Callie diagnosed this week, mom Jess could use some support in Boston, MA!

Hello everyone - I hope you are all doing well tonight.

My name is Jessica, and my cats name is Callie. She is a beautiful female Calico cat, a rescue that came to live with me in 2011. Now, she lives with myself and her furdad, Daniel. When I adopted her in 2011, they estimated she was around 2, 2.5, so she could possibly be 16 this year. She's been healthy up until a few months ago when she had a bit of an upper respiratory issue (a cold).

About 1.5 weeks ago, we noticed Callie seemed to be urinating more (in the box, thankfully). We also noticed she was more vocal - she's vocal anyway, but she started howling at all hours. Along with the increase in urination, we noticed that her urine was starting to clump in the non-clumping litter (Fresh Step), which was definitely odd. She also started spending more time alone - in our closet (in a pile of my sweaters) and under our bed (on a cat bed). Those two places aren't abnormal for her, they are comfy and warm and dark, but she typically spends the day with me (I work from home FT), and then later on in the day she'll seek another spot.

We took her to the vet on Mon, 4/15. They did a full senior panel including bloodwork and urine. They called Tuesday and said she 'decided to be diabetic'. They gave us the option of the insulin shots or the pill/liquid, and the pill would have been ideal, but they said they'd never used it before on any pets and we were the first they were even telling about it. I didn't want her to be their guinea pig, so we went with the insulin shots. For now, they have her on '1 unit' of Lantus Solostar every 12 hours. This is just to start, as she goes in Friday, 4/26 for her BG curve test.

I thought adapting to giving her the shots would be the worst of it, but it's not. To be fair, my husband has been the one injecting her, I have been holding her and giving her a treat before or after, while he gives her the shot. She seems to take it well, but then runs into the other room and goes to the closet or under the bed. Our vet hasn't been terribly helpful or forthcoming with information unless I ask, and when I do ask, he seems to say one thing while the message boards say another. I am contemplating a new vet, but I'm trying to keep this as low stress as I can for Callie. We are completely overwhelmed with information. At first I thought ok, we give her the shots, great....but then learned about the diet change, and then read about that and how that impacts the amount of insulin she gets.....and that lead to learning about home testing, and it seems to be a never ending list of pieces that need to fall into place perfectly in order to help our cat live a long and healthy life.

We have honey in the house and we have a Glucometer on the way. We've left her food the same because we aren't sure yet how best to do the changeover in the safest way, especially before the Glucometer arrives. I'm not sure if we should wait until she has the BG Curve Test since her insulin dose may change.
Naturally, this has all been very stressful, and for me, the worst part is her not being attached to my side and snuggly. In addition, I'm trying not to blame myself for feeding her dry food for her entire life and anything else that could have caused her diabetes. I know logically that she doesn't actually hate me and that it's just an adjustment period, but I think I need some reassurance that she'll come around.
If you read this far, thank you! I would love to hear any and all suggestions, recommendations, and words of advice you have for us newbies who are overwhelmed, terrified, and will do whatever possible to help our girl be happy and healthy.

Thank you!

 

Welcome to FDMB!

Your story is pretty common around these parts. If you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed, that's normal. First, don't blame yourself for your Callie's diabetes. There are many cats who eat a dry food diet and never develop diabetes. Most humans don't eat an entirely Keto diet and don't have diabetes. Diabetes likely develops for a combination of reasons, diet being among those reasons -- not the only reason. The good news is that you're reading and learning and making changes.

As for diet, this is a link to a chart that contains a list of most of the canned cat food available in the US along with nutritional information including carbohydrates. You want to feed Callie a diet that is under 10% carbs. Most members feed their cats in the 5% range. Fancy Feast and Friskies are popular and in the lower price range but you have a lot of choices.

It sounds like you ordered a pet glucometer? If you did, it's fine. Probably the most popular meter that members use is the Walmart Relion meter. Human meters are what most members use because they are widely available and the strips are far less expensive than the strips for the pet meters. The pet meter strips cost about $1.00 each. The Relion strips cost about 17 cents each. It you've not yet seen our information on home testing, this is a link to our home testing resources. Once you are comfortable with home testing, there won't be a need to bring Callie to the vet for a curve.

Are you using the Lantus pen with the pen needles? If you, you really want to be using a syringe. The pens only allow you to adjust the dose in whole unit increments. We adjust doses in 0.25u amounts. Let us know if this is the case and we'll give you the specifics for the syringes you need.

If you like your vet for Callie's general veterinary needs, there's no need to switch to another vet. There are many members who rely on FDMB for managing their cat's diabetes. Many vets don't do a great deal of treatment of diabetic cats. It's all we do here! We've actually had vets come here for help with treating their cat. Usually it's because they are not familiar with a particular insulin and we were. This happened a lot when Lantus was first being used with cats. In addition, this board is here 24/7. We have members from all over the globe. If you have a question or need help, there's usually someone who will be around to lend a hand even on weekends, holidays, and evenings when your vet's office is closed.

Once you start getting Callies blood glucose numbers a bit lower, I'm pretty certain you'll have your snuggly kitty back. Please let us know how we can help. The members here are very generous with their time and their knowledge.

 

Hello!
Thank you so much for the warm welcome!
We ordered the AlphaTRAK 3 glucometer - it was recommended to us and we went into autopilot and wanted to do all the things as fast as possible. Thank you so much for the recommendations. Once the strips run out, we’ll probably switch to the cheaper.
As for the insulin, the vet called in the insulin pen, as well as syringes so we draw from the pen. They are B-D brand with an ultra fine needle. We are doing well with the insulin shots - thanks to my husband who’s a pro and not terrified like I am.
I think my big question now is the diet. What’s the best way to go about changing her over to a low carb diet? I believe all of her current foods are too high in carbs. Thank you for the chart - are there any in particular that anyone here has had luck with? I have so many questions about changing her diet while not inadvertently killing her from giving too much insulin. Anything you have in regards to how to do it - I assume we wait till we have the glucometer, and should we wait until after the curve test in case her insulin dose changes? I read that cats that get on insulin and start a low carb diet early on have a better chance at remission and/or a positive outcome overall.

Thank you SO much!!!!