? Cat sitter blood testing guide?

I'm going to be gone for about 10 days in October and am preparing a guide for my friend who is watching my sugar baby. She has no experience caring for a diabetic cat so I was making up a blood testing guide for her to reference as far as giving insulin depending on her numbers. I was thinking something like listing pre-recorded adjustment doses, something like this:

Below 200 - skip (if number doesn't rise) or give 10% less insulin (if number rises after stalling)
201 to 240 - 10% less to be on the safe side
241 and up - full dose

This is generalized (and based on my own cat's records) but basically I'd want to cater the guide to keeping the cat safe outside my care, which may mean running her a little high to avoid running too low.

If it were me I could maintain full doses and monitor in the lower 200s, but she's doing me a favor and I don't want to put the two of them in risky situations (or inconvenience my friend). I basically just want to avoid any potential hypos since I won't be there, but I also don't want to screw up her cycles by giving such a range of potential lowered doses. Thoughts? Does anyone have suggestions for when they let others cat-sit their sugar babies?

 

Sorry your post sort of got pushed down and not responded to sooner.

I taught a friend of mine to look after my girl in my absence and I would suggest that you start training now. You need to be sure that your friend can test comfortably because stress by the tester will add to Panic's stress. You want Panic and your friend to feel as comfortable with each other as possible. Also you want to make sure that Panic isn't going to go hiding somewhere so that your friend is in fluff trying to find her or haul her out from under a bed.
I demonstrated a couple of time, then let my friend try with me there. First couple of times were a bit rough because unlike me, my friend was being tentative with my girl. With more practice she gained confidence and my kitty allowed her to test as if it were me doing it. I even went so far as to do a dry run. I left the house before my friend arrived. I let my friend go in and test Menace, feed her and give her shot all without me present but close by should any issues crop up. By taking it step by step, both sitter and kitty were comfortable with the situation while I was gone.

I wrote out a novelette much the same as you are doing. I would suggest being specific on doses rather than saying reduce by 10%. Make it as easy on your friend as possible. Panic may run a wee bit high but better too high than too low.

I included the following:
All kitty hiding/flop spots. Black cats have a habit of hiding in plain sight!
Detail how much food kitty should eat - what she has to eat to get a shot and how much to leave down for her between main meals.
No shot without a pre-shot test.
No shot if BG is <200 (or whatever your cut off limit is).
Never give a second shot even if friend thinks they missed and did a fur shot.
Never give another insulin shot less than 11.5 hours post last shot. While you might have an hour's leeway, better to keep it to a minimum when kitty will be unattended for extended periods of time.
BG #A to #B give X units
BG #C to #D give Y units
and so on

You might also consider making up sample syringes with coloured water for the suggested dosing. Try to dose on the syringe lines rather than in 0.25u increments to make things simpler and consistent and as accurate as possible.

Provide sitter with your vet info and nearest ER. Also contact your vet and tell them the name of who will be sitting and has authority to make treatment decisions in your absence. I also left a credit card number on file with them to cover any treatment costs.

Make sure hypo kit is well stocked with honey/karo/high carb treats, hypo instructions and an extra vial of strips and sitter knows where to find it. Leave a spare battery for your meter and someplace to record BG readings if sitter will not have access to SS.

I was lucky as I always had phone or at least text contact so while I wasn't there and had left copious notes, I also stayed in touch daily just to keep the pressure off if any questions/iffy situations cropped up.

 

Thanks so much Linda for all the information! I already have a word file typed out covering literally everything you mentioned, so glad to know I didn't leave anything out. The 10% bit was just posted for here, I actually specify in my word document the unit amounts. I did read while scouring the boards that a lower dose is recommended when kitty is being cat-sat, but because it's 10 days rather than a weekend trip, do you recommend a lowered "vacation dose" vs standard full dose?

Panic will be going to her house due to how far we live from each other but I do like the idea of testing beforehand, maybe when she pops over I can get her to try it in the comfort of Panic's house which will hopefully help!

 

Is Panic used to being at your friend's home? If not she might want to keep her in a separate room for a couple of days and let her explore the rest of the home only when supervised. I say this only because I had the issue of a hiding kitty come up when I was helping someone with their diabetic cat and that was in the cat's own home. Nothing worse than can't find the cat to make all sorts of horrible things go through one's mind!

Most folks do reduce the dose a bit even for a weekend and usually start it a few days to a week before just to see how kitty is doing on the reduced dose so you can make any final adjustments to the dosing instructions before you leave.

Forgot to mention.....One other tidbit I gave my friend was using a fingernail to catch a blood sample should kitty get antsy while testing. That way, there is a better chance of testing getting done. I found my girlfriend would get blood with the pokey but then Menace would decide she was going to try to nuzzle her hand and the blood ended up everywhere but the strip. While I would just hold onto Menace's ear when she pulled that trick, my friend was horribly afraid of hurting her and the fingernail trick solved the problem. If you won't get a lot of BG test practice in, this tip might come in handy.

I'm so glad you have a friend willing to look after Panic. It gave me great comfort to know the person looking after Menace knew her and appreciated how precious she is to me.

 

Not much, I took her with me when I was house-sitting for an evening back in April so she's been there and was chill but that was when the house was empty...my friend lives with her husband and kids so while Panic knows my friend quite well (she cat-sat her several years ago and is actually who I adopted her from!) the others are going to make her nervous I'm sure. I might recommend letting her stay in their bedroom as a safe-space at first, especially since they have big dogs that come in at night.

I will be house-sitting again the week before I leave on vacation (we're essentially swapping pet-sittings so we don't go broke boarding haha) so I could theoretically take her with me when I go care for their dogs, I just don't want to stress her out with the drive.

Do they reduce something like 10% or so for the vacation dose?

Agreed! My friend is very animal savvy so I doubt she'll be as initially intimidated as I was, so that makes me feel better overall!

 

It's hard to say whether it should be 10% or a bit less/more and really depends on the dose kitty is on at the time. My girl was a high dose kitty when I first had my friend sit her and I think I reduced about 20% but I may have been overly paranoid of her going hypo given she was on 16u twice daily and I was using a different insulin. I'd post for some thoughts on this about 2 weeks before you are leaving. While I've used ProZinc while cat sitting I never had to determine reductions for a vacation. I think Djamila would be a good resource to get feedback from closer to your departure.

 

I will be sure to ask once the time comes closer ^-^ Thanks for all your input as always!

Did you say 16u?!

 

Yes I did! She had/has a high dose condition called Insulin Autoimmune Antibodies (IAA) and was a kibble addict for quite some time into our journey. We had quite the ride, Menace and me! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd get her off the juice!

 

Now that is incredible Like really WOW. I need to tell my vet about Menace, she thought Panic wasn't even a candidate for future remission but if that can happen anything can! Cats are amazing!