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Post by scrapbookashlee on Aug 11, 2016 14:48:50 GMT
I took my 13 year old kitty to the vet monday and she was diagnosed with feline diabetes (her glucose reading was 285). The vet feels she's a good candidate for remission. I'm on board with giving insulin by shot twice a day BUT, when I picked up the insulin at walgreens yesterday it was $296!!! I read online that the insulin states it's good for only 30 days but I should be able to use it between 3-6 months. BUT $300 for insulin?? I didn't tell my husband, he would think I've lost my mind.
To further complicate I have 2 indoor cats the 13 yo and a 15 yo who have always been free fed and share food. So now the vet says I need to separate them and feed the diabetic cat only twice a day. The diabetic cat was a stray and she's always gotten nervous when her food dish was less than half full - I think this is gonna drive her, the 15 year old and me nuts. Any thoughts? I was kinda hoping I could manage the diabetes with just the insulin and maybe minor changes to the feeding schedule.
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Post by scrapsuzy on Aug 11, 2016 15:02:14 GMT
Call me a terrible person, but this is one of those things where I would have the cat put to sleep. I can barely manage my own diabetes and health. I've really given it a lot of thought over the years. It would be heart-breaking, but it's what I would do. We do love our pets, but we also have a monetary limit we would spend on any given one of them.
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Post by gailoh on Aug 11, 2016 15:04:02 GMT
Can you ask the vet about cost? That is pretty high I think...I do not have pets with this problem but didn't want to read and not respond...
Hope someone on here can help you, getting the weight down for kitty would be a help.
I also will do what I can for these animals and have spent quite a bit to help them out...
Your a good furbaby mom...hugs
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Post by peased2bhere on Aug 11, 2016 16:08:42 GMT
Guessing your cat is on Lantus as that is the cost for us with our cat too. We do insulin shots twice a day as you have been advised. The last I read, Lantus will finally have a generic equivalent offered in December and the cost could drop a bit. Anyways, our 17 year old cat was diagnosed a year and a half ago. She eats a different food from our other cats, and I am forever chasing the other two out of her food bowl. She can't jump up anymore, so the other cats' food is kept up out of her reach. She was a grazer, and still is, our vet didn't recommend a different feeding schedule when we talked about it, not sure if that is the norm or not. She is doing well, and had actually gained a bit of weight at her last appointment, which the vet said was a good sign.
Good luck to you and your kitty! Fingers crossed that the cost lowers soon!
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momto4kiddos
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,151
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
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Post by momto4kiddos on Aug 11, 2016 17:03:20 GMT
My parent had a cat that lived several years with diabetes. They bought the insulin at Walmart and said it was fairly cheap. As was recently discussed pharmacies have different prices so check around.
They continued to free feed. I always wondered if he wouldn't be more stable if fed a couple times a day but don't have any idea. Good luck
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Post by lovetodigi on Aug 11, 2016 17:35:36 GMT
My Mom gets the insulin for her dog at Walmart Pharmacy. It is around $26.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 19:05:58 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 18:09:10 GMT
Our 12 year old Tucker was diagnosed four years ago this November and we have had to use Lantus with him. We first tried Novalin because of the cost, but it didn't work for him, so we had to move to Lantus and at our pharmacy it is $267 a vial, but in the four years we have been treating him, we have never disposed of a bottle after 30 days and have had two separate vets tell us to continue to use it until it's gone and that has worked for us.
He gets two shots a day, super easy, we feed him a high protein food at the time when we give him his shot to distract him, but he's such a good boy, he doesn't mind getting them at all. He is starting to lose his sight with cataracts, but we don't care....we love him and until such time his quality of life is being affected, we will continue to treat him.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 19:05:58 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 18:11:16 GMT
As far as feeding.....no more grazing....ours (we have four altogether) have two feeding times that coincide with Tucker's shots....they all get fed at those times. No food bowl constantly filled...they have a water fountain that's always available but not the food.
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Post by BeckyTech on Aug 11, 2016 18:55:34 GMT
Although I dealt with dog diabetes, the vet hospital told me that the very expensive insulin was good for at least 120 days refrigerated. You will be able to tell when it starts to lose it's efficacy.
I know making household changes can be difficult at first, but they are doable.
And if you have difficulty giving shots, thank goodness for YouTube! That really helped me.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Aug 11, 2016 19:01:11 GMT
We had a diabetic dog who lived for 3 years with the disease. We were lucky in that I was able to buy his insulin at WalMart for $28 a vial. I gave him 3 - 4 small meals during the day and it worked for us. Good luck in whatever you decide is best for your family.
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Post by my2apps2 on Aug 11, 2016 19:06:33 GMT
Our "free" dog was diagnosed last week, so we are going through much of the same things right now. We opted to try the novaline N before we move onto something more expensive. Unfortunately, cost IS a factor for us so I'm very hopeful that it works for him. My total for the insulin, needles and a sharps container was just under $42.00 today. Ask your vet if you can start with the lower cost option to see if it will work.
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Post by paigewh on Aug 11, 2016 19:55:03 GMT
I buy my 13 year old diabetic cat's insulin at Walmart. It's $26. I get his syringes there too. It's totally do-able! I've been giving him shots for two years now. GOOD LUCK!!!
ETA - I use Novaline
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Post by Zee on Aug 11, 2016 20:39:39 GMT
This was discussed a while back here, if I remember correctly only the Lantus offers a chance for remission in felines. It is expensive, the manufacturer jacked up the price on in anticipation of a generic coming eventually. The Novolin is much cheaper but from what I read, you need the Lantus if you want to try for remission. It may or may not work. For me personally, if the cat was in otherwise good health I'd try that first and see what happens. You can keep it in the fridge for at least 120 days as someone mentioned above. Not recommended, but you can and many people using this med on a pet do extend its life past what manufacturers rec. If the Lantus doesn't seem to bring about remission, and it's a financial hardship, you could then discuss cheaper options. (Well, of course you can start with the cheaper option, that's up to you and your situation.) Good luck to you and kitty! I had a cat develop diabetes and not do well at all on insulin. He was already in a decline and we did have to put him to sleep. So, I probably would not opt to do this again unless the cat is otherwise OK and the vet thought the cat would do well and maybe remission could happen. Please keep us updated, I hope you have a happy outcome
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QueenoftheSloths
Drama Llama
Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
Posts: 5,955
Jun 26, 2014 0:29:24 GMT
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on Aug 11, 2016 22:32:40 GMT
The cat in my avatar was diagnosed with diabetes many years ago. The vet we had been going to was very adamant that she had to have insulin and a special diabetic diet, but I did some research online and did not agree with her. We ended up switching vets to one who was willing to try some new theories. Best decision ever. Step one, we had her teeth cleaned. Step two, she went one a strict grain free diet. Grain free kibble, grain free wet food. Step three, after I believe a month of that, she went back to the vet, where there was no trace of diabetes present, urine test or blood test. She stayed on the grain free diet for the rest of her life, and eventually died from something else. We never gave her insulin once. I would like to direct you to www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/ this is a message board about feline diabetes. The people who post here are very experienced and can offer you great advice. Good luck to you.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 19:05:58 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2016 22:40:35 GMT
Mine is my doggie and I use Novolin at $135 a vial that is 1000 whatevers and he gets 13 whatevers twice a day. So a vial lasts a little more than 1 month. Now Costco is a bit cheaper if you are a member. We don't have a nearby Walmart, although I should check them.
But I also had to change his diet and his food is about $200 a month also.
It sucks.....but He is good other than that so I hate to put him to sleep due to cost!
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wasil
Full Member
Posts: 354
Location: Iowa
Aug 3, 2014 12:59:34 GMT
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Post by wasil on Aug 12, 2016 0:04:30 GMT
About 6 years ago our older cat became very sick and was diagnosed with diabetes. He and our other 2 cats were free fed on dry cat food. With the guidance of our vet and some internet research I switched them all to a wet diet and fed them twice a day. I continue to feed them all wet food to this day.
After a couple weeks his glucose levels improved but not enough to consider him in remission so I started him on insulin injections. I remember calling around to all the area pharmacies looking for the best price. I don't remember which insulin it was but I do remember that Walmart had the best price but it was still over $100 for the vial.
I continued the wet food diet with the insulin and about a month later he was in remission. He's about 18 years old now and continues to be in remission from diabetes but has kidney disease along with being deaf and just recently lost his eye sight due to cataracts.
He was a rescue cat and my children's first pet. He is a sweetheart and my wish for him is that he will live the rest of his days without pain and die peacefully in his sleep.
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Post by scrapbookashlee on Aug 12, 2016 0:35:23 GMT
Thank you to all for your thoughtful responses and hopeful stories. I really don't want to stress my 15 year old cat out too by adjusting her feeding schedule. So I'm going to talk to the vet about a modified feeding. Ideally I'd like to feed 4 times a day (thru timed feeders) and administer insulin. I checked out the feline diabetes board and found helpful info about purchasing discounted insulin from Canada.
Thanks again for all of your responses. 🐱
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Post by birukitty on Aug 12, 2016 1:48:15 GMT
I believe in feeding my cat the healthiest diet possible and when Biru became sick with kidney disease in 2012 I hit the internet to do research to find an alternative diet to the one the vet prescribed-the prescription food from his office Royal Canin that Biru hated and that made him lose even more weight. He became worse on that food, and the first thing I found on dogfoodadvisor.com was that Royal Canin and Science Diet are actually poor quality foods. I ended up after 3 weeks of research at this site www.felineinstincts.com They advocate a raw food diet for cats. What they make and sell is a powder formula that contains all of the nutrition that your cat needs (like tourine) and you add that at home to raw meat (I use ground turkey) salmon oil, and water. If you go to their site you can read the section they have on cat diabetes and why a raw diet is the best for cat nutrition. There is a video by a holistic vet explaining how a raw diet isn't dangerous (as some people believe). I got this powder base for Biru and fed it to him and his brother cat (James) who was 1 year older and healthy but very overweight. At this point Biru's kidney disease was at stage 3. Anyway, the change in both cats was incredible. Within 2 weeks Biru was gaining back his weight and they were chasing each other around the house like they were kittens again. James lost his weight and was able to jump back up on the couch (something he hadn't been able to do in a couple of years) and came down to a nice, slender normal sized cat. Biru grew nice and healthy again. We were able to stop his dreaded fluid IV treatments (that you give to kidney diseased cats) and his kidney disease reversed itself! This diet costs less to feed than the prescription food from the vet. It takes me 15 minutes to make up a batch of food for a week. I mix up a bowl and put it into pint canning jars which I store in the freezer. I believe health has a lot to do with what we eat-and the same is true for our pets. Sadly Biru passed away in December of 2014 of a blood clot-not kidney disease. James of stomach cancer that year too. We now have Jesse who is 5 1/2 months old and he is eating this raw food diet. He is lean and all muscle. I wish the best for your cat. I would recommend trying this diet and hopefully it will help your cat's diabetes and get her into remission.
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