Diabetes Treatment

363.

He has all the symptoms as well: weight loss, hair clump loss, drinking a
lot of water, urinating more than when he was younger, weak back legs.

The cat was anesthesized when the blood was taken. Not that this guarantees
normal blood levels.

wrote
If a cat is stressed out its blood sugar can skyrocket, which in turn
can cause a false diagnosis of diabetes. What was your cat's number?

Megan



"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

-Edmund Burke

Learn The TRUTH About Declawing
http://www.stopdeclaw.com

Zuzu's Cats Photo Album:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and
material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his
way."

- W.H. Murray

Chasing her down, cornering her, and having one person hold her down
while the other stuck a needle in her, while she was growling and
struggling - that was unconscionable stress to put on an elderly cat, in
my opinion. We were never able to sneak up on her when she was sleeping
- she was a light sleeper, and it got to where she would tense and growl
whenever we approached her, whether we had a needle or not. So it was
not simply a matter of walking after her, and we did not let her "suffer
and die" when it became apparent that it was time for her to go - we
called a vet who came to our house to euthanize her so as not to further
stress the cat with a trip to the vet's office. I didn't include all
these details in my response to the original poster because it wasn't
relevant to the questions.

In the rest of my post I describe what I did to be sure I was dosing
correctly. I feel very sure I took good care of my cat during her life
and during the end of her life.

Irene



wrote:
She tolerated the twice-a-day injections,
but when she let us know she didn't want
them anymore (got up and walked away
when she saw us coming with the
needle), we stopped them. She lived
about a week after that.


What? You couldn't walk after her? It was better for her to suffer and
die than spend approximately 10 seconds a day givng her an insulin
injection?This is absolutely disgusting and unconscionable.

Megan



"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

-Edmund Burke

Learn The TRUTH About Declawing
http://www.stopdeclaw.com

Zuzu's Cats Photo Album:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and
material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his
way."

- W.H. Murray

Elle wrote:
I asked my vet and one other vet if they would work with me to
accomplish such tests at home (provide suggestions and such, the time for
which of course I'd compensate them), but I am meeting with stiff
resistance. Tomorrow I get a lesson on giving the shots, but the cat won't
be there. Hopefully he'll offer at least moral support for doing the blood
sugar tests at home and adjusting the insulin appropriately.


I met with resistance from my vets, too, and I still don't know why. I
offered to show them what I'd learned and they weren't interested. :-/

The vet I was working with humored me re the blood sugar tests, and she
told me how much insulin to give for different ranges. She did tell me
to call immediately if the reading fell above or below certain numbers.
I don't remember any of the numbers, so I'm sorry I can't give you
specifics.

We did find that distracting the cat with a savory treat while we gave
the injection helped it go a little more smoothly.

Good luck,
Irene

wrote
You will find this page helpful:

http://community.webtv.net/getcathelp/diabetes

Yes, very nice. I skimmed it (and several of its links) and have already
bookmarked it.

I think I'm a bit more stressed at having to tell the vet, with all due
respect, I want to do the blood tests myself. His assistant was quite
adamant that I couldn't do them. I'll be prepared to smile, pay the bill,
say thanks, and walk, hopefully with the insulin and a supply of syringes in
hand.

I have the time to give this cat, and the blood sugars curves that I'll
likely eventually do don't look that tough. The cat will be happier, and
less stressed, having all this done at home.

Thanks zuzu, Cathy, Mary, and Cheryl for sharing your experiences. It's all
helpful.

There is a wonderful site for pets with diabetes... They have all sorts of
info for care & some very helpful boards include one for cats with diabetes.
They were extremely helpful when my parents' dog was diagnosed...

http://www.petdiabetes.org/


"Elle" wrote in message
ink.net...
My 7.5 year old cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes. Per my
discussion
with his vet, I will likely start on him on some potassium today and then
decide on insulin injections and routine blood sugar testing to ultimately
get the insulin dosage right.

Can people hear please share your experiences with treating a cat with
diabetes? In particular:

Did you give the injections yourself? Did the cat become more cooperative
with time?

What sort of costs will be incurred if I treat this?

How long did your diabetic cat live after beginning treatment?

I will be googling for more information, but any responses here would be
much appreciated.

Thank you.

"Elle" wrote in message
nk.net...
wrote
You will find this page helpful:

http://community.webtv.net/getcathelp/diabetes

Yes, very nice. I skimmed it (and several of its links) and have already
bookmarked it.

I think I'm a bit more stressed at having to tell the vet, with all due
respect, I want to do the blood tests myself. His assistant was quite
adamant that I couldn't do them. I'll be prepared to smile, pay the bill,
say thanks, and walk, hopefully with the insulin and a supply of syringes
in
hand.

I have the time to give this cat, and the blood sugars curves that I'll
likely eventually do don't look that tough. The cat will be happier, and
less stressed, having all this done at home.

Thanks zuzu, Cathy, Mary, and Cheryl for sharing your experiences. It's
all
helpful.

You're welcome. I agree that the more you can successfully do at home, Vs.
at the vet's office, the less stressful.

Cathy

"fatbak" wrote
Elle wrote:
I asked my vet and one other vet if they would work with me to
accomplish such tests at home (provide suggestions and such, the time
for
which of course I'd compensate them), but I am meeting with stiff
resistance. Tomorrow I get a lesson on giving the shots, but the cat
won't
be there. Hopefully he'll offer at least moral support for doing the
blood
sugar tests at home and adjusting the insulin appropriately.


I met with resistance from my vets, too, and I still don't know why. I
offered to show them what I'd learned and they weren't interested. :-/

IIRC there's some chatter from sites on the net about this: How vets won't
"get" diabetic cat management until they've done it themselves. Some accept
the education patients give them(!), but I imagine they're the exception.
(zuzu's site said something about this, I believe.)

The vet I was working with humored me re the blood sugar tests, and she
told me how much insulin to give for different ranges. She did tell me
to call immediately if the reading fell above or below certain numbers.
I don't remember any of the numbers, so I'm sorry I can't give you
specifics.

That's okay. The net has some specifications on this.

As soon as my vet mentioned the number "363" today on the phone, I asked him
the units on this. I wanted to research it on the net and didn't know quite
where to start. He sounded a little embarrassed and said he didn't remember
the units. Which was honest. I felt bad--like I was quizzing him. Yet I
really didn't care about the units per se. I clarified and asked whether it
was some kind of measure of "blood sugar," and he said yes. So I'm slowly
picking up on the diabetes jargon.

We did find that distracting the cat with a savory treat while we gave
the injection helped it go a little more smoothly.

Sounds good.

My little cat seems a bit better after his first dose of potassium gel
several hours ago. But I am concerned about tonight. I want to get my own
blood test done at home and insulin into him by noon tomorrow.

Good luck,

Thanks, Irene. It sounds like any cat would be lucky to have you as a
parent.

363.

Well, that's not horrible. It could nbe 600 or higher.

He has all the symptoms as well: weight
loss, hair clump loss, drinking a lot of
water, urinating more than when he was
younger, weak back legs.

Then he defintiely needs to be on insulin NOW. If you can get it
quickly, I would recommend you start out with PZI insulin. It's more
expensive, but it works really well for cats and is becoming the insulin
of choice. If you do, make sure to use Idexx as the batches are
comercially manufactured on a large scale. If you get compounded PZI
from smaller pharmacies you may run the risk of inconsistency from one
bottle to the next, which makes it hard to know what will happen in
terms of dosing each time you change bottles.

Megan



"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

-Edmund Burke

Learn The TRUTH About Declawing
http://www.stopdeclaw.com

Zuzu's Cats Photo Album:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and
material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his
way."

- W.H. Murray

"Chris" wrote
http://www.petdiabetes.org/


Thanks, Chris. Looks good. The more "authoritative" viewpoints representing
some kind of consensus I can get, the better.

Chasing her down, cornering her, and
having one person hold her down while
the other stuck a needle in her, while she
was growling and struggling - that was
unconscionable stress to put on an elderly
cat, in my opinion.

There are plenty of ways to get a cat to take insulin without resorting
to the above. Regardless, causing her to suffer and die a miserable
death from the subsequent ketoacidosis and acute renal failure that is a
result of withholding insulin is cruel and abusive, plain and simple. It
doesn't matter what you did before.

Megan



"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

-Edmund Burke

Learn The TRUTH About Declawing
http://www.stopdeclaw.com

Zuzu's Cats Photo Album:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and
material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his
way."

- W.H. Murray