New Member - Looking for suggestions

Hello all,
I have been lurking here for a week or so. My Kenny is 8 yrs old, around 13lbs, and is newly diagnosed as a diabetic (we believe). He presented at the vet with a 325, which I thought could be stressed induced. His symptoms were vomiting and diarrhea. I wasn't confident because the vet said they typically present with 400-600, and he seemed a little unsure. He prescribed 1 unit of prozinc every 12 hrs. As a side note, it seems to be a bit unorganized at that office, and I didn't get the insulin for quite a while. I chose to get another opinion from a different vet.

The new vet did a fructosamine test that indicated that Kenny did not have diabetes, and we talked about changing his food (Both of my cats eat FF dry cat food), and then we did an antibiotic for his diarrhea. Of course, Kenny won't eat the prescription food. Towards the end of the 10 days of antibiotic, Kenny seemed extremely tired and wasn't eating much. He did have a normal stool. At this point, I bought some FF gravy canned food to get him to eat something. He typically snubbed any canned cat food and won't eat the Pate that I had here. He did eat the gravy at least and then at a bit more dry food in the next day or so. I had bought a pet glucometer off of Amazon and decided to test him that evening. He was 416. I decided to give him the 1 unit as prescribed earlier and contacted the new vet. 2 days later (Wednesday of this week), his diarrhea returned. After talking with the vet, he suggested looking at his pancreas to see if something was going on there. I haven't seen much of a change with testing and him on the insulin so far. He hasn't been in the 400's, but I have seen 325, 379, 365, etc. However, Kenny is acting much better, eating much more, actually grooming, which he typically doesn't do, and his fur looks better. But he still has diarrhea.

I have read so much on here and looked at creating a spreadsheet etc. My two are grazers, where they have dry food all of the time. Kenny gets a can of wet food before his insulin twice a day. The other cat won't even smell the wet food and walks away. I like the glucometer that I have for him, but I see that you all recommend human ones. Can you advise which one is the most economical? Or link me to that topic?

 

Welcome. I'll try to answer some of your questions.

A lot of cats do not like the diabetic prescription food.

Some antibiotics can make a cat feel nauseous.

FF Gravy is high carb and useful to have a few cans at home for low numbers events.

There are only few brands of dry food that are considered low carb.
Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein
Young Again (the company will send you a sample)
Wysong Epigen 90

Here, in case you haven't found it already, is a list of wet foods with carb values. You are looking for something under 10%. Some of the Fancy Feasts that are not pates fall into this category ;

• Cat Food - Nutritional Composition, data compiled by Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM (2017)

Also, you might get some ideas to try here:

• Transitioning your cat from dry to wet food

This could be because you have been switching foods. Any food switch should be done gradually.

A number of people in the US use Walmart's Relion Premier Classic. The strips are inexpensive.

Can you post the number of the fructosamine test?
It could be that the high carb food you have been feeding is giving you the high numbers.

A big warning: generally speaking, switching to low carb can drop a cat's numbers up to 100 points. It is very important to test during this period.

It would help tremendously if you could set up a spreadsheet. The first place someone will look is the spreadsheet. If you have any difficulty, there are people here who can set one up for you in minutes.

Hope all this helps. I don't mean to overwhelm you.

I'm tagging @JanetNJ who is very familiar with Prozinc.

 

Did you try Giving plain pumpkin for the diarrhea? A teaspoon a couple times a day.

Numbers in the 300-400's s do sound diabetic. Can you post the lab reports? What made them think the Diarrhea was an infection? Was the white bloodcell count up? Antibiotics can cause stomach upset.

I'm glad to hear he finally had a normal poop. Was he constipated at all? My cat Zimmy used to get diarrhea when he was constipated because the liquid would squeeze past the impacted poop. Constipation also causes them to not want to eat. Pumkin usually solved the problem.



I used an Alphatrak pet meter. I liked having the same readings as my vet.

 

Thanks for all of the information. I am trying to get through all the information and will get to the spreadsheet here this week. Unfortunately, I have been swamped these last two weeks, so it has been challenging to make sure I watch him and try to do the right thing for him.
His fructosamine test was at a 270. Unfortunately, I don't have the actual paperwork as I was just excited that he said Kenny didn't have diabetes. But then, two weeks later, I got the 416 number, and with the way he was acting, something wasn't right.
I also may check on that meter, as I just ordered more test strips, and they are pricey for the one I have.
Choosing the right food stresses me a little. So I need to get that figured out. My two have only had the FF dry food since they were able to eat adult food. I know with most cats, change is difficult.
I am very thankful this site is available, and there is a wealth of knowledge here.
Again Thank you.

 

There are many food choices. This is a food chart. Try foods under 10 percent carb

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

There are a few dry foods under 10 carb... Dr elsley's clean protein chicken, young again zero carb (Youngagainpetfood.com), and epigen 90. All three companies will send a free sample of the food if you ask. While wet is best you could try these of you need too. I have one (not diabetic) that is not fond of wet. She eats a little wet and epigen 90.

 

Janet, thanks for your reply. Oddly, they did not give me the lab report from the bloodwork, which they typically do and I failed to ask for it.
However, he said everything was normal with the exception of his glucose and his pancreatic enzymes.
The new vet read got the records from them and thought that it was pancreatitis based on the enzymes and the fructosamine test.

I called to schedule his ultrasound for his pancreas which is out a few weeks and they gave me Pro Pectalin to try for diarrhea so we will see how that works.
I did try pumpkin and there was no change. Maybe I needed to try it for several days.
One thing that keeps crossing my mind is he is on Fluoxetine. I asked both vets if being on that would cause high glucose and the onset of vomiting and diarrhea. He has been on that for right about a year when all of this started happening. They both did not think that was causing the issue.

 

As Renee and Kenny mentioned, the Relion Meter from Walmart is inexpensive as are the test strips. We have both meters at home Relion and AlphaTrak. If Shasta is real low on the Relion we double check with the Alpha. Test strips for the Relion are about $.18 vs $1.00 for the Alpha so if we have a few errors with the Relion it doesn’t hurt the wallet so bad. Our kibble lover actually took a liking to Sheba perfect portion pate. That lead to Fancy Feast and to Friskees pate. Good luck and stay with it. We’re going on month three with Shasta and we’ve had bounces, spikes, and drops but can see that the diet change is working. He got into his sister’s kibbles this weekend and rocketed to 500+ on a human meter.

 

So they aren't giving any treatment for the pancreatitis? Pancreatitis is very very painful and would definitly cause issues. When my cat Zimmy had it they didn't do an ultrasound but based it on his symptoms and enzymes. The treatment is typically cerenia for nausea, bupe for pain, and daily sub q's for a few weeks at home.

Does your cat seem uncomfortable? Is he laying kind of tucked in like a meatloaf?

Pain would also cause the bg numbers to spike.