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Mijito’s Mommy

Mijito’s Mommy

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Good evening, hive mind. I am brand new. I will be giving Mijito my 3rd solo shot without my vet hovering and helping in about an hour. I gave my first one last night, and then the second this morning. Mijito is 12 years old, I bottle fed him when he was found still attached to his siblings in the placenta on the streets of Brooklyn. He is overweight, (over 25 lbs) a dry food grazer all his life, and very spoiled. I noticed he was peeing huge volumes and very often and that is what started this. Mijito is a FRACTIOUS cat. He hasn’t had blood work in a very long time- over 10 years.

One of my best friends is a vet who lives down the block, and has always just come over and cared for my cats here at home. Unfortunately, he lost his son, and has been grieving, so I took Mijito to a Cat Vet only to get the blood. He got very stressed in the car on the way, howled, peed and threw up. The car ride caused him to mouth pant, and I literally thought he was going to stroke out before I got to the vet. They were very wonderful to me, took him immediately, said he was okay, just freaked out, and fortunately because of his freak out, they were able to get blood without him killing them. (fractious) The blood results came back with a glucose of 289, and the vet said she wasn’t worried about it because he was extremely stressed, and glucose spikes during stress, and she attributed it to that. His kidney functions were fine, thyroid, all other numbers within range. I relaxed.

Then, within 2 weeks, Mijito started having accidents. I called my Vet friend, who came over. I showed him the blood results and he said “He is diabetic”. “I have never seen a cat stressed to spike this high”. He then checked his blood sugar and it was 347. We sat at my dining room table, called and ordered Lantus, syringes, ketosticks, and this was 9/22. My head is spinning. I’m hovering and staring at him, and trying to fight my OCD and find my rhythm. Then I’ll feel better, and do my best. I’m so scared that I’m not giving the shot right. It’s only I unit of Lantus every 12 hours, and I have checked his urine every day at 3:30pm. (I don’t know why, vet friend said to)

I hope his food comes tomorrow, and that will be another challenge, as he really hates canned food. I have another cat, Maisie, who is 6, who shares everything with Mijito. Guess I need to figure out how to separate the food, establish “meal times” and transition into a schedule.

Sorry this is so long. I’m thankful that his reading wasn’t through the roof, and hoping that this is a blessing, a wake-up call, and I can turn it into good. Before I adopted Mijito, I cared for our beloved Angel Morris, and managed to learn to administer his inhalers, nebulizer treatments and handle his severe herpes in his eyes when he got sick around age 12. But that was 12 years ago…. This time, instead of determination, I’m having PTSD. I just have to get out of my head.

Every time I go to give him his shot, I’m scared I’m shooting into muscle or worse yet, his brain. He’s still drinking a lot and peeing a lot (noticed clumping litter is sticking to his back paws now today….) He is sleeping a lot, too.

Thank you for being here. I will make very good use of this forum, and I am very grateful it exists. The feline asthma board when Morris was still with us was the best resource that empowered me the most. So naturally, I am joining this group….because “feline furever folks” are my people.
 
Welcome to FDMB! This is literally the best place you never wanted to be.

The beginning of this journey is a little (maybe a lot) scary and definitely overwhelming. It truly becomes routine. Remember to breathe and try to relax. If you're anxious or frightened, you'll communicate your emotions to Mijito. Cats can be very perceptive that way. This whole process becomes a bonding experience. (Take a look at Gabby's Legacy in my signature -- the 7th post in the thread.)

First, giving an injection... If you shoot into muscle you won't harm your cat. He'll be pissed off because it will hurt. The absorption of the insulin will be different but it's not harmful. You can't shoot into his brain. An insulin needle is very thin. The brain is encased in the skull. The needle will bend. Many of us give our cats their shot when their head is in their food bowl. Most of the time, your cat will be more interested in eating than in what you're doing when giving a shot!

The one additional thing you need is a meter to test your cat's blood glucose levels. It is the best possible way for your to make sure it's safe to give insulin. It will also allow you to make dose adjustments. Walmart's Relion meter is the least expensive around. Many vets encourage you to get a pet specific meter. It's really not necessary and the strips are far more expensive than the strips for any other meters that are available. All of our dosing methods are based on the use of a human meter since those methods were developed before pet meters were widely available. We have lots of information on home testing. The link even has videos.

This is a link to a post that will get your started on some of the basics (adding information for your signature, setting up a spreadsheet to track your cat's progress) along with other important information.

The reason your neighbor has you testing Mijito's urine is to test for ketones. The Ketostix test for. urinary ketones. Anything beyond a trace amount is worrisome and you should talk to your vet. It's possible that she had you get Ketodiastix. These will test for both ketones and glucose in the urine. Unfortunately, the results for urine glucose testing are not terribly helpful. The range won't tell you if your cat is in dangerously low numbers. This is why we emphasize blood glucose measurement.

What are you feeding your cat? Not all canned foods are created equal. You want to be feeding your cat a food that is less than 10% carbohydrate. There is also no reason that both cats can't eat the same food. Low carbohydrate, canned food is fine for Maisie. This is a link to an excellent website that's authored by a vet that discusses feline nutrition.

Please let us know what questions you have. The people here are very generous with their time and knowledge. We're here to help.
 
Welcome!

I’m so sorry you have found yourself in this situation, but this really is a great resource.

Switching my cats to wet food was a whole other journey in itself. I learned that wet food comes in a bunch of different textures, and my cats DEFINITELY have a preference. Pates are not their favorite, but they do enjoy chunked food. Fancy Feast has a roasted/chunked line with chicken, turkey, and fish that is low carb and they quite liked.

It’s also okay if Mojito (and your other cat) grazes on wet food. I leave mine out for most of the day/night. The brand I buy has a lot of moisture packed in. You can also add water to keep it wetter longer.

It’s takes time to transition a cat away from dry, so putting a little bit of wet food near his dry bowl at the beginning may get him used to the idea that the wet stuff actually IS food.

There are three brands of dry food that are lower carb. Not as good as wet food, but still better than normal kibble:
Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein
Wysong Epigen 90
Young Again

Like with wet food, if you try any of these, change it over gradually over the course of 7-10 days so their tummies get used to new food composition.

It’s also recommended that you learn to test blood sugar at home before making big changes to their diet. Food often makes a HUGE difference in the amount of insulin a cat needs, so there’s a chance you can keep blood sugar under control with diet alone!

Sounds like you have a great friend helping you along the way. We all know how hard it is in the beginning. It gets better. You both settle into a new routine. It’s not ideal to have to be home every 12 hours, but my girl still plays and craves lap time and attention, and I love that.

Best of luck to you!
 
I have Purina D/M wet and dry and Hills diabetic wet and dry. It came today. The vet is coming tomorrow to test his blood. I have to take the food up at midnight and we are going to test at 8:30am. I am committed to home testing and learning and trying my best, but I am raw and so scared. Thank you for the encouragement. ♥️
 
Welcome. Just wanted to say your cat is lucky to have you because clearly you care so much. ❤️ diabetes is treatable and they can live long healthy lives with it. I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.
 
Pretty much everyone who lands here has been in your shoes. Most new things can be scary at first. It really does become routine.

The Purina DM canned food is about 6% carb which is OK. The dry, along with both varieties of Hills are medium to high carb. The other issue is ingredients. The first ingredient in the canned DM is meat by-products. Also, there was a recent class action suit preventing pet food manufacturers from labeling their food as "prescription". The DM is now dietetic (not diabetic) management. The ingredients in the Hills food are worse. Even the canned food contains a good deal of plant products including my favorite, powdered cellulose (aka sawdust).

This is a list of canned cat foods that was compiled by a vet with an interest in feline nutrition. There are lots of foods that are below 10% carb to choose from. (Most folks here feed their cats food that's around 5% carb.) The more popular brands are Fancy Feast and Friskies pate style food. (The link to the chart is also on the feline nutrition site that I linked above.)
 
JanetNJ said:
Welcome. Just wanted to say your cat is lucky to have you because clearly you care so much. ❤️ diabetes is treatable and they can live long healthy lives with it. I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.
Click to expand...
I cried through your whole demo….. thank you. I’m a teacher, too.
 
Sending support @Mijito’s Mommy! Everyone here has been so helpful and kind. As a show of support i wanted to let you know that i was. WRECK when i started landos treatment. I am a more manageable wreck now ;) but if i can do it so can you! Good lck and all the best to your big guy mijito
 
Greetings from the UK and welcome to the FDMB family! This wonderful and supportive community really is the best place to be when you are embarking on home testing for a newly diagnosed sugar kitty. I joined this forum back in 2005 when my Sweepy was diagnosed and one of the UK members visited me at home to show me how to home test. Your determination comes across in your initial post and I know that you and Mijito will be fine. Like you, I was a music teacher in a school and sometime jazz pianist. I focussed on music teaching as a career rather than playing jazz. Everyone knows that the difference between a pizza and a jazz musician is that a pizza can feed a family of four! :)
 
Hi Mijito's Mommy! Welcome to the FDMB. This is a wonderful community, I am so glad you found us. I cried so much when my Ruby became diabetic. I blamed myself for not having taken better care of her, was completely overwhelmed by insulin shots, transitioning to wet food, testing, everything. She is my heart kitty, and so I vowed to do everything I could to take control and get her better. The kindness shown to me by the members here is immeasurable. Please go through the links that Sienne sent to you so you can help us help you best. The learning curve is steep but with some hand holding it will all become second nature. :bighug:
 
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