More questions as we go

Hi guys!

Kitty and I are done with our first full week of insulin and I'm hoping for a bit more advice.

Testing one ear - I've noticed that one of his ears bleeds a LOT more freely than the other. They're like night and day, I don't want to not rotate ears so I can give my poor guy a break but, testing at 6:30 am while still half asleep myself, it's a challenge! In your experience is it okay to test on the same ear a few times in a row?

Numbers are kind of all over the place, could you please check out my spreadsheet? I'm still seeing lots and lots of really high numbers. Vet wanted me to go up to 2U but based on everything I've read its not good to increase that much that quickly so we're getting somewhere between 1.5 and 1.17U per shot. I haven't gotten the chance to do a glucose curve on him yet so I've got no idea what his NADIR is... hoping to do that this Sunday.

Urine, Kitty is still drinking what I'd consider ungodly amounts of water (he drank almost 24oz last night!). And hence he's peeing like crazy. I think we went through 20lbs of litter in a week! What sort of number range do we have to make it to to see a reduction in all the pee?

 

Same thing with Mia. There is one ear that is very hard to get to bleed, and she does not like me messing with that ear either. So, I do most testing on the 'good' ear, but I try to switch to the other occasionally, especially if I am doing a curve or just a lot of testing. I use the difficult ear when she is in an especially agreeable mood and when it is not the middle of the night or very early morning where I do good to even see straight and/or I just need to get it done and go back to bed.

I do not think there is necessarily a 'range' to make those symptoms lessen. Mia stopped drinking and peeing excessively within the first two weeks she was on insulin though her numbers were still high. Once I switched her to all wet food, I never saw her drink again. I assume she does at some times, maybe, but I literally never see it (whereas she used to live by the water bowl).

 

Hi Chelsea & Kitty!


I'm new here as well, so take my advice with a grain of salt.


Testing - Loki (my kitty) prefers me to test her left ear. While I do switch, I have taken multiple tests from one ear and haven't seen any issues with it (no bruising and no other complications from what I can tell). If Kitty doesn't care which ear you use, could you perhaps make sure you always use her "easy" ear in the AM?


I didn't start home testing Loki until recently (though she was diagnosed back at the beginning of August). I did notice when I first started testing Loki that her numbers seemed all over the place. Once you build a larger data set it should be easier to see some semblance of a pattern. I added a new tab to the google sheet that includes two graphs. One tracks AMPS and PMPS readings and another tracks the readings overall for each day. So... long story short, while the numbers may seem a bit random there may be an overall pattern within the numbers (in Loki's case, her numbers were, in fact, trending downward). I've read that in some cases it can take the insulin awhile to take effect, perhaps you're seeing that I know it took a while (several weeks) for Loki to settle down. Prior to home testing, the vet readings dipped initially then sky-rocketed to numbers higher than when I initially brought her in (one of the impetuses to start home testing, I needed to know what was going on in between visits).


Drinking/urine. Loki just recently started to drink "regular" amounts of water. I did switch her from dry to wet food, which may have helped, plus Loki's numbers are down which should mean that her thirst drive is normalizing once again as well.


Basically, what I'm saying is that these things come with time.


There are plenty of people with more experience than I have, so, like I said, take my input with a grain of salt. I'm sure plenty of others will weigh in for you as well (this place is very helpful!)


C&L

 

Dang he's drinking 24 Oz of water overnight? That's crazy! Try hard to always get the preshots. I know getting a sample is tricky at first. If you are using the lancets that came with the meter, instead get a box of 28 gauge lancets.... They are thicker.

 

Hi Chelsea, You're doing good. Those first few weeks can be challenging.

I would be careful about increasing the dose. You need to get some +6 and +8 readings around the nadir to see how effective the insulin is. The objective is to get Kitty into the 80-150 range at nadir.

For example, some cats may go to 400 at Pre-Shot time and only need 0.5 unit. Other cats may go to 400 at pre-shot time and need 5.0 units. In summary, the nadirs are very useful for determining insulin effectiveness. With luck, you can get some nadir values this weekend.

I'm not a fan of Vetsulin. Over time you might consider Lantus or Levemir.

 

Oh good, you got some nadir (mid point) readings. Those look pretty good.

 

Noah has the same ears. The right is a vascular wasteland, he hates it and seems to bruise easily. As silly as it sounds he wants to face a certain way and doesn't like being approached from his left. Welcome to KooKoo Town. You're free to try different lancets, there are no rules. The higher the number the thinner the lancet but that doesn't mean thinner works better for every cat. I'd rather poke Noah once with a 28 gauge than over and over with a 31 gauge. Everything will come to you in time, keep posting with your thoughts and questions.

 

You don't want to hit the vein, try for the space between the vein and the outer edge. Noah takes 3 or 4 seconds before there's a visible spot of blood and I sometimes have to give a tiny squeeze to produce more blood. He loves having his ear warmed with a damp paper towel afterwards, something I do just to clean his ears and make both of us feel better. Some meters need more blood than others. I use a human Accuchek, the amount needed is almost microscopic.

 

You probably discovered by now that it is good to hold a folded paper towel on the other side of the poke. That prevents you from getting poked when the lancet goes through. Just saying....

 

For almost three years I only used one year. Never had a problem.

 

When you poke vessels start to form that's why the ear you usually use bleeds a lot more easy than the other.

Still with time It would be better if you use both ears to give each one a rest but I wouldn't worry much right now you are just starting and really the good ear is the one you can get the blood out

Regarding the drinking and eating each cat is different but he will eventually go back to drinking normally as he starts having more time in normal numbers

 

Hi Chelsea and Kitty. We haven't heard from you in awhile, everything still good?