add that I am in Canada so the US products although I can access them I have to change USD to CAD plus shuipping.

I have been given lots of advise from my friends and it has become a bit confusing - especially since those friends are in the States. Don't know if there are Canadians here and would like to find them - please contact me if you are Canadian. In the meantime I am taking it step by step - I give Caninsulin 1 U twice a day. I have not started testing myself but intend to do that. I have two cats - male Vegas - also 14 years old - who does not have diabetes. He has other problems and I will post on that board related to things other than diabetes. Love to hear from other people and their experiences - particularly food which is not from the vet - varieties and getting her to take tinned.

Also on testing and monitors etc. Bearing in mind that I am in Canada and not the US. Look forward to hearing from others with diabetic cats and their feeding, insulin and monitoring.
 
Re: New feline diabetic pet in

Hi there! I'll be the one that says - work with what you've got. Yes, canned is better, and don't give up, keep offering it, offer different kinds, top it with various things, get her used to the idea that it IS food, but you work with what you can. And what you *can* do is hometest and keep logs with her insulin shots. One thing I would definitely think about is getting your vet to switch you to a different insulin. This is ok for now, but there are insulins that work longer and better, more consistantly. Lantus or Levemir IMO have been the best insulins for Pearl. PZI insulins are an option but at least for Pearl, she *never* acted as well or responded as well to that as to the other two. Many vets don't realize how much work has been done in the vet field with this two insulins and cats. You can get the expense down to a normal (or even better) price by buying the pen cartridges.

Now the other thing you should and *can* do is learn to hometest. Look at our stickies in the "Health Links" forum:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

This is really a key practice in managing your cats diabetes. Where in Canada do you live? We do have Canadians here. Maybe one of them lives near you?

My last thought is, so OK she won't eat tinned right now, maybe a lower carb dry food will be good during transition. I'm not sure what's available there, but maybe our Canadian friends can help with that. Hang in there.
 
Re: New feline diabetic pet in

Information on feline nutrition and tips for transitioning dry food addicts to canned food are at www.catinfo.org. Canadian foods are listed in the international section of Janet's food charts.

I hope you are aware of the recall and warnings about your insulin, called Vetsulin in the States.

Please take the time to read our FAQs as a starting point in educating yourself about feline diabetes and its treatment. The more you can learn, the easier this will be.

Gia & Quirk (GA)

Guilt trips are a detour from life
 
Re: New feline diabetic pet in

hi

please let us know where in Canada u are, there are lots of members up here throughout - there may be someone near you

and yes - please talk to your vet about Caninsulin (known as Vetsulin in the US)
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=311

You can easily switch to Lantus or Levemir for example, from Caninsulin, and it is easily available at the Canadian pharmacies like Shoppers Drug Mart and Costco pharmacy, and you dont need a prescription from vet in most provinces.

let us know where you're at ok? Province/city is fine.

lots of choices for low carb wet food available at grocery stores (Fancy Feast, Friskies, PC brand for example) and Wellness (available at pet stores only)

It may help if you EDIT your subject line title to add "CANADIAN members" to get you more attention, just hit "edit" in your first post in this thread
 
Re: New feline diabetic pet in

Hi welcome,
Just when I finished typing in my reply, somehow I lost it! Anyhow, most of our pet food is imported into Canada from the states, or somewhere else, so you can find what you need here. I think that going online will just cost you lots in shipping costs--the Loonie is going to hit par with the greenback soon, and some forecast that it will be above par as well-so the exchange rate will not be an issue. If you live in a border city though, you may want to cross over to shop, as I will agree that they have more flavour selection, although I have heard that some people have had their purchases confiscated by customs, especially the beef flavour ones.
Where are you actually located, in as much as we have many members all throughout Canada. As well, I have found that my smaller pet shop proprieter, is quite willing to order things in for you, some thing the big guys like petsmart won't do.
Dana
 
Re: New feline diabetic pet in

Hi and Welcome.
There are lots of us Candians here so no worries there.
My kitties would only eat dry food and the switch over to wet went well for us.
We are using Lantus. Our vet started us on Caninsulin and 2 weeks later all of the
problems came out over the Vetsulin which is what it is called in the States.
I refused to stay on it and switched to Lantus (called Glargine here)
A lot of vets are not familiar with it though but the board is amazing.
We also use US meters as the unit of measure is different from Canada and the
board memebers here use the USD BG numbers. Or you can do your won conversion.
The CDN number x 18 will give you the US number

Well, just wanted to say hi, we are in Montreal and let us know if we can help.
 
Hi there!

I think by now you have gotten some replies from people nearby. I am in Toronto so I am here as well if you need!
 
Dear Alexanne,

So happy to see you posting here now! I had told you that there are a good many Canadians on this site that will be able to help you get this all sorted out with Peachy.

True, there is a lot of reading to do, but you will do fine once you are able to be testing Peachy also. It seemed so hard for me when I first thought about testing my cat, Charcoal, but after a few tries, it was quite simple.

Glad to see you here now!
Hugs,
Jean and Charcoal (GA) dancing_cat
 
Hi to Odiesmom, Jean & charcoal and Sonia & Tom - I think I'm finally getting the hang of this - I've been on the catinfo site and I've also been looking at the Jane's food site. Very interested to check out the numbers related to the tinned foods - protein not less than 35% and carbs as low as 6. I was looking at the Friskie I have and at the grocery store and they are only 10% proteins - much higher carbs. So now I've got a choice of products which have these correct amounts for diabetics. My friend in the US was telling me about Whiskas Pouches which she says her cats love and they seem to be on the list of suitable products. I can get those at Petsmart in Mississauga.

I also got the information that Caninsulin seems to be safe in Canada - however, I intend to change as they were also saying it was harsher and didn't last so long. I have an excellent pharmacist who will be able to supply the insulin - I will be talking to the vet tomorrow. Lots of reading - I've got to figure out this testing business - Do we test urine and blood also. I'll have to find out about that process. I know there are lots of videos on the subject. I'll do some more research and lots of reading.

I saw the part in the catinfo telling about methods to get cats who don't eat tinned to come around to doing it. Peachy won't eat tinned stuff at all - I'll have to persevere on that one.

Thanks to all of you - I know I can get lots of help here. So glad my friend found this site for me.

I hope that maybe I'll be able to help others when I get more experienced. Lots of Canadians nearby also.
 
Taking Peachy (diabetes)and Vegas (ringworm problem) to the vet tomorrow. I'll let you all know what happens. I've learned quite a bit but have a long way to go. Bottom line - I've learned about Lantus - needles required for that - monitors - I've watched the video on testing by nicking the ear. I've printed a list of foods from the Janet list and been to the Petsmart near here - got a supply of various tins to see what goes down well. Keeping daily log on both - notes on urination, Bowel movement - types of food fed, hairballs, as much details as I can think of in daily procedures. This way I'll see what they like and what doesn't go down well. I am overstocked with the fishy variety - Vegas had allergies before being diagnosed with ringworm at the same time as Peachy was diagnosed with diabetes - oh dear!

I had been feeding both medi cal dry food weight control for years. It has a chicken base and almost everything has chicken base. I heard - can't remember where - that some cats become allergic to chicken - that was in Aug. 2008 - I changed Vegas to Performatrinultra - salmon based dry. Peachy stayed with mature Royal Canin - that's how Vegas got on the fishy trail. I am trying to get him off or at least back to beef varieties and I am using the diabetic list so that they can both have the same thing. Vegas likes the DM dry food and he liked the DM tinned stuff too. However he stopped urinating for long periods and I thought the DM tinned was too dry. Also I thought the ringworm medication may have done this - I have written about this in the other general health site and got replies.

I am trying to get Peachy to accept tinned food - very difficult as you all know. But maybe with a little at a time she will get used to it.

I am going to get her off the Caninsulin and the vet is co-operating nicely with no problem. Tomorrow we discuss that and go with the procedure for home testing. Nervous about that - but I think I can do it.

Thanks to everyone for your help - will keep you all posted and know you will continue with your support.

For all new diabetic kitties - this is the best place for the best advice.
 
Peachy - the vet called back and I haven't arranged to start on the other insulin - I'm a bit nervous about that - the result from the current insulin is good - I have talked with him about changing and he hasn't put anything in the way of doing that - at this time he has recommended that I give 1 U at night and 2 U in the morning. I sort of instinctively feel that this is correct - her urination is down almost to normal, a bit more than it should be but not as bad as before. Her weight is up- I could tell this just by picking her up. So for the moment at least till this bottle is finished I'll continue with the Caninsulin. I'm maybe being chicken, but since I think the present results are good - I'll stay for a time on what works.

Vegas is another story - I've posted his up-date on the general health board - re ringworm etc.
 
Have you thought about learning to hometest yet? It will really help you keep Peachy's vet cost down. It will help you to know what is up with the blood sugars, at home, when you need to know most.
 


Hi Everyone - I haven't been on for a little while. It's a long story - As you know I want to change the insulin from Caninsulin to Lantus - and do home testing. I had a problem with Peachy not urinating and being constipated - I had been told by the vet that I should change her Caninsulin to 2U in the morning and 1U at night - since I started that it seemed to make her constipated although the vet said it shouldn't do that. I had decided to stay with Caninsulin since she had done so well on it gaining weight and reducing the urine.

I still want to change the insulin but will stay till this bottle is finished. The vet said her diabetes was "mild" - at least he gave the impression it wasn't the worst level. Not being sure what levels of diabetes are I still have to research this.

Anyway I had spoken with him and he suggested that I should do home testing at this time. I realized I had no idea what the readings for this were - i.e. when you have taken the blood and looked at the monitor reading - what figure should be there - and how do you know whether that reading means to increase or decrease or not give insulin.

Also do you do blood testing only or do you do urine testing as well. I saw a site where they had a monitor for urine testing. I am trying to find something which gives a chart on what readings are and what insulin quantity to match this.

I am going to pay a visit to my pharmacist today to ask about monitors and maybe get some information there.

1.In the meantime can you advise as to whether you do blood and urine testing?
2.Is there a chart which shows readings and the appropriate insulin for that reading?
3. If you do urine testing how do you do it and collect the urine? I saw on the site they suggested collecting using aquarium gravel.

Thank you for your help in this matter.
 
1.In the meantime can you advise as to whether you do blood and urine testing?
Click to expand...

Yes, testing for both is important, the blood tests the BG levels and the urine lets you know if the cat has ketones.

You can pick up ketostix or keto - dia stix to test urine - should be with diabetic supplies, or just ask pharmacist. Any brand is fine.

2.Is there a chart which shows readings and the appropriate insulin for that reading?
Click to expand...

Is this what you are looking for: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Blood ... guidelines



3. If you do urine testing how do you do it and collect the urine? I saw on the site they suggested collecting using aquarium gravel
Click to expand...
.

Everyone has their own tricks on doing this. I would follow Maui into the bathroom, get the stick out and put under her while she peed, hoping she peed on the stick.

Others have used ladles to put under cat, others have put plastic wrap on top of litter and dipped the stick into it.

It all depends on your cat and how you can collect it.

Also - where in Canada are you? There may be someone local who can offer in person assistance.
 
Alexanne,
go to a shoppers, they usually have an offer of a free meter when you buy the test strips. As well, since your original post was quite a while ago, I would start a new one, because then people won't see that you have a bunch of replies, and think that your issue may have been resolved.
Dana
 
Yes, Alexanne,

Dana is right about reposting with a new subject line. That way you will get more responses from others.

Hillary has given some good information to you. It is all a matter of reading and learning, and once you start testing, don't give up, even if Peachy is reluctant at first to let you do the lancet on her ear. My cats were upset at first, till they understood that I was only trying to help them.

Best wishes for you and Peachy!
Jean and Charcoal (GA)
 
Just FYI - here in Ottawa, the glucometers at Shoppers were about $35-40, while the exact same ones at Walmart were $8-12.
 
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