7/24 Taishi AMPS 390, +6 388, PMPS 377, +2 324 (Day 4)

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...6-252-pmps-324-2-340-day-2-on-insulin.250227/

I apologize for being MIA yesterday. I was experiencing a lot of discouragement and frustration after the fur shot I did on Wednesday (7/22) evening. Taishi had very high numbers yesterday and of course I blamed myself. I am so fortunate to have a patient, supportive partner as well as amazingly encouraging folks here in the community who helped put me back in the right frame of mine. My husband stepped up and did all the testing, feeding, and shooting yesterday.

I did the injection myself this morning and it went great. I know I got it all in and Taishi was purring and snuggling the whole time. He only ate about 1/3 of his breakfast today, but the Friskies cans are pretty big. I will offer it to him again in an hour or so. Unfortunately the ants (they're impossible to get rid of this time of year) found his plate of food and were all over the place this morning. Ugh!

This is our first weekend with insulin and I'm feeling selfish. It hit me this morning that we can't have a typical weekend, because we need to make sure we're home to check his midway point BG (at the very least). We've always had cats because we leave the house for long periods of time and they don't need a lot of supervision. All of that changed with Taishi's diagnosis. But you do what you have to do, and I'm sure we'll find ways to adapt.

I'll make sure I keep his thread updated today. Thank you all for the support, encouragement, and knowledge <3

 

Hi Jessie! Here's your last post for continuity (we like for everyone to cut and paste the last post so we can know a cat's recent history before commenting on a new day's concerns): https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...4-2-340-day-2-on-insulin.250227/#post-2823010

Congrats on getting those shots in and that Taishi was so compliant. The Friskies cans are pretty big. When I was feeding from 5.5 oz cans I would typically feed just one can a day. You might want to break it up into many small meals as it will help with the insulin. I feed Ruby 4 times a day, twice in the morning and twice in the evening, though some kitties with pancreatitis can benefit from 6 feedings a day.

Yes, the shift in habits once you have a diabetic kitty is real. For the first 10 years of Ruby's life I'd be gone for 14 hours a day because of work and evening obligations, but since her diagnosis it's not really possible anymore. I usually hang around until at least after +4 and then I can go about my day if Ruby isn't going low, but it's because I know my cat's patterns well and I leave food out for her if I am going to be gone for long stretches of time.

The ants sound serious! Is Taishi the only cat you have in the house? I have microchip feeders from Sure Feed for my cats. If he's the only one in the house, you could get this one that is motion activated will keep the ants out of the food: https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-feeder/sealed-pet-bowl. I have two cats, one who is a civvie who I sometimes feed higher carb food and so I have the more expensive microchipped ones so that Ruby eats out of her own bowl that only has low carb.

 

Edit: What am I doing wrong with the quotes??

[QUOTE="The Friskies cans are pretty big. When I was feeding from 5.5 oz cans I would typically feed just one can a day. You might want to break it up into many small meals as it will help with the insulin. I feed Ruby 4 times a day, twice in the morning and twice in the evening, though some kitties with pancreatitis can benefit from 6 feedings a day." [/QUOTE]

Finding the right amount to feed him has been tricky. He had lost weight pre-diagnosis and I've been reading that, while kitty is unregulated, it's best to feed them as much as they want since their body is essentially starving for nutrients. Our kitties were always free-fed dry food, so we actually had no idea how much he needed to eat. We originally switched him to the FF Naturals, but they are very low calorie (a lot of the cans are less than 50 calories each!). The first day we only fed him 2 cans before I thought to check how many calories. Then I panicked that we were starving him, so we fed (and he ate) 6 cans in one day lmao We decided to switch to Friskies pates due to cost, and since then he's been eating about 2 cans/day (usually divided in 1/2s) and sometimes a FF "snack" midday.

[QUOTE="The ants sound serious! Is Taishi the only cat you have in the house? I have microchip feeders from Sure Feed for my cats. If he's the only one in the house, you could get this one that is motion activated will keep the ants out of the food: https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-feeder/sealed-pet-bowl. I have two cats, one who is a civvie who I sometimes feed higher carb food and so I have the more expensive microchipped ones so that Ruby eats out of her own bowl that only has low carb." [/QUOTE]

We actually have 7 cats, which has made this all more complicated. Right now we've converted our guest room to Taishi's "diabetes suite" so we can monitor his food, water, and urine. We do bring him out to snuggle with us/socialize with the other cats. We take the dry food away when he's out and put it back for the other 6 kitties when he's in the room. However, this isn't a long term solution. We'll need the guest room soonish, so we'll have to adjust our "dance" then. I am planning on getting some kind of timed feeder so we don't need to go in and out of his room all day for feedings.

I forgot to mention in my original post that Taishi got into the dry food last night. Ugh!!! He had shown no interest in it up until now. We had him out of his room to hang out with us, we heard a crunch, and there he was horking up the junky dry stuff. Ugh! I'm sure that contributed to his high number this morning, even after receiving insulin last night. We'll see what the rest of the day brings and we'll definitely be more diligent about taking about the dry food when he's out and about.

 

Is there any possibility of getting all 7 cats on canned food? I know it sounds really expensive but they might all be healthier in the long run for it.

 

We have considered it (because we know it is so much better for them), but I don't think it's possible. We did the math and even feeding them the cheapest Friskies we can find would be $300+/month, which is not something we can do financially, especially on top of Taishi's needs. It would also be a nightmare to try to keep track of who is eating how much... some of the cats are bullies when it comes to food, so they'd all need to be in separate areas and supervised the whole time. We're changing our lifestyle for Taishi, but we could not handle the constant wet food dance for all 7. I was trying to research "better" dry options yesterday, but they are all so expensive. We are trying to do the best we can. It was never in our plan to end up with 7 cats, but all but 2 were found abandoned and/or are semi-feral and nobody else was interested in adopting, so we did what we felt we needed to do and took them all on. They've been part of our family for 10 years now (which is crazy to think about!) and I am nervous that as they get older more and more health issues will start to pop up that we just can't help with

 

Awww, it sounds like you are doing your very best with all of them! Have you ever thought about raw food? If you supplement with Alnutrin and raw liver and make food in batches with meats from the supermarket purchased in bulk, it might be less expensive. I have heard of people who feed raw to cat colonies because it's the only way to keep costs down and keep everyone healthy.

 

Raw/homemade food did cross my mind briefly, but it was more because we were joking around about all the cats getting diabetes and at that point we'd have to start making our own food just to afford it However, it might be worth looking into. I don't know anything about making homemade cat food or if they'd even like it, but it might be worth it in the long run if it makes them healthier and prevents major medical issues down the line. A couple of our semi-ferals are still pretty fearful/can't be handled much (or at all), so any major medical issue is essentially a death sentence

 

I wrote a whole thing about raw feeding in the Think Tank forum: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/raw-feeding-senior-kitties.248460/. Dr. Lisa Pierson also has a great page devoted to making your own cat food on her site that's really popular: https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/.

The way I see it is I can pay for good food now or pay vet bills later. I choose the former. My cats love eating raw food and it gives me great pleasure making it for them and knowing exactly what is in what they are eating.

 

This makes complete sense and is why I'd be willing to consider it. We learned the hard way with one of our semi-ferals that a vet visit/treatment wasn't really an option and he ended up being euthanized because he was just too hard to treat :-( It was heartbreaking and I felt like I failed him. If a healthy diet could help stave off major medical issues, it would be worth it (if we can make it work cost-wise for us... as much as we love our kitties, we're not made of money). I'm going to look through these links and start researching. Thank you for bringing it up!

+6 Update: Taishi's BG was 388... only 2 points lower than his AMPS. Very discouraging considering his first day on insulin he was down in the 200s by now.

 

I know it's really discouraging not to see results, but as I have heard others say here, diabetes is not linear. A good day of lower numbers does not necessarily guarantee a better one the next day. Numbers go up and down a lot at the beginning, or stay flat at higher levels like you saw today. It will take a few more days for the insulin depot to build up (more on that here), and a certain amount of insulin resistance might have built up that will require increases in doses to break through. Hopefully we can get to a point soon when we can help you get Taishi into lower and flatter numbers. Until then, it's time for a good dose of patience.

 

PMPS Update: It's been a rough evening. I went to Petsmart to grab some more FF naturals and HC food for the hypo kit and litter and food for the rest of the kitty crew. I sat in the parking lot and just cried for awhile.

Taishi's BG check before dinner was difficult. In general, Taishi has had almost no reaction to testing or injections (yay), but tonight was different. I poked him twice on his right ear and he wasn't happy. He struggled and struggled to get away. Finally I got a poke on his left ear with plenty of blood, but I could tell it hurt. He cried, shook his head, and kept scratching at it afterwards. When I saw the high reading (377) I found myself wishing I'd just skipped the test and saved us both the stress. I know we should be getting a +2 or +3 or something this evening post shot, but after the rough experience at dinner time I just hate putting him through it again. He's been so compliant and chill up until now, but I think he's starting to catch on that this will be a regular, miserable experience and it's not going to stop and he obviously doesn't understand it's for his own good. It's possible he sensed my heightened anxiety/stress. I'll try to chill out before his next poke and we'll see how it goes. I'm so tired and this is just the beginning.

 

Sending you and Taishi a big . I know it seems impossible right now but things will get better. The beginning is the hardest! His ears will learn to bleed and testing will get easier with practice. And you are right - they can sense your anxiety/stress and feed off it.

Talk to him when you are testing him, hug him and cuddle him, play some calming music, give him a treat before and after. If you are not able to get a +2, don't stress. Give him a treat and try again at +3.

 

PM+2 Update: Not much to say other than I'm tired. Taishi snuggled with us on the couch for a couple hours after his dose until it was time for the +2 test. Husband did it and Taishi struggled after the poke, but we got it in one go. Taishi is urinating and drinking a lot, but that's not out of the norm for him (we thought it had been reduced in the past few days, but that was probably wishful thinking on our parts).

His blood sugar is slowly going down, but is still very high... so we should be okay to go to bed and check again in the morning, right?

 

Yes. Good night!

 

Hi Jessie, just checking in on you and Taishi, day 5. How’s it going? The drinking and urinating will start to decrease as his body adapts to the insulin. Put on your “Patience pants”. We have all wanted to give up at one point or another but you keep pushing forward. Once his ears get more accustomed to poking he probably won’t feel a thing. It doesn’t hurt them except maybe when we hit the vein, we have all done that as well. Everything you do for Taishi to improve his diabetes is the kindest most loving thing you can do for him. You are not hurting him, you are showing him how much you love him. I hope you start a thread for today. I hope you all have a good Sunday.

 

Thank you for checking in! I'm sorry I'm slow with the new threads. We give Taishi his shots at 10 am/10 pm. I woke up exhausted this morning so after I poked, fed, and injected I went back to bed for a couple hours It's 12 here now and I just sat down to make his new thread <3

 

Not a big deal Jessie, I hope I didn’t make it sound that way. What’s important is you take care of you so you can take care of Taishi.