How to detect diabetes?

He hunts but is not allowed to eat it. He is not an outdoor cat per se.

He is loving the livers.

I will probably give him just a little of that each day along with the DM food.

I am hesitant about things with bones... don't want him to choke.

Hah! That is too funny... when outside in the grass he's eaten grasshoppers and crickets I noticed... and it says this is good for him on the http://catcentric.org/ website.

Raw bones are fine, it's the cooked ones that can hurt him. I have a meat grinder so I use the chicken thighs recipe from www.catinfo.org. I am also starting to make raw with other meats and using eggshells for a calcium source.

Be careful with the liver, they have a lot of vitamin A. Too much can cause toxicity. Try some gizzards! Great teeth cleaning action since they are chewy.

Glad to hear he is perked up already!  That is a good sign!  

You are fabulous that you are going to start right in with the blood glucose testing.   The ear is better if you can do it. because they have to walk on the paw pads,  so there's more risk of infection that way.  

 Some cats adapt to it very soon,  with others it is best to work up to it gradually,  desensitize them to it.  You can get the kit, and first just do some practice runs where you go through the motions ,  but don't actually do the ear poke.   that will get him and you used to the routine, the equipment,  the beep of the meter, the lancet device clicking ( if you use one) ,  you rubbing his ear to get the blood flowing, etc.   Give him lots of praise and pets and a low carb treat    

One tip I will give that I found invaluable is to rub some vaseline  ( or you can use triple antibiotic ointment) on the edge of the ear , just a very thin layer  before you do the ear prick.  That will help the blood to bead up and makes it much easier to see it on those dark ears, and get it on the test strip.  

  I would do tests before each shot and at least a few times a week,  get some spot checks between shots to see what it's dropping down to.    And at first,  try to do a curve once a week -- that's where you test before the shot,  then test every 2 hours until the next shot. )  

To be honest,  even if he goes off the insulin,  it would probably be a good idea to test about once a month,  or if he shows any sign of another illness with infection / inflammation ( since that could make him hyperglycemic again.) 

Normal cat BG ranges from about 50-120.   This is based on lots of people testing their healthy non-diabetic cats. FDMB members did their own survery several years ago and plotted out the data.   My vet was actually surprised when I showed her,  because they typically see higher BG even in normal cats-- because it's raised by stress at the vet !  

You don't want to aim for 50 ,   but you don't need to keep the cat in hyperglycemia all the time either    At first you're doing well if you could keep it in the 100s.  ( but don't panic if it goes lower than that,  it's actually GOOD if it goes around 70.)     As you learn more how the insulin works in your cat,  you can be able to regulate him at a level closer to normal . 

Keep some of that higher carb wet food around in case you DO need to bring up the blood glucose.   If he's not actually having seizures you can just feed a bit of higher carb canned food if it drops under 50. and keep an eye on him  

  ( If there is ever a hypoglycemic episode and he's having full blown seizures  -- then keep him away from anything he might hurt himself on  and  rub syrup or glucose on his gums to bring BG up fast.     A simple sugar will bring it up fast but it won't stay up very long.  So once he is more alert  then you need to get him to eat some of the higher -carb wet food.  

Hopefully you won't have to deal with that especially if he is on the slow  acting insulin.  but it's important to know what to do just in case. 

Ok it's been a month and the insulin has made him into a new cat.

He's eating a mixed diet of Purina DM and raw chicken, he loves both.

However, he has not gained back weight and is stable at 14.75 lbs.

The thing we are now worried about is he's so active, that he seems wild.

He meows to go out constantly, and we often take him on the leash but he catches chipmunks even while being tethered!!!!!

But the worst part is in the house, he might meow and you turn to look at him and he jumps like he thinks you are going to hit him or something..

It's very weird.

Also, instead of sleeping at the foot of the bed, or in the hall outside the bedroom on a nice soft rug, he goes down to the cellar where he found a nice plastic storage box that must feel good because this is his new place... he must like the soft rubber top? He'll come up to the bedroom and jump on the bed to get us up if he wants more food or just for us to go downstairs and stir it up.....

In any case, I was thinking of changing his name to Lightning he's so quick now.

We are not able to get the blood from his ear for testing but took him in and it was 167... so we're not giving him too much.

We'll bring him in soon for another test.

I am just concerned about his hyperactivity or is this just because we were used to his being overweight due to have glucose as high as 400 there for a while?

I hope it's not a cause for concern. He still does sleep for 4 hours at a time like cats do... but when he's awake, we don't know what makes him so wired!!!!

It sounds like he feels better! Do you use a cotton ball on the other side of the ear to stiffen it a little when pricking it? That might help. Also when I couldn't get it from the ear I used paw pads.

Yes we tried but his ears are so thin we could not get enough blood. Even the tech had trouble at the vets...

I just hope the hyperness isn't anything bad.

He's calmed down now... went to his box and then ate some...

Geesh! I feel like i have a new baby or something, I'm too old..

It sounds like the zoomies.

EXACTLY!!!!!!  

Warning you in advance I may strike you as opinionated, but I've done a lot of research about this and I have some strong opinions. 

1. Most if not all prescription cat food is crap.  (warned you) Vets have been indoctrinated from med school to use prescription diets but as others have already pointed out they are way too high in junk grains and fillers.  They use the cheapest stuff they can get a hold of.  That's why we had the Chinese wheat gluten disaster that killed so many pets.  What the heck is wheat gluten doing in cat food anyhow?  It's cheap but useless protein since cats can't effectively metabolize it..  If your vet insists on prescription cat food, find a new vet.  Good vets will work with you.

2. If your going to feed raw then you need to be aware of the cats nutritional needs.  That's going to take a lot of research.  I've fed raw but it's a full time job.  It's not as simple as buying meat from your local butcher, grinding it up  and feeding it to them.  Since meat suppliers drain the blood from their meat, and cats need the nutrients in that blood, your going to have to heavily supplement  the food.  Also remember that the ratio of certain minerals have to be balanced against other minerals. I can't do it right, it simply takes up too much time.

3. There are other effective ways to avoid UTIs besides prescription diets. The diets are suppose to eliminate struvite crystals.  The crystals form because of urine that is too concentrated and too high a pH (not acidic enough).   To keep it from being to concentrated you cat needs a lot of water.  Cats in nature get most of their water from food, specifically blood.  I water down canned cat food. and presoak dry food.  My vet says the more water you can get into the cat the better.  To lower the pH I use aluminum chloride tablets.  I buy the ones from nutricology sold by pureformulas.com but any brand will do as long as they are between 300-350 mg per tablet.  There is a brand just for pets called uroeze but it isn't any better than the ones for humans and it cost 10 times as much.  I cleared all this with my vet. Quick note here, most of my cats take one tablet once a day but two with sensitive stomachs get half a pill twice a day.  I load the halves into gelatin capsules purchased at my local health food store.

4. Cats get diabetes for the same reason people do, too many carbs.  Because of the reasons listed in #2 above you are going to need a good high protein low carb diet.  I started with wysongs, but it's some expensive stuff and  I'm a little worried that it may not be nutritionally complete. Read the ingredients on the food you buy. They are listed in order from what there is the most of, to what there is the least of.  Pick the food highest in meat.  One good clue is how many meats are at the top of the list before you get to the first non-meat ingredient.  I use Wellness brand canned food  and Blue Buffalo Freedom dry food.  That is influenced by what's available where I live.  I'm sure there are other foods just as good. Do your homework.

Here's my experience: I have one cat that is diabetic, he's my wifes favorite.  He is our oldest cat 16 yrs, but he is also the most active.  About 3 to 4 yrs ago he went through the same type of weight  loss your cat did.  Turns out his problem was the same, diabetes.   We  have treated it with diet alone and he is doing great.  He hasn't had a UTI since we started this. Thinks he's a kitten. Terrorizes my Pit Bull. Don't need test strips Never used insulin, I'm not saying you wont have to but I bet it is over-prescribed. 

Best of luck to you.  Hope this helps.

Joe

jcornman said:

 
Warning you in advance I may strike you as an opinionated ass but I've done a lot of research about this and I have some strong opinions. 

1. Most if not all prescription cat food is crap. 

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I could not agree with you more. I don't get how something that is not narcotic needs a prescription.

He's liking the Purina DM, it's more meaty, less smelly, and the chicken tenders are at least my way of knowing he gets some pure protein that he loves in addition, right after he lets me stab him in the AM which he is really good about... I tried giblets but he's not up to those because it's too chewy.... oh well, will use them in my soup!

I made an appt for the major teeth cleaning as he suffers with plaque and I don't want him to lose any teeth or become compromised in any other way...

It's a lot of $$ but he's worth it. He's doing well today, don't know why he barfed yesterday but I took him in just to be sure.. and they followed up today with a call.

I am blown away by the instant care given to animals, the follow up, the quality! If only people care were the same!

This little guy is like a miniature dog, has a personality and they love him at the vets... the neighbors always comment on how handsome he is..

Thanks for letting me be an insufferable brag.

Well Blackey is home recuperating after having dental surgery. They cleaned his teeth and found 7 needed to be extracted! He has stitches that will dissolve.  I guess you never know what might happen with a cat that was rescued after being out in the wilds for two years...

We are exhausted since the night before you can't give them food after 9 PM when they are going under the next day. We also skipped the morning insulin and consequently his sugar was 200 that day...but the vet said that was OK. So of course he was pouncing on our heads and meowing all night long and we got no sleep because I felt I needed to rub and comfort him. Then in the morning, he was sitting by his bowl watching my every move, as if to say, where the heck is my food? I felt so bad that I could not give him food!

Anyway, we got him home last night, he could not wait to eat his regular food and some chicken I chopped very finely. Then I resumed his insulin at half dose. Then of course he wanted more food. Good sign.

This morning, normal dose of insulin and more food... seems to be doing well. Vet called and said rub the painkilling gel on his gums or at least put it on his food, which I did... not sure he ate it. If he is in any pain he sure doesn't show it. Then he snoozed with me on the bed all morning so I could catch up on my sleep.

As we speak is sunning on the porch wishing he could go out and chase those things in the yard.

We won't take him out today though, do not want anything unclean to come in contact with his mouth.

Boy am I in love eh? :-)