Feline Diabetes

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Feline Diabetes Quick Reference Guide

Insulin

Some cats can be successfully managed through diet change alone and do not require supplemental insulin. Hopefully that will be the case with your kitty. If not, there are three insulins that have been found to be most effective for cats: Lantus/glargine, Levemir/detemir, and PZI/ProZinc. You do not want any other insulin, so if the vet recommends an NPH or Porcine Zinc insulin (like Novolin, Humulin, Caninsulin, or Vetsulin), refuse it and ask for one of the three I mentioned above.

Both Lantus and Levemir have Savings Cards offered by the manufacturers that you can sign up for that bring the cost of insulin down into a less-expensive range. If your vet prescribes either of those two insulins, ask for it in "pen" form. You can get a Lantus Solostar pen for $25 a piece and each pen should last you two to three months or more (depending on dosage). They also have a discount card for the Levemir FlexPens (not sure what that equals out to per pen, but it's reasonable and affordable). You use the pens the same as you would use a vial by inserting a syringe into the tip (you don't use the cartridges or the "dial-a-dose"). So, depending on your state/country, you might also need a prescription for syringes.

You never want to give oral insulin medications to a cat as they've been shown to damage the pancreas further, usually permanently, making remission a lot less likely. Remission, or going "Off The Juice" (OTJ) means that your cat no longer requires insulin injections and is a "diet-controlled" diabetic, aka a "broken" diabetic.

You have the highest chance of getting your cat into remission within the first 6 months of diagnosis, so that's what we're aiming for here first.

Diet

Getting them switched to a low carb, wet food is your best bet. Dry food is usually too high in carbs (it's what holds it together) and is taxing on a cat's liver and kidneys due to water-depletion and can lead to UTIs and blockages. The Cat Info.org website has a nutritional information list on most of the commercial canned food available (you want anything less than 10% carbs, the lower the better). I created a sorted version of this list for Michelangelo's unique dietary restrictions (he's allergic to red meat and does best on anything over 50% protein).

Home Testing

Yes, we test our cats much like human diabetics test themselves, except we use their ears (which are actually less sensitive than our own fingertips). We've taught many people how to test their cats and it becomes fairly routine and even easier than feeding them. When starting out, however, you might run into a few problems, so here's a great link on Ear Testing Tips to help get you started. The other great benefit of home testing is that you do not need to take your cat into the vet to get tested or for expensive curves since you can do it at home. My vet has only seen Michelangelo once since diagnosis and that was for his one-year checkup and not even diabetes related. Some cats may prove more difficult to test when first starting out, but with a bit of time and patience, they'll eventually catch on and start seeking you out for tests. It happens all the time, so don't give up!

Most of us use human glucometers since they're so much less expensive for the test strips than the pet meters, but are just as accurate (with a difference akin to Celsius vs. Fahrenheit). If you're in the US, Walmart carries the ReliOn brand that has the cheapest strips around, which is where the cost can easily add up. Even if your cat is not yet on insulin, I would still highly recommend getting a meter so you can see how the diet change might be affecting the numbers and if your kitty needs to go on insulin.

In order to figure out what numbers you're looking for, I simply reference Wikipedia's Blood Sugar Guidelines Chart. We'll also be able to help you interpret what the numbers mean as you go along, so let us know if you have any questions.

Getting Started Shopping List:

1. Glucometer (i.e. a Walmart ReliOn Confirm/Micro or Prime)

2. Matching Strips

3. Lancing device if you prefer

4. Matching lancets if you're using a lancing device. If not, then look for the "alternate testing site" lancets, which are great to use for when first starting out.

5. Ketostix for testing the urine for ketones (a potentially dangerous condition that can develop from hyperglycemia)

6. Freeze-dried meat treats (essential when first starting out testing)

The AAHA Guidelines for Diabetes is a great resource for much of the information I provided above and is worth a read-through and perhaps even passing along to your vet.