Hello from Megan and Jack

Hi there. I have a cat that was diagnosed before the holidays, his name is Jack. We were able to have him diagnosed very early I feel very fortunate for this. He is on 2 units a day of PZI. He was free feeding dry food, which I have removed from his diet and now he eats only FF Classics. We have an appointment Tuesday with our vet to complete a glucose curve as with this change in diet I hope to see a need for decrease in dose or even better soon to be in remission! I know it is possible so I am hopeful he is a fairly young boy of only 8 years. After Tuesday I will be making my attempts at starting to monitor BG at home...very nervous about this but open to trying. Happy to see there are groups like this for support and questions. Megan and Jack

 

Hi Megan. Welcome to you and Jack.

It sounds like you've got things pretty well on track. I hope you'll get good news at the vets' on Tuesday.

In the meantime, as you'd like to learn more about home testing, here are a couple of links to have a look at:

Home Testing Links and Tips (includes tutorial videos)

Testing and Shooting Tips (has a really helpful diagram of the best place to test on a kitty's ear)

I was really nervous about home testing, too, but it doesn't take too long to become a dab hand at it. If you let us know which country you're in we can suggest meters to look at.


Mogs
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I was nervous as well, in fact I tried to convince my vet that I didn't need to do it. (before I visited here). Now my sugar kitten come running every time he hears the microwave. He thinks I'm warming up his rice sock which equals him getting a treat.

 

Just checking - is that 1 unit 2 times a day, or 2 units 1 time a day?
No insulin lasts 24 hours, so I hope it is the first.

See my signature link Secondary Monitorint Tools for some additional assessments you may find helpful in evaluating your cat.

 

Hi there-Yes suggestions would be fantastic! I am in the United States. Thank you so much!

 

Hi there-Sorry 2 units 2x a day.

 

Hi Megan,

Relion Confirm and Relion Micro glucometers from Walmart are very popular with many members here. They only need a small blood sample and the test strips are reasonably priced. Walmart also do the Relion Prime which has cheaper test strips but I believe that it requires a larger blood sample.

In the early days it's sometimes a little tricky to get a blood sample but as you continue to test more capillaries develop at the test sites. As a consequence, it gets easier and easier to get a blood droplet every test. Using a meter that only requires a small blood sample can make testing in the early days more straightforward.

How are you and Jack doing?


Mogs
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Given that you changed his food, it is very likely that his glucose has dropped as much as 100-200 mg/dL and his insulin requirements may have decreased by as much as 1-2 units.
Please read/print out How To Handle A Hypo

 

Thank you. We go to vet for the day tomorrow to do a curve I cannot wait to hear the results and hope for good news. So far never a hypo episode but with the food change I have been more fearful of this. Tomorrow they will show me how to use the monitor and I begin taking his numbers before his shot.

 

Check YouTube for videos of it - there are several.

Also, practice on a piece of fruit, like an apple, then on yourself, to get a feel for the process.

 

Ferndoc, just making sure I read this right....your vet was encouraging home testing?? That is one of the first times I've seen that.

 

When Bandit was diagnosed, his vet told me I had to home test, or we wouldn't be successful in treating the diabetes. She really drilled it into me that it was a necessity if I wanted him to get better, and not an option! She also had a resident rescue kitty that lived at her practice, and she pulled him in the room with us and showed me right there how to do the test on his ear and how much the cat didn't mind the test. I didn't realize how strange that was at the time until I joined up here!

 

Hello all. So Jacks numbers were really great yesterday a huge improvement from the last curve. I do not have them handy as I am working, but it appears that he is fairly regulated and at this time the vet has recommended that I change nothing. He was very supportive of home testing and one of the techs showed me how to use the Relion Confirm and it seemed easy enough. I have not yet taken a stab (cat diabetes humor) at it but feel confident in giving it a go. So I have some questions though I am hoping ya all can help with. We did a test with my meter and a test with their AlphaTrak and found about a 56 point difference (theirs was 56 points higher). My vet had said that I should anticipate a difference between the two and he did give me an explanation as to why, which made sense. So he told me with that in mind we just need to remember that but the important thing is when we do the curve...seeing consistent numbers was important. Do you have any experience with such a large difference in the 2 readings and I should I be doing something to compensate for this? Does this sound right? He told me I should prepare to do my own curve end of February and I can email him the numbers.

Thx for all your advice, it has been really helpful thus far!!!