Newly Diagnosed - 8yo indoor male Peanut | Feline Diabetes Management Board

Newly Diagnosed - 8yo indoor male Peanut

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PeanutsMama

New member
Hi everyone,

My mush was just diagnosed with FD last Wednesday. He’s going back to the vet tomorrow for a glucose curve, after which the vet will prescribe insulin.

This all came about because I noticed he was drinking more than normal, but it coincided with a heat wave, so I just kept an eye on him. Heat wave over, still drinking and peeing, so off to the vet, and here we are. I am 99.9% certain I caused this by feeding him too much, and the wrong food. He had a UTI back in 2020, so I’ve been feeding him UT health dry food, which I just now found out has an astronomical amount of carbs.

I’ve been reading the stickied posts here, and am starting to make lists of everything I will need, so they’ve been extremely helpful, but I do have a couple of question about glucose monitoring.

1. The vet informed me that I’ll need to feed him 2 meals per day, 12 hours apart. Aside from measuring sugar at meal times, how frequently should I be checking it?

2. I’m looking at one of the CareSense N glucose monitors. It seems to have good reviews on Amazon, but wondering if anyone here has any feedback (good or bad) on it.

3. Should I get a Ketone monitor? Peanut’s bladder was empty at the vet appointment, so no urine test was done. I’m hoping they can do one tomorrow. If I do get one, I’d prefer a blood monitor to a urine monitor for 2 reasons: First, it’s going to be a ton easier than to try to get a urine sample. And second, from what I’ve read, elevated ketones show up in blood before they show in urine, so if there is a problem, blood monitoring would give me a head start. If I do get a ketone monitor, do I test at the same time as I do for glucose? Honestly, cost isn’t an issue, and I’d prefer to be over-prepared than under prepared. Any advice here is appreciated.

Thanks in advance to all you wonderful people. <3

Edited for sppelign.
 
Hello and welcome. First of all, you did not cause his feline diabetes. So don't blame yourself. You were following vet directions and trying to prevent more UTI's. Unfortunately some cats are more likely to get diabetes than others, and Peanut was one of them. Nothing you could have predicted. But you are now doing the right thing by him to handle this situation.

Feeding just twice a day is old school thinking. Even human diabetics eat multiple small meals. Do you know what type of insulin the vet is going to recommend? Some work differently that others and the times you feed and test will vary based on that.

Second question, which country are you in? Depending on country, we might have different suggestions for meters. Basically you want a meter/strip combination where the test strips need just a small drop of blood, are fairly inexpensive and easy to come by.

Regarding ketone testers, depends what country you are in. You can get meters like the Nova Max Plus, Precision Xtra or Keto-Mojo. All of them have been used with cats. Again, look for cost of test strips (more expensive than regular blood meters), size of blood drop and how easy it is to restock. In case it works for you, this post may help: Tips to catch and test a urine sample. Any cat in high BG (blood glucoese) numbers should be tested regularly for ketones. Can you call me what Peanut's BG was at the vet? Did the vet get a fructosamine test done?

I have yet more questions, sorry. What food is the vet recommending you feed? A lot of the "special vet diabetes" foods are also high in carbs. Most people feed commercially available low carb foods.

And last thing, basing a cat's dose on a curve done at the vet can be a waste of money. You'd get better value from doing that curve at home. Many cats test way higher at the vet clinic due to stress, and you don't want to base a starting dose on artificially high numbers when he'll be lower at home. With the dosing methods we use here, we base starting dose on type of food being fed, and in case cases weight of cat. We like to start with a lower dose and work our way up, instead of having a person new to home testing having to test all the time as the kitty's numbers drop from too much insulin.

A lot of the answers to my questions can be put in your signature - to prevent other people always asking the same things. Information on how to do that and what to includ in the signature is in this post:
 
Thanks so much for your reply. I will fill in my signature information ASAP.

I’m located in the US. Peanut’s BG was 453 at the vet on Wednesday. He didn’t mention anything about a fructosamine test. The only things he said was that his BG was 453, they weren’t able to do a urine sample because his bladder was empty, and that all his other bloodwork values were within range, and that we’d need to schedule the glucose curve to see what he needs for insulin. This was on the phone after the bloodwork came back in the afternoon. He didn’t mention anything about the type of insulin or food, but I assume we’ll be discussing this tomorrow.

So far, I’ve (re-)read the label on his dry food, and the recommendation is 3/4 of a cup (a bit more since he’s between weight cutoffs on the chart) per day, so I’ve essentially changed his schedule to 2 meals, 12 hours apart, consisting of 1/2 of the 3/4 cup of dry food, 1/2 of an Appetizer tray (shredded chicken/tuna/beef with a bit of gravy) and 1/2 a Churu tube each.

He’s 14.9lbs, so he does need to lose weight. I definitely would like to switch him to wet food, (I downloaded the Google doc of all the wet food analyses and would look for a low carb/high protein food) but I want to make sure that the reduced carbs plus the insulin aren’t damaging, so I want to be super careful.

Glad you mentioned the Keto Mojo, I was looking at that one, and will probably investigate further. And yes, the Caresens N only needs 0.5microleters and test strips seem easy to get.

Let me know if you need any more info, I’ll fill in as much as I can on the signature, and thanks for your help.
 
A lot of people in the US get the Relion brand from Walmart, if you've got one close to you. I think the Premier? Anyway, test strips are amongst the cheapest and that is what you'll go through the most. I'd recommend getting a meter soon and start practicing. Your choice if you want the CareSense, I think I've seen someone using. Lots of tips in here: Home Testing Links & Tips with rewards (treats) being key. Low carb all meat freeze dried treats are good. Purebites is one example.

This post might help with the transition to wet food: Transitioning Dry Food to Wet Food You could start now with transitioning to multiple small meals as well, a lot of people do 4 meals a day. Food is the main tool you'll use to keep your kitty safe. Having food part way between insulin shots, when his blood sugar is lowest, will help too. You want a wet food that is ideally under 10% carbs. And yes, food transitions should be slow. Too fast and it can upset their digestive system. Sounds like he's eating a bit of wet now, so that's good.

Depending on what Peanut's ideal weight is, we'd start him on 1.0 to 1.5 units. Make sure you get insulin syringes with half unit markings. Once we know the insulin type, we can recommend brands of syringes and where to get them. Ideally the insulin recommended should be Lantus or Prozinc, which are the two ones currently recommended for cats. Some vets still recommend Vetsulin, called Caninsulin in the rest of the world. That name will give you a hint which species it works well in. And it isn't felines.
 
Thanks so much. All of this is so new, I’m not even able to provide the insulin info. I will definitely check the links in your post. Thanks so much, hopefully tomorrow will shed more light.
 
I'd add to Wendy's recommendations by suggesting that you ask your vet for either Prozinc or glargine (Lantus). These are the two insulins that are recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn for the treatment of diabetes. The other insulins that are used to treat feline diabetes do not last a full 12-hour cycle.

Please keep asking questions. We're here to help.
 
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