confused 7-14-10

When I went to the vets yesterday chubby was at 102bg. After the vet visit I went to walmart and bought a one thouch ultra 2 meter. I decided to try it on chubby today. I got a reading of 50bg. Can there be that much difference in meters or that much of a drop period so quickly ? I fed chubby the purinna complete cat food which I know is loaded with carbs after his saturday episode(throwing up). He is not showing any signs but, if this meter is correct he needs carbs now. I tried the meter on myself yesterday and after chubby, there was ony a 3 point difference. I am thinking it would be wise to recheck elsewhere. I am just woundering how much discrepancy there is between meters? and, is this an ok meter to use? Secoundly, if a 1/2 unit twice a day produces 102bg on purinna complete, high carbs, would just the purinna DM or wet equivalent possibly be all he needs?

Thank you

don & chubby

 

Being at the vet can cause enough stress to raise a cats blood sugar, so yes, if you got home and Chubby was now relaxed when you took the BG, it could be in the 50s. Also, yes to the food change. Although you don't have to go with script food. Wellness canned, EVO canned, even brands like Fancy Feast, Friskies or 9-Lives, or Walmart's special kitty can be used. Just check the food charts and choose the lower carb, high protein foods.

 

Stress can also cause a cat's BG to be higher or even much lower.

I have 2 cats and one tests very low when at the vet and the other is higher; I guess they don't like going to the dr any more than I do!

The OneTouch meters are fine; I have a couple of them.

Please record the numbers you get and the times you test and when you give the insulin shots; I cannot comment on the dose, but it's great to hear you are home testing!

 

Compairing between meters is not always useful, especially between a cat calibrated and a human meter. It might be good to take your meter to a vet visit and get tests on the same blood sample to get an idea of the true variance.

Both numbers are very good. The 50 warrants monitoring, but is not in the danger zone yet and probably doesn't need high carbs, some low or medium carb food and more frequent testing to watch for any more downward movement. It does sound like you are very close to being diet controlled. Ditch that hard stuff and I get you ditch your syringes soon too

 

Typing is not easy with 2 kittens in your lap. Just checked chubby and his bg is now at 59, moving up. I have decided not to give a shot tonight and keep him on the higher carb purinna until tomorrow. I will check his bg one hour before normal shot time to see whats going on. Sometime tomorrow I will take binky's list to store and see what I can find. I think chubby will be a little reluctant to go totally wet at first so I will have to continue to adjust. Having you all as back-up has made this particular journey a whole lot less stressful for chubby and myself, thankyou everybody.

donva.&chubby

 

If you need to keep Chubby on dry for a little longer, Wellness Core dry or EVO dry are a good choice. There are a few others, just can't think of them off the top of my head. These are grain free dry.

I would encourage you to try to move to canned because I think you have a good chance of having a diet controlled diabetic.

Two of my current FDs are diet controlled, Mr. Darcy and Bean, they were dry food eaters at their previous homes and changed to wet and both went into remission rather quickly so hometesting was very important for them.

Other kitties like my Tucker will be insulin dependent for life, and that's okay too. Tucker has a lot of medical stuff going on, so FD takes a back seat to the rest, but we manage it pretty well.

Looking forward to seeing what Chubby's number will be tonight.

Just for fun, I've had two Chubby's in my life. One was my grandfather's German Sheppard who we were lucky enough to have with us after grandpa passed and the other was a diabetic cat I adopted and promptly changed her name to Sadie since I already had a Chubby that could not be replaced :mrgreen:

 

wow, 102 at the vets, with the stress?? That's pretty good, IMO. AND a successfull test the first try - YOU GO GIRL! Good job!
I bet Chubby never needed insulin at all, just the diet change - be glad you ditched that other vet. He/she would have hypo'd your baby from what it sounds like!
Isn't this place great?!

 

Rechecked this mourning at about 4:10a.m. and chubbs bg was 54. No food since 8:30 last night. Its almost looking like he will need a mid range carb (20%) maybe? A low carb diet might not be enough to keep his numbers up.I am really enjoying this home bg monitoring and, chubb puts up with that better than getting his shot. Took a few tries this mourning though. The one touch ultra requires a really small amount of blood, thats nice. I believe that when I have the means to do so, I will go to another vet and take my meter to compare results. I really want to see where I stand in relation to their testing. Since bringing chubby inside, I have never seen him play or interact with anybody. Yesterday mourning he sat on the bed, wiggled his butt and ran after reece playing. Its good to see that he is finally lowering his guard and feeling more comfortable despite all that he has been through. Thank you tuckers mom.

don & chubby

 

let me preface this with - I don't know your situation, what or how much insulin you are using

so, generally speaking - you don't want to go with that carb percentage - if chubby is giving you 50-100's - these are NORMAL BG's and he may be telling you with the correct carb % - he may not need any insulin or very little until his pancreas is totally healed and working on it's own.

now that you are testing - i'd stick with low carb under 10% and test him, and see how that works for him....getting rid of the dry and higher carb - you may just find a cat that will stay in this 50-100 range - and that's a perfect range for a cat to be in.....

just something to consider before you go crazy buying food

 

Also keep in mind that your vet might be using a meter calibrated for feline use, vs ours calibrated for human use, so you'll see a difference of around 30 just due to that. The Lantus protocol sheet has more info on the calibration differences. Here is the link: http://www.uq.edu.au/ccah/docs/diabetesinfo/link4.pdf

 

Wonderful news that Chubby was playing today. Watching the numbers is great, but watching the whole cat is even better, just like what you are doing now.

Signs like a nicer coat, less water consumption, less peeing, more playful and generally in a better mood is what I look for.

I think you are doing great and the One Touch is a great meter. I've brought that in to my vet a few times and the numbers were very close.

With any meter, even if you use the same meter and test the same drop of blood - supposing you got a good drop, the number will be different. I've double tested my cats in the past using different meters and the same meter and the numbers never match but are always close enough that I feel comfortable. I think a 20% variance is the general rule of thumb, hopefully others can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I just checked chubby at 4:00 and his bg was 45. I gave him some mixed grill (wet) at lunch but nothing more until this last check. Even when he does go to wet all the time I think he may need something with more carbs but certainly lower than the high carb dry. I guess I will have to try some different wet food scenarios and just keep a close check. One thing is good though, no shots since 7-14 mourning. Hopefully a good sign. I tried my otu2 out on two of my other cats, oreo and sammy. oreo was 58 and sammy 49. Since chubby is close to these numbers I would say that he is in the good range because both these boys are healthy. Hopefully I will be able to help others as you guys are helping me, that would be a good return on your investment here. Thanks everybody
don & chubby

 

Great job, keep going with the low carb wet food and you may have a diet controlled kitty here Awesome!!

 

Megan has never been on insulin, though she has short blips of diabetic numbers from time to time, so I keep testing her - once every week or two when all is going fine, more often if I suspect a problem. Her insulin-free BG on a low-carb diet has been as low as 40, though it is more usually in the 50s or 60s. Her vet is very happy with these numbers, and she obviously feels fine.

Don't get the idea that you have to feed higher carb food to keep the numbers up. If Chubby isn't on insulin, he basically can't go too low (there is one extremely rare condition that can cause low numbers even without insulin, but it is vanishingly rare in cats).

 

Last night chubby was at 45. This mourning after leaving the dry food out last night, he was 68. Tonight, after feeding one can turkey dinner 13carb at lunch and, he did not eat much of that, he is at 40. I put a can of chicken dinner 16carb with him and will keep him seperated tonight. If he dosen't go down any further and, hopefully gains. I believe he can be regulated on food. Tonight also makes two and a half days without insulin. That I am happy about. For a bit of sad and good news. A friend told that cats cradle (a rescue org.) confiscated a baby kitten that the owner had cut the ears off of it. I called them today and someone has already adopted him and he doing just fine. Thats the good news.

don & chubby

 

With 2 1/2 days without insulin I would not be concerned about him going too low. I would continue the low-carb food to maximize getting him to stay off insulin.

 

A question. Did you calibrate the meter? With OTU you need to calibrate the meter with each new vial of strips using the control solution.

 

No I did not use any control solution. I did have to adjust the meter to the vial number of 25. I did not catch that on the instructions and I will certainly reread them. Thank you for this bit of info, the numbers could be a bit off because of it. Chubby did gain 3 points last night on the wet. He came up to 43. I tried to see where chubby was at generally by testing my other cats. I will try and get some control solution today along with more strips.
Thanyou Maggies mom debby


don & chubby