Hey all I just have sone questions

My kitty was only diagnosed two days ago. I give him 2 units twice a day and he is on the Hills m/d diet wet and dry food. He however is hating the wet food, and everything my vet recommended to me is ultra expensive and really limited to what they sell at their vet clinic. All this new information about curves and stuff is honestly confusing to me. I am trying to learn but i dont have an at home monitor yet as the vet recommended the cat one and said to absolutely not try a human one as they do not work. Most all of the info Im finding on here is stuff avaliable in the states and I am in Canada, and some stuff i am not able to order.


So i was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for canned food in canada, that would be along the same as the hills but not as expensive? As well as if anyone had an at home monitor they recommend that works well! Thank you for taking to read my post.

 

Hi and welcome to FDMB from a fellow Canadian.

HERE is a link to all the food lists showing the carb percentages. A lot of the foods on the US food lists but not all, are available here. The most popular and least expensive ones would be Friskies, Presidents Choice Extra Meaty (available Canada only) and Fancy Feast. The Fancy Feast "Classic" on the US list is called "Pate" here. Same food different name for some reason. The ingredients in the so called prescription foods are no better and often inferior to the retail varieties not to mention far more costly. The Hills m/d recommended by your vet is too high in carbs for a diabetic cat. The wet food is about 16% carbs and the dry is 18% carbs. We recommend feeding foods under 10% carbs.

Contrary to what your vet told you, human glucometers work just fine for our kitties. It's not that they don't work but the scale of the readings is different than it would be using a pet meter. The human meter will generally read lower than a pet meter and the difference between the readings gets larger the higher the BG. All the dosing methods used on this forum are based on human meter readings so we can help you understand them. We advocate more testing than most vets do and pet meters can get very expensive to use very quickly because it is a "specialty" veterinary product.

When shopping for a meter, your first consideration should be finding one that requires a very small blood sample. Your second consideration should be the cost of the test strips. Ideally you want a meter that requires a 0.3 microliter sample and definitely no more than 0.5. The most popular meter a number of us use here is the Freestyle Lite.

If you have any friends or family who are senior citizens, and you can convince them to do you a little favour, you can get discounts on strips at Shoppers Drug mart using Optimum points and senior day discounts. Otherwise Walmart tends to be amongst the best prices for strips at least in my area.

Keep the questions coming. We can help you learn to test your kitty and help you get him on the path to better health.

 

Thank you so much for your quick and informative response. My grandmother has an extra One Touch Veiro Flex meter that she is willing to send me instead of me buying one outright, is that one recommended or is it too far varying? If so i will for sure pick up a freestyle lite! Thanks for the info on the food I will for sure look into different brands if this food is not going to help him at all!

 

It's fine, but again, meters are cheap....it's the strips that end up costing the most money. Check and see how much the replacement strips are before accepting your DGM's offer.

 

Its about 55 for 100 strips whereas the freestyle is 50 for 29. Do lancets have be changed a lot? Again sorry if these questions are silly. I am totally new to this. I am looking into the freestyle lite as it seems to have better ratings for accuracy compared to the one touch. But the strips for the one touch are cheaper by comparison.

 

You'll want to use a new lancet every time you check the blood glucose. Don't reuse lancets. They're quite cheap though and you can get them behind the counter at any pharmacy. I think I got 100 for about $15. You don't need to get the lancets that are for your particular meter if you just freehand it and don't use whatever your meter comes with to "shoot" the lancet, which I know at least I prefer. Just get something with a relatively high gauge (28+) so they're thin and don't hurt.

 

Awesome. I will look into that. Im sure he would much rather not clicking as it would probably bug him out.

 

Not sure where you were looking at strip prices but a quick check at Diabetes Express (not always the lowest prices but usually not highest and at least midrange) indicates the One Touch Verio strips are roughly $85 for 100 whereas the Freestyle Lite strips are $79.00 for 100. Not sure where you are finding packages of 50 strips in Canada. They usually come in packages of 100 here so if you are finding secondary Canadian sellers of strips in packages of 50, check the expiry on the strips before purchase to ensure you are getting good product.

 

I found them on amazon but they are not from the original seller so I was leary. They are 80 from the pharamcy near me for the freestyle. I did not check for the one touch as I did not know of it at the time so I will have to do that. And its a mostly all wet food that is recommended? Should I wait until I get my own monitor to transition him onto a different food.

 

A wet diet is definitely recommended. Dry food is not recommended for any cat...diabetic or not. Check out https://catinfo.org/ for lots of good information from a vet regarding diet.
The transition to an all wet diet can have a significant effect on BG and the dose of insulin needed so it would be safer to make any diet changes after you have the glucometer and have started testing.

 

I picked up a freestyle lite monitor does anyone use this one and enjoy it or does it not really work? I am finding mixed reviews.

 

I use the Freestyle Lite and was more than happy with it. It will read a bit low at low range numbers however it's far better to have your meter reading a bit low than too high. It takes a tiny blood sample about the size of a straight pin head and I personally found it ergonomically easier to use than most meters due to the sideloading strips. There are a number of us using that meter. It's a good choice IMHO.

 

I agree with @MrWorfMen's Mom. I use a Freestyle Lite meter and I like it: needs only a very tiny blood drop, rarely gives an error reading, it has two little fingers to sip blood so if you miss the first time with one finger you can try again with the second on the same strip before the meter times out.

 

I just got a box of strips off kijiji for 50$. so that is exciting, what are the typical numbers for cats on the freestyle lite? I have never tested him before and his numbers were high at the vet due to stress and they used an animal monitor.

 

On a human meter normal BG would be from 2.8 to 6.7 mmol. Depending on the type of insulin you are using, you may not want to aim to get BG down to low normal for safety reasons. The human meter will read lower than the vet's meter or lab equipment. The pattern of readings however will be very similar.

It would be helpful if you could set up a signature with some information about your kitty. That is the light grey text you see below our posts. It will provide info for those helping you. You can include info such as your kitty's name, sex, age, date of diagnosis, any other health concerns, current diet, type of glucometer and type of insulin you are giving. Your name and a general location helps too especially if you are in need of any suggestions/recommendations for diabetic supplies or food.

To set up a signature, click on your user name up in the right corner of the screen. Select Signature from the left side of the menu. This opens up a text box where you can type in the information you wish to share. When you are done, scroll down and click on Save Changes. Voila you're done.

 

I added my signature. I just tested him and he is at 13.1 on the freestyle lite meter. My boyfriend accidentally gave him another dose last night so i skipped his morning dose today. Hes on a mixture of hills m/d but I want to switch him to friskies. This was my first time ever testing him

 

Congratulations on getting that first test! It'll get easier as you go along.

 

Thanks for getting your signature done. Spreadsheet?

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

I have a Relion prime, and happy with it. I live in the US, don't know about availability for U. It works well, agrees with my vet's meter. I've dropped it often, it's still fine. Everybody says that over the long term, regarding $, the cost of the strips is what gets you, not the cost of the meter. My meter was $10.00, and eBay is full of people selling strips, most well priced, a few outliers. They all state the expiry date for their strips. My relion stores data for previous tests, etc. For us in the USA, I don't think accuracy is much of a thing, as the govt requires all meters to give results within 20% of true value. Same true for U? Relion will send free standardized solution, within 3 weeks of request, it's been 2 and am still waiting.

 

Yes its not available in Canada that I could find. We have a few varities but the freestyle lite seemed to have the most reasonably priced strips so i chose that one! There are tonnes more options for monitors in the states but the duty, shipping and conversion are usually not worth it to me.

 

Yes I will be trying to figure out how to make one tonight!

 

Welcome fellow Albertan
I am feeding mainly PC extra meaty canned food. If you have an optimum card, you will find you will start getting bonus offers after you have bought it a couple times. I give Rhubarb mainly the 156g chicken and sometimes the large can oceanfish for flavours.
She detested the m/d wet even though she was previously eating the dry. The PC chicken she really likes, the oceanfish not so much.

I have both the one touch ultra and the freestyle light. I love the freestyle for the same reasons the others said. The one touch just needs too much blood, and strips are more expensive.

 

@majandra Thank you for the tip, I just picked up the optimum card and bought the friskies for him to try from there however he seems to hate the chicken dinner one lol so maybe I will try the PC brand!

 

I buy the case of Friskies Whitefish and Tuna/Salmon/Seafood Supreme mix which my cats like. You can get it at Giant Tiger for about $7.25 for 12 cans which for my 2 cats lasts a little less than a week.

 

Kaitlyn, I was looking at your spreadsheet and notice some odd numbers on the US sheet.
When you input your readings, input them on the WORLD Sheet. They will automatically be converted and entered on the US sheet for you.....no work involved on your part. You can grab the WORLD tab and move it to the left so it's the sheet that opens up for you when you are entering readings.

Can you also rename your SS to "Dax's SS" (Star Trek reference by any chance? I have a Worf! ) or something like that so it's easily identifiable as yours. Just click on the title and it will allow you to rename it. Sometimes when we are helping more than one kitty, we have more than one SS open so it really helps to know which is which.

 

I think I have fixed it all now if you want to check and see! Thank you for the help its a little confusing but I think I might have it now

 

World tab looks good! Now for the other tab, when you input values into those cells and deleted them, you deleted the coding that pulls from the world tab. For those specific cells, you'll have to go back and put the american numbers. just make sure you round up or down- they only use whole numbers

 

@majandra thank you I will do that right away! I was wondering why they would not come back

 

@Linda Barrett-Cormier Yes my focus is to get him onto an only wet food diet, I have another cat; she is two years old and has nothing but I have to transition her as well as she eats his food anyway. But so far there are a few varieties at local pet stores available, which is awesome. The home monitoring seems to be working as long as my meter is correctly working but it seems to be. I have added lots of bowls of water around the house for him at various points and add water to his kibble/wet food mixture. He seems to be enjoying friskies. I am looking for him to gain a slight bit of weight as he lost some pre diagnosis so I am buying him slightly higher fat/ high protein low carb foods. He has been pretty good with me testing him but sometimes he gets annoyed so I just let it go. I do have the Freestyle Lite Meter as that was the most cost effective for me at the time. I am thinking about getting an Alpha Track just as a backup. I did get my Lantus from Shoppers as well that seemed to be the best place for price. London Drugs is a better price for my strips though. I am filling out the spreadsheet and finding that to be helpful. I am hoping my vet is willing to cooperate with it or willing to try and work with it. I feed and give his insulin at 8 am and 8 pm usually, now that I have a meter I am trying to monitor it better and check him pre each shot.

 

@Kaitlyn How much are strips there? I pay 75 for 100 at Independent (superstore mini).

 

That's a good price for those. It's similar to Walmart and only a hair more than what I pay at Shoppers on 20% off Seniors' Day.

 

Yes they are 75 for 100. I havent found better pricing yet

 

Spreadsheet looks good but your dates are out of order - can you please sort the date column so it's showing oldest to newest?

 

Yes i will be doing that tonight when I get home on my laptop. It seems to not want me to fix it on my phone.