Diabetes advice

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
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hollihedge
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Diabetes advice

Post by hollihedge »

Hi all
My cat, Pumpkin, who is 14 years of age, has just been diagnosed with diabetes. We are injecting her twice a day with 2 units of Caninsulin (tutored by our vet), which is quite nerve wracking. Our vet has said a special diet may help but a lot of cats will not eat this so best to stay on her normal food at present. He has advised honey or glucose syrup for any hypos (which sound very frightening, particularly as we are at work for quite a lot of the day).

Any advice/helpful tips with diabetes management would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Gill
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SarahT1 [PLLE]
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by SarahT1 [PLLE] »

Hi Gill

Ah, your little girl. It's quite a shock when they are diagnosed, isn't it. My boy Edgar, who is around 9 (possibly - ex stray), was diagnosed 14 months ago and is now pretty stable on 2 units of Glargine twice a day. He is absolutely cool with his injections and both you and Pumpkin will be in time. He has been in a study programme at the RVC which has been very helpful and he is much loved at our vets who monitor him carefully. His blood glucose is still generally at the mid-high range, but all his diabetic symptoms - over drinking, over weeing, weight loss, excessive hunger - are well under control. I don't think he will go into remission even though Glargine has a good record for doing that, because when we dropped him to 1.5 units twice a day that tiny change made a big difference and he was back to drinking lots. He has occasionally recorded low blood glucose on a day's curve, but he has never gone into hypo, thank goodness. The principle generally is that if, like us, you are at work during the day, make sure there is food available for Pumpkin. You will find websites that are virulent in their criticism of dry food for a diabetic cat, but the RVC themselves reinforced with us the need for it to be available. There are some excellent ultra low carb, cereal free, high meat content dry foods as well as fantastic wet foods. I agree that the prescription foods such as Royal Canin, Hills and Purina D/M are not always popular, but gradually switching Pumpkin over to a high protein ultra low carb diet will do her all sorts of good. Lily's Kitchen, Nature's Menu and Bozita are all top quality ranges which are idea.

Please keep in touch and let us know how Pumpkin is doing. When does she have a glucose curve next? Has your vet mentioned Fructosamine readings? They are a good test of long term glucose levels, over a couple of weeks rather than 24 hours.

Sarah
hollihedge
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by hollihedge »

Thanks for all your advice Sarah. Pumpkin is not on Glargine (I know humans have that). She is on Caninsulin - is Glargine better? She has not had a glucose curve yet as only diagnosed last week. The vet is talking of doing one soon. He mentioned Fructosamine as I asked about HbA1c testing (the human equivalent). She is due back on Wednesday at the vet. I will ask him. Her blood glucose on diagnosis was 28 with +++ of glucose in the urine dipstick. At the moment she has Sheba pouches, James Wellbeloved dry and Goody Bag treats. I have heard Lily's Kitchen is good - I will have a look at that. I am making sure there is plenty of food for her in the day as she is by nature a grazer (our vet said it would be better if she had two main meals a day rather than grazing).
I will keep you updated...
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SarahT1 [PLLE]
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by SarahT1 [PLLE] »

Hi Hollie

Caninsulin in the default feline insulin. Glargine is one being trialled by the RVC but has been rolled out elsewhere. it is more expensive, but potentially has better outcomes.

I know - the ideal is of diabetic cats to have a very strict feeding regimen. Because Edgar had some very low readings before his evening injection the RVC vet said it was important to have food available for him at other times. I guess none of it is an exact science. Initially our vet said that diabetic cats had to have EXACTLY the same to eat and EXACTLY the same time every day of their lives. Who can stick to that?! We all know cats won't!

Sarah and Edgar
Cussypat1974
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by Cussypat1974 »

I am no expert on this by any means, but have studied it in college..it scared the daylights out of me to be honest! I would say to. Follow the ets advice as exactly as possible, and TELL THE VET if this is not possible. Otherwise you will be spending money on invalid test results and endangering your cat's life. Diabetes CAN be managed, but it isn't easy.
Vets know how difficult this is....... And they will not judge you for struggling with it. HONESTLY.
It can be done though, and some vets run diabetes clinics which can be a great support. Ask your vet about this! They are usually free of charge.
I wish you luck. X
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SarahT1 [PLLE]
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by SarahT1 [PLLE] »

Cussypat is right - initially our vet was really wild eyed and scary and told us exactly what to do and it was just not going to be possible. When I said to him later, in tears, that he had been really scary about it, he softened and said he always started off like that to give the worst case scenario to test people out. He did actually apologise then, saying he realised that he shouldn't have been like that with us because he knows that we wouldn't need scaring into doing the right thing. We have since established a really good chain of communication and he is very pleased with Edgar's progress.
hollihedge
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by hollihedge »

Thanks for your comments folks. We are back at the vets tonight for a review. I will keep you updated.
Best wishes,
Gill
hollihedge
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Re: Diabetes advice

Post by hollihedge »

Pumpkin saw the vet last night. He has dipped her urine again and it is now ++.5 instead of +++. He has upped her insulin to 2.5 units twice daily and is going to see her again at the end of next week. She has lost 0.1 kg of weight but is otherwise OK.
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