5/4 Ziggy +8 130

I'm sorry for the lack of AMPS and spreadsheet. We know how important it is, but it's very stressful for Ziggy and us to measure his BG levels, so we don't usually pinch him all the time. I'm always home, so we take his BG levels about once a week for control, and any time we see something slightly different on his behavior, or make any diet changes etc.

Less than an hour ago (+8 from his AM shot), Ziggy fell down from the surface he was standing. I didn't see it happen, but I heard it and immediately saw him on the floor, struggling to get up. His back legs were failing. My first response was to feed him dry food, then take his BG level. While eating, his back legs were working again, when we got to pinch him his BG was 133. He's been fine now. Is there any chance it was a hypo episode and stress or dry food made it immediately higher? We will take his BG before his PM shot.

For the past weeks, his levels are getting lower and, after a week of +11 levels around 60-80 (and no PM shots!) we lowered his insulin, from 2 units twice a day to 1 unit twice a day. His normal +11 levels are now around 120-140, with the insulin.

 

It is very important that you test before you shoot, I know it can be stressful at the beginning but they really get used to it you don't have to pinch him all the time but you should try and test him always before shooting him because hypo episodes can be really dangerous, they can kill even if you don't do any other tests, but seriously that is the only way of keeping him safe.

We can help you and him get used to the testing, choose a confortable place and set it up as the testing area, start getting him used to you handling his ears and do the whole test routine even if you can not get a sample and give him some rewards after , this is very important so that he can start associating the testing to a good

Dry food usually takes a few minutes to take effect so if you tested him immediately after you gave it to him is very unlikely that the result was because of the dry food but with out any more information is hard to say.

Also uncontrolled diabetic cats can develop a neuropathy that causes his back legs to lose strength they sometimes start to walk funny or are not able to jump like they used to

 

Thank you so much! We had a huge struggle for his insulin shots, but now he got used to it and don't even feel it (we shoot it while he eats), but testing his BG is extremely hard because he shakes his head and we miss the blood drop, then have to pinch him again, then he will shake his head again. Many times we end up with an ear full of pokes, zero drops and an angry cat. We make a cat burrito with a towel, but this only causes him more stress. We can't seem to find the right needle size, too. A size will not make a decent hole, and the immediate next size will bleed him way too much.

We tested him again now +11 259, so I guess it wasn't a hypo episode at all. It didn't look like a neuropathy, it was a quick episode of back legs failing to function only, now he's walking normally. We will keep an eye on it. This time, we didn't make a cat burrito - my wife petted him the way he likes it, while petting his ears, then i poked him from behind, he didn't even see it coming. That was the least stressful test ever - so YAY! I guess that's the path.

 

Congratulations on a less stressful successful test !

Getting him used to you handling his ears is going to help a lot so just try doing that a few times a day with out poking

I use 28 gauge lancets that I hand held, the lancet pen just didn't worked for me, I put a little bit of neosporin ( when I have poked him a few times during the day ) or vaseline in his ear before poking so that the hair won't absorb the blood (Babu has lots of hair in his ears ) , you may try and get the blood on your finger and from there to the strip so that you don't loose it when he shakes his head

 

Veronica has given you some great advice and good tips for testing. It is stressful at first, but I think you are discovering the secret: both you and the cat should be relaxed first (they can feel your stress). As she said, get him used to your playing with his ears - do it even when you aren't going to test, so he doesn't know when the poke is coming. ALWAYS give him a diabetic-friendly treat afterwards, even if you don't get a good test. We really can't stress enough how important it is for his safety that you always test before shooting and at least once more during the cycle. Here is a post with some more good tips for testing. You can do this!

 

You can also try testing on the food pads. Sometimes Floyd's ears get very sensitive, so I switch to testing paws to give the ears a rest. You can try the small pad on the back of the front leg, but I also do the big pad on the middle of the paw. Maybe Ziggy will tolerate that better.